Extreme wireless.

[Rob_D]

Hi Guys,

 

Has anyone used or had any dealings with Extreme Wireless? (https://www.extremenetworks.com/products/extremewireless/)

 

Thanks!

[Norphy]

Didn't Extreme buy out one of the larger cloud wifi vendors? Aerohive wasn't it?

 

I've had a bad experience with an Aerohive wireless network. If I wanted a cloud managed wifi system, I'd personally be looking at Meraki or Juniper, who bought out Mist.

[DavR]

It was Aerohive. We bought an Aerohive network about five years ago, so we're now an "ExtremeCloud customer".

 

I can't comment on their kit, as we're using the older Aerohive APs, but the cloud based controls are OK. Most of the time it just works, for us, although it is starting the show it's age now people want to do video calls all the time.

 

When we renewed our contract after three years though, the renewal was eyewatering. They changed their pricing from expensive APs / cheap contract to cheap APs / expensive contract, so we got stung by that, effectively paying twice!

 

When we do upgrade I'd be hoping to get Cisco Meraki APs, as it will complement what we're doing in Meraki as an MDM.

[psydii]

Long long ago they white-boxed Chantry Networks kit. It was awesome (third to Cisco and Aruba at the time). They had really good education pricing at that time.

Siemens then Enterasys bought Chantry and Extreme went their own way.

Extreme then bought Enterasys and seemed to move back to the Hi-Path/Chantry Wi-Fi platform.

 

They now have the patents from two of the oldest wifi startups, but how that translates to the world of wifi6... who can say. The transition to 'n' did for some, aerohive struggled in the move to 'ac', and here we are at wifi6...

 

Given their history I'd probably choose them over Fortinet, but it really depends on who is running the division and how much talent they have been able to maintain and develop over the last 10 years.

Edited September 20, 2021 by psydii

[simpsonj]

When we do upgrade I'd be hoping to get Cisco Meraki APs, as it will complement what we're doing in Meraki as an MDM.

 

I recently went the same route and I'd recommend it; quickly got the hang of Meraki and despite using Aerohive happily for 8 years, I don't miss it.

[Asgard]

Hi Guys,

 

Has anyone used or had any dealings with Extreme Wireless? (https://www.extremenetworks.com/products/extremewireless/)

 

Thanks!

 

Me!

4 years and counting after ditching Ruckus having ran it since 2009.

 

Just deployed their ClouidIQ setup here running 11ax APs. We actually “lease” it via their enterprise network subscription

Edited September 20, 2021 by Asgard

[Asgard]

Just logged in via my phone to grab a quick live screenshot - 102 APs across two sites but I’ve got them both sat in the same tenant.

 

Users is basically anyone on our Boyd (Eduroam)

 

The way their enterprise sub works is that you least it/ then when the price is better or your 3 years is up you send the kit back, sign a new agreement and get shiney new kit.

 

We did this a year ahead of schedule as they worked out moving us to 11ax would save us about 2k a year - so we “ended” the agreement and signed a new one.

 

They sent out shiney new APs and we boxed the old ones up and sent them back.

 

They bought Aerohive purely for their cloud Managment

Edited September 20, 2021 by Asgard