Aruba Switches Reviews

We are using it for LAN Switches in our corporate offices with PoE switches and access points. This is primarily a normal LAN switching use case.

They are easy to configure and integrate well with the Aruba ecosystem.

The power supplies are generally susceptible to power fluctuations and failure due to these fluctuations.

We've been using it for four years as Aruba Access Point as well.

There are no serious bugs. The solution is pretty stable.

The customer service is rated nine out of ten.

Positive

The installation is easy. We generally have only one person deploying it.

I have not quantified it exactly, but I would estimate a twenty percent cost savings or improvement in efficiency of operations.

The pricing is a bit on the pricey side.

We had been comparing other vendors, such as Cisco.

I'd rate the solution eight 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. 

Aruba switches are primarily used as L2 switches, with some used as L3 switches as well. The ProCurve series is most commonly used, rather than the HEC or 192 series. The switches are also used for IPTV and multicast.

When it comes to basic L2 switching, we've found that Aruba switches are very user-friendly in terms of configuration and management. I haven't had the opportunity to utilize Aruba Central for managing the switches yet, so I can't speak to that aspect. However, overall, we've found the deployment process for Aruba switches to be very straightforward.

The port flexibility on the 54 series, specifically the 5406 for core usage, could be improved. When I want to upgrade to 10G, I don't have many options to choose from.

I have been using Aruba Switches for approximately 12 years.

In regards to setup and reliability, we have observed that Aruba Switches function well in various settings. Incidents with the switches have been infrequent, with only one out of 20 switches experiencing failure every three years. This results in a low mean time between failures. On a practical level, as long as the switches are well-ventilated, they have not failed in our server room.

In terms of stability, configuration, and deployment, Aruba Switches are very good. For IPTV, we use the 26 and 29 series and they have been working very well.

When using multicast, some switches may have issues with jitter when implementing IGMP. However, we have not encountered this issue with the 26 and 29 series of Aruba Switches.

The solution is not 100 percent stable but they are highly stable.

I rate the stability of Aruba Switches a nine out of ten.

I don't use the full switching capacity, it is very difficult for me to comment on.

Some  Aruba Switches are quite scalable, but port flexibility could be improved. If I were to rate the general series switches, I would rate them an eight out of ten. However, for the core switch, I would rate them a six out of ten.

Aruba Switches are best suited for enterprise-sized companies.

The support Aruba Switches provides is very poor and needs improvement. They have knowledge of the solutions, but it is difficult to engage with them.

I rate the support from Aruba Switches a two out of ten.

Negative

We mainly use Aruba, Ruckus, and Cisco in our product line. When comparing them, Aruba and Ruckus are similar. I prefer Ruckus core switches as they have more flexibility for deployment. However, Cisco has a much higher price point and their core switches lack flexibility.

I find Aruba Switches' port flexibility is much better than Cisco. However, performance-wise, Cisco is the best.

The deployment process for Aruba switches is very simple. 

I rate the initial setup of Aruba Switches an eight out of ten.

There is not a switch that I would give more than six out of ten for pricing because, over the last year, the prices have been increasing very high.

I placed an order for the switches nearly 11 months ago but still have not received them due to issues with price and availability.

Aruba Switches are no longer among the cheaper switchers. Their new switch series is expensive.

I rate the price of Aruba Switches a five out of ten.

Aruba Switches are easy to deploy and configure compared to other brands like Cisco, which require more time for inter-switch configuration. Aruba Switches provides more flexibility in this regard. However, the main downside is when it comes to authentication and access control lists (ACL) on the switch, it can be more complex with Aruba Switches compared to Ruckus.

I rate Aruba Switches a seven 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. 

The most typical use case for Aruba Switches is its reliability and good pricing compared to other solutions like Cisco.

Aruba Switches are reliable and easy to install and configure, which greatly helps maintain network integrity and efficiency in our operations.

The most valuable features of Aruba Switches include the basic features like STP and RSTP, as well as its reliability and ease of installation. The hardware is also considered better than Cisco, which is a significant advantage.

Although the pricing of Aruba Switches is good compared to Cisco, there is room for improvement in further reducing the cost to make it more preferable.

I have experience working with Aruba Switches for more than 12 years.

The stability of Aruba Switches is near perfect, rated nine to ten out of ten. I find it very reliable.

I would rate the scalability of Aruba Switches as high, giving it a score of eight to nine out of ten.

Technical support from Aruba is good. I rarely need to use it due to my expertise; the support is really nice, and the people are experienced.

Positive

The initial setup is not easy, so I rate it a five out of ten. It requires prior knowledge of switching instructions, although I find it manageable due to my over 25 years of experience with switches.

The pricing of Aruba Switches is good compared to Cisco. If they further reduce the price, it would be preferable.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

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 this product for network access, including setting up VLANs.

The most valuable feature is that it's very easy to configure. Aruba is comparable to Cisco in this regard, and we are comfortable with them. Huawei Ethernet Switches are also easy to configure but we are less comfortable with them.

We can easily connect access points to these switches, and there are no major issues.

The delivery time for this product is slow and is something that needs to be improved. This is the biggest challenge in the market right now.

We have been using Aruba Switches for between 10 and 12 years.

This is a stable product.

Aruba Ethernet Switches are scalable. We have approximately 200 users.

The technical support for Aruba is good.

I also work with different models of Cisco Ethernet Switches, such as the Catalyst 2960-X series, and the Catalyst 2960-X-24TS-L.

Another product that I have experience with is Huawei. We are most comfortable with Aruba and Cisco switches, configured for use as VLANs.

The cost of Aruba switches is higher than that of Huawei and many other brands.

Aruba switches are easy to set up and we have had no issues with them.

Aruba switches cost between $500 and $600 more than similar products by Huawei, as well as many other brands. 

My advice for anybody who is interested in using Aruba switches is that they are easy to configure. In a normal network environment, we have almost zero complaints about them.

Many of their switches support power over ethernet (POE).

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We use a suite of core, edge, and top-of-rack switches, and all of them do their jobs. We don't have servers anymore, so the top-of-rack switches don't do much, but the core and edge switches are excellent.

It's an excellent product. They're high-quality switches, and nothing has failed in the time that we've had them. 

Aruba's management suite has some room for improvement.

We've been using Aruba Switches for nearly two years. I'm the IT manager. I organize people to install and support solutions. I didn't do it myself, but I was responsible for procuring the switches. 

Aruba switches are high-quality products. They're well made and never go wrong. They work 100 percent 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, nonstop, with no failures at all — not even a broken fan. What else could I want from a product? 

Scalability is not really relevant to us because we only have 250 users. We used to have 250 users on four floors, so we had eight switches. We're on one floor in one building now, but we still use eight switches to spread the users out. 

Nothing has ever failed, so I've never used their technical support.

A vendor installed the switches for us, and it was straightforward. It didn't take long to install the first time, and it was done well the second time when we moved buildings. 

We have a managed service contract for maintenance. One vendor handles all of our network and desktop support, but I know they only have one network specialist. We had one person perform the installation, and one person provided the support.

Aruba's switches are priced significantly better than Cisco's. They're well placed in the market.

I rate Aruba Switches eight out of 10. I never give any solution a 10. I'm sure they could improve a little bit, but they've been flawless from our point of view. 

Aruba is significantly cheaper than Cisco, we've had no issues. Everything about them has been excellent for us.