Aerohive is fast and easy to deploy, but know their limitations!
March 17, 2017

Aerohive is fast and easy to deploy, but know their limitations!

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Aerohive Wireless (legacy products)

Overall Satisfaction with ExtremeWireless

We use Aerohive for remote access, typically for users working from home but also for very small offices. Representatives across all business units use the technology.
  • Extremely easy to provision new devices, once the profiles are set up, due to centralized management
  • Very quick provisioning of new devices, due to centralized management and predefined profiles
  • They do no support 2-factor authentication or IP whitelisting to log onto their cloud-based management portal. Organization learned the importance of 2FA over a decade ago, yet Aerohive hasn't caught on.
  • Tier 1 technical support is generally terrible. I am almost guaranteed to get the run-around when a tier 1 picks up the support case, and they are incentivised to hold on to the case as long as possible. If you don't get a good answer right away, immediate request an escalation!
  • Lack of useful logging during normal usage and stability of the software seem to be a constant issue in their BR (branch router) platform, though it has gotten better in the last year or so.
  • Initial expense is high due to pricey hardware, though recurring costs make the ROI better over the long term.
  • Remote access is fairly simple and we can deploy entire home setups or even small offices very quickly. This is provides good ROI to get the business moving quickly.
I've used both Aruba and Cisco (traditional, not Meraki) for wireless, and each have their own strengths. Aruba offers a lot of feature functionality, though the interface is difficult and confusing to use (this was ~4 years ago). Cisco wireless is fairly straightforward to set up and expand, though features are more limited. Aerohive's benefit is the easy+speed of deployment. I've also used the Citrix NetScaler SSL VPN soft client and that works fairly well, though it doesn't compare like-for-like due to the fact that it's software vs. Aerohive, which is hardware.
A large segment of the Aerohive client base is the education market, which is very different in terms of agility and immediate support needs of financial institutions. They seem to focus more effort on their wireless AP solutions, which I have only rarely tested. When it comes to remote access, the solution is still relatively expensive due to the upfront hardware purchase, though recurring costs are fairly low.