Cisco AP Selection or WLC Selection

[Godisable]

Hello All,

New here and I would like some feedback from all you gurus and experts. I have a Cisco Catalayst 9800 virtual WLC with 50+ Cisco 9120AXI access points on them. Current, I might have some budget to squeeze in some upgrade and the thought that came to me was to get us on Wi-Fi 7.

The new Cisco 9176 and 9178 are of interest but we have never wished to move to Meraki, not that we are against it. I’ve gone through the below documents and kind of in a confusion to make a decision.

Wireless 9176 Series Access Points Data Sheet

CW9176I Installation Guide

Since I’m hosting the current WLC 9800 on a VM, I’m paying for VM licensing and then I have pay for AP support too. I would like to weigh my difference if I move to 9176 or 9178 and utilize the full functionality of Meraki Dashboard, Am I better off?

One good thing I noticed is that we could jump to Wi-Fi 7 with this move..

Any suggestions would be good

[Jay-Updegrove]

If you’re planning on carrying coverage on the AP’s no matter what, the Meraki AP’s are solid units and the web-based portal is really nice.

[BadAtNames]

@Godisable

One good thing I noticed is that we could jump to Wi-Fi 7 with this move..

I’m going to ask the dumb… Why? If you’re going to move to meraki, cool, but what value do you get out of WiFi 7? Realistically.

[Jay-Updegrove]

The only thing that made sense to me is futureproofing now, while they have the (potential) funds…

[Nerf_Herder]

How old are your AP’s? If less than 2 years, it might do better to ride with them for a bit unless you are seeing performance issues.

We have the 9800 WLC with 2 models of Cisco AP’s about 60+ throughout all of our buildings

[Godisable]

@BadAtNames

I’m going to ask the dumb… Why? If you’re going to move to meraki, cool, but what value do you get out of WiFi 7? Realistically.

tbh, I’m not moving to Meraki. I’m still using the cisco 9176i AP’s and just use the meraki portal. Then I’d have to pay for Meraki Dashboard fee..

[Godisable]

@Nerf_Herder

our AP’s? If less than 2 years, it might do better to ride with them for a bit unless you are seeing

They are atleast 4 years old. And VMWare licensing is killing us. So We are moving many things out of it and this was the recent Idea I had. I was kind of excited when I saw the 9176 AP’s were supported on the Meraki Dashboard and it didn’t need a traditional controller. However, I’m not sure of the ongoing OPEX cost of this. I might have 6 AP’s on them if I use it..

[Godisable]

Funds are there. But VMWare has made it difficult and my concern is if there is any limitation to configuration/operations etc of Cisco 9176i AP’s via Meraki Dashboard.

[Jay-Updegrove]

That’s probably going to require a contact to Cisco support to verify, as I’ve never attempted to manage a non-Meraki AP from the Meraki portal (yes, I know Meraki is owned by Cisco…but they keep some separation of the two lines)

[Godisable]

I had attended one of the Cisco meetings when they released the 9176 and 9178 models of APs. It seems these AP’s are compatible with both WLC and Meraki Dashboard. However you can’t dual home them. I wanted to start this post to check if anyone has this setup?

[matt7863 (m@ttshaw)]

Determining the path of Meraki vs WLC could be quite simple based on requirements.
The WLC solution has features not available in Meraki. Meraki are semi-autonomous APs (they are cloud managed for configuration but operate individually).
For example lightweight APs on a WLC support tunneling traffic back to the controller - if you use this you need to stick with WLC. It’s a very useful feature for guest networks etc.

An AP can only be WLC or Meraki Cloud not both - so if you adopt the Meraki cloud for new APs they will be a completely new Wireless solution - I would recommend doing this by entire building as it is complex to manage multiple wireless solutions where there may be signal overlap.

If the VM hosting is the main issue you could purchase a physical WLC or a switch with WLC inbuilt.

[Nerf_Herder]

Can you migrate to a non vWLC? If you have a Cisco Firewall, it might be able to handle the WLC responsibilities.

[Godisable]

Tunneling back to the controller - Could you please explain that concept for me? I understand we can still do guest wireless with capwap portal in Meraki.

What would you choose in my stand considering Purchase price, OPEX, security & ease of access? in this order..

[Godisable]

no unfortunately, don’t have them. I wish I had.. miss the ASA days…