Item: Ubiquiti WLAN
Rating: 10
Author: Donny McIver

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Unifi Access Points are used throughout our company and at most all of our clients that we support - all managed through a cloud-based Unifi controller. Being centrally managed, we can instantly see problems and issues and ensure it is isolated to a single location - or systemic across multiple clients sites. We desperately need a multi-tenant management controller, which Unifi elegantly provides and has provided to the public for years. The platform may not be the best solution for small businesses or home users without the expertise to setup and configure this product.

Pros and Cons

Cloud management of access points
Easy deployment / expansion of infrastructure
Enterprise features at consumer price points

Product creep - they have an ever-expanding line card that sometimes confuses choices
Rely less on single-vendor solution stack
Sometimes releases are buggy - but recently the controller lets you easily see version specific issues / features

Most Important Features

Cloud management
Enterprise-class solution
Ease of deployment

Return on Investment

ROI is almost immediate
Improve customer service - quick troubleshooting / intelligence of environment
Profit from services provided rather than rely on hardware / licensing markup

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point and Aerohive Wireless

Compared to the recurring costs to maintain support / licenses with Cisco or Aerohive, Unifi products NEVER require additional licensing costs to operate or administer. In todays age of technology advances, it's a pleasure to work with a product line that has a unified admin interface across several products (gateway / switch / AP) for a reduced learning curve. Coupled with a strong presence of enterprise-class features for "free" or included with the very reasonably priced hardware cost continues to make Unifi products from Ubiquiti a no-brainer!

Key Insights

Do you think Ubiquiti WLAN delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Ubiquiti WLAN's feature set?

Yes

Did Ubiquiti WLAN live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Ubiquiti WLAN go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Ubiquiti WLAN again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Aerohive Wireless, Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point, Brocade ADX (Discontinued), Aruba Instant On AP Series Access Points

Likelihood to Recommend

Whether single location or multiple location for a client, being able to easily expand their WLAN infrastructure inheriting configurations is a snap with Unifi controller. The fact that the controller and hardware is free of required licensing is a blessing compared to Meraki or AeroHive as examples. Rapid deployment can't be over emphasized as to how valuable it is until the experience is required from the IT admin responsible for scaling out infrastructure. Also having a true multi-tenant controller that is easy on resources makes replicating an existing setup for another client quick and easy. Obviously, I'm speaking to the MSP space - Unifi has a strong reputation for those not in bed with Cisco.

United under Unifi AP

Overall Satisfaction with Ubiquiti WLAN