We have used Adtran/BlueSocket for many years. They have both an on-premises VM-based controller, and a cloud offering.
Our deployment consists of 500+ APs and a VM-based controller. Like any vendor’s product line, it has its own idiosyncrasies. Overall, we’ve been happy with the product, and their tech support and commitment to the product has been excellent. __________________________________ __________________________________ Fishel Erps, Sr. Network & Infrastructure Engineer School of Visual Arts <x-apple-data-detectors://0/1>136 W 21st St., 8th Floor <x-apple-data-detectors://0/1> <x-apple-data-detectors://0/1>New York, NY, 10011 <x-apple-data-detectors://0/1> E: [email protected] _______________________________ Please excuse any typographical errors as this e-mail has been sent from my mobile device _______________________________ On May 22, 2018, at 08:22, Lee H Badman <[email protected]> wrote: You don’t with any lightweight, controller-managed AP. That was my point. Are you talking Aruba cloud-managed? *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv < [email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Osborne, Bruce W (Network Operations) *Sent:* Tuesday, May 22, 2018 7:31 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options With Aruba APs you do not trunk VLANs to the APs. Just sayin’ 😉 *Bruce Osborne* *Senior Network Engineer* *Network Operations - Wireless* *(434) 592-4229* *LIBERTY UNIVERSITY* *Training Champions for Christ since 1971* *From:* Lee H Badman [mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *Sent:* Monday, May 21, 2018 9:43 AM *Subject:* Re: Wireless Options I struggle with this question, too (cloud versus not) as a long-time user of both. The need to trunk VLANs to cloud-based APs in a big environment is more of an issue to me than code paradigms. Absolutely nothing could be worse than a certain vendor’s appliance-based controller code quality track record over the last 12 years. A culture of “accepted suck” seems to pervade over that business unit and their most loyal customers, while I scratch my head over why there hasn’t been a class-action lawsuit over the entire mess. Now add automation to the mix and hang on for THAT thrill ride. I’d love to have no more controllers, but the VLAN thing is tough to swallow. -Lee Badman *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv < [email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Osborne, Bruce W (Network Operations) *Sent:* Monday, May 21, 2018 8:33 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options With a cloud solution, if they mess up feature addition you are stuck with that latest version, correct? With controller-based ot Aruba Instant type scenarios you are in charge of when to upgrade, waiting for stable builds. *Bruce Osborne* *Senior Network Engineer* *Network Operations - Wireless* *(434) 592-4229* *LIBERTY UNIVERSITY* *Training Champions for Christ since 1971* *From:* Enfield III, Charles Albert [mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *Sent:* Friday, May 18, 2018 2:54 PM *Subject:* Re: Wireless Options The other thing that’s going to change is the functionality. Jeff was on the right track when he talked about vendors with a global presence being better able to identify bugs, security flaws etc. and promptly diagnose and patch them. They’re also better positioned to apply machine learning and AI to the problems of network security and Wi-Fi optimization. *If they’re doing things right*, the cloud product won’t be a hamstrung version of the controller product. It will be a better version of the controller product. *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv < [email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Jeffrey D. Sessler *Sent:* Friday, May 18, 2018 1:30 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options One of the difficulties in comparing TCO is around staffing. Both estimating how much time staff really spend on the current solution, but also taking into account base salary with benefits. At many colleges, benefits can add another 30%+ to the cost of a person. As such, the elimination (or reallocation) of one FTE has a huge impact on on-premise vs cloud comparisons. That single FTE could be $100K (salary + benefits) per year, saving (or reallocating) $700K over those 7 years. In a lot of our cloud shift, those FTE’s have been re-allocated into more important roles such as security. Jeff *From: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> on behalf of Thomas Carter < [email protected]> *Reply-To: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> *Date: *Friday, May 18, 2018 at 8:43 AM *To: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> *Subject: *Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options For cloud to really take over, the costs need to drop. We just went through a similar thing and are of a similar size (~300 APs), and the cloud on-going OpEx costs dropped them out of the race. The simplicity of costs budgeting is nice, but 7 year TCO is no contest. Where they currently seem to be the best option is in the >25 to <100 AP market (<25 easily fits into Aruba Instant, Ruckus Unleashed, etc) or the small business vendor-managed market. *Thomas Carter* Network & Operations Manager / IT *Austin College* 900 North Grand Avenue Sherman, TX 75090 Phone: 903-813-2564 www.austincollege.edu <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.austincollege.edu%2F&data=02%7C01%7Ccae104%40psu.edu%7C7351014b86a34c8b33d008d5bce50905%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C636622614260515249&sdata=36TY%2FCbvPgwNG8lna1R4V%2Fz4To1CkQcj10C1N2kO2SQ%3D&reserved=0> *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv < [email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Jeffrey D. Sessler *Sent:* Friday, May 18, 2018 10:07 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options Chuck has the right idea here. Our respective college strategic missions don’t mention running servers or wireless controllers as strategic to the mission of the college. Cloud/SaaS solutions free up folks from the mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on those higher-up technology layers that can benefit the strategic mission. I think it’s easy today to see the benefits of moving on-premise email systems to GAFE or O365, but that comfort level isn’t there yet with some other systems such a Wireless. >From a support standpoint, a vendor like Meraki has global visibility of how their product is operating, meaning they can correlate/see/react to issues faster including patching. For the controller-based solutions, there is the isolation factor, capability of the customer to gather support info, and the vendor not knowing if other customers are having the issue. I suspect both options will be with us for years to come, but as more and more of our respective data centers move to the cloud, I predict the wireless cloud services will become more popular. Jeff *From: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> on behalf of "Enfield III, Charles Albert" <[email protected]> *Reply-To: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> *Date: *Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 1:38 PM *To: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> *Subject: *Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options I don’t want to put words in John’s mouth, but operating controllers requires time and effort beyond what’s required to manage configurations. Scaling, security, software upgrades, etc., all require resources but contribute nothing to the user experience. For us the benefits of hosting our own controllers is worth it, but I understand that isn’t true for everybody. I’m not even sure it will always be true for us. When the benefits of controllers as traffic aggregators can be easily replaced with SD fabrics, I’ll probably want cloud controllers too. The details will matter, but it’s where I think we’re going. Chuck Enfield Manager, Wireless Engineering Enterprise Networking & Communication Services The Pennsylvania State University 119L, USB2, UP, PA 16802 ph: 814.863.8715 fx: 814.865.3988 *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv < [email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Peter P Morrissey *Sent:* Thursday, May 17, 2018 4:30 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options Same here. I was also curious as to why it would be limited to cloud based solutions. I would drill down a layer into the perceived benefits of cloud based, and define it that way. Easier management requiring less staff time and thus lower TCO and more ability to accomplish other activities? Etc. Maybe. One of the disadvantages of cloud based solutions besides losing some control and visibility is the ongoing costs. We love Meraki as much as anyone, but the annual recurring licensing costs are rather steep and should be carefully weighed against the benefits. Pete Morrissey *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [ mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *Jake Snyder *Sent:* Thursday, May 17, 2018 2:26 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options I’m curious about the requirement that controllers be “cloud based” and what business requirement that maps to. Trying to understand what a cloud based controller give your business that an on-premises controller does not. How that translates to better experience, happier students or faster connectivity. Sent from my iPhone On May 17, 2018, at 12:13 PM, Norton, Thomas (Network Operations) < [email protected]> wrote: I highly recommend looking at Aruba as well. *T.J. Norton* *Wireless Network Architect* *Network Operations* *Office: (434) 592-6552 * <image001.jpg> *Liberty University | Training Champions for Christ since 1971* *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [ mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *Trenton Hurt *Sent:* Thursday, May 17, 2018 2:11 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Options https://www.mist.com/ <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mist.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Ctnorton7%40liberty.edu%7Cc75bdb0477514218a00c08d5bc21c019%7Cbaf8218eb3024465a9934a39c97251b2%7C0%7C0%7C636621775498942781&sdata=LxLmDpwl3h17su4HEiv9evWnHBODxMCN0tmzXxYir0w%3D&reserved=0> On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 2:10 PM John Rodkey <[email protected]> wrote: Our college - about 40 buildings, 1200 students, 3500 wireless clients per day, currently 310 WAPs - is considering a major upgrade in WAPs, replacing a number that are 9 years old and no longer supported. We could replace with the latest model of our existing vendor, but want to consider all the feasible alternatives. We have a hard requirement that the controller be cloud-based, the system deal well with Mac clients, understand VLANs and an enterprise quality network, and have a rich set of configuration, logging, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools for dealing both with clients and access points. Responsive support is also required, and unsurprisingly total system cost is a significant issue. 3 vendors come to mind: Meraki, Ubiquiti, and Aerohive. Questions: 1) do other vendors come to mind that play well in this space? 2) what are your positive experiences with any of the above? 3) what are your negative experiences? 4) have you recently gone through this analysis, and if so, what were your conclusions? 5) what issues have you experienced with PoE capacity requirements with these devices? 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