Aruba Switches Reviews

We are really just using Aruba Switches for ourselves. We're not like a service provider, but if you ask me, I will recommend it to my colleagues or friends.

It allows us to manage the switches through the cloud, which is good.

I mentioned earlier that managing the switches through the cloud is very beneficial.

Maybe the licensing model could be improved. It's a bit of a pain because it depends on when we activated the purchase.

I've been using Aruba Switches for about three to four years now.

The product has been quite stable. I don't have a lot of experience with technical support because we haven't really required engagement.

I think Aruba Switches are scalable and support our organization's growth.

Technical support has been all right. We may have engaged once or twice, and it was satisfactory.

The deployment was quite easy and straightforward. It took us maybe 30 to 45 minutes to set it up.

We deployed some of the setup ourselves.

It's very hard to justify return on investment because it's something required for the network to function. I'm not sure how to address that.

We don't have a regular payment system because it's a one-off project that lasts for a few years until a refresh is needed. We pay for each Aruba product separately.

I would recommend Aruba Switches; it's a very stable product.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution in a hospital setting for switching. 

The newest switches are pretty decent. 

It is slightly more price effective than Juniper and it has a slightly larger range.

The solution could always be a bit cheaper. 

My experience with Aruba's account manager hasn't been the greatest.

Dealing with the server is very complicated. We'd like it to be simplified. 

The setup is complex. 

We've used the solution for three to four months. 

I'm pretty new to the solution. It is hard to gauge stability at this time. 

The solution is scalable. It comes in a range of options. 

The account managers are not the best. They make you do a lot of running around. A lot of the time, they don't even pick up calls. We don't like the way the business side is handled.

The dealers, however, are very responsive. That said, there are just too many rules and regulations when dealing with Aruba. 

As a systems integrator, we work with Aruba, Juniper, and Cisco switches. Aruba has more of a range than Juniper, which is more fixed. 

The initial setup is very complex. 

Typically, the solution is paid for annually.

The price could always be improved upon. 

We are a system integrator. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

The most valuable Aruba switch feature is the lifetime warranty. It is a plus point in the budget. Aruba some switches have a menu, so we can configure them without CLI. In addition, configuring is easier when using the menu.

In my opinion, Aruba's new features, like the new firmware, the Operating System CX, some of the security profiles and the security protocol, need to be improved. When we want to gather some information from the switches, we should be able to use Aruba. We need more options in the outsourcing and open source environments. We often struggle to connect with Aruba.

In the next release, I'd like to see more security protocols.

I have been working with Aruba Switches for around two years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Sometimes my switches get struck by lightning through the electricity and this is where the lifetime warranty comes in and helps fix and replace them.

I would rate the scalability of this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. There are around 70 or 80 users of this solution in our company right now.

I would rate their technical support an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

Positive

My impression was that the initial setup was quite simple.

I would rate the pricing of this solution a five, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

Overall, I would rate this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

We've got switches on-premises, and they're managed by central management.

We primarily use the solution for normal office use. It is for normal networking, including wireless. 

I like that I can cloud-manage my network. This is useful due to the fact that I have multiple offices. 

It's a stable product.

We can scale as needed. 

The initial setup is relatively complex.

There is nothing to improve on in an enterprise environment, however, if you're wanting various  functionalities, you need to know how to do these things. It's not straightforward per se. Some training would be ideal for getting the most out of the solution. I had to learn a lot on the job by myself. 

I've been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is very solid, and very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product is scalable. We can expand usage if we need to. 

We have 300 people on average using the solution.

In terms of expanding usage, as a solution, at this point in time, I don't need to. With its wifi capabilities, it can handle a little bit more load, so that's fine.

Since I have the solution through a partner, I use the partner services. It's up to them to get me in touch with support if needed.

We had very low-end build switches or old Cisco switches previously, however, they were relatively minor since we had moved to a new office and the company was relatively young at that point in time. Afterward, we made an investment in Aruba.

The initial setup is not necessarily straightforward. It is complex. 

A service partner did the implementation. It took about a month and a half.

We had a service provider assist us with the setup. 

We pay an annual license for the solution. 

It is an enterprise product, so it's not the cheapest, definitely. I'd rate the affordability between a three and four out of five.

I'd recommend the solution if a company wants an alternative to a Cisco environment. It's a very reliable solution.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

They do have partnerships, and users can get training and insights on how to manage it from a partnership perspective. 

We are using Aruba Switches for clusters.

I have been using Aruba Switches for one and a half years.

Aruba Switches is stable.

The scalability of Aruba Switches is good.

We are using the solution in an educational institute with over 100 to 500 people.

I have not contacted support from Aruba Switches. We have local support.

We had an integration team do the setup of the solution.

I rate Aruba Switches a six out of ten.

The Aruba switch is supporting a doctor's office, so it's an on-premise switch. These particular switches provide the fundamental network for the entire office, including power over ethernet for the security cameras and wireless access points. The solution also provides network switching between databases and clients. I manage the switches using the Aruba Central public cloud. 

Aruba gives me greater network visibility compared to an unmanaged solution. I mostly use unmanaged switches at other locations and offices.

I like the Aruba Central platform. It makes a lot of sense. The switches have a lot of great capabilities. Central can lockdown VLANs and control the apps and protocols. 

There are several built-in security features that I'm not utilizing. However, those capabilities are part of the reason I'm using enterprise switches in a small office. I like knowing that I can do these things when necessary. 

There are some growing pains with Aruba Central. When you first launch the wireless access points or switches, a lot of updates are needed to get Aruba Central ready, especially on the access points, so the initial deployment time could improve. 

I would hope that I could just turn it on and leave the updates until later on. The switches themselves probably did okay. I'm primarily referring to the wireless access points. There was a lot of back and forth before everything was in sync. It took hours. 

I can't think of any missing features, but it would be nice if there were a free version of Aruba Central for my small business clients that doesn't have as many features. 

I got one switch a while back and was using it in a lab situation to play around with it a little bit. I wasn't utilizing it a whole lot. It was more like, "Hey, how do you configure this? How does it work?" In the last couple of weeks, I added a second 6200 S switch and threw it into an actual production environment where it's being utilized.

The scalability is fine. I've got two 6200 24-port switches, so 48 ports total. I Aruba switches are capable of putting trunk groups in between. It's a chiropractic office, so we've got 32 network tables all plugged in between servers and all of the devices, and then there are all the computers hanging on the walls and stuff like that. 

However, in reality, it's typically only four people working at the office at any given time, but they run around from room to room using x-rays, computers, and all that other stuff, so there are a lot of different devices. In total, there are 32 ethernet cables plugged into these two switches.

Some people define a user as a person typing on the keyboard, but In a chiropractic office, you have customers who walk into the adjusting room and scan their little cards. Meanwhile, the doctor kind of walks from room to room. It's really only one doctor.

We'll be bringing additional computers online over the next couple of years as they ramp up that office, so there will be increased utilization of the switches even inside that office. I will also be adding switches for each of my clients. I mean as I'm going in and taking over managed service provider relationships with these clients, I'll be looking at putting those same switches, so I have complete visibility.

I rate Aruba support six out of 10. Like many vendors, Aruba is dealing with staffing shortages or other things. Once you get somebody on the line, they're usually pretty good. It's just a matter of getting to the correct person and the time it takes to respond. 

I'm not trying to bash Aruba because they're not the only ones having this problem with tiered support. It's crucial to learn the equipment, so you can hopefully do most of the maintenance and troubleshooting yourself.

Neutral

My other clients have unmanaged Netgear switches, but it's apples to oranges. They may be switches, but they're not in the same class. It's a home network switch versus an enterprise network switch.

Deploying the switches itself wasn't that complex. You can make it complex depending on what you want to do. You can implement VLANs and do all sorts of wonderful things, but for this particular implementation, I didn't really need that level of complexity.

It took about an hour to take the switches out of the box and onboard the devices on Aruba Central. They work out of the box even without Aruba Central. You can take them out, turn them on, plug them in, and they will function as a basic unmanaged switch. There's not a whole lot that you have to do for it.

I do all of my own stuff. I'm a solo managed service provider. 

The return on investment for me in these switches will come when we start facing network challenges. Some of the applications at this doctor's office rely on old file-based databases. When they start having problems with the application, and the vendor starts saying that's a network problem, that's when I'll get my real return on investment. 

I can pull up the Aruba Central platform and say, "Nope, it's not a network problem, and here's why. You're getting no gig speed. There are no errors on any of the ports or failed packets." Having all that visibility is where the true return on investment is going to come. It's preparing for those types of debates. I'm tired of people blaming the networks. It may be. It could be a configuration or something else, but it's something else most of the time.

I am paying for the hardware and Aruba Central licenses, but I would like a version of Aruba Central to come out with a light version with a few features turned off. Ubiquiti and other vendors have free tools.

I believe they're looking at that, but it's not out yet. I hope they will release that to make it competitive because I'm using an enterprise-class switch for small businesses. We're looking for some of those capabilities, but not all of them. 

Aruba has its Soho class switches, which are instant-on platforms. However, with the instant-on platform, you need to manage everything with individual clouds instead of bringing all of them under one console. 

There's an annual license fee for the Aruba Central cloud management platform for each Aruba device. You don't need licenses for the hardware and other support, but if you don't pay for the Aruba Central license, you will not get firmware updates or technical support. You have to have those at least for probably several years.

When you reach a point where you're managing 100-150 devices in a small business, you suddenly need multiple layers of switches, and then you have to get into campus networks, trunk groups, VLANs, etc. Then, you need segmentation between different levels. 

You have to utilize those additional capabilities and features more than you would for a dozen or so computers. You typically aren't going to create a bunch of VLANs, trunk groups, and multiple switches for a dozen computers. It doesn't make sense.

I think under 250 people would technically be classified as a small business. However, when I say "small business," I mean 10-20 people physically working at a building. Still, the price is reasonable. I'd rate Aruba eight out of 10 for affordability.

As a managed service provider,  I also have access to discounts that help me manage costs better. As I own all the switches, so I keep adding people to the switches I own. Aruba has been good about providing a managed service provider discount to make it competitive. If they didn't, it would be kind of hard to justify spending $4,000 on these switches for a tiny business like a doctor's office.

I looked at Ubiquiti, Cisco, and some other solutions, but I have a friend who works for Aruba. I opted to go with Aruba after chatting with him about where it's positioned in the market. Aruba seems to be a leader, especially in wireless access points and some of the newer capabilities and features. 

I was looking for network switches that could be managed with the same wireless access points in one console, so that gave it to me with Aruba. Some people are fine with having one console for switches and another for wireless access points. As a solo managed service provider, I'm all about simplicity, so I was really looking for one solution that would handle both. 

I rate Aruba Switches nine out of 10. If you're deploying these types of switches, I encourage people to utilize some type of cloud-based management console. If you don't use Aruba, make sure whatever you use has cloud management to give you visibility into what's going on in terms of configuration, errors, etc. 

I use them myself, and I sell them to my customers.

Users have to see it as a fabric completely. It’s not only one product. It’s the mixture and the association with the product.

The switches themselves do have security features. But most of it is in conjunction with the others.

The most significant features are their reliability and the options to change the ASICs. You can change a lot internally to improve performance.

For my personal use and experience, the documentation is very good. It’s very good documentation because the majority of American documentation, no matter if it’s a network product or other product, is always very good. It has been for even other products, not just IT products. And Aruba’s documentation is very well done.

It’s very well compared to some other documentation on the market from other manufacturers.

There’s always space for improvement. Improvements are mainly minor in handling, like the web interface. They make some improvements. In terms of performance, they make a lot of improvements in the backplane. These small improvements could make life easier.

I have been working with Aruba products since 2005. 

It is very scalable. I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

Technical support is very good. They’re very responsive, and it’s quite good.

Positive

It’s just a matter of some people preferring Cisco, some people preferring other brands. It’s just a way to convince a customer to change from a product. You need a good selling strategy.

In the professional world, you have different areas. You have very much Cisco-associated companies, and you have the former HPE ProLiant, which is now Aruba. Then you have Juniper, and you have different worlds. Customers have different preferences. So that is an issue now. You have to have a lot of good arguments to convince somebody to change a product.

Consider this: If you have a global operating, let’s say, a European-wide operating company, and they have already invested a lot of money in Cisco, for instance, it is almost impossible to convince them unless you keep exact records of when something was implemented. You need to keep track on a time scale and say, “Okay, now it’s about time to change the system.” You have to be at the right time at the right spot. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to convince them. It’s easier to convince smaller companies.

The initial setup is quite easy. Once you know what you do, it’s easy. If you don’t know what you do, especially with the latest software type, with the CX software type, it’s a bit more difficult. You have to do a little bit more command line. But once you know what you do, it’s quite easy and straightforward.

It is also easy to integrate it with other solutions. 

For the customers, we mainly sell them and implement them. That is our main aim. Our own switches work very reliably. They are a few years old, but they still do what they’re supposed to do.

Sometimes, the license is a bit too overpaid. Sometimes, the license is okay.

Overall, the pricing strategy is fairly reasonable.

Since I’m an Aruba partner, we have project prices.  

The switches themselves, on a hardware level, are about eight out of ten. They all play in the same league, the upper league or the Champions League. There’s nothing negative about them. It’s a question of philosophy.

It’s my philosophy to recommend the best of the breed. Sometimes, I do recommend products from different manufacturers. If I’m convinced another product is more suitable for the project or the customer, then I will recommend that product.

I would definitely recommend Aruba to other users. 

We use Aruba switches as LAN devices and access points to connect users. We also use the product for VLAN. We don't, however, make security with Aruba switches.

I like how Aruba switches integrate with On.

Aruba's operating system changes with every version. There is AOS and CX OS, and the commands change slightly each time, so if you are used to writing commands for one version, the commands you use in the next version are wrong. This causes a lot of disruptions if you prefer to use command lines over a GUI.

I've used Aruba switches for about three years.

The product is stable. I haven't seen any problems. Sometimes, the power supply unit has issues because it's damaged. In my country, we have problems with electricity, so we use a UPS.

I rate the scalability of Aruba switches a seven out of ten. The product has good features, and adding new devices and switches is easy.

I'm working with an integrator across many sites, and some sites have about 20 switches and 15 access points. Some sites have fewer, and some have more. It depends on the customer.

The initial setup is not complicated.

I implemented the solution myself.

Aruba's switches are priced lower than Cisco's by about 30%.

I work with both Aruba and Cisco switches. Cisco switches are very good. They have a lot of good features. Cisco invests a lot of money into their products, such as their Catalyst switches, but Aruba, by contrast, provides normal switches. Cisco produces some features like containers. You can use containers to install some applications on the switch, which is a very good feature. You can put a firewall image like Wireshark on a switch to protect your LAN. You can send some packets to your network to monitor it. Aruba has good switches, but they are not high-technology.

I rate Aruba switches a seven out of ten.

We use it mostly for data center switches such as the CX Series 6405 and 6300 as a distribution or TurboRock. We also use it for access switches like the 2000 and 6000 series.

Aruba's SameNet platform allows for a seamless transition from the data center to access switches, unlike Cisco, which has different operating systems for each. Additionally, Aruba offers zero licensing fees for Layer 3 features, and their solution is known for its stability.

There is room for improvement in the customer service and support team. 

I have worked with Aruba Switches since 2013. But once I convert to the sales sections, I'm not using it anymore.

I have had a great experience with it. I'm currently working with a partner platinum partner with Aruba.

I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. 

I've had experience with Aruba technical support. In some cases, we have opened robust support tickets for critical customers, and the first layer of engineers took a long time to solve the issue. They didn't know how to proceed, so we had to escalate, which also took time.

Neutral

I like Aruba switches. There's no specific reason for the switch, but I prefer the configurations on Aruba switches over HPE.

It's very easy, not complex at all. Moreover, it offers seamless integration. It has good third-party integration. It's very good in this case. It is easy to customize. For example, with the CX series, we can use Python scripting and API.

For the deployment process, I usually place the order and communicate with the vendor about the delivery time. Moreover, maintenance is not difficult. 

It's not cheap or very expensive, but I think the price has increased recently.

Mainly, customers need to consider whether they need switches for data centers or access networks. Also, they should consider the name ID. Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

We primarily use the solution for WiFi and LAN. It's for connectivity.

We find the connection while using Aruba to be very good.

Aruba has many good products that can be used with this solution. It has a good controller and antivirus. 

The solution is stable.

Technical support is helpful and responsive.

It is pretty easy to implement the product.

Scaling the solution is possible.

The endpoint capabilities could be improved. 

There are no missing features at this time. 

It was a bit expensive. 

I've used the solution for two years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. I'd rate the solution's stability ten out of ten.

The scalability has been okay. I'd rate the scalability seven out of ten overall. We do plan to increase usage. 

Technical support is good.

Positive

The initial setup was simple. It is not overly difficult at all. 

I implement with external support.

I have not personally looked into ROI. 

The price could be a bit better. We'd like it to be lower. 

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. I use the solution for my clients. 

There could be more specialists available in Chile. There aren't as many in the country.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.