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Aruba Airwave vs Cisco DNA Center comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave
Ranking in Network Management Applications
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco DNA Center
Ranking in Network Management Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (12th), Network Automation (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Aruba Airwave is 6.6%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco DNA Center is 26.9%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Prashant-Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has multi-vendor support, and it can be used for network management
Aruba Airwave is an on-prem solution, so you have to manage it with your servers to be deployed. You can also deploy it on the cloud if you have your own private cloud. All the configuration guides and the different types of designs you need are available from Aruba Airwave's portal. I would recommend Aruba Airwave to other users. Overall, I rate Aruba Airwave ten out of ten.
AvrahamSonenthal - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficiently manages our wireless network and provides valuable monitoring features
The platform's biggest benefit has been in managing our wireless network. Having a single pane of glass to control all wireless controllers and access points and to monitor activity has been a significant advantage. We're a small federal agency with around 300 network devices, so automation is a minor focus. It's more relevant for larger networks. The main benefits we've seen are in inventory management and the potential for configuration automation. However, I recommend using the DNA Centre only for larger networks with over a thousand devices; otherwise, it may not be cost-effective. Before proceeding, ensure that your devices are compatible with DNA Center, as not all Cisco devices are supported. Also, investing in proper training is different from plug-and-play. I rate it an eight.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Aruba Airwave is the multivendor support, which enables you to manage and monitor different vendors or products."
"It can interact with other vendors better than Cisco, which is a good point of AirWave. It is easy to use, and its reporting is good."
"The solution's initial setup process is straightforward."
"The technical support services are good."
"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 facilitated creating floor maps."
"The solution is not overly expensive."
"I would rate the overall solution nine out of ten."
"The best feature of Cisco DNA Center is the visibility page, where you can see everything on the dashboard, and you don't have to be a technical person to view the issues."
"The monitoring is very valuable to me."
"It offers automation, security enforcement, analytics, and integration with other Cisco technologies, making it a key driver for efficient network operations and compliance with security protocols."
"People like to use the dashboards to get an overview of their network."
"The most valuable features were the monitoring, maintenance, and configuration."
"The most valuable features of Cisco DNA Center are wireless assurance and visibility."
"I like that we can easily configure any new hardware. It's also easy to deploy and easy to troubleshoot."
"We have many people from the team who manage a lot of devices. By using Cisco DNA Center, it has taken some of that burden away, we are impressed with it. We did the investment in CAPEX, but in the OPEX was very low."
 

Cons

"Pricing for Aruba Airwave could be cheaper, which is an area for improvement in the solution."
"I want a management solution to manage and monitor everything from a single dashboard. This is not there with Airwave."
"When upgrading hardware, there were technical issues with network interfaces and Red Hat, which required escalation to developers."
"They should make it cheaper. By doing that, they can replace Cisco, which is also very expensive. If it is equivalent to Cisco in the features, with a reduced price, they can sell it more than Cisco."
"Whenever you get an error it doesn't immediately tell you what the thing is that is causing the error. You have to sit down and research it. If it could say what error is causing the issue, it would make my troubleshooting a lot quicker."
"I would like to see an integration of services into one system, rather than having multiple systems to do multiple things."
"The main challenge we've faced with Aruba Airwave is its high cost, especially regarding high availability and failover licenses, which can be relatively expensive for customers. As for recommendations for improvement, considering that Aruba is planning to retire Airwave soon and introduce a new solution, it's crucial that the new product meets or exceeds the current Airwave's feature set. Customers expect a seamless transition without losing any functionality, so Aruba needs to ensure that the new solution is ready with all the essential features and capabilities from day one to avoid any gaps or dissatisfaction among users and partners."
"I would like to see is “AAS”. Not only Aruba APs with central, but NAC/ClearPass, AirWave, and everything licensed as a Service."
"Technical support could be better. The price could be better, and it could be more stable."
"The product has many features that do not work properly."
"There is a limitation with the number of VRFs that you can have in your network, and this has caused us problems with some customers."
"It seems to be a little bit more centered toward wireless than wired. You've got more options you can do wirelessly than you can with the wired switches, but it works for what we need it to do. We would like to see a little bit more about the traffic, and we're looking at what's out there to see about that. We are looking at something that might give us a bit more insight into the actual traffic. If they had the full functionality on the wired side, as they do on the wireless side in terms of being able to view traffic and everything, it would be good."
"The network, data center, and SD-WAN are all being treated as different services, but I would like to have only one solution to manage all of them."
"They can improve the network visibility. Licensing and its maintenance are also needed."
"I would like is to have a small information pointer available. It could be a plus feature that I want to implement. When I hover my mouse over the user interface, it should provide a brief explanation. It would be helpful to have it incorporated into the UI."
"As a user, it would be good if I could plug in controllers, suites, and devices from other vendors to Cisco DNA Center."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is on an yearly basis."
"This product is not expensive."
"The tool is expensive. If one is bad or expensive, and ten is very good or cheap, I rate the product's price as a six."
"It's device-based licensing. One device requires one license."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The cost is perfect because the devices have a lifetime warranty, and the licensing is good as well."
"Licensing and pricing are extremely straightforward."
"Aruba Airwave is an expensive solution."
"Cisco DNA Center is a licensed product with multiple levels of licensing available such as basic, advanced, and essential. I don't have the exact figure, but Cisco DNA Center is costly. For example, the box has information about the essential license and costs a considerable amount of money. You need to pay extra to use advanced features in Cisco DNA Center. My company sees Cisco DNA Center as a solution that's worth the money, which is why it invested in the solution. If you want centralized management for your network, especially when upgrading it, Cisco DNA Center is perfect, but it's more suitable for a large-scale rather than a small-scale network."
"We have a three-year license with them."
"The licensing cost for Cisco DNA Center is not more than that of other solutions."
"Our licensing agreement is for three years."
"Licensing for Cisco DNA Center is a little bit expensive, just like any Cisco solution. Its cost could still be improved."
"The product is very costly."
"The price of the solution is expensive. The hardware is licensed on the device, but the hardware on the server is expensive."
"I do know that Cisco does offer some really good promotions for DNA Center to bring the costs down."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
9%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aruba Airwave?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls. It's somewhat annoying since other Wi-Fi design software we use is easier for drawing walls and inc...
What do you like most about Cisco DNA Center?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it gives some kind of ease in operations, especially since our company is moving from CLI to GUI-based configuration.
What needs improvement with Cisco DNA Center?
The system is working fine for me currently.
 

Also Known As

No data available
DNA Center
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Airwave vs. Cisco DNA Center and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.