Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller vs Cisco Aironet 1570 Series Access Points

Likelihood to Recommend

I consider that its implementation is recommended for configurations where the amount of access point exceeds 50 devices and the performance exceeds 4 Gbps.
In environments where the access point density is less than 10 units, we can use the option of Express Mobility.

Network Engineer

Cardon IVOil & Energy, 501-1000 employees

Due to its software, it can fit in any outdoor deployment or requirement. It has POE Out port, Various Antenna selection, various powering option, GPS, Industrial rigid design (coming from a very hot and humid area), SFP compatible.
You can deploy this AP nearly on any use case you face, I have a successful deployment of 400m distance between two of them as a MESH and it has been running fine for the past 2 years on the beach, it's also providing wired connection to clients on the MESH side.
Some other use case is a WGB connected to a AirQuality sensor that has been up since day 1, with no problems whatsoever.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Research Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Pros

Centralized management has been the greatest factor in our preference for the 5520 controllers.
The web portal administration site is intuitive and granular. We have enjoyed the ease of administration on through the portals.
We have been very pleased with the effectiveness of Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) and Transmit Power Control (TPC) Algorithms. These feature settings (out of the box) have worked nearly flawlessly for us.

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Aaron Oberman

Network Systems Administrator

Foremost Farms USADairy, 1001-5000 employees

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Signal quality, even when all users are connected.
Secured
Integration
Realiability
Endurance
Support

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Daniel At

Director De Tecnologías de Información

Citelis - Organización RamírezCommercial Real Estate, 501-1000 employees

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Cons

Can improve on the possiblilty of using the physical controllers with the virtual one
Can improve on the possibility of having site to site failover capabilities - controllers at production goes down and controllers at our DR site takes over
The possibility of an app in your phone for alerts and minor configuration of the controllers

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Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 501-1000 employees

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Price point
Not that easy to set up as a Meraki.
Difficult to find a good partner.

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Daniel At

Director De Tecnologías de Información

Citelis - Organización RamírezCommercial Real Estate, 501-1000 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller 9.1

Based on 1 answer

It works grear and will definately renew.

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Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 501-1000 employees

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Cisco Aironet 1570 Series Access Points 9.1

Based on 1 answer

There is no other better option than this. It's the line between the commercial Cisco grade AP's and industrial ones.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Research Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Cisco Aironet 1570 Series Access Points 9.1

Based on 1 answer

Whenever I get a new use case, I find 1570 solves it with no problem.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Research Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Support Rating

Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller 9.7

Based on 10 answers

Cisco is always available if we need support. If they are unable to solve the problem right away they will reach back to us in a timely manner and advise what we need to do. As well there team provides additional guidance if we hit any stumbling blocks. There service has been great.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Retail Company, 201-500 employees

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Cisco Aironet 1570 Series Access Points 9.1

Based on 1 answer

Initially I had a problem with the regulatory and channel selection, it was a bug on the AP as it was fairly new, solved by TAC on engineering release, and since then it has been performing flawlessly.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Research Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Cisco is the most stable company in switching parts including wireless, and it has the most powerful support team with a lot of online documents, community and market share so when you get stuck, you can find support from anywhere. And usually you won't need it as its product is very stable and reliable.

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Girgis Hady

IT Network Manager

WadiDeglaSports, 1001-5000 employees

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Making the decision to use Aironet is more related to the type of scenario that you have. We chose Aironet because we mainly manage all the network internally and already have Cisco products to integrate with Meraki which is a good option if you are starting from scratch.

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Daniel At

Director De Tecnologías de Información

Citelis - Organización RamírezCommercial Real Estate, 501-1000 employees

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Return on Investment

The 5520 WLC makes the management and configuration of large groups of AP's very easy which has a positive effect on operational costs.
Devices are extremely reliable.

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 10,001+ employees

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ROI pays off on the long term especially if you care about security and offering a good service to your users.
ROI also pays on terms of warranty and time of response especially if your users depend heavily on the network.
ROI also depends on the amount and type of users that you have. It's less likely to pay if you have few users.

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Daniel At

Director De Tecnologías de Información

Citelis - Organización RamírezCommercial Real Estate, 501-1000 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No