Miercom knows: Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controllers are in a Class by Itself

Waiting for test results can be a long and frustrating experience. Think back to when you were at school, taking the test was difficult; but waiting for the teacher to post the results were excruciating—even if you thought that you aced the exam!

So you can understand how Cisco felt.

Miercom, an independent, nonpartisan testing lab, recently put the Cisco Catalyst 9800 and its competitors through a set of grueling tests. We know that we have the best products in the business, but even still, the waiting can be difficult. When we got the result back, we weren’t surprised, the results were absolutely amazing for Cisco.

When you’re looking at a controller, there are some key elements that you should focus on: high availability, security, deployment flexibility and programmability/telemetry. These are the specifications that Miercom tested the Catalyst 9800 controllers against similar boxes from HPE-Aruba, Ruckus Networks and Huawei Technologies.

Cisco beat each and every competitor, and it wasn’t even close.

Miercom paired the Wi-Fi 6 supporting Catalyst 9800 controller with the Cisco Aironet 4800 Access Point. Compliant with 802.11ac Wave 2, the Aironet 4800 is the highest-end version of the Aironet access points, supporting two radios and offering Flexible Radio Assignment which allows the AP to run in dual 5GHz mode.

The four tests were:

– A network rarely runs without interruptions. Whether it’s bug fixes, system upgrades or a new AP deployed on the infrastructure, you’re going to have time when your network isn’t running its best. How did Catalyst 9800 controllers handle these bumps in the road? Like a champ. According to the report, “Cisco maintained system functionality through all scenarios.”

– Security is a huge part of any network. One of the ways that Miercom tested the controllers was to see how effective they were in detecting threats in encrypted traffic. Cisco did very well at this test too. The Catalyst controllers “outperformed its competitors in tests for flow-tracking accuracy, application identification, multi-level segmentation and threat detection with encrypted traffic.”

– Not all networks are the same. What works for you, might not work for your neighbor. Cisco prides itself on offering a flexible solution for all. Products were tested on how well they were deployed over a variety of environments. The result? “Cisco was the only vendor to meet all deployment scenario requirements.”

– Telemetry isn’t a nice-to-have any more, many organizations are demanding it. That means your network should have the ability to support a wide variety of standard programming models. Only the Catalyst 9800 “distinguished itself” through this broad support.

These are only the highlights. To learn more about Miercom’s report, click here. Once you’re through reading that, check out the Catalyst 9800 page here.