Hi all
We are looking to move our wireless network off Cisco and onto Ruckus. I’m looking for some advice on which products I should be going with and any vendors you know I can get a deal on Ruckus products. We have about 65 AP’s and looking to handle 5k+ clients.
Why switch to Ruckus? We are doing an overhaul on our wireless network at our Main campus and based on surveys posted here Ruckus seems to be the way to go.
-Paul Joyner
Mariners Church
Disclaimer: We sell Ruckus. If you’re interested, I’m happy to discuss, but there are many awesome vendors here that can help with that. So I’m focusing on the technical things below.
I would ABSOLUTELY recommend a virtual SmartZone controller (I’m assuming you already have Hyper-V or VMware available). It’s definitely the Ruckus ‘platform of the future.’ It will easily scale to handle your size and MUCH larger. And the cost of the controller and AP licensing is actually cheaper than the older style ZoneDirector solution.
Do NOT look at the Ruckus Cloud offering. It is NOT mature enough yet.
Definitely plan that you’ll have a mix of AP models depending on location and need. In sanctuary and other areas of high-density usage, plan for R710 APs. In other areas R510 and R310 should meet your needs. I don’t think the added cost of the R720 is worth it. And if you’re on the fence in an area between R710 and R510, the 510 will probably meet your needs. People look at spec sheets and discount their capabilities…but they hold up really well.
I hope some of that helps. It’s opinionated for sure, but it’s based on doing lots of installs for churches. Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy to provide pointers.
I bought my Ruckus stuff at my previous church from Chris Green at Bema Information Technologies.
(713) 586-6430
He was very helpful in helping me select the proper equipment, laying it out, and getting us a good discount.
Loved how it all worked when it was done.
Hi Paul,
I had this typed up and had a walk-in conversation to finish up before I could hit send.
We use Ruckus and had Travis set us up. Enjoying both Ruckus and Travis and Company.
Travis Phipps | Director of Technology
Enable, LLC |
Direct: 469.645.1157
Travis,
Having worked with Cisco, Meraki and Unifi in the past, I highly recommend Rucks. We switched our main campus over to Ruckus about 18mo ago and I’m sold. I plan to switch all our campuses eventually.
We have worked with Mirazon (who I met through the church IT network). I could t have been happier with their service. They planned everything out and our team installed it with their support.
I happen to know that they have a deal going on through Ruckus with deep discounts if you turn in your old AP’s. We are taking advantage of the deal to upgrade another location. I think it ends at the end of July. If you are interested in talking with someone at Mirazon I can introduce you. Just let me know!
Tim
I’m currently working for a company that provides IT services to hospitals - I’m on the network engineering team. When I first arrived the team was so pumped about their Aruba set up, constantly bragging about the information available and functionality. I was taken by the constant complaining from the user base. Over the 3 years complaints have reduced dramatically, not because the experience has gotten better, but because people just gave up complaining.
I’ve been singing the praise of Ruckus for 3 years and we finally had a “bake off.” Everyone agreed that the 200 APs in the hospital were not enough and that we really needed 300 - well, that is except ruckus - they did a full survey and said we could do the job (meeting capacity, speed and even VOIP requirements) with 75, but recommended 91 for redundancy. The hospital will be switched to Ruckus on Monday night, but we have already flipped 9 of our offsite locations and every one is reporting better service and higher speeds, with less APs. (As an example I just surveyed one of our sites that had 8 APs between the two floors. With Ruckus one AP fully covers the building at full speed. (It’s an hour away from the office so the plan is to place 2 APs on site, one broadcasting, one not. So, in the event of a failure we simply turn on broadcasting for the second device and the site is back up in seconds.
One recommendation that I would make would be to purchase a light weight portable computer and something like Ekahau. Do a full survey before installing any wireless system. With Ruckus you’ll be surprised just how much area an AP can cover and with their technology the performance will be amazing.
Full disclosure, I do not work for Ruckus, I have no affiliation with them, but they did give me on of the large plush dogs (after we placed the order) He’s the talk of the office - often getting dressed up by someone. Oh, and I do consider Greg Kamer a friend.