Cisco 9800 Platform
June 19, 2025

Cisco 9800 Platform

Dominic Romandi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-40 Wireless Controller
  • Cisco Catalyst 9800-L Wireless Controller

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

We use a dedicated pair at each hospital, with some remote anchoring to other sites within a "market" or outside if need be for guest traffic on dedicated internet circuits. The centralization and unified management interface has been fantastic, and the automated setup integration with DNAC is an added bonus.

Pros

  • unified management and operation interface(s)
  • automated setup integration with DNAC
  • built in troubleshooting tools to assist all levels of engineers

Cons

  • The biggest issues we have had have been software related. Requiring code upgrades or reloads to fix an unfixable problem.
  • Some of the troubleshooting utilities aren't perfectly clear as to what theyre doing or how to set them up or what to expect results wise or resource wise.
  • I think there is a lack of filtering in certain displays where you cannot use the "contains" option for certain device type filtering. But those options should be universal in all views.
  • It has made management much easier
  • introducing new devices into our ecosystem is far simplified and saves many hours in the initial setup and troubleshooting any quirks
  • The anchor floating has enabled additional circuit savings.
The initial setup and deployment, the troubleshooting, everything has been much improved integrating with DNAC. We use configuration templates and on boarding within Catalyst Center for each device. Then we can use Catalyst Center for troubleshooting which provides a lot of historical data for troubleshooting. And again the unified interface for management is fantastic.
As previously mentioned the software issues are frustrating. Having to receive the support response of "reboot it" or "upgrade the code" as much as we have definitely is not helpful in our healthcare environment. Same issue with semi frequent sso failover that magically fixes very random issues that pop up.
It is available outside of the previously noted issues. We can always recover the devices, it can just be a painful process for the end users which is our chief focus. But as far as errors and unplanned impacts I think I addressed that previously. Code changes, reboots, SSO failovers to fix things.
Oh this is one area the platform shines. Once you understand the new logic of the object oriented policies and how they are setup it is very easy to manage once setup is complete. I think we do have very granular control and we can customize things on the fly.
We are moving into a more unified and centralized design, and the benefits offered by the 9800 compared to the above listed 5520 series and 8500 series of wireless controller is much preferred. The staggered upgrade option is again another feature much improved moving to the new model and management through DNAC.

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?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

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

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers again?

Yes

I think any size organization can benefit from them. The smaller "L" models work well for a smaller organization and of course, the same answer for the larger platforms. The failover/redundancy options are quite nice and the unified setup and UI is always nice for consistency.

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Feature Ratings

Wireless LAN
8.0
Zero-Touch Provisioning
10
WLAN Performance Monitoring
10
Layer 7 Visibility
5
Power over Ethernet Support
5
Wireless Security
10

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