9800 Catalyst WLC Review
June 11, 2024
9800 Catalyst WLC Review
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 Wireless Controller
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
We use this product to manage our wireless network and to assist users in troubleshooting with issues. It helps us give a central point of management so that we are not having to individually manage these devices and also helps us give overall metrics on usage and things like that for the universe.
Pros
- One thing that I think the product does well is the structure and flow of tagging and configuring devices. That's probably my favorite feature with it. It's very straightforward and you can easily manage all your devices at once.
Cons
- Room for improvement. We tend to update our firmware as soon as possible. We have hit a lot of various bugs and things that were caught in testing, but we're still pushed out live.
- The sorting and searching of access points in the software could use some work essentially, especially cap sensitive things and things like that can be a little irritating to use.
- I think that it has had a positive impact, especially with the dashboard being a university. The 9800 dashboard gives us one spot where we can go to see how many clients are on each of our SSIDs or perhaps client utilization. We've dashboard may be saying, Hey, you have one building that has 90 people connected to one access point. So that gives us the information we need to go in and expand that coverage or add in some high density to address those issues.
I think that it's given us a very good one point management, especially with the implementation of DNA center or Catalyst Center. Now with the 9800, it gives us the visibility that we need to diagnose and resolve issues that users may be having and it gives us all of the dashboard metrics that we need to report areas of high utilization or areas for improvement.
I think that once you get the hang of it, it is very easy and straightforward. I do think that there is a learning curve on the different layers of configurations that you have to do. Maybe you have to go to this section to make an R land, then go here to make a tag policy. And so once you learn how to kind of bring all of that together, it is easy. I do think that there may be a little bit of a learning curve there, however.
I ve used a Cisco 8500 series WLC. That is what we were using prior to the 9800. I think that the 9800 is a much better product than the 8500. In my experience, the 8500 was a little more stable on firmware releases and things of that nature. However, I started using that product at the very end of its lifecycle. But the 9800 excels in pretty much every category over the 8500 in my experience.
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?
Yes
Did implementation of Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers go as expected?
No
Would you buy Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers again?
Yes
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Feature Ratings
Comments
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