Ashley O'Connor
Marketing Executive
October 19, 2022
In recent years, the number of devices accessing wireless networks has exploded, from rising user devices such as smartphones and tablets, to growing IoT device requirements such as machinery sensors and security cameras. By 2025, Gartner predicts that 75% of enterprise data will be created outside of the data centre, making the edge a critical aspect of IT infrastructure. We’ve compared the two market leading vendors in the enterprise WLAN market to decipher the best network solution for these growing demands.
-
The Market Leaders
HPE Aruba and Cisco are recognised by the IDC as the only two market leaders in the enterprise wireless network space. Cisco’s end-to-end WLAN portfolio extends from small-midsized enterprises to large corporations, providing coverage to a wide variety of architectures.
-
Aruba Networks was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2015 and has persisted to deliver innovate new products and expand its offerings ever since. The vendor offers an award-winning, flexible WLAN portfolio that covers on-premises and cloud-based management. The advanced and robust security, analytics and management tools help HPE Aruba stand out, appealing to a wide area of the market from mid-sized businesses to large enterprises.
The Reviews Are In
In recent months, Gartner Insights compared HPE Aruba against Cisco based on over one-thousand reviews from verified industry users. Both vendors achieved outstanding scores, but overall HPE Aruba came out on top, receiving 4.8/5 stars, while Cisco received 4.6/5 stars. While the margins were close, HPE Aruba achieved higher scores than Cisco in every category, including Overall Capability, and Service & Support. A staggering 91% of customers recommend HPE Aruba to others, while 86% would recommend Cisco.
-
ARUBA WIRELESS VS CISCO WIRELESS: CUSTOMER OPINIONS
A 2022 comparison buyers guide produced by PeerSpot compared a smaller number of user reviews specifically for the HPE Aruba Wireless and Cisco Wireless solutions. The analysis found that the two offerings were tied on most aspects, with users finding both solutions “secure, stable, and scalable”. However, HPE Aruba took the lead on cost. Cisco users mentioned that “they’re yet to see an ROI”, and the pricing of the solution is “expensive” and “rigid”.
-
When discussing features, Cisco customers list solid functionality, ease of configuration and easy management as positives. On the other hand, users mention that the software is “clunky”, and lacks features such as: cloud-based support and management, AI capabilities and a dashboard.
HPE Aruba customers praise the aesthetically pleasing software interface, user experience, reporting tools, high functionality, and integration capabilities among other features. However, some users do recommend that the solution could benefit from improved visibility.
-
What Makes HPE Aruba Stand Out?
Born in the mobile, cloud and IoT era in 2002, Aruba Networks has an edge over most competitors. Other competitors including Cisco build from legacy infrastructure out to edge, while Aruba innovates from the edge inwards.
-
Where Cisco falls short in cloud-based management, Artificial Intelligence, user experience and an analytics dashboard, HPE Aruba has a forward-thinking approach to these areas, providing a cloud-based management interface that simplifies control, monitoring, and analytics. HPE Aruba’s pioneering approach to AI also delivers cutting edge problem solving, preventing network outages, and freeing up workloads so that IT teams can focus on other tasks that generate business value.
-
Opting for HPE Aruba also guarantees market leading security capabilities. Security is one of the vendor’s core design principles, with their solutions guaranteeing all three aspects of protection: data-plane, control-plane and management-plane. The IDC supports this, recommending HPE Aruba when “security is paramount” for the customer.
-
Finally, the customer support provided by HPE Aruba is unparalleled, with Gartner Insights scoring their Service & Support 4.6/5 stars. Customer support is provided across the globe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round.
Our Experts Can Help You
HPE Aruba guarantees a secure, scalable, and agile network solution that is designed with the edge in mind. Whilst matching all of the core benefits of Cisco, the solution provides a more advanced offering through innovative cloud-based management, AI capabilities, and a user-friendly monitoring and analytics platform.
“Customer First, Customer Last” has been HPE Aruba’s operating philosophy since their founding, valuing relationships over transactions and treating customers as partners. Together, we can help you employ HPE Aruba to co-create solutions that meet your individual requirements and solve the problems unique to your organisation.
GET IN TOUCH
-
-
SOLVING IT TOGETHER
-
SOLUTIONS
-
AS A SERVICE
-
SECTORS
-
