We are Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers in our head office . Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers is very flexible configuring different profiles and policies .
Pros
Making different policies
Integration with Cisco ISE
It is very easy adding access points
Cons
Troubleshooting easier debugs and tests
Likelihood to Recommend
If asked, I think I am likely to recommend Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to a colleague In big infrastructures that require different level of access
In our organization, we use Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to Deploy secure and centralized wifi across the organization
Pros
Rebust product
Highly available
Flexible deployment
Cons
Monitoring of clients
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Application visibility
Likelihood to Recommend
If asked, I think I am likely to recommend Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to a colleague because, in my experience, Guest onboarding has been bery well suited.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
In our organization, I was using the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers for campus AP management and configuration, troubleshooting and monitoring. Also within regional DC (data center) in order to support small offices
Pros
AP Configuration Push
Cons
More client side troubleshooting
Heat mapping
Likelihood to Recommend
If asked, I think I am likely to recommend Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to a colleague for Big scale campus setup
VU
Verified User
Director in Professional Services (5001-10,000 employees)
If asked, I think I am likely to recommend Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to a colleague because, As a manager of a full cisco campus, i do not see a way to use another controller plus, in my experience, Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers is the best so far in every aspect
VU
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)
In our organization, the Wireless LAN Controllers is responsible for managing, configuring and securing all our wireless access points. We manage close to 800 access points across our office locations, including corporate headquarters and remote project sites. Our wireless networks support internal users, guest users and a growing number of IoT devices.
Pros
High Availability. We use redundant WLCs to ensure business continuity.
Apply strong authentication
Large scale rollouts. Firmware versions are consistent and we can avoid mistakes due to manual configuration.
Upgrade AP firmware with minimal downtime.
Cons
Some features may be restricted to certain models or OS versions.
Troubleshooting certain wireless client behaviour
AP controller overload
Client density
Likelihood to Recommend
It works well on multi-building office where many access points are spread over several floors, and there are lots of users who move. I believe due to centralized RF management and roaming, it helps maintain coverage and capacity.
Another thing that works really well with us is defining multiple SSIDs with differing policies.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)
We have been using Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers for some time starting with the 2504 and now going to the 9800 series in both hardware and virtual controls. The newer ones allow a much easier fail over capability and the option for a virtual controller removes the need for additional hardware. One manufacturing site has a hardware based controller while the global sites/offices use the virtual ones as their primary.
Pros
Easy access to client connections with details like username, mac address, ip address, signal strength and AP connections to make troubleshooting easier
Ability to use mix of new and older AP's
Ease of addition additional AP's or moving them with minimal configuration.
Cons
Have a better fail over capability with low conversion times
Quicker updates to resolve issues with newer wifi technologies e.g. 6GHz frequencies.
Likelihood to Recommend
Ability to scale the wireless environment with building/environmental changes with minimal configuration needed.
Changes and additions to new equipment and rooms in the manufacturing environment means existing AP's need to move or new ones put in to ensure full coverage over different frequencies
VU
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
We use various Cisco Wireless Lan Controllers at several of our venues and offices. As a network engineer for a live sports and music entertainment company, we use Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to service all of our Cisco access points in both sparse and dense deployments through our various arenas, theaters, stadiums, and offices. These access points provide wireless connectivity to all of our corporate staff, partners, vendors, and customers.
Pros
Does a fantastic job of providing detailed client data (e.g. how long the client has been associated, what band the client is connected to, what AP, IP/MAC info)
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide an incredibly flexible way to engineer different wireless network solutions for different needs. For example, you have various ways to tweak and optimize wireless multicast based traffic, you can set different AP groups to better manage which APs should broadcast certain SSIDs, the ability to increase or decrease transmit power levels on an AP, and so much more!
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers have a reliable and relatively easy image upgrade process that allows you stagger the AP image upgrade process to minimize downtime
Cons
I would love to see the ability to have a tool like Cisco Prime natively built into the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. While the WLC does provide detailed client data, you need to rely on tools like Cisco Prime to provide you with more comprehensive data about the client such as their roaming history, how many times have they associated/de-associated to a certain AP, how many auth errors has the customer experienced, what type of traffic is the client consuming, etc.
Likelihood to Recommend
I believe that Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are well suited for the enterprise environment for medium sized to very large companies. While there are smaller WLC appliances for smaller sized businesses, a case can be made for simpler or more cost effective wireless licensing solutions (e.g. Cisco Meraki). Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are extremely well suited for dense deployments like stadiums, arenas, hospitals, theaters, and large offices because of their ability to support a large number of APs with a very diverse technology feature set.
In our organization, We use the 9800 Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to deliver wireless access across several hospital facilities and freestanding ERs to provide needed coverage for medical devices
Pros
CLI is great on 9800s
Builtin troubleshooting tools
Navigating the GUI
Cons
Have had issues with SSO and rollover
Likelihood to Recommend
Fantastic for large scale deployments in hospital environments that come with all of its fun issues
VU
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)
We are using Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers in our Wi-Fi Infrastructure. They are managing all lightweight APs and we are collecting subscriber traffic to the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers and then ISGs. There are some deep packet analysis is needed so I think application visibility center features may be developed further.
Pros
SSID management
WLAN to VLAN configuration
Managing lots of APs (up to 6K) at the same time
Cons
There are some interruptions when the number of APs over 5K
When registering some outdoor APs you should need to register mac address before
Likelihood to Recommend
When there is a hardware problem one of the device in one Wireless LAN Cluster the other one takes in action very quickly and there is no interruption for client and AP traffic towards to the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. So the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers very robust devices for any interruption. That is why we choose these devices for especially operational sustainability.
