Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers vs. Juniper WLA & WLC Series (discontinued)

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.

Incentivized

Back in the day these were really well priced, and had some amazing coverage. After using newer Cisco gear, while more expensive, they dont shine so brightly anymore. They did have trouble under load as well. I would recommend them to someone only if they were really constrained in their budget for wifi equipment.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Great pricing structure
• Licensing was easy and straight forward
• Interface was quick and simple

Incentivized

• 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"

Incentivized

• Bug patches were always a problem to do
• Support was rarely helpeful
• It seemed they stopped releasing fixes for many bugs we encountered so we had to live with them

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Great contact to Wireless Innovate Program Team and TAC to solve our problems.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• A bit more time troubleshooting client disconnects
• Money saved on the more expensive hardware
• Frustration with support on many occasions

Incentivized