Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review Fortinet offers great Security features and is one of the leaders on that, and integrating Wireless LAN infrastructure with Access points proved to work rather seamlessly. Ease of management, single platform and ability to customize licensing as per needs were elements in favor of adding the Wireless LAN solution from Fortinet to our security portfolio.
Read full review Pros 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 Read full review Really easy to configure Really easy to manage Great value for price Read full review Cons 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. Read full review In the web portal, it would be nice if you could create a customer, assign that customer all the devices in the solution, and have a single pane glass to manage them all. Right now you need to access different web links to manage the devices. The security feature set could be a bit more sophistication, like an Arista AP which polices the air. Read full review Likelihood to Renew There is no other better option than this. It's the line between the commercial Cisco grade AP's and industrial ones.
Read full review Usability Everything clear and easy to use
Read full review Performance 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.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Fortinet offers excellent support. They will work with you until the solution is doing what it is designed to do, within its capabilities. They also do an excellent to follow-up with the end-user prior to closing the ticket.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Daniel At Director De TecnologÃas de Información
Read full review as a stand-alone product, the Fortinet wireless LAN solution isn't the most powerful, nor compelling out there. Others, like Cisco Meraki, offer great products, with added wifi features at a similar price point, but where Forti shines, is when integrated into a network with firewall enablement such as
FortiGate . Overall, it stacks up well with others and is a solution that needs to be evaluated in a purchasing project.
Read full review Scalability 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.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Less management cost Less expensive to buy Read full review ScreenShots