Understanding Ruckus

[iSteve]

Hello,

 

We are looking to update our wireless system at our school with a more up to date Ruckus system. This would replace a much older Ruckus system that has been in place for many years. Since we installed this, things have moved on, so I am looking for those of you who have a 'current' Ruckus set-up to ask some advice -

 

- I understand that, for the number of APs we wish to manage, we need to get the Ruckus Virtual SmartZone VM. What rough price should we be paying for this?

- On top of the VM, is it correct that each AP needs a licence to connect to the SmartZone VM?

- On top of the VM, and the licence, we are recommended 'WatchDog' support, per AP, per year. Is this support useful / necessary?

 

It seems the cost for a working system seems to have gone up, and we are wary of buying in to things which we do not need. What do you guys have for your Ruckus systems?

[Guest Guest]

Are you open to other brands? We've just installed Ubiquiti Unifi in our new build and it works great and is a fraction of the cost

[iSteve]

At present, we are just focusing on Ruckus but will bear Ubiquity in mind should our direction change.

[synaesthesia]

All you need to understand for Ruckus is £££, because that's all they're interested in.

[SparkySX]

- I understand that, for the number of APs we wish to manage, we need to get the Ruckus Virtual SmartZone VM. What rough price should we be paying for this?

- On top of the VM, is it correct that each AP needs a licence to connect to the SmartZone VM?

- On top of the VM, and the licence, we are recommended 'WatchDog' support, per AP, per year. Is this support useful / necessary?

 

 

You're probably looking at around £1000 if you get two licenses, with this you get 1 AP license. With this you'll need watchdog support which i would budget for at around £300 (per license)

 

For AP Licenses i would budget around £50 each. Depending on the re-seller you use, you may be able to get them for less than this.

 

IIRC, Ruckus re-sellers are required to sell the Watchdog and therefore you'd be required to have it. It's around £30 per AP license.

 

All prices are EX vat and are guesstimates!

[Jawloms]

Speak to @Net-Ctrl. Very good company.

[localzuk]

Just to point out that WatchDog support is also hardware support - so for as long as you have it, it covers the hardware. If you have an AP that goes pop in 4 years, your WatchDog support covers its repair/replacement. We just renewed ours here, covering 60 APs and 1 controller. Cost us about £3730 for 3 years cover. So, it isn't overly expensive.

[howartp]

Are you open to other brands? We've just installed Ubiquiti Unifi in our new build and it works great and is a fraction of the cost

 

We've also just replaced our 2012 ruckus with UniFi.

 

75 NanoHD APs plus 10 AC Pro APs for £11,000

[DalekSec]

Upgraded our old ruckus kit to new kit this summer with @Net-Ctrl we have around 100 APs and 2 SmartZone controllers (On prem not cloud) if you want to know costs PM me and i'll let you know

[Net-Ctrl]

Hello,

 

Just to respond to your questions below:

 

- I understand that, for the number of APs we wish to manage, we need to get the Ruckus Virtual SmartZone VM. What rough price should we be paying for this?

 

The list price for the vSZ is around the £800 mark - however, you should expect a heavy discount on this price. Ruckus is currently incentivising existing clients to upgrade to their vSZ solution so make sure you're working with your reseller on this. There are some great discounts available. The vSZ has some great features and is where they're putting a lot of their R&D.

 

- On top of the VM, is it correct that each AP needs a licence to connect to the SmartZone VM?

 

Correct - your virtual SmartZone instance comes with 1 AP license - you then match your AP deployment with the additional licenses required. Again - expect very good discounts.

 

- On top of the VM, and the licence, we are recommended 'WatchDog' support, per AP, per year. Is this support useful / necessary?

 

WatchDog support, is now known as Associate Support - this is required on the initial purchase - this requires the reseller you're buying through to provide level 1 and 2 support, and then escalate to Ruckus on your behalf. This also covers HW faults as mentioned through their RMA scheme and access to firmware. Please note - you should be asking the reseller what support mechanisms they have in place - how many engineers - how long have they been using Ruckus etc - This partner will be your first line of support and you need to ensure they know what they're talking about. As most things it's cheaper to commit to a 3 or 5 year term however, whilst recommended to be renewed, does not need to be.

 

If you have any other questions, please let me know and I will try to assist.