Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller

Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller

Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller

45 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller	Score 7.5 out of 10	N/A	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.	N/A

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Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller

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Pricing Offerings
Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

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Community Pulse
	Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller
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Considered Both Products	Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller Jeffrey Thoenen Senior Network Engineer Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User C-Level Executive Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Engineer Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller Since the beginning, [I have been] using the Cisco Routers, and I will go with the most durable network router. Thank you, Cisco! Helpful? Verified User Engineer 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 Incentivized Helpful? Nilufa Hossain IT Specialist Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? RS Raman Sehgal Network Specialist Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Analyst Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller [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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Employee Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Administrator Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Analyst Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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. Incentivized Helpful? João Almeida Researcher Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Helpful? MK Masud Kamal Technical Support Engineer Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Administrator Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Professional Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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 … Incentivized Helpful? NAKIA EPLEY Network Field Technician Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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. Incentivized Helpful? Duncan Hernandez Senior Manager, Business Intelligence Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Director Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 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. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Engineer Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller None. With the res of our networking equipment being already Cisco we didn't really have much choice if we wanted a good integration. Incentivized Helpful? Carlos Zacarias Hernandez Gerente de Noc and support Chose Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller The intelligence channel is major to other vendors and also for support. Incentivized Helpful?
Top Pros	Pro Access points Pro Wireless controller Pro Wireless network
Top Cons	Minus Cost is high Minus Required to use Minus Third party

Best Alternatives
	Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller
Small Businesses	Ubiquiti WLAN Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises	Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Score 9.8 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller
Likelihood to Recommend	7.3 (26 ratings)
Usability	8.2 (1 ratings)
Support Rating	9.0 (1 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller
Likelihood to Recommend	Cisco [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. Incentivized Nilufa Hossain IT Specialist Read full review
Pros	Cisco 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. Incentivized RD Richard Dean Senior Network Engineer Read full review
Cons	Cisco 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. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Usability	Cisco Very well made product. Very stable. We have had no issues administering the 8540. Incentivized RD Richard Dean Senior Network Engineer Read full review
Support Rating	Cisco It is a better product. The evolution is positive. Incentivized Carlos Zacarias Hernandez Gerente de Noc and support Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Cisco 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. João Almeida Researcher Read full review
Return on Investment	Cisco 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. Incentivized Jeffrey Thoenen Senior Network Engineer Read full review
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