Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller vs Cisco Aironet and Catalyst Access Points

Likelihood to Recommend

[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.

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Nilufa Hossain

IT Specialist

Lamda I-TECHInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

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Cisco [Aironet Access Points] are well suited in offices where they can be managed by a wireless LAN controller (WLC). Using them in this way allows the APs to be well managed and security policies can easily be enforced down to users connecting to these APs for wireless access. Scenarios, where Cisco [Aironet Access Points] are less appropriate, are in small-office-home-office (SOHO) situations because of price and licensing costs to use a WLC to manage them. Thus, using them, in this case, would be that the APs would have to be in Autonomous mode, and the technical know-how in converting a lightweight AP to an Autonomous one is not straightforward.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 501-1000 employees

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Pros

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.

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Richard Dean

Senior Network Engineer

EatonMachinery, 10,001+ employees

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Outdoor mesh bridging of access points brings significant cost savings to many of our production facilities. Deploying mesh APs is a significant cost reduction over trenching conduit to connect remote areas via fiber.
Cisco APs are extremely resilient, with a failure rate of below 5% in some of our harshest environments.
Cisco APs have the intelligence to identify wireless interference sources with Clean Air technology

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Utilities Company, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

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.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 51-200 employees

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In the facilities where we operate, we had to put a reinforcement on the ceiling to avoid problems due to the weight of the access point.
On the appearance, it could be smaller and lighter.
As for the hardware, I think it's incredible, I don't see any points to improve.

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Gleison Leandro Rodrigues

Networking Coordinator

NetshoesInternet, 1001-5000 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

Starting Price

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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

Starting Price

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Usability

Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 8.2

Based on 1 answer

Very well made product. Very stable. We have had no issues administering the 8540.

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Richard Dean

Senior Network Engineer

EatonMachinery, 10,001+ employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller 9.0

Based on 2 answers

It is a better product. The evolution is positive.

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Carlos Zacarias Hernandez

Gerente de Noc and support

EVCON GROUPComputer & Network Security, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

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.

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João Almeida

Researcher

Instituto de TelecomunicaçõesTelecommunications, 501-1000 employees

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The usage scenario was different. I don't see this as a benefit versus harm comparison, necessarily. What happened was that, at a certain point, the implementation of the cisco solution was the winner of our public bidding process and with that, we implemented it and have used it ever since.

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Roni Peterson Alvarenga

Diretor de Tecnologia da Informação e Telecomunicação

Câmara Municipal de CampinasGovernment Administration, 501-1000 employees

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Return on Investment

Network engineers find it easier to [manage] high-stress levels since they're more reliable and robust.
Their initial cost is very high compared to other router providers, such as Juniper.
Their hardware dependability can be a big drawback if you run on a budget.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 1-10 employees

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Obviously, these things aren't cheap. But we do believe that with the functionality we get, we are getting a good return on productivity.
These things are really reliable, we don't spend a lot of time troubleshooting or replacing them.

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Verified User

Director in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 201-500 employees

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Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller vs Cisco Aironet and Catalyst Access Points