RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-18 Thread Lee H Badman 
Not that you're asking... but I'd also throw Ruckus, Motorola, Bluesocket, 
Meraki, and Aerohive into the mix right now. The WLAN space has had some 
amazing development and certain vendors have sweetspots that the others don't, 
depending on a particuilar set of conditions and scale. They all have pros and 
cons, but beyond the market leaders feature sets get pretty interesting.





Lee H. Badman
Wireless/Network Engineer, ITS
Adjunct Instructor, iSchool
Syracuse University
315.443.3003


From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] on behalf of Scott Smith [ssm...@siu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 7:30 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between Cisco, 
Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm wanting to 
get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at least tested 
between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.

I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other 
Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.

--
[Redhat  Certified Engineer]


Scott Smith

Network Engineering

Information Technology

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Redhat Certified Engineer

ssm...@siu.edu


** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-18 Thread Mike King 
I really liked Aerohive's marketing campaign from last year:
http://aerohive.com/isc

The Areohive Infinitely Scalable Controller

On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 8:11 PM, Lee H Badman  wrote:

>  Not that you're asking... but I'd also throw Ruckus, Motorola,
> Bluesocket, Meraki, and Aerohive into the mix right now. The WLAN space has
> had some amazing development and certain vendors have sweetspots that the
> others don't, depending on a particuilar set of conditions and scale. They
> all have pros and cons, but beyond the market leaders feature sets get
> pretty interesting.
>
>
>
>
>
> Lee H. Badman
> Wireless/Network Engineer, ITS
> Adjunct Instructor, iSchool
> Syracuse University
> 315.443.3003
>  --
> *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [
> WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] on behalf of Scott Smith [
> ssm...@siu.edu]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 18, 2012 7:30 PM
> *To:* WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
> *Subject:* [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru
>
>  I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between
> Cisco, Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm
> wanting to get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at
> least tested between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.
>
> I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other
> Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.
>
> --
>   [image: Redhat Certified Engineer]
>
> Scott Smith
>
> Network Engineering
>
> Information Technology
>
> Southern Illinois University Carbondale
>
> Redhat Certified Engineer
>
> ssm...@siu.edu
>
>  ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE
> Constituent Group discussion list can be found at
> http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
>
>   ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE
> Constituent Group discussion list can be found at
> http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
>
>

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-18 Thread Jeff Kell 
On 1/18/2012 7:30 PM, Scott Smith wrote:
> I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences
> between Cisco, Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of
> each, but I'm wanting to get feedback from people who have either done
> a "bake off" or at least tested between them, and more specifically
> somewhat recently.

We started, years ago, with fat Cisco APs (Aeronets?).  Got very
complicated very quickly.

Next we chose Meru, easy to deploy, fairly easy to manage, but it didn't
scale well (cost or capability).

We're currently using Aruba. 

In the current "upgrades" we are looking at density issues -- we started
out just getting heat map coverage, without too much attention to
density; as a result, we now have crowded/capacity issue areas,
particularly in b/g.  So I would have to concur with others concerns
about spectrum and density.  If you scaled for laptops, now you have
phones, media players/readers, and iThings around every corner.  Even
unregistered/unauthenticated, they still associate and eat up airspace
and a client slot.

Jeff

**
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Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-18 Thread Harry Rauch 
Toms Hardware did a very in-depth analysis of several manufacturers last
year. I would go to their web site and see what they have to say.

I've tested Cisco, Aruba, Meru, Ruckus and have considered Motorola
recently. Tom's is a much more thorough test group.

My results also considered reliability and cost  both initial and overall
maintenance. My budget is not huge so I have to make each dollar count.


On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 7:30 PM, Scott Smith  wrote:

>  I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between
> Cisco, Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm
> wanting to get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at
> least tested between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.
>
> I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other
> Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.
>
> --
>   [image: Redhat Certified Engineer]
>
> Scott Smith
>
> Network Engineering
>
> Information Technology
>
> Southern Illinois University Carbondale
>
> Redhat Certified Engineer
>
> ssm...@siu.edu
>
>  ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE
> Constituent Group discussion list can be found at
> http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
>
>


-- 
Harry Rauch
Network Analyst
Eckerd College
4200 - 54th Ave So
St. Petersburg, FL 33711
727-864-8318

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-18 Thread Jennings, Zachariah E. 
Well, my boss forced me to do a bake-off between Aruba and Meru a couple years 
back, even though we are an Aruba campus. The big selling points for me were 
ARM (Adaptive Radio Management) and band steering. It was funny. I asked the 
Meru engineer why my Macbook Pro was on 5Ghz one minute and then 2.4Ghz the 
next, even though I was about 20 feet from the AP in an auditorium. His 
response was "There's no way for anyone except the client to control whether or 
not you get onto 5Ghz." I just nodded my head and smiled, knowing that Aruba's 
band steering did just that.

I've heard some horror stores about Meru and Meraki implementations. Sometimes 
those type of implementations can work great on a small scale demo, but as soon 
as you expand it into a campus solution, it fails to live up to expectations.

After years of being lied to by tech companies, I've learned never to buy 
something without meeting other people that use it in the same scenario that 
you are going to use it. I even try to do an onsite visit whenever possible. 
You know something is amiss if the sales person tries to steer you away from 
talking to other clients or visiting their clients' sites.

Zach Jennings
Senior Network Server Manager
Aruba Certified Mobility Professional, Airheads MVP
West Chester University of PA
610-436-1069

From: Scott Smith mailto:ssm...@siu.edu>>
Reply-To: EDUCAUSE Listserv 
mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:30:37 -0600
To: EDUCAUSE Listserv 
mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>>
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between Cisco, 
Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm wanting to 
get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at least tested 
between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.

I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other 
Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.

--
[Redhat  Certified Engineer]


Scott Smith

Network Engineering

Information Technology

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Redhat Certified Engineer

ssm...@siu.edu


** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>

RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-19 Thread Smith, C. Aaron 
I will also mention Enterasys as another vendor to consider for good 
functionality and costs.  When I started working here a year ago I had never 
heard of them and a year later they have really proven themselves.  I came from 
having deployed Aruba after a bakeoff four years ago, and Cisco fat APs before 
then, and I have been very happy with the performance of the Enterasys 
solution.  I don't know exactly what functionality you are interested in but if 
you are looking for customer feedback on Enterasys feel free to contact me 
offline.

Thanks.
Aaron Smith
Network Engineer
Ursinus College

From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 8:11 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru


Not that you're asking... but I'd also throw Ruckus, Motorola, Bluesocket, 
Meraki, and Aerohive into the mix right now. The WLAN space has had some 
amazing development and certain vendors have sweetspots that the others don't, 
depending on a particuilar set of conditions and scale. They all have pros and 
cons, but beyond the market leaders feature sets get pretty interesting.





Lee H. Badman
Wireless/Network Engineer, ITS
Adjunct Instructor, iSchool
Syracuse University
315.443.3003


From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] on behalf of Scott Smith [ssm...@siu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 7:30 PM
To: 
WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru
I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between Cisco, 
Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm wanting to 
get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at least tested 
between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.

I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other 
Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.
--
[cid:image001.jpg@01CCD68F.3975CA70]


Scott Smith

Network Engineering

Information Technology

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Redhat Certified Engineer

ssm...@siu.edu<mailto:ssm...@siu.edu>


** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>

RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-19 Thread Barber, Matt 
If you talk to enough people, you can find horror stories for pretty much every 
vendor out there. And the true cause of the horror is often debatable, as the 
blame is probably equally spread between the vendors themselves and the 
resellers/integrators working on some of those projects.

I'd second the site visits and at least looking at the other vendors out there. 
At the very least, some of their unique features may prompt some valuable 
questions to ask the market leaders.

We chose Meru (and are still very happy) after looking at everybody, but that 
was almost five years ago now. Pretty much ancient history at this point :)

Matt Barber '07
Network and Systems Manager
Morrisville State College
315-684-6053

From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jennings, Zachariah E.
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:10 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

Well, my boss forced me to do a bake-off between Aruba and Meru a couple years 
back, even though we are an Aruba campus. The big selling points for me were 
ARM (Adaptive Radio Management) and band steering. It was funny. I asked the 
Meru engineer why my Macbook Pro was on 5Ghz one minute and then 2.4Ghz the 
next, even though I was about 20 feet from the AP in an auditorium. His 
response was "There's no way for anyone except the client to control whether or 
not you get onto 5Ghz." I just nodded my head and smiled, knowing that Aruba's 
band steering did just that.

I've heard some horror stores about Meru and Meraki implementations. Sometimes 
those type of implementations can work great on a small scale demo, but as soon 
as you expand it into a campus solution, it fails to live up to expectations.

After years of being lied to by tech companies, I've learned never to buy 
something without meeting other people that use it in the same scenario that 
you are going to use it. I even try to do an onsite visit whenever possible. 
You know something is amiss if the sales person tries to steer you away from 
talking to other clients or visiting their clients' sites.

Zach Jennings
Senior Network Server Manager
Aruba Certified Mobility Professional, Airheads MVP
West Chester University of PA
610-436-1069

From: Scott Smith mailto:ssm...@siu.edu>>
Reply-To: EDUCAUSE Listserv 
mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:30:37 -0600
To: EDUCAUSE Listserv 
mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>>
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between Cisco, 
Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm wanting to 
get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at least tested 
between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.

I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other 
Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.
--

[cid:image001.jpg@01CCD689.B68EB090]


Scott Smith

Network Engineering

Information Technology

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Redhat Certified Engineer

ssm...@siu.edu<mailto:ssm...@siu.edu>


** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>

RE: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

2012-01-19 Thread Hector J Rios 
Some of you might not agree with me but when we are talking about vendors like 
the ones you mentioned, we already know their technical superiority, we know 
they can get the job done, we know their reputation (good and bad). Unless you 
can find a vendor that does something so specific that nobody else does and 
that you really need, I think most of the times the decision of who is best 
comes down to who is willing to provide you the best value for your money.

Hector Rios
Louisiana State University

From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Scott Smith
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 6:31 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco vs. Aruba vs. Meru

I've seen many times on this list people discuss the differences between Cisco, 
Aruba, and Meru.  I know there are pros and cons of each, but I'm wanting to 
get feedback from people who have either done a "bake off" or at least tested 
between them, and more specifically somewhat recently.

I did this like 2 years ago, and discussed with hospitals as well as other 
Universities but I'm now wondering about more recent testings.
--

[Redhat  Certified Engineer]


Scott Smith

Network Engineering

Information Technology

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Redhat Certified Engineer

ssm...@siu.edu


** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE 
Constituent Group discussion list can be found at 
http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

**
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group 
discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

<>