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Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller vs. SonicWall SonicWave Series

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

    Score6.6 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco 5520 Series Wireless LAN Controller is a highly scalable, service-rich, resilient, and flexible platform that is ideal for medium-sized to large enterprise and campus deployments.N/A

    SonicWave Series

    Score6.6 out of 10
    N/ASonicWall offers the SonicWave series of WiFi access points. The SonicWave is available in the SonicWave 200 and SonicWave 400 series.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerSonicWave Series
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerSonicWave Series
    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 5520 Wireless ControllerSonicWave Series
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    SonicWall
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    80%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    4 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    80%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerSonicWave Series
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    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 5520 Wireless ControllerSonicWave Series
    Likelihood to Recommend
    2.0
    (15 ratings)
    6.2
    (5 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    6.6
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerSonicWave Series
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    At this point the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers are end of life as a Cisco product, so I would not recommend them to anyone looking to purchase a wireless controller for an enterprise. However, many people are still using these, and they do work reliably, even if they are a bit long in the tooth now.
    Incentivized
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    SonicWall
    Helps ensure a better user experience by designing a wireless network optimized for your environment. The wireless network's safety and satisfaction are improved for the company. Even more important is the need to protect the information that travels over it and that is where SonicWALL wireless network security, in a nutshell, provides a solution with true excellence.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • It has the ability to manage all Cisco access points that we have, regardless of the model. The limit is 1500 pieces of equipment.
    • The WLC enables roaming functionality in the localities, this helps with collections, wireless IP phones, and access with notebooks.
    • The WLC manages the quality of the "air" and "signal" of the 2.4ghz frequency, avoiding noise and interference.
    • The WLC has an interesting feature of visibility of the traffic of the internal network.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    • The problem we are addressing with SonicWall SonicWave Series is security over our network. We handle information and have to keep everything confidential. So we use SonicWall SonicWave Series to keep our network safe from intrusion and anybody who may want to try to get into our system to do harm
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • We have had some issues with access points losing their configurations and going offline. This is not a common issue and we are not entirely certain if it is a fault of the controller or the individual APs. That said, the controller does not appear to retain the knowledge of the offline AP which can be a management headache.
    Incentivized
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    SonicWall
    • Detailed setup instructions
    • Auto Setup Feature for mesh
    • Provide filters without a yearly subscription
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    This equipment from Cisco has been dependable and we are able to easily continue to add access points or make changes easily to the Wi-Fi password settings.
    We have been operating this equipment for a number of years and it does not give us any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Overall the usability is ok. The centralized management reduces complexibility and offers bulk features like adding access points to specific groups which automatically applies linked configurations.
    On the other hand the GUI is very outdated and some features are not displayed correctly on new browsers. Also automation possibilities are very limited compared to the new 9800 series controller.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Cisco support is always ready to support and engage in any problem or issue. Starting from the implementation support, troubleshooting any software issue or hardware. Their engineers are engaging whenever we ask for support, keep following up with us, and troubleshoot any problem till we find a solution and be satisfied [with] the service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Just take your time when setting up the HA pairs as those can be tricky. Also take your time setting up AP groups and make sure they are on all the SSIDs you need to be on.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Identity Services Engine is well integrated on Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller because the WLC supports a lot of authentication methods and security protocols (such as PEAP, EAP-TLS, Captive Portal redirect). They perform very well with ISE. Cisco ISE is able to manage centrally the AAA sessions from all the WLCs keeping a central point of management for wireless infrastructure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    We evaluated Aruba and then evaluated SonicWall. SonicWall had fewer features, but it was cost-effective and suitable for our budget. Aruba, on other hand, was a dedicated WiFi solution and it was way costlier than SonicWall firewall and access point together, hence we selected SonicWall Sonicwave for our branch offices and Aruba for our head office where user count is more, and even management users are present in head office.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • [It provides] centralized management.
    • Implementing the [Cisco] 5520 [Wireless] Controllers offered us a huge improvement in administrative time over our previous Cisco 3850 deployment. Being able to see all of our APs on a single controller as well as centrally manage them is a great benefit. This also removed the need to deploy specific equipment in different IDFs throughout our Industrial locations and instead only requiring switches with Power Over Ethernet (POE) capability.
    • Wireless performance has improved with the deployment of our 5520s, which allows our plant operators to do their jobs more efficiently while on the move.
    • Having three Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers provides tertiary redundancy for our wireless networks. The solution is elegantly simple. Preventing downtime is, obviously, a profound part of our supply chain capabilities.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SonicWall
    • SonicWall has an intuitive user interface that allows you to manage all the sound waves in a piece from a single pane of glass.
    • In addition, it is easy to register and onboard access points with SonicWall.
    • As simple as scanning the QR code, the API is automatically added to the network infrastructure once you have registered your new access points and the SonicWALL Wi-Fi Planner tool.
    Incentivized
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