Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Aruba Airwave vs DX Spectrum 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Aruba Airwave provides long-term ROI with efficient troubleshooting, significant cost savings, and improved productivity despite initial hardware costs.
Sentiment score
7.1
DX Spectrum offers significant ROI and value through cost savings, automation, improved accuracy, and long-term process efficiency.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Aruba Airwave technical support is praised for effective service, knowledgeable staff, and multilingual communication, despite occasional slower responses.
Sentiment score
7.1
DX Spectrum's customer service ratings vary, with praise for expertise but criticism for response time and inconsistent support.
I would rate their technical support as a nine or ten, as it's quite good.
Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology
Angie was very kind and communicated well in both Spanish and English, making it pleasant to connect with her.
TI at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Broadcom technical support is very good.
Senior Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Aruba Airwave is scalable, supporting different user counts and environments, often used with Cisco tools, rated highly for scalability.
Sentiment score
8.0
DX Spectrum is praised for scalability, handling large networks, easy server addition, and supporting numerous devices efficiently.
Aruba Airwave gives good information about SNR value, signal value, and you can get extensive information.
Senior Network Consultant at Data Market
Aruba Airwave is fully scalable, as we have a large number of tenants using the network with approximately six thousand end users.
Executive at a government with 201-500 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Aruba Airwave is stable, reliable, and highly rated, with minor manageable issues during high usage and integration.
Sentiment score
7.2
DX Spectrum is stable with minimal downtime, quick bug fixes, enhanced performance, and valued for its long-standing market presence.
As it is centralized, sometimes it disconnects from the cloud, and I need to reboot.
Server Administrator at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
I have found Aruba Airwave to be stable.
Executive at a government with 201-500 employees
We found the process of DX Spectrum down from time to time, and we need to interfere manually to restart.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Aruba Airwave requires cost reduction, system integration, UI simplification, pricing changes, and better synchronization, support, and compatibility.
DX Spectrum needs simpler documentation, modern interface, improved user-friendliness, and better integration with third-party tools and HTML5.
The end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website.
Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology
I find the price of Aruba Central compared to Aruba Airwave to be more expensive.
Senior Network Consultant at Data Market
When attempting to copy a floor plan, it does not copy well, so I often have to redraw the walls.
Executive at a government with 201-500 employees
Currently, they appear as pop-up messages, but I would prefer having alarm messages shown as a scrolling bar at the taskbar for easier visibility.
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
If we want to make others changes without paying for customization, we need to learn it deeply by ourselves.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
The event management should have more deduplication and alert correlation and check the bidirectional communication with ServiceNow.
Senior Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services
 

Setup Cost

Aruba Airwave licensing is seen as complex and costly, yet often cheaper than Cisco, with variable pricing flexibility.
DX Spectrum's pricing is high, more suitable for large enterprises, with robust features justifying the cost despite concerns.
The pricing for Aruba Airwave is acceptable because compared to Cisco, it's slightly cheaper, but not significantly - maybe 5% or 7% less expensive.
Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds.
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
The price is very, very high.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Aruba Airwave provides multivendor support, robust reporting, real-time analysis, and easy network management with zero-touch provisioning and Visual RF.
DX Spectrum offers scalable monitoring, robust fault management, user-friendly interface, and seamless integration with CA Service Desk.
Aruba Airwave provides good visibility, offering extensive data on network dynamics, such as access point connections, usage, signal strengths, and potential interference from neighboring Wi-Fi networks.
Executive at a government with 201-500 employees
It provides near real-time monitoring using AIMON and AURO protocols, which is robust with multiple models and brand support.
TI at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The feature that proved most beneficial for our organization's network monitoring is the virtual four, which we use frequently when working with Aruba.
Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology
The interface has the needed configuration for visualization, and it's effective in providing a complete diagram of network links and connections across various stations globally.
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
The DX Net apps include all kinds of dashboards and integrate with event management tools, network tools, and all these tools from Broadcom.
Senior Program Manager at Tata Consultancy Services
We do not know everything about how to build the dashboard, but for what the management requires, it is very simple.
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Aruba Airwave
Ranking in Network Management Applications
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
DX Spectrum
Ranking in Network Management Applications
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (30th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (29th), Network Troubleshooting (8th), DX NetOps (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Network Management Applications category, the mindshare of Aruba Airwave is 3.9%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DX Spectrum is 3.2%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Management Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Aruba Airwave3.9%
DX Spectrum3.2%
Other92.9%
Network Management Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Edward Zeng - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Auckland University of Technology
Troubleshooting obstacles occur but technical support excels
My general opinion on Aruba Airwave is that it's acceptable, but it's not ideal because we are accustomed to Cisco. We didn't use Aruba much, but once you set it up, you probably don't need to worry about it too much. The version we are using is quite old now, probably around version four. I can't remember the version exactly because a lot of the products require Aruba Central, but we haven't used Aruba Central yet. I face challenges with Aruba Airwave, particularly with troubleshooting. When someone has a problem, we try troubleshooting, but the end-to-end users' messages show some details that are not always up-to-date, and sometimes the information from the GUI is not exactly aligned with what's on the website. If Aruba Airwave can apply AI capabilities, that would be even more perfect. I'd appreciate integration with Aruba Central; it would be great if they could incorporate it into Airwave.
PinchasAlbalya - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Monitoring has become centralized and management now sees real‑time health of key network assets
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we took an external vendor to install and make the customization. If we want to make others changes without paying for customization, we need to learn it deeply by ourselves. The tutorials are very complicated. They could work on that area. The tutorial part could be more simplified. I know there are many explanations, and you can get help or documents in one click on the current page in the product, but it is not very clear. If you want to do something new that you did not see from the vendor in the installation, it is not very simple. The documents are good for people that know how to operate the product well, but for new users, it is not simple.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Management Applications solutions are best for your needs.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise90
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Aruba Airwave?
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....
What is your primary use case for Aruba Airwave?
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 eas...
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
The time investment required is significant, not because of difficulty but because of the need for free time to invest in it. We need to get the knowledge. We know there are many options, but we to...
What is your primary use case for DX Spectrum?
The university purchased DX Spectrum, called ICE. DX Spectrum NAC is working for us only on Cisco 9200 switches. It is not working on any other switch like C1000 or HG or any 2960X. Even other Cisc...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CA Spectrum
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Henkel, University of Findlay, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Iowa
National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Find out what your peers are saying about Aruba Airwave vs. DX Spectrum and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.