Item: Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller to manage all of our wireless access points throughout all of our buildings. They are both indoor and outdoor setup access points. The system is used throughout the entire organization. It addressed both managing access points independently as well as creating a guest WiFi that does not interfere with our business data flowing over the Wifi for our business applications.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Ease of setup for each new access point
Managing updates for existing access points

Cons

Ability out of the box to handle over 100 AP's would be great
A full featured dashboard

Return on Investment

Reduced AP management
Require less travel to repair AP's which in the past were failing

Usability

The equipment is easy to work with by our team. The software is very capable of anything that you want to do when it comes to changes to your wireless network using the access controller.

Alternatives Considered

The Cisco 5520 Wireless controller was the one that we were able to deploy the easiest between our qty of access points and the location these devices are located in.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

[I] would give it a rating of 9 out of 10. Overall, it checks all the boxes when it came to an enterprise central management of AP's solution. The platform is Cisco, so we know it will be supported and any issues will be able to be addressed by their skilled support team.

Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller Feature Ratings

Using Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

Users and Roles

350 - They are from all areas of our company. As well we have guest networks setup with the 5520 which allows us to segment our wireless traffic between our business traffic and our non business traffic including customer access to internet using their Wi-Fi networks.

Support Headcount Required

2 -

We have 2 people who provide in-house support to the Cisco wireless controller 5520. Both are in the IT dept, and they both have a level of knowledge of the equipment.

It is good to have someone who has experience working with the 5520 wireless controller but it is not a deal breaker if they don't.

Business Processes Supported

Separating our Business WI-Fi from our Guest WI-Fi.
Consistent Access point password across the company
Ease of adding additional access points that can be deployed to any of our existing locations or new locations.

Innovative Uses

The innovate way is setting up our Business WiFi and Guest WiFi.
Ability to deploy more access points quickly.

Future Planned Uses

Nothing else at the moment that I can think of.

Likelihood to Renew

This equipment from Cisco has been dependable and we are able to easily continue to add access points or make changes easily to the Wi-Fi password settings.

We have been operating this equipment for a number of years and it does not give us any issues.

Evaluating Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Ease of Use

Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller Implementation

Implementation Rating

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal - We didn't have any issues that I was aware of.

Implementation Issues

Advising staff at our locations the new wireless SSID.

Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller Support

Support Rating

Cisco is always available if we need support. If they are unable to solve the problem right away, they will reach back to us in a timely manner and advise what we need to do. Their team provides additional guidance as well if we hit any stumbling blocks. Their service has been great.