Cisco Aironet and Catalyst Access Points vs WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud

Likelihood to Recommend

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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The WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud works well in any scenario. With the number of AP model options, this solution can work at a coffee shop all the way up to a multi-tenant facility with thousands of users.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Information Technology and Services Company, 51-200 employees

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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

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Utilities Company, 10,001+ employees

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Ease of Management
Secure
Wi-Fi Reporting

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 51-200 employees

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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.

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Gleison Leandro Rodrigues

Networking Coordinator

NetshoesInternet, 1001-5000 employees

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As far as a native VLAN configuration, VLAN 0 is used while mostly all other vendors use VLAN 1 as the default (native) VLAN. Minor detail, but keeps configuration standard across the board.
The policing feature is powerful, but at times too powerful and needs to be modified a few times before getting the solution where you need it to be. Different levels of policing would be nice, with the option of creating your own and/or modifying an existing template.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Information Technology and Services Company, 51-200 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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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

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WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud 10.0

Based on 2 answers

The support team is great! I have never had an issue getting the support I needed. They make it a point to stick with the issue until it's resolved to the customer's satisfaction. They do not make you feel like you need to hurry up and close the ticket. They make sure the solution is working as designed.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Information Technology and Services Company, 51-200 employees

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Alternatives Considered

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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WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud offers the cloud management solution unlike Ubiquiti which needs a controller that you need to setup, configure, update, and maintain. Also Security is offered with Secure Wi-Fi cloud.

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

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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Less time spend on setting up Wi-Fi on client devices
Addressed our Security Concerns
Less time spent on Wireless Configurations

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Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 51-200 employees

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Cisco Aironet and Catalyst Access Points vs WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud