Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued) vs. Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
Score 6.3 out of 10
N/A
Currently supported by Cisco, but no longer sold, Cisco recommends migration to the Cisco Catalyst 9100 Family of Access Points, which offer greater performance and flexibility.N/A
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 is a modular wireless controller with optional 100 Gigabit Ethernet (G) modular uplinks boasting seamless software updates for large enterprises and campuses, and security with ETA and SD-Access.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
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 Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Small Businesses
Ubiquiti WLAN
Ubiquiti WLAN
Score 9.3 out of 10
Ubiquiti WLAN
Ubiquiti WLAN
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.8 out of 10
Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point
Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.8 out of 10
Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point
Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(13 ratings)
8.2
(35 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(34 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(2 ratings)
7.9
(35 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
Cisco Aironet 1550 Series Access Points is very useful for outdoor locations that are more exposed to the wilderness or the weather, which provides uninterrupted wifi access during high winds and bad weather. It also is useful for hazardous locations that are prone to danger or wildlife. Unfortunately, it would not be appropriate to get a Cisco Aironet 1550 Series Access Point if it is only needed for basic wifi use, or indoor use, as the extra features and price would not be necessary.
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Cisco
If we are thinking about replacing old Cisco AireOS controllers with a new technology, we can only choose Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers. Configuration based on Profiles and SiteTag is convenient and easier compared to the previous configuration. You can see that the entire controller has been designed from scratch. Support for new AccessPoints in Wifi 6 offers great possibilities.
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Pros
Discontinued Products
  • 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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Cisco
  • Easily manages a large number of APs.
  • It can push out settings or a new OS to a large group of APs at once.
  • The GUI is very intuitive, and follows the model Cisco has created for many of their products.
  • It integrates well with our ISE environment for handling RADIUS requests.
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Cons
Discontinued Products
  • 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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Cisco
  • add more sub-genres to the main menu
  • make the product easier for people to use, that aren't working with it all day
  • make the initial setup menu, where policies can be attached to Tags etc. more accessible
  • When selecting APs from the Landing Page, make it possible to rename them immediately without having to switch to "Configuration" -> "Access Points"
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Likelihood to Renew
Discontinued Products
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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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Usability
Discontinued Products
Everything clear and easy to use
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Cisco
The availability of the cisco 9800 wireless lan controller depends on several factors including deloyment mode of the controllers itself, network size and architecture and the maitenance and support factor. It is designed to meet the needs of a large enterprise and together with a cisco support contract any outages will be covered
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Performance
Discontinued Products
The Cisco Aironet 1560 Series Access Points served their function well. They were reliable, provided decent speeds, resisted the elements, and provided a good investment. The only downsides were mostly appearance which doesn't matter that much. However, I believe that the tech in the access point is not future proof which is why I did not give it a nine or ten star rating.
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Cisco
Fully robust and well-built solution. The solution fully is able to support a full campus WiFi environment without having any issues. There is no slowness to setting up a WiFi solution or any delays when changes are made. The product [can handle] beyond the listed specifications, but Cisco has kept performance and throughput to allow for a robust and smooth experience.
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Support Rating
Discontinued Products
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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Cisco
Great contact to Wireless Innovate Program Team and TAC to solve our problems.
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Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
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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Cisco
We original worked with a Linksys based wireless system. Cisco improved our network reliability and speed which were the key reasons we upgraded our hardware in the first place. It appears that Cisco is better suited in a Business environment than its competitors are. I look forward to completing the network and to see it fully functional.
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Scalability
Discontinued Products
The software of the Cisco Aironet 1560 is highly scalable, the software is very powerful so that the APs can be customized to the maximum and achieve the best performance of the network at the wifi level. The use of it is very easy for people with low knowledge.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • With only a few DOA's or failing devices, the AP's are of very high quality.
  • We expect them to run stable for many years, which is why our initial investment will be an intelligent choice compared to installing a cheaper product.
  • Although the AP's from Cisco is cutting-edge technology, the 802.11ac standard will be considered legacy in a few years, meaning that its a balance to purchase a well-designed product that won't outlast the tech that it provides. Imagine having an investment in a large fleet of high-quality 802.11b AP's 20 years ago. Although they would still be working flawlessly due to their good quality, the bandwidth would probably be unacceptable to most modern consumers.
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Cisco
  • We did replace several WLCs in our site with a redundant [Cisco Catalyst 9800-L Wireless Controller] and saved the cost
  • [Cisco Catalyst 9800-L Wireless Controller] with IOS-XE enable us to manage APs in our branches easily, easier than AireOS
  • ISSU enable us to do firmware upgrade with minimum downtime, a site with 24/7 activity will not be interrupted anymore
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