Best on-prem way to manage wifi
Updated March 13, 2025

Best on-prem way to manage wifi

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

Modules Used

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Wireless Controller
  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-L Wireless Controller
  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-EWC Wireless Controller

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

On-prem WLC is the way to go in challenging environments like a warehouse, you have much bigger control on fine-tuning the radio settings than what you can achieve with cloud based solutions. If you combine it with Cisco Catalyst Center, you even gain a great level of visibility both on APs and wireless clients.

Pros

  • Possibility of fine tuning all settings
  • Easy to use GUI and a traditional IOS-XE CLI
  • Flexibility in deployment options

Cons

  • Sad that many new features are not directly integrated but accessible only via Catalyst Center
  • The virtual version is for free, so ROI is pretty easy
All works well as a single ecosystem.
It just works.
Downtimes are very rarely occurring, especially with physical appliances.
It's very simple to apply the same set of configuration on multiple access point based on AP naming and tagging system.
Cisco is more industrial grade

Do you think Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers again?

Yes

In generic office deployments it's just easier to use Meraki. But if the environment is more challenging, such as in outdoor, industrial, warehouse or stadium installations, Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers provide you much better control on all granular settings. Also if it's an airgapped environment without internet access, this is the only good solution.

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Feature Ratings

Wireless LAN
8.2
Zero-Touch Provisioning
6
WLAN Performance Monitoring
9
Topology Maps
7
Layer 7 Visibility
8
Power over Ethernet Support
9
Wireless Security
10

Using Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

15000 - Wireless services
10 - Network team
  • AP management
  • RF controls
  • Security controls
  • N/A
  • N/A
There is no real competitor on the market

Evaluating Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers and Competitors

Yes - AireOS controllers, Aruba
  • Integration with Other Systems
  • Ease of Use
Integration to Cisco ecosystem
There is no real alternative on the market

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Implementation

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Training

  • No Training
If you have experience with other systems, online documentation will be helpful, maybe some Cisco Live presentations can help as well.

Configuring Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

This is its biggest strength, you can configure literally everything
Follow the official best practices guide!
No - there is no facility to customize the interface
No - the product does not support adding custom code
You need to tune it according your organization's needs.

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
Yes, in enterprise environment it's a must.
It happened that I made a mistake when cloning a controller, and I simply couldn't figure out where's the issue, TAC engineer was able to quickly point it out, even though it was a quite special use case.
When it's a config issue, TAC is usually useful. If it's some bug and BU needs to be involved, it might take forever.

Using Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • Tagging
  • RF tuning
  • Understanding all the special config options
It's not simple, but this is the result of being very deeply configurable

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Reliability

There are different vesrions for different requirements, there's HA as well.

Integrating Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

It works
  • ISE
  • Catalyst Center
All these work well in Cisco ecosystem.
  • N/A
N/A
You'll need at least a radius server + for new features Catalyst Center is a must.

Relationship with Cisco

Sales engineers are well prepared, understanding licensing might be a bit difficult
For simpler issues TAC is useful, if it's some bug, it might take ages to get BU reply.
N/A
N/A

Upgrading Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

Yes - Upgrading is theoretically possible with ISSU and vey minimal downtime, but this never really worked for me, always failed with some error. However normal upgrade always worked and overall it doesn't take more than 15 minutes of downtime, which is usually not impossible to schedule in an enterprise environment either.
  • New features
  • Support for new AP models
  • Bugfixes, security fixes
  • New features
  • Bugfixes
Yes - Went from virtual to physical to eliminate dependency on server environment.

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