Aruba Switches Reviews

We had a need to implement a distributed data center, split over two different sites, which were still more or less in each other's vicinity, less than a kilometer apart. The Aruba CX line products was one of the candidates in review and it was deemed the most logical choice We are customers of Aruba and I'm the team leader of technical support.

What I like about the product is its open architecture, the API based line of thought, so to speak. There are plenty of options and possibilities for automation and programming. We see that as a way forward for networking as a whole. These are data center switches and it provides a good use case for programming and the like.

The solution is a little less convenient for more simplified management needs. It doesn't use a traditional, classical user interface for small changes. For monitoring, it's fine, but for small changes, less so. It means that our staff who have a less technical background are not able to help out with minor changes - the environment is less suitable for them.

I do think the graphical user interface for small changes could use some more love, so to speak. But let me reiterate that it's only required for staff that is less knowledgeable. For larger rollouts, larger deployment, everything ought to be API and program based. And in that department, the environment is quite sufficient.

I've been using this solution for a couple of months. 

The stability is great. 

The scalability is great. 

We're very happy with the technical support, they're doing a great job. 

We switched to this product because the previous solution had reached its end of support and end of life.

The initial setup had some complexity to it. Implementation took about two or three months, but that was right at the top of the COVID-19 breakout here in the Netherlands. So we had quite a bit of a setback due to that. If it wasn't like that, it might've taken less time. Our network partner carried out the deployment - they did a great job. In normal times, we'd have between 500-600 users, but for now there are about 300 using the solution. Maintenance is not an issue. We don't have plans to increase usage for now. Our on-premise deployment has suffered a lot due to the COVID-19 outbreak so we have less customers on premises which means that for now there's no further deployment necessary.

We looked at the Cisco option, but since we already had Aruba wireless and we had virtually no Cisco products in our environments, we went for Aruba. 

If you start using these products, then it's a good idea to check whether the product that you're going to use is in the same management fabric. We use a slightly different hardware architecture for the access switches, the 2930f environment, and that uses a different management layer. So if I was to think about it again, I would try to see if it's possible to get the whole environment within the same management fabric. By doing that you ease up on a lot of the manageability issues.

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

The primary use case of this solution is as the edge and the core switches for our company network.

We are working on an ERP system, domain controller, warehouse management, Salesforce automation, and many other applications.

It's a reliable product that you can depend on. 

You can use it for a long time without any issues.

Visibility needs improvement. We don't have visibility in Aruba Switches and we are thinking of switching to FortiSwitch because it has visibility. 

Currently, we have visibility and compatibility with the firewall. Through the firewall, we can see the entire network.

They are not very active with this solution. There is no followup with the vendors and resellers, they do not contact us to inform us of new technologies as they do with Cisco and Fortinet. Other vendors are more active in the community.

In the next release, I would like to see visibility included, as well as better integration with other platforms. 

I have been working wit Aruba Switches for approximately 11 years.

We are working with the 251 and 190 series.

Aruba switches are stable, but we have a few that are hanging.

Aruba Switches are scalable.

We have more than 1,000 users in our company. We have 15 administrators and four people to maintain the network. 

Technical support is moderate, not excellent. We have been waiting for more than two months for our switches that are hanging to be replaced.

Maintenance and after-sales service are not good.

We started with Aruba a long time ago when they were originally 3Com Switches.

The initial setup is straightforward, not complex.

Cisco is more complex than Aruba is.

We have many resellers and system integrators in our country, including Cisco and Fortinet.

There are no licenses, you just purchase the switch. 

Comparing with Cisco, and some other solutions, it's a cheap product.

We are considering migrating from Aruba to possibly Cisco, or to Fortinet FortiSwitch.

We are comparing and conducting studies in order to move forward.

We have experience working in networking products, high-security products like firewalls, switches, and all data center products.

We would happy to use Aruba Switches in the future if there are new technologies that meet our requirements, and our needs regarding visibility. Having visibility in the entire network and to see all of the parts of the network is something that is important to us.

In general, I recommend Aruba Switches.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

I use Aruba switches to provide a stable and comfortable industrial environment.

Aruba switches are more flexible, easy to use, have a good topology and are self-managing.

I have an opinion about Aruba controllers. Aruba access points do not require any controllers. Aruba controllers have different VLANS and there is no need to configure the access points, rather only the controller. You can put different VLANs on the same controllers. You don’t need to reconfigure it. This is a good feature that would be a good vehicle to use in the next release.

I have four years of experience using Aruba Switches.

We didn't experience any stability or scalability issues until now with Aruba Switches

We actually are the technical support because we are from HP. We give Aruba support and LT support to Aruba customers and users.

So, because my basic profile is network only, I have experience with wifi solutions like Aruba, Cisco, Ruckus and switches also dealing with Cisco and Aruba Switches and HPE switches also— 3Com. I also work with voice environments like Siemens IP PBX, HiPath, Siemens data and Jira. I also worked with Avaya PBX and Nortel PBX.

I was in HP for more than four years where I was the team leader, managing 14 locations and area network and voice leader.

I have four years of experience working with Aruba but I have more than 10 years of experience with Cisco. If you are working in the manufacturing industry or in an environment with high heat and high temperatures, then I would recommend Aruba Switches, but if you work for a small business, then Cisco would be best.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give Aruba Switches a nine. We do not give out ratings of 100% quality on any products.

We primarily use the product for enterprise solutions. We work in industries such as education (colleges and universities), hospitals, and banking. We are focused on banking right now.

The most valuable aspect for our organization is the CX. It's wonderful. 

H switches in the core layer are great. The configuration in the other vendors like Cisco for Data Center are different for H. We have Nexus for H, and we have Cisco Catalyst. While those switches are different and work in different ways, Aruba is the same for us, and this is a wonderful thing.

The initial setup is quick and easy.

I can't think of any features that need to be added. It works quite well for us as it is.

The dashboard could be improved, especially for the CX Switches. It would help to push scripts and configurations via an easy to use dashboard, one which would give us complete visibility of all of our switches in one place. Right now, we have more than one dashboard for Aruba. It would be nice if it was centralized.

I've been using the solution for four to five years.

This product is very stable and very reliable. We don't experience bugs or glitches. It doesn't stop working unexpectedly. It's been great.

We haven't had any issues with scalability at all.

I was using Juniper before Aruba. I still use them, occasionally. For the H switches, Aruba is better and more stable.

The initial setup was not complex. It was quite straightforward. We handled the process very easily.

It doesn't take long, either. You can have it up and running very fast. To deploy the test configuration only took about six to ten minutes.

For Aruba, there is no licensing to deal with, and that's the best. For features or protocols, no licensing is ever needed.

We're partners with Aruba.

I'm a systems engineer, not a technical engineer, so I don't look too closely at the technical aspects of the solution.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We use Aruba switches as part of our network infrastructure.

The most valuable feature is the security that these switches provide.

We would like to see centralized, cloud-based management.

If the price were lower then it would be more competitive with other products by vendors such as Cisco and Ruckus.

I have been working with Aruba switches for more than ten years.

In our experience, this is a stable product. Once they are configured, you rarely get any problems.

We have rarely had problems with our switches. When there is an issue with the hardware, it is replaced on the spot because we bought the lifetime limited warranty for them.

The price of these switches is high.

The most popular vendors for this type of product in the UAE are Cisco, HPE, and Ruckus.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for our company, in the office. We use it for its monitoring capabilities.

The solution's most valuable aspect is its monitoring capabilities. It works great for our organization.

Overall, it's a very good product. There isn't really a feature that needs to be simplified or improved.

The element of security always can be improved. If the solution continues to improve its security functionality, it will continue to be a great product.

I've been using the solution for around five years.

The solution is stable. We haven't had any issues with the reliability at all. It doesn't crash. There aren't bugs and glitches that affect the way it works.

The solution is scalable. If an organization needs to expand it out, they should be able to do so easily. The saying is quite good.

Although we've heard of Cisco, we never use it. We wouldn't recommend the solution above Aruba.

The initial setup was not complex at all. It was fairly straightforward.

We're only an Aruba customer. We don't have any special relationship with Aruba.

I recommend the product. It's very good. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If the security was just a little bit better, I would give it full marks. As it is right now, the security could always be improved upon.

We use and sell the 800 series switch. We compare the Aruba switches to the comparable Cisco switches as they have a similar feature set. We can sell them primarily because they cost less than Cisco. We use the Virtual Switching Extension feature that Aruba has for better performance and high availability. Aruba switches can be used in small and large businesses.

We have found that the command line interface is very useful and very similar to Cisco devices. We have also found that the Aruba switches are very easy to use.

I would say that the customization of the switches could be easier to configure.

We have been using Aruba Switches for the last six to seven years.

Aruba switches are a stable solution.

Aruba switches are very scalable. It can be integrated with other solutions. They can be used with either ClearPass or Cisco ICE.

Aruba technical support is very useful. you can contact them with a global number. They answer very quickly, in a few minutes we have the engineer on the call. So the technical support seems better than Cisco from a support perspective.

This initial setup of Aruba switches is very simple. The length of the deployment depends on how many switches are, and what type of switches you're doing, access switches versus the distribution switches. With a larger deployment, we need to take the time to take appropriate order, depending upon the client, location, and all that.

We deploy the Aruba switches for our clients.

Aruba switches are cheaper than Cisco for a similar feature set. The licensing costs are also cheaper than Cisco.

We have also used Cisco switches and they provide a similar feature set.

I would rate Aruba switches at a nine out of a scale of ten.

We provide networks with antennae switches and Wi-Fi switches for small to medium-sized businesses for customers in the UAE.

Aruba is very easy to use, the GUI is very good and the command line is quite similar to Cisco, so it is very easy to configure.

I think that the performance is getting better but they need to have more powerful switches on the market so that they can capture medium and large businesses.

They don't have any data center switches.

It's quite stable. After Cisco HPE Autobus, it's the best on the market.

It's scalable and expandable to some extent.

Fifty to sixty percent of the customers we meet normally use Aruba. They are IT, managers, and administrators.

I have not had much interaction. Their knowledge base is quite good, so normally we don't need to call them.

We have only contacted them a few times.

If you need an RMA, then it would be required, and it is also quite good.

We are happy with the technical support, they are good.

The initial setup is straightforward. It's easy.

For small businesses, it is the best on the market right now.

The recognition is still new.

Aruba is easy to expand and easy to configure.

I would recommend Aruba Switches.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our customer's infrastructure is based on the AKPA solution and we suggested Aruba Switches replace the AKPA Switches.

We like the framework of fabric virtual switching. It is the only virtual link between two switches, particularly with the co-switching environment. The link helps us to avoid issues with the findings tool. 

I think that the environment for our clients should be simplified.

Technical support response time could be better.

This solution is stable, we have not had any issues.

This solution is scalable.

Technical support is available in English and Italian, but they are slow to respond.

Previously we used Ubiquiti, it is cheaper but we went with Aruba and Cisco.

Cisco is stable and we don't have to worry about it not working. Aruba is still new to us, so we don't know it well, or all of the benefits yet.

With documentation and reference points, it's easy. It is easier than Cisco.

It took two to three days to deploy. We had a technician from our company to deploy the solution for our customer. 

We did not implement this solution through a vendor. It was done through our Technicians.

We are system integrators and we propose solutions for our clients.

From what I read in Gartner Magic Quadrant, Aruba Switches rank highly. 

It's a good solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for our IT infrastructure.

The solution is very reliable. It's easy to use with other solutions.

The pricing could be adjusted.

The interface could be more user-friendly and the dashboard could be improved.

Now and then there tend to be issues if we have a virtual stack. If there's a power failure, the switches come up at different times. This means we have to shut down the stack and then put them up in a proper way. Otherwise, we will have issues with the IP and those kinds of things. I should note that I've only seen this issue with the virtual stack.

The solution is scalable enough. The product itself is fantastic; I've had no issues with scalability. Currently, we have about 700 people using the technology.

The solution's technical support is okay. I would prefer more engagements around new products and roadmaps, however.

I've never used a different solution. At a previous company, we worked with Cisco switches, which I thought were good until I came to this job and saw you could get a cheaper solution that was just as good.

My network is segmented, however, it's not too complex. The last refresh we did was 2016 and that took us two days over a weekend.

We had a provider that assisted us with the implementation.

The pricing is decent. It's less expensive than Cisco.

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

I would recommend the solution, especially if you are on a tight budget and are looking for a no-nonsense product.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.