Aruba Airwave Reviews

Most customers use Aruba Central Solution. However, we only have a few customers where we've implemented Aruba Airwave for monitoring and managing other devices.

The most valuable features are monitoring, management, and zero-touch provisioning.

We're looking for more device compatibility. Like compatibility with third-party devices.

For the last 15 years, I've been working with the Aruba portfolio, including wireless LAN, ClearPass, AirWave, and more.

I've been working with Aruba Airwave for the last four years. We work with different customers. For WLAN, we use version 8.  And for tier-first customers, we work with Aruba Airwave version 6.11.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.  Currently, I'm not experiencing any bugs, but it depends on the integration with the OEM and its scalability with other OEM technologies.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. Enterprise businesses are our primary focus.

For me, it's quite easy because I've worked with the portfolio before.

So, I would rate my experience a ten out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy. 

We have implemented both cloud and on-prem solutions. It's typically a hybrid cloud, like Google or Amazon kind of.

The deployment time depends on the number of devices and servers. But for a single server, one day is usually enough.

We are the implementors. 

There is an ROI. We can invest in it if it makes sense.  

I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, with one being low (like, really cheap and affordable) and ten being high (really expensive). 

The device requires a license if it was onboarded earlier or if we need to onboard it now. Similarly, if we need to onboard or switch a device, we request a switch license. So, it's device-based licensing. One device requires one license.

Overall, I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

Aruba Airwave provides a comprehensive overview of the network's overall health. However, if you need to configure settings, it's best to do so directly on the device. Airwave is more focused on providing statistics and generating reports rather than assisting with configuration tasks.

The most valuable features are the error log and intrusion log. It also provides an overview of your assets. It gives a good database for wireless coverage.

The tool should keep up with upgrades once or twice a year. Some security issues are coming.

For added protection, it does not interact with the Internet. You can use it with the controller Infiniti, which may provide some AE solutions. The licensing fees are also quite expensive, as enterprise licensing is required for every AP used.

Configuring options for better integration with configuration management would be beneficial. This becomes particularly annoying when assisting customers, as direct access to the controller—whether physical or virtual—is essential for troubleshooting and examining settings. However, it's cumbersome, especially when you lack direct access to the network. If it's your infrastructure, it's manageable, but providing services for a third party becomes challenging due to limited network access.

I have been using Aruba Airwave as a partner for five years.

The solution's scalability depends on the hardware. If you need to expand, you should have more processors available.

The solution has a one-time price you need to pay for every device you want to monitor. It depends on the customer because we offer various pricing options. The price ranges from around one hundred euros per device for a personal license, but there may be variations depending on the features and requirements.

In many countries, it is expensive for smaller schools looking to upgrade. However, larger institutions may find it more manageable, and it competes favorably with Cisco, offering a more cost-effective solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

For Aruba Airwave, I am using the wireless devices for the Wi-Fi for the full company with access points. This is the top product I feel, and I see in the Gartner also. It is a good product and easily manageable. It is a cloud solution.

The best features in the product are that it can be easily managed, it is centralized, and a cloud solution is also available.

I am using it as a customer of Aruba, of HP.

The wireless devices are being used for Wi-Fi throughout the company with access points. It is the top product according to Gartner. It is a good solution and easily manageable as a cloud solution.

The product features excellent management capabilities, centralized control, and cloud solution availability.

Regarding real-time monitoring, it has its own dashboard. It is helpful for viewing live monitoring, how many users are connected to the Wi-Fi, and how much data bandwidth has been utilized. Everything is visible.

The solution is beneficial as everything is easily manageable and centralized. Device provisioning is straightforward. When you connect, Central will provide all the settings for the access point.

They have other sensors which can manage and control all the sites. There is an IoT component where we can restrict internet services such as Facebook and YouTube. These things can also be managed.

The main concern is about the IoT part.

I have been using Aruba Airwave for more than one year.

The installation of Aruba Airwave is easy to complete.

Sometimes there are some glitches; some access points will behave a little differently, but it is manageable.

As it is centralized, sometimes it disconnects from the cloud, and I need to reboot. These are small glitches.

For scalability, it is performing well. I have been using it for one year, and so far, it has been good.

The technical support from HP is good.

Positive

I have used Cisco previously.

The installation of Aruba Airwave is easy to complete.

Cost-wise, it is good, so I do see some ROI.

I think the solution is quite affordable.

In comparison with Aruba, Cisco pricing is higher. The Cisco product is stable, but they need to improve the features in Cisco Meraki.

For device provisioning, if you know the clear procedure, it will be easy; otherwise, it can be a little difficult. After learning the process, it is easy to do the access point management. Because I use the cloud centralized solution, it is easy to manage and device provisioning becomes straightforward.

I am not sure about advanced alerting, but there are many features inside Aruba Central, including a periodical report.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution an 8.

Working with Airwave, I want a management solution to manage and monitor everything from a single dashboard. This is not there with Airwave. It would also be good if Aruba could enhance the simplicity of adding configurations. I must make configurations in many steps when configuring Airwave to add any switch.

Aruba Airwave is stable. If a device is added, it's stable.

If we need to scale Airwave, we must extend the server resources.

The solution is easy to set up. When deploying the solution, we download the VM or the Airwave software from Aruba software support. We then check the server's prerequisite memory, RAM, hardware, CPU, and so on. After that, we upload the VM as an ISO on the server. After uploading the VM, we perform initial setups such as management ID and gateway and enable the HTTP to enter the server's UI. After that, we can open the Airwave GUI and configure it to version two or three. We then add or collect any devices after configuring the protocol and add switches, wireless controllers, or access points.

The initial setup takes 30 minutes. The time taken to add devices depends on the number of devices. It takes five to ten minutes to configure one device.

I deploy the solution by myself. If the site is big, we can get another engineer. But the configuration is very simple. If we have a lot of switches, the configuration can be made into a template and pushed to all the switches. After that, we can add the devices.

Maintaining the solution is only required in an SMB. If an engineer has configured the solution for an SMB and, for example, used an incorrect password, the device will not appear in Airwave. The engineer will then modify the configuration or remove and add the configuration to check or see what the gap in the configuration is. But this is only for SMB configurations.

We must buy a new license to connect more devices to scale up the solution. If we have ten switches, we'll need ten licenses. If we have one wireless controller and ten switches, we'll need 11 licenses. The licensing price for Airwave is less than Cisco. None of our customers have complained about the cost of this license. Since it's a virtual license, it has a low cost.

If a customer has a solution from any other vendor and needs to change, we recommend Aruba Switches, such as 2930F or 2930M. We recommend Airwave because Airwave can be a physical appliance on-prem and manage all network devices, switches, and access points. It can be a wired or a wireless solution. If the switches or access points are Aruba, the solution can read it. But if they are from any other vendor, Airwave can only monitor them.

Compared with competitors, Airwave can work with vendors other than Aruba, such as Cisco. But the solution will be for monitoring only. Aruba switches can be managed from Airwave. Cisco DNA, however, is only for Cisco and not third-party solutions. Airwave is already a third-party management solution, which is a big issue since its cost is less than Cisco's. The Airwave license is not required from the switch side, only the Airwave side. Other vendors require the license from the management solution and switch sides.

We recommend Airwave when the customer has a lot of different vendors in switching or wireless. We can recommend Aruba Airwave to manage the whole network. We can manage your network, wired or wireless. I rate Aruba Airwave a six out of ten.

We're using Airwave for wireless connections. We use the solution for monitoring.

The implementation is very easy and very user-friendly.  

The supervision is very interesting. Our supervision team uses AirWave for the monitoring of our access points. We have 1,300 sites, and on every site, we have some more access points.

The solution is not overly expensive. 

We sometimes have problems with troubleshooting between the GUI and the CLI manipulation. Sometimes when you change something with the CLI screen, it is impossible to synchronize the information with AirWave. When you enter the AirWave interface, you can choose to configure with CLI; however, when you make this configuration with CLI, it's not possible to synchronize the information with the controller.

What would be interesting would be to have maybe some functional permit to make changes on the wireless access points and put in some commands to make synchronization possible between the access point and the controller. We need something which can permit us to make changes on the AirWave controller and also on the CLI. Sometimes, we can't make the change with the controller, yet we have access to the access point. And when we connect to the access point, we can make changes in the CLI screen. However, the problem is synchronization.

It might get overloaded if too many people are on the WiFi.

The user interface sometimes is not very clear. When you want to apply something on a site or on all your access points, it's not simple. We need better notifications.

I've been using the solution for maybe ten years. I've used it for a long time. 

Sometimes we have some problems with performance when we have one access point in a room where there are many people for a meeting. Sometimes they have problems with performance since many people use the WiFi. So, when they are in the same room and connected to the same access point, we get some performance problems. 

In terms of scalability, the ability to scale depends on the company. That said, Aruba doesn't explicitly explain the scalability. 

We are migrating to something else at this point. We're going with a solution that offers full WiFi.

We're migrating to a new solution.

WiFi is very, very important for us now, and we want to go to a cloud solution that can facilitate the deployment of the access points. Now, when we deploy the access point, we have to configure a virtual controller on every site since when you create a cluster of access points, you have to configure a virtual controller. The virtual controller is connected to the AirWave for the update of the firmware. 

The setup is easy. That said, we don't install AirWave every time. It's just a one-time install and after, we make some updates. 

The pricing is fine. It doesn't cost too much. You do not have to pay more for extra features. 

We're an Aruba partner. 

My advice to others is to prepare the templates correctly. Also, companies need to be sure that they have the correct firmware to make the cluster. Sometimes, on our site, we had tried to extend the wireless facility and we have had problems as the firmware is not good. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

AirWave is popular in K-12 education. It's typically used for high-density or larger deployments. It's really not a product for small businesses or small concentrations of APs.

AirWave definitely helps us troubleshoot and get to the root cause of the issues. It gives you an excellent indication of what's going on within your network at different locations. You can get to the area, take a look at the AirWave analysis, and make informed decisions.

It comes with additional accessories that you can use to measure the distance between access points. There's a lot you can do with AirWave in terms of tracing and ongoing analysis between sites. It's very robust. You do have to know what you're doing, but Aruba has training. 

Cost is always a big issue for partners. 

I have been using Aruba AirWave for seven-plus years. 

AirWave is entirely hands-off, and it just works. 

Aruba AirWave is highly scalable. It's based on licensing, and it's deployed in a larger environment, so you get a better return on investment. The number of users is usually around 1,000. 

When you call Aruba with a serious issue, they quickly escalate you from the help desk level to the semi-engineering level. That's the other thing we like about Aruba. You can access more experienced support personnel pretty quickly.

AirWave is fairly straightforward to set up if you have some experience in wireless networks. It can be fine-tuned. For instance, if you have an environment where students need to use a particular application, you can prioritize that application.

One person is enough to install and effectively troubleshoot it. A single person can manage an entire small college.

We support a variety of customers from commercial to K-12 education. If I train my people in the Aruba product, that person can dial in with the Aruba tools. They don't need to learn, relearn, reconfigure, etc. It's the same engineering experience, so I don't need to hire and train as many people. It's hard to precisely quantify the return on that. 

The end-user gets a return on investment because they have fewer problems, and they don't need to create a trouble ticket. It's also hard to gauge the return they get from a lack of problems, but generally, I would rate the ROI 10 out of 10.

I rate AirWave eight out of 10 for affordability. The price depends on the environment, the number of drops, and the years of support you're purchasing. 

I rate Aruba AirWave nine out of 10. 

We use the product to provide a wireless network experience for transforming secure and high-quality data.

We encounter delayed ETAs in the manufacturing of hardware.

We have been using Aruba Airwave for four and a half years.

I rate the product’s stability a six out of ten. It is hosted on the AWS cloud; sometimes, we receive a notification that the platform is down.

The product scales efficiently after enabling the IPAPI feature. It is suitable for medium to enterprise businesses. I rate its scalability a ten out of ten.

The technical support services are good. They respond to any technical case for assistance.

Positive

I rate the initial setup process a seven out of ten. We deploy it on-premises and on the cloud as well. It takes a lot of time to build the controller license. The implementation time depends on the complexity of the customer’s environment.

I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten.

I rate Aruba Airwave an eight out of ten. They are continuously improving the product. It integrates well with Aruba Central, giving full visibility and control of the environment. We can troubleshoot complex site issues using it. It also offers security elements for intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, firewalls, controllers, and gateways.

I'm a network architect, so I usually propose Aruba Airwave to my clients. I configure it regularly. 

I use Aruba Airwave for the management and monitoring of Aruba products. Aruba offers two solutions for management: Aruba Airwave and Aruba Central. They both provide configuration and management capabilities. However, Aruba Airwave is specifically designed for Wi-Fi solutions. Aruba Airwave is more powerful compared to Aruba Central.

The best feature of Aruba Airwave, in my opinion, is its ability to work with multiple vendors. It supports a wide range of products, including those from other brands like Cisco. However, compatibility should be checked before configuring non-Aruba devices. Additionally, Aruba Airwave provides a robust solution for monitoring and configuring Wi-Fi networks.

There is room for improvement in the monitoring capabilities. Aruba can offer to monitor the product; it can offer a better solution for my network.

In future releases, I would try to integrate more products from different vendors. Because that's really good features that Aruba Airway has, but it's so limited. 

I have been using Aruba Airwave for about six to seven years.

I also prefer using Aruba Central.

Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten.