Cisco Meraki or Aerohive

garykay · 2014-05-08T11:11:48.000Z

Hi All,

I’m currently looking at improving our Wireless Equipment, which one would you recommend Cisco Meraki or Aerohive?

Thanks in Advance

superbrandon · 2014-05-08T11:18:34.000Z

I’ve used both and REALLY like both. I’d get a free AP from both and see how they fit your needs. I will say as far as cost is concerned, unless you plan to make use of the cloud management, Aerohive is much cheaper.

If you sit in on a webinar you can get a free AP from Meraki, and I know Aerohive will send a free one as well. Put em both through their paces.

childebrandt · 2014-05-08T11:35:41.000Z

Im my eyes Meraki is the way to go. They have a rock solid product.

jas · 2014-05-08T11:36:37.000Z

i agree with Brandon, i tested out both but ended up going with Meraki myself. Every environment is different though.

ferdinand-cisco · 2014-05-08T12:10:28.000Z

hi Gary, Id recommend giving Cisco Meraki a try i can help you with any questions you may have and maybe assist you with a free trial so you can test out the system. for further information please feel free to send me a message. hope this helps!

johnwhalen9591 · 2014-05-08T12:13:13.000Z

We use Meraki here and love it. Great product.

eliasrodriguez3646 · 2014-05-08T12:51:26.000Z

I’ve have Aerohive and I love it. Cost way less than other big name companies, easy to manage also. The good thing about aerohive is that you can setup a management server onsite or get cloud managed. If you lose connection to the cloud service the APs will still function (just keep in mind you need the cloud management to configure it). Gary, just wondering are you located in the northeast?

scottalanmiller · 2014-05-08T12:55:49.000Z

Any reason that you don’t have Ubiquiti in your short list?

joehoward · 2014-05-08T12:59:09.000Z

We trialled both when replacing our wireless network last year. We went with Meraki but it was very close, either system would have more than adequate from a technical perspective.

We chose Meraki as there are some “less technical” folk who need to use it from time to time, and the Meraki Dashboard was the simplest option for them to fumble around in.

garykay · 2014-05-08T13:00:45.000Z

I have received delivery of a free Meraki Access Point, this is now setup and working. From what I have setup on it I’m impressed with it. I also have a free Aerohive Access Point on its way to me so I can compare it to the Meraki.

So just wanted to see what everyone on here thought is the best one.

Erod I’m based in the North East of England.

eliasrodriguez3646 · 2014-05-08T13:07:00.000Z

Ah, nvm in the northeast a MSP is having a tech show and typically both companies are there.

macinnesr · 2014-05-08T13:17:33.000Z

Drop the Meraki and stick with Cisco’s own offering. Likely to be more expensive but if this is a corporate installation and you have the budget then their equipment is rock solid. We have just rolled out a Cisco WiFi solution across our site controlled by their next gen 5760 contorller. We also attached Cisco ISE and Prime Infrastructure VM appliances and the reporting / technical LAN/WLAN management is pretty awesome. Wasn’t cheap though which is the major downside! I only suggest it if you have the budget.

mattcavallin · 2014-05-08T14:10:13.000Z

We have Meraki AP’s and switches and love them. We also use their free MDM to manage about 600 IOS devices. I haven’t used Aerohive but they have a good reputation.

bennysirivoranankul3260 · 2014-05-08T14:26:59.000Z

Have you considered Aruba? Sounds like you may be considering Cloud Wi-Fi since you mentioned Meraki and Aerohive… http://cloud.arubanetworks.com/ . Aruba gives you the flexibility to go Cloud or Controller / Controller-less.

jamieluce3408 · 2014-05-08T17:08:56.000Z

I tried both. Ended up going with Meraki for the reasons:

Now owned by Cisco. We have all Cisco routers and switches and wanted 1 point of support for our network. They haven’t fully integrated but overtime they will.
Ease of install was about a tie, I prefer the dashboard to Meraki.
Meraki comes with MDM built in.
Meraki comes with asset management built in.
The phone tool is decent for checking things on the fly.
Support has been great so far. They’ve walked me thru making an AP a bridge and attaching it to an outside consultants mac via ethernet and giving them access to a certain folder on a server. I did that in about 10 minutes. No complicated configurations. Just set up the AP plug it into the Mac and setup the SSID to work only wired and not allow them on the network only to the server in question.

I could go on, but need to get to work on things that aren’t as easy to setup and manage as Meraki.

mikep · 2014-05-09T11:13:51.000Z

Scott Alan Miller:

Any reason that you don’t have Ubiquiti in your short list?

I’ve gotta agree with SAM on this one. If you’re looking at APs you should also check out the Unifi line. I’ve been replacing APs in some of our buildings, and in practical tests I’ve had the same results (as far as stability) with Unifi as I have with Xirrus or Meraki, and I’m having an Aerohive AP sent in to test as well.

It really depends on what you need, though. If you have the budget to work in Meraki APs then they certainly are great, and do have a good management tool. However, with Cloud Managed devices like Meraki or Aerohive you’re going to pay a licensing fee per AP, per year. Xirrus will let you do one or the other, so you can either manage it locally (one AP at a time) or pay a licensing fee for the cloud service. A base model Unifi AP is about $80, but they have a few steps up to APs with a/b/g/n/ac or longer range, etc. Also, the management software for Unifi is free, and can be used to manage a mesh of several APs.

So long story short, definitely get the free APs and play with them. If you have a decent budget for this project, the nicer Cisco or Meraki APs are always good. If you’re trying to still get a powerful AP for less money, Unifi is a great product. Also, a lot of companies that don’t necessary offer a free AP, will often let you do a 30-day trial run where they send one to you for testing, and give you a prepaid UPS label to send it back if you don’t like it.

@Cisco @Cisco_Meraki_1 @Ubiquiti_Inc

nicklowe · 2014-05-14T11:31:25.000Z

So, avoiding the appeal to authority logical fallacy that is buying Cisco Meraki just because it is Cisco…

While the ability of an AP to cope under load is only one factor to consider when choosing APs, I suggest that people take a look this independent, vendor neutral stress test that was performed:

http://www.wlanpros.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Wi-Fi%20Stress%20Test%20Report.pdf

The Meraki AP tested there really didn’t come out well.

A major turn off for me with Cisco Meraki’s APs is that there is no ability to fully disable 802.11b support by disabling all the non-OFDM data rates, this despite it being recommended by Cisco (for performance and reliability reasons under load.

See Cisco’s own presentation to the IEEE below:

https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/14/11-14-0099-00-000m-renewing-2-4ghz-band.pptx

There is also no ability to granularly control the data rates for higher density, smaller cell setups which is a deal breaker for many deployment scenarios.

And… Another caveat to be mindful of is that spectrum analysis is only supported on the new MR34 802.11ac access points.

Nick

vanessa-for-cisco-emea · 2014-05-15T14:08:42.000Z

Hey guys, glad to see you’re considering Cisco Meraki! Price point was brought up but I just wanted to let you all know we do have financing options available through Cisco Capital to help manage the cost. If anyone would like more information don’t hesitate to send me a PM!