We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiWLM and Ruckus Wireless based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Wireless LAN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Overall, we've been very pleased with the performance."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Mist is the Virtual Network Assistant, powered by artificial intelligence."
"It provides private network access, helping us protect our company’s devices."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution is pretty generic and easy to use."
"You can easily monitor, manage, and cover all your IT equipment."
"With Mist, every Wednesday they roll out new features."
"The artificial intelligence feature is very good."
"Seamless roaming by leveraging Virtual Cell is a major advantage which reduces roam times and issues related to roaming. Code stability has been excellent and the hardware quality is second to none."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to connect and broadcast to different networks without using a VLAN or a layer two switch, which allows you to easily create guest networks."
"I found that It's really good when comparing it to any other product or it is much better in terms of features that the customer requires."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the management."
"Fortinet FortiWLM is good for tracking assets, monitoring, and overall management."
"This is the only product on the market currently that supports as many access points for wifi users."
"Although there are a few steps, the initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The firewall integration is very important for the security of the connection."
"Very reliable."
"The most valuable feature is that Ruckus offers better coverage."
"They have all the features in terms of wireless technology. They have most of the features already there in the controller and their wireless system."
"The beamforming has been the most valuable aspect of the solution for our organization."
"Ruckus Wireless is a reliable solution."
"The most valuable feature of Ruckus Wireless is its exceptional performance and reliability. The signal is highly reliable. We have not received a single complaint in the past year, which is a marked improvement from our prior equipment."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of Ruckus Wireless is the Beamforming feature."
"The pricing should be made cheaper."
"Improvement is needed in the user-friendliness of Juniper Mist, particularly in enhancing the interaction with AI features."
"Improving third-party integration is key for Juniper Mist's next release."
"Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points’ support services need improvement."
"Enrolling into the tool is a tedious process."
"They should include SD-WAN features to it."
"Juniper Wireless Access Points (AP Series) could improve if the MIST platform had a built-in master key. This would be an advantage."
"The solution is expensive."
"Technical support is very poor. We are not satisfied with the technical support because there is not any direct person from Fortinet for any troubleshooting, which we expected."
"When using the FortiGate as the wireless controller, you cannot have automatic user registration, which is something that they should offer."
"Documentation could be improved."
"The roaming of Fortinet FortiWLM could improve when comparing it to other solutions. We are missing some of the functionality in the controller. Additionally, they should offer more logs instead of using FortiAnalyzer because all the users will not be using the same thing."
"The interface could certainly do with some improvement. We have other customers with WiFi networks, and they always use Ubiquiti. With Ubiquiti, it's a much better user interface, and it is much easier to configure."
"One of the main features that I see as lacking in any of the Fortinet products is the reporting. If you want to have proper, end-to-end reporting, you must purchase the FortiAnalyzer... If Fortinet could offer some better, built-in reporting, that would be a point of improvement."
"Cost is something that could be improved, but you have to pay for what you get."
"Areas for improvement would be the compatibility with Apple products and cross-platform integration."
"What would be interesting to see is if they had more of an ability for their customers to capture revenue. They should offer some sort of gateway functionality that you could tie through radius authentication, so you can bill the customers. That way, when you go in, you could just have a device and set up a hotspot, and it's a totally billable tool at that point."
"The initial setup was not simple. We were installing indoor and outdoor wireless and this is why it took us three months."
"I would like the option to not have my logs deleted when I shut down the device so that I will be able to troubleshoot."
"I would like to see newer on-premises controller-type models, similar to the 3000."
"There is some strain with Ruckus because of various buyouts involving the company used for data centers and the cluster."
"The biggest adjustment improvement will come from a price adjustment because the price is quite high; it feels like premium pricing. I suggest shaving off 10 percent to 20 percent. That would help grow users and increase the number of clients."
"Most customers revoke the idea of deploying it when they observe the cost per AP license."
"Its pricing and licensing can be improved. Its UI can also be more user-friendly. Currently, in the Unleashed mode, the information that you have about the switches that you add to the controller is quite limited. I would like more information regarding switches. In this mode, an access point acts as a controller, so you don't need a controller. It is for deployments with less than 125 access points, and you can use an access point as a controller."
More Juniper Mist Wireless Access Points Pricing and Cost Advice →
Fortinet FortiWLM is ranked 16th in Wireless LAN with 22 reviews while Ruckus Wireless is ranked 3rd in Wireless LAN with 97 reviews. Fortinet FortiWLM is rated 8.2, while Ruckus Wireless is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiWLM writes "Impressive manufacturing quality, highly durable, and very easy to deploy". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Ruckus Wireless writes "Great wireless, good reliability, and excellent connectivity". Fortinet FortiWLM is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Cisco Wireless, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, Ubiquiti Wireless and Omada Access Points, whereas Ruckus Wireless is most compared with Aruba Wireless, Cisco Wireless, Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN, Ubiquiti WLAN and Huawei Wireless. See our Fortinet FortiWLM vs. Ruckus Wireless report.
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All are good selections, and this question is difficult to answer without knowing your throughput requirements, as each vendor has multiple models within there series.
Personally I recommend looking at Arista Networks’ cognitive Wifi, where controllers are a thing of the past.
Ruckus virtual smart zone will be your best bet allowing up to 300k connected devices and 30k access points. furthermore, Ruckus has time and again proven best in speed, throughput in high density environments by independent studies. I have over a decade of working with this product and none of the other competitors can beat the layer 1 connectivity of Ruckus WiFi
Hi,
Every one of the mentioned solutions is good but you need to check the needs which are security since the firms you are working with need protection and tracking of data. For this reason, I recommend:
- if you have FortiGate installed then go for Fortinet Wireless since they can be integrated with the Fortigate without buying a controller and they work perfectly together and you will get the advantage of applying rules to the client himself whether mobile or computer, easily managed & monitored, more visibility over your network and incident notifications.
If the above doesn't apply then you can go with the best one that fits your budget and security needs which for me doesn't fall on the mentioned solution but to go with ARUBA Instant Access Wireless Solution and the reasons are as such:
- Cisco is too much expensive and you got to pay smart support with some complexity in configuration and you need to buy a controller
- Ruckus is good but when you want to have the security you need to buy a controller with licenses and it won't give you the security needed since it is just a wireless solution
- Huawei is not a stable company since it had many ups and downs and they can reach with you to have all the solutions nearly free so that you install their brand.
Whereas Aruba you don't need a controller in the Instant access points and you will get the minimum security with radius integration and what is important a lifetime warranty on the access points.
In addition, if the number of access points increased and you want more detailed management and more advanced configurations, you can buy a controller either on-premises or on-cloud with Aruba.
The above information is based on my experience with all the solutions and their POC.
If you need any more details and consultancy, kindly feel free to contact me.
Regards.
Hi Imad,
Thanks for your input. Do you have any POC data for Cisco and Aruba?
Thanks in advance
Boa tarde
As soluções cada solução que você indicou tem pormenores que podem impactar tanto no funcionamento quanto em caso de disaster recovery.
Fortinet: Possui bons access points, aliado às funcionalidades de segurança do próprio UTM, porém será mais um serviço para o appliance gerenciar, e dependendo do que está rodando nele, corre-se o risco de degradar a performance da funcionalidade principal "segurança", por que tambem está gerenciando uma rede wireless, além do fato se houver alguma pane no appliance Fortinet, tanto os itens de segurança quanto a rede wireless irão ficar indisponível. Dê a Cézar o que é de Cézar, deixe a fortinet focada em segurança, que é o que ela faz de melhor.
Ruckus: Excelentes Access points, confiáveis e com alta performance, possui no mínimo 4 opções de gerência, sendo, controlerless Unleashed, appliance virtual, appliance hardware e cloud, ambas as opções não trará prejuizo à performance da rede wireless, porque não há tunelamento de dados para elas, além de possuir várias funções de segurança inerentes à rede wireless. licenças são perpétuas.
Cisco: Excelente access points, porém solução muito cara para aquisição e renovação.
Huawei: Pelo que conheço, tem bons access points, e controladoras virtuais e appliance físico, mas conheço poucas redes com esta solução.
É lógico que uma tem um recurso extra a mais do que a outra, mas considero mera perfumaria, pois o básico para uma rede wireless segura todas atendem.
Eu já atendi a mais de 40 universidades federais no Brasil, todas com Ruckus, e não há reclamação da solução.
Como recomendação pessoal, vá de Ruckus.
Hi,
It is all dependent on the size of the controllers in question. Though I would suggest getting a cloud base technology so you are limited by any controller and have much better redundancy. Take a look at Arista Cognitive Wireless