The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller is a highly scalable, service-rich, resilient, and flexible platform. It provides centralized control, management, and troubleshooting for high-scale deployments in service provide, enterprise, and large campus deployments.
Juniper Mist is similar to the Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller in functionality, but the Mist solution is cloud based, while the Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller is typically deployed in your data center environment.
Fortinet Wireless LAN controllers offer similar features and functionality. They for the same reason as Cisco, offer a feature-rich management console, especially when parred with Fortinet networking and firewall equipment. I believe the Cisco environments are more …
Since the beginning, [I have been] using the Cisco Routers, and I will go with the most durable network router. Thank you, Cisco!
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Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller
If
we compare them on technical specifications, Cisco routers range up to full rack
heights. If you take an enterprise model, they support faster 100G Ethernet
Cisco products offer an unrivaled experience that outperforms the majority of other alternatives. This is a long-term investment that will provide a great return on investment. The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller, on the other hand, is more powerful and has more features for …
The expertise that comes with every Cisco product is undeniable. When it comes to the documentation, the expertise of the customer service tech agents, and the quality of the products, it all fits nicely into this awesome package that can outshine most of the alternatives out …
The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller was a more recent product than that and my organization grew out of the Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller, which did a superb job. When the company progresses, a need for something powerful is always required with time. We progressed to the Cisco …
[It has] great quality support, like the fact that this product is headed in the right direction. [It is] very easy to do business as their support team is always available and comes up with satisfactory responses to all our queries and issues. The ease of admin is also …
The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller is more than worth its cost. It helps us to monitor every device to which an AP is connected and which MAC address is configured with it. In terms of D-link configuration, you will observe a slight difference--there is lag of few seconds in …
We tested a few other products out before going with the Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller. We have Cisco products primarily and we know Cisco is king! However, it's all about cost. We decided it's best to get what you pay for. We know Cisco products are reliable and are …
The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller is an upgrade from the 5520. It has only one RU appliance when compared to the Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller, which has two. The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller connects to more access points and is a higher speed network than the 5520.
We have [done] some work before with the Cisco 3504 product, but the more recent Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller provides a wider range of capabilities for managing the wireless network and each individual device [and] also being able to handle more users. Unfortunately, we …
We upgraded to the latest model of Cisco recently and both the Cisco 8540 and Cisco 9800 are great in their jobs (although a few additional improvements along with the latest technology and AP controls are observed in the later model). The buyers can choose either of these two …
We tried out the Cisco Catalyst 9800-40 in the past and haven't noticed too much difference with the Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller. We generally trust Cisco products and found no issues within any product we have purchased in the past. We have looked at other organization's …
We found that the Cisco routers are better equipped to handle security and integration with other manufacturer hardware. This was a big deal to us as we have accumulated numerous other pieces of hardware over the years that are critical to the organization. We needed a …
My appreciation for Cisco products comes from how solid and reliable the equipment is, and how much support and training there is for IT professionals. The clients that have these in place are very large organizations that had the need for the enterprise-size device.
Cisco 8540 is just a newer and more modern product. Our company grew out of the 3504, which did a fine job at what it does. We just needed something more powerful and that can handle way more users. Software is more recent on the 8540, probably because it is a newer product.
Cisco. The name alone carries a badge that can't be overlooked or shopped. Its a hard to beat brand and has been consistently reliable through my IT career, in all positions I've held. Its a gold standard, and the 8540 stands up to that test.
[Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller's] software quality has been shed in recent years. The only problem I have with it is its inability to work with older Cisco Access Points. However, that's to be expected for any deployment. While the controller's UI works well, some areas could be improved. API integrations lack flexibility. [I feel] it's time for policy redesign. It can be a little difficult to determine coding quality.
The GUI on the Cisco 8540 WLC is much better designed than other Cisco products. Its easy to navigate between the different settings to find what is needed.
The AP groups allows touching multiple APs at one time.
It also allows us to create standard SSIDs that can be used at all sites that connect back to it, this saves a lot of time instead of hitting each site with a local controller.
Code quality is a bit hit and miss. This will be great for a while, then things will be bad for a while, then we'll do it again. The UI of the controller works, but could do with a refresh, and I would like to see some improvement on layout and organization.
The constant code/firmware upgrades and the QA of new code could be better.
Maybe the compatibility with old Cisco Access Points could be improved, but it's normal in all kinds of deployments.
Very feature rich, easy enough for beginners to understand layout and initial setup. Need a good training (online, Cisco Leaning Network, etc.) to fully understand all features and product capabilities. Strict power requirements for APs are only major drawback for our specific implementation.
We have [done] some work before with the Cisco 3504 product, but the more recent Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller provides a wider range of capabilities for managing the wireless network and each individual device [and] also being able to handle more users. Unfortunately, we didn't test and deploy equivalent products from other concurrent companies.
The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller allows you to reduce your hardware footprint of wireless controllers deployed in your environment. Instead of having a controller per site deployed, you can have a couple of 8540 controllers in your data center that can handle up 6000 Access Points.
Some of the savings on hardware cost is offset by the cost of redundant WAN circuits. The access points will continue to function when connectivity to the Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller is unreachable, but it will not allow any new connections in that wireless environment.