Anti-Cisco here for the exact same reasons, among others. We're currently on HP Procurve-based A/B/G wireless gear and controllers (WES modules in a 5412zl switch).
This summer, we'll be adding their next-gen controllers that support wireless A/B/G/N and provide a more decentralized approach during normal operation. Over time (2 or 3 years, likely), well phase out the existing A/B/G gear and then take the older controllers offline as well. We considered Xirrus, but liked the more granular approach we'll take with HP and the fact that HP has some other wireless options we can use where necessary. We're small... about 100 A/B/G access points right now and 48 new A/B/G/N access points awaiting installation. Scott Scott Lowe Chief Information Officer Westminster College 501 Westminster Ave. Fulton, MO 65251 Twitter: @scottdlowe ________________________________ From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [wireless-...@listserv.educause.edu] On Behalf Of Ethan Sommer [somm...@gac.edu] Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 5:58 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Aruba vs HP vs Meraki We are an anti cisco shop. We moved away to hp and didn't look back. Their smartnet philosophy just doesn't work in our environment. We are looking at hp primarily because we use hp swittch gear. Then we chose a sampling of other brands we know other schools are happy with. We are open to considering other brands with good references, who will let us demo 10 aps, that will cost us about 100k for a 200 ap system. -- Sent from my Palm Pre ________________________________ On Apr 2, 2010 5:01 PM, Devin Akin <de...@aerohive.com> wrote: Ethan, Was the narrowing process done based on specs or perhaps a list of criteria that they had to meet? Obviously there are lots of methods of buying (best of breed, best of brand, bake-off/performance-test, etc)...so I was just curious as to how you narrowed it down (since someone else was asking about 'why not Cisco') thanks! Devin K. Akin Chief Wi-Fi Architect Aerohive Networks E: de...@aerohive.com<mailto:de...@aerohive.com> C: +1.404.483.2681 O: +1.770.854.8554 W: www.Aerohive.com/isc<https://webmail.westminster-mo.edu/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx> (See our Infinitely Scalable Controller!) We are considering replacing our 200+ AP wireless infrastructure with a controller based 802.11n system. I believe we have narrowed it down to Aruba, HP Procurve (we use HP switch gear), and Meraki. I have two questions: 1. Are there any hidden costs we should watch out for with any of these (particularly Aruba.) Will we hit major costs other than the up front cost for the APs and the controllers? 2. I know a lot of schools are very happily using Aruba, but I haven't heard of any schools using HP and very few using Meraki. Are there any schools who have gone with Aruba and regretted it? If so, why? Are there any schools out there using HP Procurve (formerly Colubrius) or Merkai? What do you think of them? Did you have any surprises after you deployed? Ethan -- Ethan Sommer Associate Director of Core Services 507-933-7042 somm...@gustavus.edu<mailto:somm...@gustavus.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/.
