Integrating the network access control solution can be complex, as it essentially combines two separate products.

There can be an improvement by incorporating two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication for security. Advanced network access control features and application control features should be added to manage applications. Many customers are interested in managing data, such as setting data quotas for individual users.

ExtremeCloud IQ’s user interface needs to be improved, and its current bugs need to be fixed. Sometimes, AP details, like the AP firmware and the AP hostname, are not updating properly because of a few bugs in the current version, which they might fix in the next version. Compared to the central and other cloud solutions, a couple of bugs still running on these portals need to be rectified.

For ExtremeCloud IQ's next releases, I expect to get all the users and the events alerts. Also, if any AP goes down, I should be able to do some scheduled reports specific to the site because it is currently in beta.

If any AP goes offline, that's an event. If you want to do the filter for a specific site event, we don't have that filter option. I expect specific site-level and category-level events and alert filters to get reports.

An area for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is its technical support. Support could be better, especially when you need help concerning ExtremeCloud IQ and WinG.

An additional feature I want ExtremeCloud IQ to have is integration with different monitoring systems.

We can't, for example, see Cisco access points from the dashboard. We can only see Extreme. We'd need another dashboard for other devices. It would be ideal if we could integrate everything into one dashboard and monitor everything that way from one place. We'd like to have a cloud dashboard from which we can see all devices. 

I would love to see a more granular web filter. Specifically, I'd like to be able to see what content clients are accessing from each AP. Currently, we get general information (ex. Google App or SSL Gmail) but no details.

The certification costs from suppliers are getting out of control, and it's not just Extreme. We have the same problem with Cisco and Huawei.

In terms of new features, Extreme access points are already on the leading edge. It's like cell phones where you're not even using 60 percent of your features and that's the problem. Extreme has the latest technology, and it's already better than Aruba or Cisco. However, if there are any features that could reduce costs, that would be welcome. 

I'm not on the technical resource. I know a school district, a big school district of mine, ripped out Extreme due to inefficiencies. It was the guest network that can be a struggle. They tried to differentiate between their primary network, and then offer a secondary. For example, if you go to a store and you get the guest network. However, there's been issues with that.

Price is a little high. I would like to see a remote phone application for monitoring APs when on the road. I would also like to see the second network pass-through port on the AP provide POE.

The dashboard and stability need to be improved. We deployed some buildings and nearly 200 access points. 

We didn't install the access points for the buildings, so it would be nice for us to see which access point goes to which switch port. For example, it would be nice to know where a switch with a faulty access point is located.

The company didn't document it well, so it's like a discovery process. When there's a problem with the wireless signal, we don't know which access point is causing it. We need to go and see the access point lights. It's like the white LED is not blinking or not stable. It would be nice for us to be able to document the exact location of the access points.

I need to see the license because there are many features that are disabled for now because we are still using the essential license. Many features require the Pilot license.

There are some things that need to be fixed. For example, the solution will show us that there are some issues, but when we try to find those issues, we can't see them. The IP shows us that a certain number of devices are connected, but when we go inside the IP, the number is different. Maybe it has some kind of delay in the statistics that it's reporting, but the manufacturer needs to fix it.

I can honestly say that I cannot find a single item where Aerohive needs to be improved. I have been a customer from pretty much the beginning so to see how they have evolved and grown is pretty amazing.

A room for improvement in ExtremeCloud IQ is roaming. My team is facing roaming issues with the solution, particularly when using VoIP over WiFi. For example, VoIP sometimes breaks when you walk around the customer site.

In terms of what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution, right now, the inventory for ExtremeCloud IQ is awful. There's no stock, and you must wait a year and a half for new stocks. It's awful.

From my perspective, they need to add cyber asset tracking. You can't defend what you don't know, and they're missing the wireless cyber assets. The problem that you have with wireless is that it's more of a rollout product. It's a fixed chip set of 2.4 or 2.5 gigahertz only. When you look at 5GS, it's taking advantage of six gigahertz and of 600 megahertz. Extreme doesn't have a product to fill that gap, so they're flying blind to the new multi-access edge. Whether it's a security feature, an update, or it's adding zero trust policies to their running and switch platform, they're missing that; it's an area that needs beefing up.

The firewall inside the AP is a little limited in what it can do. Aerohive support indicated that there are some improvements planned for the next release of software.

The solution's performance needs to be enhanced because of a very high delay. It's a cloud solution, and when I do some configuration changes, it takes more than 10 minutes to deploy it.

For me, the only issue is the potential delay in the tool statistics updating in real time after making changes.

Additional add-ins such as HiveSchool and MDM are a fantastic idea, however they lack functionality at present. It would be great if teachers could manage their class of BYOD devices using Hive Manager.

The initial learning curve when first deploying Aerohive is less than some larger competitors, but still significant when compared to other cloud controlled wireless products such as Meraki. Ease of setup and deployment, as well as tasks such as application access management, bandwidth throttling, and QoS could be greatly simplified.

Pricing is a little high, but I have no complaints with the service or devices themselves. Occasionally, a device needs to be rebooted, but it is rare.

Pricing could be improved. It could be lower.

In terms of technical features, there are a lot of them. I don't see the need for any new features at this time. It's a complete product.

Their firewall configuration gets funky and it can be difficult to understand.

While the UI is great, it could still use some tweaks. The latest revision is heading in the right direction.

The licensing model could be improved.

Need port aggregation on the 2384 switches to take full advantage of ac on the APs. I understand that is on their product road map.

The Aerohive access points have dual 1GB Ethernet ports for aggregation, which enables full 2.6Gbps data. Right now our partner through Aerohive support is telling us that the Aerohive switches currently don’t support port aggregation so we only are using one Ethernet port at the AP’s.

At this point in time, it’s not an issue, and have been told that port aggregation will be available on the Aerohive switches. That’s important to me- as the demands on our network grow we will need to get the full bandwidth out of the Aerohive AP’s.

When I researched the purchase the benefit of managing the switches and AP’s in one interface, and the ability to single source network infrastructure, including installation and management, outweighed the decreased data rate. So, I’m looking forward to this being available soon. That’s the best information I have on this at this time, hope it helps.

Browser load time for the cloud is long and needs improvement. 

• When there are errors, the description could be worded better to give you a better idea of what is wrong.
• GUI could be enhanced more to allow more advanced sorting, greater variety of bulk changes, and more useful information when making deletions in configurations.

The on-premises version of HiveManager NG that we use does not receive updates as soon as the cloud-based version does. It would be nice to receive the updates a little sooner.

The cloud version receives regular updates and the on-premises version receives a cumulative update, i.e., every two to three months. There is version disparity. The cloud version is up to 11.18.03, whereas the highest I can go with our on-premises version is 11.17.06.

I'd really love to see some better reporting features. The data exists because you can see it on the AP itself but getting it out through a report is just not a possibility or at least I can't make it happen.

First time users may find it difficult to get going into the right direction. After registering for a new CloudIQ, where to start. Some guidance would be helpful.

• Hivemanager NG does not support all devices.
• Policy management - objects become tied together so you have to dismantle a policy to be able to delete it. They can not be renamed.
• There are also configuration sections that require you to scroll through a list instead of just giving you an "edit" button.

Sometimes, packing a wide array of feature into these APs might overtax them. They would benefit from creating more powerful APs (Processing-wise)

I would like to see more security features such as NAC integrated to the solution. This would allow customers to be able to control all other users under one dashboard.

I am excited for the SD-WAN pieces to be added as well but I believe that there are already plans for this to happen.

Aerohive's new version of HiveManager, known as NG, while offering new features, still needs development and an ability to migrate from "classic" versions of HiveManager.

NG is a step in the right direction towards both an improved interface (interface being a deficit noted by other reviewers) and SDN. After years of development on "classic" versions of HiveManager, NG is still a work in progress. As of 2016, they have yet to add support for their line of BR routers and CVG VPN Gateway to HM NG. HiveManager 6 is still required to centrally manage these devices. As a result, we are currently running both HM "classic" and NG in our environment.

I have been assured support is on the way, but other features, such as open API support, seem to be taking precedence in development.

The reporting, while a great improvement, is limited, at least in my experience, to the preconfigured charts and templates for those charts.  Obtaining raw data from the Aerohive units for use in other applications requires Tech Support intervention.

The Charts are nice for the circumstances for which they are developed. We just happen to be slightly outside of that so we have to hand write the data to enter elsewhere. 

To start with I work at a Library watching and running reports on clients is not really in our best interest.  So  many of the charts don’t help much at all and only if we are making a presentation to the board or something like that.  Which doesn’t happen very often.

We are really just after usage numbers to justify the money being spent.  To be very specific all we need is the number of unique clients we get per day totaled up for the month.  There is one report that gives us a bar graph showing unique clients each day of the month.  However, since we can’t get those numbers in any other form we have to total them up by hand to get the total for the month.

Not very difficult I admit.  However, we need to do this every month for 7 different libraries.  It would save us several minutes on the first of each month if we could just pull a report that could sum up those numbers for us or transfer the numbers into a preconfigured spreadsheet and then just send that to each library.  The first of the month is typically so busy every extra minute helps.

I can also imagine where some places would not want graphs or charts at all, just the raw data.  They could then use the data they need in reports or other applications that they already use.

The way it is now is still do-able and much better than it was.  That was merely the only gripe I really had about Aerohive for which I have yet to find a resolution.  

The web UI could be designed for more organization for the administrators and maybe a more customization for the views.

The area that I would like to see improved is searching within Hivemanager. There have been several occasions where I was attempting to delete an 'unnecessary' or 'unused' configuration item and was advised by the system that it was still in use by another policy. Trying to find that policy was very time consuming.

Not really. I'm not sure what more to say except that I can't think of any areas for improvement. The 120 character requirement for reviews is unnecessary.

A redesigned UI with better flow and more intuition would make configuration much easier.

The only thing that I can think of would be for them to provide a standard out-of-the-box WiFi policy template that could work as temp default setup without having to build a functional network policy in the Hive Manager. This is nothing big, but would allow someone who doesn't have time to build out a complete policy to turn on WiFi after installation for test purposes very quickly.

I personally think the user interface could do with touching up but that’s being overly critical as I can’t think of anything hardware related that requires improvement.

Aerohive configuration management can be little hard to understand for someone who has never worked with it. The initial configuration is easy but advanced tuning needs deeper knowledge of Wi-Fi technology and also about Aerohive management.

On the other hand – the support is very helpful and documentation is very large and contains almost everything that can be found at HIVE console.

With a lot of clients, the client listings are a little slow. Once in a while some of the access points need to be rebooted to perform an upgrade, but that's been the exception to the rule.

With the Online Manager, if you choose to view the connected clients and there are a lot of them (and you want to view them on one page), then it takes a little while to generate the page.

It would be nice if they could get better from separating an XBOX One console from a regular windows machine.

I think their bandwidth steering could use some tweaking, in a high density deployment with a lot of 2.4Ghz only clients it causes problems and we had to turn it off in those areas.

Maybe give the ability to turn off the newest HiveOS for the devices. When you go to push out a complete config to the wireless APs you have to be carful and uncheck the box to push out the latest OS. It would be easy to do on accident if you were in a hurry and were not paying close enough attention

The initial setup was complex, but no more complex than a similar wireless solution.

ExtremeCloud should invest in an SD-WAN solution or integration with SD-WAN.

Its price could be lower. It is a simplified solution, but it has price challenges. It is costly as compared to other solutions. 

It has almost everything. The only thing is that MAC is not possible on the cloud, and it has to be on-premises.

The only area of improvement we made ourselves so far is the temporary visitor solution in HiveManager NG which is quasi non-existent. We use an external LDAP server for this now, so no big issue for us.

There could be better alerts setup for the access points. I also wish there was a way to track users roaming from access point to access point. It would also be great to have better interference assistance.

I have never really felt their mounting system for the APs is all that good. The plastic plates are a bit flimsy and not well designed.

The managing of switches within this solution could be improved. 

In a future release, it would be great to have the use of AI and continuous improvements of existing features. 

There are still some support issues with the branch routers and the newer version of Hivemanager. I also think the branch routers are due for a significant update.

They can improve just the onboarding process. More user information about the introduction to the product would be helpful. It would be good if they have a better user introduction to the new product because it is different than the prior version.

The user interface and disparity of feature releases versus golden firmware. 

Certain features only exist or work in certain versions. 

Support could be faster.

From our perspective, we would love to see Aerohive provide faster feature enhancement in their Virtual Appliance to match the features with the cloud solution more quickly.

A mobile app would be awesome.

Bring the cost down.

Stronger connection for an old building with cement walls.

We had to negotiate over the price. Otherwise, the product has no issues.

A better user interface is needed as it's more complex than other vendor's interfaces.

• Admin UI and Automatic channel assignment algorithms.
• An recurring example, would be where their support engineer would be given remote access to full project documentation, surveys, and planning as well as to the Hive Manager and not find anything wrong. However after much heartache and user frustration, we would find the solution to some major issues was to simply recheck one checkbox that a previous support person had suggested to uncheck.

I support several points of service, but our billing is centralized. As our points of service placed their purchases, the yearly maintenance fees were not dated all the same. It created a headache trying to deal with several maintenance fees throughout the year. To facilitate our billing, we requested that there is one yearly maintenance renewal instead of several during the year. It took a bit of negotiation, but we were able to work with them to modify the billing to a combined yearly cycle. Once that small issue was ironed out, there hasn't been any other issues.

A nice-to-have would be the possibility to set an expiry date for guest users in the User Manager.

It needs to have a good Layer 7 and a better user interface. And even though it's a robust product, it's not very intuitive.

• Stability
• UI Layout

We have had some mediocre to poor experiences with tech support: Conflicting information, condescending attitudes, and reluctance to work to resolve an issue. Although, these were isolated, and most of our interactions have been fruitful, they still leave a lasting bad taste.

Continue the updates as technology and the wifi world changes.

There are some minor bugs in parts of the software which can cause some issues from time to time, but it's like any other piece of software. These are often quickly fixed in updates and patches which are easy to deploy but better detail in the release notes would be useful from my point of view supporting the product.