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Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller Reviews & Insights

Score9 out of 10

10 Reviews and Ratings

Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller Reviews

4 Reviews

EWC-Cost Effective Solution

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller for the clients where they need cost effective wireless solution and where not much users are there in their environment. It is best for low and medium size deployment and not recommended at all for large enterprise environment.

Pros

  • Good for small infra
  • low cost Deployment
  • Simple and fast deployment

Cons

  • No support for Older APs are there
  • wifi 6E device support should atleast be there to EWC
  • All APs with EWC support should be having more CPU processing power for better performances

Likelihood to Recommend

Small office like retail shop and office with few users and few AP requirements. In such scenario we can proceed with the EWC deployment as it is cost effective as hardware based WLC is not required and most of the controller features are available on the Embedded controller only
Vetted Review
Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller
4 years of experience

Secure by design and flexible in its architecture

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller puts this intuitive, powerful control, easy-to-deploy-and-manage WiFi 6 network in the palm of our hands. The built-in enterprise-class security and resilience features always keep the network on and protected. Managing and monitoring the EWC is easy, so we have a reliable WiFi experience that can serve and perform multiple functions to meet the demanding requirements of the business.

Pros

  • Offers enterprise-class security that keeps the network protected
  • Cost-effective connectivity
  • Deploying WiFi 6 network without complexity or added expense
  • Controlling access points and clients

Cons

  • The GUI is difficult to understand
  • The process of setting up the Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller is cumbersome, but I like its reliability

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller offers WiFi 6 capacity and performance, enterprise-class capabilities, and robust security to deploy and manage the wireless network. It is a cost-effective approach to introduce WiFi 6 production or beta network.

If your use case is right, the Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller can be the perfect solution

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Previously we had Cisco wireless LAN controller that took care of all our AP's (adding, removing, programming, etc) which still works great for our main site that keeps everything chugging without much interaction. The problem we had at some sites is that they don't connect back to us in a way we could manage their AP's. Enter the Cisco Embedded [Wireless] Controllers. These guys solve that problem handily.

Pros

  • They seem solid and well built, hardly ever fail
  • Once you get a hand of the setup they're easy to add/remove
  • Automatic failover is seamless and super helpful

Cons

  • Occasionally require a reboot to get an AP back online
  • Sometimes they will fight to be the controller
  • They dont seem to handle as many clients as AP's connected to a WLC

Likelihood to Recommend

Overall I could see myself recommending these to others if they have the right set of circumstances at their place of business. Those would be like ours, if they had a location that couldnt be served by a WLC. Once setup they are easy to manage and self healing as in they wont go down when one is offline.
Vetted Review
Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller
2 years of experience

Good value for the price but may not compete with a Cisco centralized controller

Rating: 7 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have a mostly Cisco AP shop but was previously using a Cisco WLAN controller to manage all our APs. At a new HQ site, we wanted to try the new embedded wireless controllers in a simpler way with fewer points of failure than using a centralized WLC. This solves the major problem of a centralized point of failure.

Pros

  • Automatic controller failover in the event of an outage.
  • Lots of great deep security features that Cisco is known for.
  • Well priced for an all in one device.

Cons

  • Some bugs in the interface.
  • Issues with licensing and Cisco DNA integration.
  • Frequent software patches needed,

Likelihood to Recommend

While it is a fairly solid product for the price tag, some places may not want to deal with bugs and glitches that can occur. These are priced below a standard WLC with APs that are centrally managed. So if you have a site with lots of APs that need as much uptime as possible, this may not be the solution for you.
Vetted Review
Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller
1 year of experience