What needs improvement with Aruba Instant?

For some people, price is a concern.

Aruba Instant does not currently offer a multi-gig switch or product, making it an area that requires improvement. Aruba Instant's competitors have multi-gig switches or products.

The solution’s pricing could be improved. Embedding a heatmap tool within the product would make it easier to conduct a wireless survey. If you are pitching the product against other solutions, it would be best to conduct a prior wireless survey before positioning the product.

We have faced delay in customer support which has affected our business performance. So the customer support needs to be prompt in their responses.

The wireless coverage provided by Aruba Instant should be increased. The APs are used heavily in a mid-scale business, so increasing the coverage can be beneficial. The traffic capacity of the solution can also be expanded including increase in the number of clients and radius. Aruba Instant can integrate a few features similar to ClearPass in future versions so that small businesses can grow and avoid the need to shift toward traditional APs.

I believe there's room for improvement in monitoring, especially when troubleshooting issues. Currently, there's limited intelligence around monitoring. It needs to improve stability and scalability.

The product's high cost is an area where improvements are required. Additional features are not required in the product. If people want a product with extra features for a complex setup, they can go for Aruba since it provides many functionalities.

The tool's support quality has changed since HPE acquired it. It is also impossible to tell the log dates.

For on-premises, I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. For on-prem, if I want to integrate two more controls, and I want to extend my network , and add a couple of access points that need to be integrated with my network, I have to do the configurations and all. So that will be each and every time, as and when the users expand, the Wi-Fi solution expands; I need to do the configuration settings on all other controllers. There is room for improvement in scalability for the on-premises deployment model.

The product could have more security features integrated into enterprise data. They could provide a centralized system to manage switches incorporated into multiple branches.

The security features must be improved.

Aruba Instant should not have a limit on users for future releases.

Some features like DHCP that were available in the original Aruba controller are not available in Aruba Instant. The tool needs to enhance its security features.

The tool's customer service should improve.

Every product can be improved. It's a catch-22. If you want something better, then you opt for a controller solution. For example, in a school setting, you would want to segregate the teachers from the students. Additionally, you don't want the students accessing inappropriate websites. Moreover, you need to separate the servers where they store sensitive information. Aruba Instant does a fine job with these requirements. However, in a corporate environment or a larger network, where more advanced filtering or MAC-based filtering is needed, I don't think the IAPs would be sufficient. The solution might not connect in a real enterprise setup.

It would be better if Aruba Instant could provide more security for customers. It would be better if Aruba Instant could provide a graphical prioritization of application data or application bandwidth.

The network planner could be improved. You should be able to import a floor plan, and the application should suggest the optimal placement of your devices.

They could offer a new model for access points that are outdoors. They don't have an outdoor WiFi Six in their portfolio right now. They should maybe make the sites bigger. While you can have extension nodes, you can only have 25 devices only. That is too small for some companies.

In general, they've done a very good job with the solution. However, we would like to see more done in the reporting. They should enhance reporting and add more features. We're always looking for more features and functionality. They should continue to do regular updates and continue to add to its capabilities, specifically around cloud functionality. It would help us be ready for what's next in the industry. Technical support response times can be better.

Aruba Instant is a simple and scalable solution that works well, but the costs you incur from access points could be cheaper.

The restart time should be improved. Whenever one access point has to restart, it takes about 15 minutes to get back in business, and that's a long time. Whether it's some kind of a malfunction or a software update, it takes really long for it to get back up. That would be my main issue. When you look at networks, it's not really all about the access point. It's also about the other products you need to connect to, and when it comes to the kind of devices and products here available in my market, they're usually slow to get here. For example, if you talk about Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6 has been deployed in Europe and the US for about a year or two years now. The only AP I have that supports Wi-Fi 6 is the AP22. However, I'm not sure about other products that can utilize the Wi-Fi 6 anyway. If you talk about laptops, I'm not sure if they all support Wi-Fi 6 or if they are available here in my country. You usually get those improvements by default if they are going to launch a new product. I hope this happens with Aruba.

The product can be improved by adding a clear interface. You can use the Web Green interface however an interface similar to Cisco Catalyst 29 that allows the user to simply configure the product would be useful. I would like to see clear interface coverage for older models such as 1930.

There is one particular thing that I see that needs improvement. It is a software characteristic, and it is during the reboot. During the startup of the AP, the AP tells you that you are using the wrong password. However, I have realized that this is not true. The AP sees that it's not ready to get the login, and it replies you wrote a wrong password, yet that is not true. The real issue is that the AP is not ready. You get the right login, if you wait five minutes with the same password, it will work. The login is successful. This "wrong password" message should be "Wait, the AP is rebooting."

There is an issue with flooding to the Aruba access point on the ports. The flooding comes from the file transfer, but the two hosts that do the file transfers are on wire, not a wireless connection. So it's strange that we can see that graphic on the access point. We still don't know what is causing the issue. It may be a setting in Aruba, but we don't know. So we are trying to resolve the issue first before contacting technical support.

The only issue we've had is getting equipment supplies. The availability of the APs that I want to use has been an issue. It took almost two months to get them the first time. I've ordered a few more for another client, and they're still on back order. It has been over a month now.

I think they're missing roadmaps to the partners and the customers. They're releasing the products, but there are no quick updates to the partners and the customers. They need to communicate better with the partners when it comes to training.

It is good as it is. If anything, its reporting could be improved. At the moment, I don't see any new features that we really need.

The product could be improved by having the ability to support more access points in one cluster. I would also suggest that the multicast be more efficient. Improved managing of the multicast could be included in the next release. It's an issue that can sometimes be challenging.

The management interface in Aruba Instant Management is Aruba AirWave. In my opinion, it is not very user-friendly. This is not a criticism of the Aruba Products overall. In fact they work very well. I am referring specifically to Aruba Airwave — just that one component within the solution. If Aruba would do something with this to make this interface better, the product would be much improved. Other than that I have no idea what the product would need. I have everything that I need functionally, so I can not think of a missing feature.

The reach of the solution could be improved. It could be a bit stronger. I don't know if it would be possible, but it would be helpful if there was a social login for the layer. This would help smaller clients that I work with. There are also some features missing in the layer - like authentification and logon capabilities.

The meshing could use improvement but aside from that nothing else really needs improvement. It meshes well but the product's channels need to be understood better. It's not like Cisco. You set up your indoor stuff and there are channels you must exclude from the mesh.

The solution, as it is, is perfect for us right now. There isn't any aspect that needs to be simplified.

Nothing really to improve. The Instant is simple. But when I'm using the controller, then I'll use the advanced features. The Instant has a problem with the VPR 3 when I am working with the roaming. The problem is that the keys are incorrect and I must do a disconnect and reconnect, and then it's okay. But I don't know exactly where the problem is because VPR 2 is okay. I would like it if they could fix this. Again, I don't know if it's a problem with them or it's a problem with my device. Additionally, storage is difficult for me. Metal storage, swimming pools, and garden storage are difficult for me. Also, the shopping centers where I track people are difficult. But offices are easy, offices are no problem. Because we are using triangulation, there is a problem because you never know which access points are used and connected and which devices are connected on any access point. If there are a lot of different devices, and maybe old devices are present, there are problems.

The solution should be able to support more users on the access points. The solution should allow for more roaming capabilities. If you're roaming from one access point to another, the process should be quicker. The solution could use auto-channeling so that it could automatically pick up channel overlap.

Technical support needs improvement. We use the forum for technical support assistance, but it's not enough. If you're talking with a technician, they're in India. They cannot give you the service that you need. Sometimes have problems with some personal services and technical support is not helpful in this area. The solution needs to be more compatible with IoT and smart devices.

This solution would be improved if they supplied free software controllers.

The only issue that I have encountered was the captive portal through Facebook. I found that it wasn't working, so I created a couple of cases through the Aruba portal.