Ruckus Wireless Reviews

SMB is what we have been using Ruckus for. We have a few clients with multiple buildings and/or larger campuses that this works great with. We have deployed the outdoor APs as well and they are solid devices, especially in our hot summers in Texas.

It really is almost a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Our helpdesk guys can easily administrate it if needed, and troubleshoot with minimal training. Along with our documenting and naming schemes for APs and locations of devices, finding and correcting issues is easy, but rare.

The list of options you have is great:

• throttling guest networks
• the controller dashboards for administration
• on-the-fly configuring, settings, hours of use, etc.

The most valuable is the central administration. Provides quick views of activity, from the number of clients online to signal and noise readings.

The cloud controller needs work. My big issue is that all APs can't set static IPs. Also, adding customers to your dashboard is not that easy at all. I wish I could pop out some reporting from the dashboards as well.

The Unleashed is a 10 out of 10. It's a great price point to push with our smaller clients and still provides top-notch coverage and features. I am not a big fan of the hosted cloud controller, 5 for that.

We are a solution provider and Ruckus Wireless is one of the products that we implement for our clients. We have clients in the banking sector, hospitality, education, and many others. 

The most valuable feature is BeamFlex, which enhances the coverage and stability of the signal for our customers. 

This solution is easy to use and you need minimal IT experience to work with it.

The cloud solution is not mature and needs to be improved.

The pricing of the high-end access points should be lowered to make them more competitive.

In the next release of this solution, I would like to see a more detailed spectrum analysis.

We have been using Ruckus Wireless since 2012.

This is a very stable product. When I install it, I do almost zero troubleshooting for a year or more, especially with hospitality. My hospitality customers are really very satisfied because I just install it and forget it.

Once it is set up, it needs minimum maintenance and support.

There are no scalability issues at all.

The technical support team is really helpful and we are satisfied with them. Whenever there is an issue with the hardware, they ship it the following day.

I have never faced any issue with technical support, although if the problem is not critical then it takes some time to respond to it. The manner in which they deal with critical issues is fine.

The initial setup is straightforward and it's not a complex solution at all. It is almost plug-and-play. For the Ruckus Unleashed solution, the deployment depends on the topology but it should take about 15 minutes to complete.

When the system is purchased there are no hidden fees because the license opens all of the features on the controller.

Ruckus Wireless is a good solution and one that I highly recommend.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

It's our enterprise hotspot solution. I think we have over 350 hotspots, and they all use Ruckus. They all come to a controller.

I like it mostly because it gives you the whole user session, and you can tell that the client connected at the traffic post. You can actually analyze the signal strength between access points. Also, Ruckus Wireless has a mesh feature that allows you to deploy mesh mode if you can't call.

This solution is reliable and comes with prompt technical support. Installation is straightforward as well.

I wish that Ruckus Wireless were more affordable for customers. It works well but comes at a price.

When we were using the on-premises controller some time ago, they used to have a feature which they called third party. You could have third party access points report to the Ruckus controller. However, the firmware that features this has disappeared, but I think it would be ideal to have that installed.

We've been using Ruckus Wireless for maybe a year.

It is a reliable solution.

Ruckus Wireless technical support is prompt.

The initial deployment was straightforward. 

I'm not sure of the details, but I think we have continuous licenses, annual licenses, and three year licenses. Cost-wise, I wish it were more affordable.

I would recommend this solution because as a company, we have deployed Ruckus as an enterprise solution. I would rate it at eight on a scale from one to ten.

We are a distributor of Ruckus. We are actually maintaining their channel partner in the Pakistan region. Our business model is that we create partnerships where we are the retailer for Ruckus and the partners going to sell Ruckus to the end customer. We are actually the box mover for them. We act as a bridge between Ruckus and end customers.

We are box movers. We handle all the deployments in Pakistan, across industries including in the education sector, in the military sector, in health organizations, hospitality, etc. We cover every vertical. Whenever Ruckus is deployed, it goes through our channels. We are the ones who can provide the boxes to end customers. There are many use cases. Thousands of boxes are shipped from us and deployed in different market segments.

Their wireless products and their switching LANs have been the most valuable aspects for us.

Their hardware, such as their access point controller and their ICX switches, are great. 

The solution is very user-friendly.

The initial setup is easy.

They lack in some hardware stratification. They do no have a complete product line with respect to customer requirements. Their product line is limited and does not have the options which the end customer is actually looking for. For example, if a customer is looking for some redundant power supply switches, they have that option available in their mid-range or high-end switches. They don't have that option in their low-end or entry-level switches. That is the main problem we are facing when we are proposing a Ruckus solution to an end customer. That customer actually wants redundant power. If the customer wants the redundant power supplies in their entry levels switches, Ruckus doesn't have that option for them. 

The same problem exists with its wireless platform. Some hardware limitations are there, which definitely need to be addressed. They need more controller options and more hardware options. They just have two models, ZoneDirector and SmartZone. They need to put some other hardware options on the market to fulfill the customer requirements. 

I've been using the solution since about 2007 or 2008. It's been about a year.

The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues in that regard. It doesn't crash or freeze.

Ruckus solutions are scalable. When you talk about flexibility, their solutions are very flexible. A single access point can work on any controller. As in wireless, your access point should be worked as a standalone with a controller or as a controller-less environment. 

Their access point is flexible enough to work in any sort of deployment. They can work as a standalone, they work on their different controller platform. Their same access point can configure to the Ruckus cloud. 

They are scalable in the sense that you can add access points to their controller. Switches have their own scalability and flexibility option. Basically, the solution is 100% scalable.

Technical support is good. They're very responsive to any technical issues. Their tech team is good enough on the technology side, so they can resolve the issues in a timely manner. I would give them 70% to 60% marks in terms of knowledge and responsiveness. Of course, there is some room for improvement. All in all, it's an average support experience.

The initial setup is not complex at all. It's very easy and very straightforward.

It's very user friendly, so it's not hard to set everything up and deployment is pretty quick.

If I compare Ruckus licensing costs with the market leader, they're on the cheaper side. Our competitors are actually charging more for support and licensing fees to end customers. However, Ruckus charges less for both licenses and support. They are not expensive when you compare them to the competition. They are very cheap.

We are a Ruckus distributor.

We are proposing the Ruckus solution to our customers with the latest software versions, not the older versions. Whichever the latest version is, we propose them to our customer. We are always working on the latest version and all the products in the Ruckus, like switching, wireless, software, etc. They do have some different software versions. However, we are working on the latest, stronger versions.

We use both the cloud and on-premises deployment models.

I definitely recommend the Ruckus solution, however, there are pros and cons to every brand. Ruckus does have some benefits and they are very strong in their RF technology. If you talk about their switching side, they are the pioneers of that. Their switching platform is stable. They are using some proprietary technologies like BeamFlex and ChannelFly. 

They are providing greater flexibility alongside the best scalability. They're great.

Overall, I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

We are a system integrator and Ruckus Wireless is one of the products that we implement to assist our customers with providing Wi-Fi services.

Our customers are primarily in the hospitality industry, such as resorts. This solution allows them to provide Wi-Fi services to their staff and guests.

The most valuable features are the coverage and durability.

The best thing about Ruckus is support.

The training is very helpful and very good.

The user interface for the controller is straightforward.

The failure spots need to be improved, as sometimes I have trouble reaching them.

I would like to see better mapping capability because it can be really difficult, especially if you are deploying on a remote island.

We have been working with Ruckus for more than six years, and with the wireless solution for about four years.

We have had no issues with malfunctions or coverage with the access points. However, every two or three months we have periods with downtime because of internet outages or power outages on remote islands. While this is a break in service, it is not caused by a failure on the part of Ruckus.

Scaling this product is pretty straightforward. On one of the island resorts that we deployed on, they have 120 villas in addition to the staff accommodations. In total, there are more than a thousand people in the resort.

In addition to the resort, we supply wireless coverage to the rest of the island. This brings the total number of users to more than 3,000.

Technical support from Ruckus is very good. We don't have to contact them very often because there are no major issues with the access points. When we last contacted them, they responded and resolved our issue within 12 hours.

I have experience with similar solutions from different vendors, such as Aruba. In particular with Aruba, I have had huge problems with coverage. We have had other difficulties with their solutions, as well. With Ruckus, on the other hand, it is a really robust technology and the coverage it provides is helpful during deployment. In general, it is a much better solution than Aruba.

For me, the initial setup is really straightforward. Some people, however, find it a little bit tough. The controller is a little bit difficult to work with until you have some experience.

Our in-house team handles implementation and deployment for our customers, as well as the maintenance.

For the physical installation, including pulling cables and termination, we use two people. This is more than enough for 300 access points. For the initial setup and configuration, we have another two people, bringing the total size of the deployment team to four people.

As an example, for one resort island, the total deployment took about two months. The installation and configuration can be completed within one night, once all of the hardware is in place.

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is that it is a good product, with good support, it is easy to set up, and the coverage is good. In a small to medium-sized business, you may not even need training to set up the controller.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Our primary use case for this solution is in a higher education institution.

Ruckus has allowed us to deploy better Wi-Fi coverage in the past few years. Our students have had a better user experience.

The most valuable feature is the Wi-Fi coverage that it has offered since early in our project.

One complaint that we have is the lack of cloud-based management. Due to the price of a controller, renewing the solution had become expensive. 

We had to install it to some port areas and in some hospitals. In terms of mobility and reliability, we found these products are very good. Their downtime is really low.

We used to struggle a lot doing the connectivity between the branch offices in port. Ruckus offers the flexibility to pull the connectivity and we can actually manage our workflow and application to this connectivity. It is a wonderful way of doing things fast.

One of the valuable features is the mobility. The transfer of credentials between the wireless APs is absolutely uninterrupted. It is also really reliable in terms of the peer-to-peer connectivity.

From the user point of view, sometimes we face a little bit of a challenge in terms of the channels selection for Ruckus. When we have installed all of the APs outdoors, those channels are actually empty in different numbers, so sometimes we found this challenging for getting paired between these point to point communications. If there is any way we can get some proprietary channels or some IT this interruption will not be there. That would be really fantastic for more reliable connectivity.

It's stable. There were a few incidents which were actually not related to the hardware or power loss.

One of the reasons we actually moved from Juniper to say Ruckus was to avoid a future stoppage. 

We are partners with Fortinet and Juniper so we have gone through their product lines. The reason we chose Ruckus is because from the very beginning we found these companies only worked on wireless.

The initial setup was complex because we were doing it for some restricted areas with some specialized applications. On the other hand, the customer is also quite sensitive in terms of security because that's an essential part. 

We found it a little more expensive than the other competitors on the market. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten because of how stable it is, the easy integration, and their maintenance. It was quite stable and we can easily scale up our installation. The integration is quite easy for now, and we already have implemented all the challenging applications and challenging environments.

Stability is something that's very important, then mobility you have to check, nowadays  Ruckus is mostly used for the enterprise-class, it's not a retail product. The climate is very important for wireless where you have quite a number of APs. If you don't have good mobility, you might not be able to enjoy the usefulness of this wireless technology. 

I was an executive with a managed services company specializing in high density WiFi deployments. We designed, installed, and managed wired and wireless networks primarily in student housing environments. This included apartment style housing and dormitory housing. Many of our installations were cinder block and steel constructions with known WiFi inhibitors.

As a tech company, we used Ruckus in our own internal system which resulted in 100% up time on our network. This ensured our Internet service was always up, allowing us to serve our customers 24/7.

Reliability. We rarely had access points fail in the field. They were rock solid, durable, and had the best signal penetration from any we tested.

The cost can be prohibitive for many as it is a high-end product in the WiFi market.

We thoroughly tested every wireless access point on the market to ensure the success of our deployments. We intentionally selected Ruckus Wireless as our product of choice due to its robust capabilities, antennae array, ZoneDirector controller system, and support. While they were not the cheapest products on the market, they were ideally designed for the harsh WiFi conditions in which we needed them to function.