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Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller vs. Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco 3504 Wireless (WLAN) Controller provides centralized control, management, and troubleshooting for small to medium-sized enterprises and branch offices.N/A

    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 is a modular wireless controller with optional 100 Gigabit Ethernet (G) modular uplinks boasting seamless software updates for large enterprises and campuses, and security with ETA and SD-Access.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco 3504 WLAN ControllerCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco 3504 WLAN ControllerCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco 3504 WLAN ControllerCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Our Aironet WLC were end of life and Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers were suitable replacement
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers is more modern, looks better, supports newer access points. Using different tags - site tags, policy tags, etc. is a nice way to configure different access point groups or locations. Also Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Older product - less support
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    9800 is a big improvement in easy of overall configuration, upgrading and troubleshooting.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Since we are only upgrading to the newest generation, we have all benefits from that (like performance)
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Compared to older Cisco WLC, Catalyst 9800s are easier to manage and SSO HA is more reliable. Compared to Aruba IAP, the number of features is greater. Meraki is easier to set up but having a central controller gives greater control.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    103 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    92 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    101 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    17 Answers
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    76 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    18 Answers
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    83 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco 3504 WLAN ControllerCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Small Businesses
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.1 out of 10
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco 3504 WLAN ControllerCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (21 ratings)
    9.0
    (109 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.7
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (107 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (108 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.4
    (5 ratings)
    8.5
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco 3504 WLAN ControllerCisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    What I
    like most about the Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller is that its user interface makes
    networking very simple. Shows real-time information about the network which
    helps admins watch the traffic flow and client connections using the dashboard.
    Since it’s so simple, people find it very easy to start using the system. The complexity in setting it up for the first time could hinder
    efficient deployment in fast-paced environments.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Well suited for most of our customer base because it is a versatile, scalable, large multi-campus organizations. Not so: Brandish deployments where there's a much more simplified feature set needed. So where we can basically rely on Meraki as a cloud base with easier to deploy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • Allows an administrator to manage all the wireless access points through a single point.
    • It can accommodate the increase in the size of the network and accommodate other new devices with ease.
    • It has several technological features that make it secure against hackers, especially to corporate networks and data owned by the user.
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • I think the updates are great. ISSU upgrading code is fantastic. I think the speed with which CAPWAP converges or reconverges, I think the redundancy mechanisms for roaming APs to other controllers is very good. I think overall, getting away from more of a monolithic processor where subprocesses handle what they call the WNCD tasks, I think fundamentally is an improvement in performance.
    • The radioactive tracing, all of the troubleshooting and all of the logging and all of the importing and exporting features for logging and analytics within the controller itself is really, really good compared to the predecessor AireOS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • I have been using the Cisco 3504 wlan controller for about 1 years now. I have found it to be very reliable, but cumbersome to setup and configure. The GUI is not very user friendly, but if you configure it a few times you get used to it. It is lacking in some of the latest features that are offered by other vendors. The power usage is pretty good and the amount of AP's you can add is pretty standard
    • Cisco is everywhere. If you are looking for WLAN, Switching, or other related products, Cisco is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. With this in mind, you'd figure that their wireless controller would be their flagship product, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. For the price point, the 3504 is a pretty lackluster product.
    • I was given the task to setup a new wifi network in a very large building. With many departments and a complicated layout, we needed to have a solid router to handle all of the network traffic and throughput. I was given the task to find a reliable, robust and cost-effective solution. With the Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller, I was easily able to setup an autonomous access point with a few clicks. The cloud based controller software was easy to use and had many features I was able to utilize and control, all other things are perfect .
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • The biggest issues we have had have been software related. Requiring code upgrades or reloads to fix an unfixable problem.
    • Some of the troubleshooting utilities aren't perfectly clear as to what theyre doing or how to set them up or what to expect results wise or resource wise.
    • I think there is a lack of filtering in certain displays where you cannot use the "contains" option for certain device type filtering. But those options should be universal in all views.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    We have been using Cisco 3504 Wireless Controller in our network infrastructure for a long time now and it has been a very critical and beneficial addition in our network infrastructure. it has provided us with the tools required to efficiently manage and monitor our wireless network and users. it is a highly reliable and efficient device for any kind of environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Despite common software and hardware issues this is still the best product on the market for large scale enterprise deployments. Cisco has worked with us extensively to reduce the amount of bugs in every iteration however new bugs are introduced or new incompatibilities always arise with major releases. Thus, while I'm hesitant to recommend the product it's still much better than all the other competitors such as Aruba and Juniper in the WIFi space. There is also extensive integration with DNAC/Catalyst Center and ISE in an SDA deployment. Recently there has been a number of critical issues with the controller software and Cisco has proved themselves to be incapable of timely troubleshooting and diagnosis. This has reduced our confidence in the product and it's current and future stability and maintainability. At it's current state the product is taking up too much of our engineering resources to maintain despite also paying for premium support from Cisco. As such I have reduced by rating as we are likely to look at alternative vendors for our long-term wireless management solution
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    The centralized management give a good overview of the Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller. Its rich in security features like advanced security, RF optimization, and scalability. Cisco provides extensive documentation and support, although it can be highly technical. It is easy to configure and setup the Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller. Strong security features, including WPA3, rogue AP detection, and WIPS, enhance network protection.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    It's not simple, but this is the result of being very deeply configurable
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    Honestly, in the six years that we've been using it, we've had one, I would say show stopping event. There was an issue with in an HA setup they would every so often when rebooted lose all configuration. So that was a bit disappointing, required quite a few hours to resolve, but Cisco had to fix very quickly and once we implemented that, we've not had any further additional issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    We have been using the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers for over 2 years and the whole system has been very stable. We currently run them in HA and have found when this has been activated (due to power issues etc.) the units change roles seamlessly, minimising the downtime to almost nothing. Except when we have had major issues, our wireless networks have a solid uptime and keeps our whole borough up 24/7 without problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Cisco TAC is well known and SLA levels are great. Cisco support website and Cisco communities are another help for issues resolution. TAC is always supportive over Webex and helps to resolve issues pretty fast. This is another assurance for people to go with Cisco as the TAC capabilities are proven for all product lines.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    the overall support on the 9800 Wireless lan controller is good. Wireless issues are sometimes hard to troubleshoot since it's the RF that make it complex and the diversity in clients and requirements. The engineers do a good job in understanding the scope and issue, altough not all issues can be solved
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    You need to understand wifi basics
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    The main reason why our company chose to opt for the Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller was the magnificent quality-price ratio of the product. It is very easy to handle if you have the appropriate technical knowledge and if not, you will always have Cisco technical support supporting you for whatever you need. Once the product is configured, it works stably without intervention and is fully integrated with the company's other Cisco solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    Ubiquiti WLAN is very much a consumer platform. It is not production ready, it is buggy, it has issues. It is cheaper than Cisco, but you get what you pay for. Aruba doesn't integrate nicely with our existing largely Cisco based networks, so when time came to replace AireOS, the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers came out on top.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    There are different vesrions for different requirements, there's HA as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Due to the stability of the system, there is practically no incidence of serious problems that require total interruption of the environment.
    • Even with EOL, product support will still continue for a long time, ensuring peace of mind and time to work on a new solution and/or upgrade.
    • Investment in a single wireless network, segmented, without multiple devices from multiple brands.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    • Positive impacts, yeah, is good to have a central location to control all these profiles for different countries and locations. And the drawback, like I said to you really because of the too many integrations that have a dependency on the software version. For example, Cisco ONE for Access have certain software that can run through and then this scatter center need to make sure it's working with the others APS version that is currently working. And we also, the Cisco Catalyst Center also have some kind another version of software that you need to support this controller. So it's like two tier three tiers of the software version that we need to match. Then only it can work.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots