Why Ruckus?

An Executive Comparison with Meraki The Bottom Line

Wi-Fi networks deployed today must be ready to support 3x more clients and harsher RF conditions in just one year. Ruckus is laser-focused on innovative Wi-Fi products that take the guesswork out of RF expertise in an easy to configure, simple to manage and high performance solution. Sophisticated features such as adaptive antenna arrays, smart RF mitigation and optimization techniques put Ruckus products years ahead of any other Wi-Fi vendor and ensure wireless you can count on for years to come. Outrageous costs - you have to buy your network and then pay a large annual fee forever for the right to use it Pitiful performance - consumer-grade Wi-Fi masked as enterprise quality No service guarantee - Read their Ts&Cs Meraki makes no guarantees as to the continuous availability of the Service No safety net - if Meraki goes out of business, your WiFi network is out of business Lightweight support - You have to rely on their 24/7 Cloud Controller but they only offer 5/7 telephone support ments. The Meraki solution is centered around management, not performance. But low performance is a massive contributor to connectivity and other user problems as well as network stability and reliability. Endless complaints from users simply adds to the overall costliness of this solution.

Great TCO vs. Out of Control Costs

Ruckus offers the best Wi-Fi that money can buy at an affordable price. With a performance advantage that typically requires up to 30% fewer APs, Ruckus starts out at a great price point and furthers that with streamlined pricing that provides a rich feature set with no additional licensing. A great Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) means your Wi-Fi network is paid and amortized within just a short time after purchase. Meraki customers, on the other hand, must purchase cloud management; Meraki network cannot not function otherwise. This means the equipment purchase is not a one-time capital expense but rather expensive, ongoing licensing fees, paid year over year. Customers do not own their wireless network, they rent it from Meraki.

No Guarantees and No Safety Net

When a company buys a wireless network, they expect it to function for as long as they choose to keep it. This is not true with a Meraki network. What happens if Meraki goes out of business? There is no alternative solution available for their custmers who will be left hanging with a useless network.

Unimpressive Performance
Ruckus offers proven performance and reliability that satisifies the most demanding customers and the toughest environ-

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Why Ruckus?

Under the Hood:

What to Know Before You Buy

The Meraki marketing literature makes a lot of claims that are, at best, optimistic and at worst misleading. The rest of this document is a deeper look at these statements and claims.

Its Not Your Network Thats Up 99.9% of the Time

This is touted consistently and constantly, but what does it mean? A close reading of their Service Level Agreement (SLA) contract states Meraki Cloud Controller web interface will be operational and available to Customer at least 99.9% of the time in any calendar month. The Meraki End User License Agreement (EULA) also states Meraki makes no guarantees as to the continuous availability of the Service or any component thereof. Even worse! This is not a statement of wireless network uptime, its not even a statement of any type of controller functionality uptime but merely a guarantee that the web interface is available 99.9% of the time. In cases where it is not, the customers sole recourse and compensation is a service credit (licensing) for a maximum

The Hidden Cost of the Cloud

The difference between cloud controllers and premise-based is very simple: rent vs. buy. This is rarely pointed out and those who dont understand this will pay and pay. Where a premisebased controller is paid for once and quickly amortized into a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), a cloud controller has to be purchased again every year and is never paid off. This has a huge impact on TCO. For example, using Merakis price calculator from their web site, the following prices out a 10 AP network with enterprise licensing: 5 Year TCO for Meraki and Ruckus Meraki MR24 10 APs 10 Enterprise Licenses Controller Support Total Initial Cost Recuring Costs $11,990* $4,500 $0 $0** $16,490 $4,500 Meraki MR16 $6,490* $4,500 $0 $0** $10,990 $4,500 Ruckus ZF7363 $5,990 $0 $2,000 $1,699 $9,689 $1,699

of 15 days. This is great deal for Meraki - if a customer is late paying their cloud licenses, they get to charge interest for an unspecifed/unlimited time (see Meraki EULA). Of course a customer has to submit a request for these credits - they are not given automatically for system failures. Therefore the onus is on customers to monitor Merakis system for them just to protect their own interests. A 99.9% uptime means the service is unavailable for no more than 74 minutes per month. But Meraki upgrades its software roughly ever month - a downtime of at least 2 hours. Something customers cannot opt out of or prevent. Customer WAN failures are also not included in downtime and of course these represent a significant risk to system availability. Meraki only guarantees their web interface is available 99.9% of the time - if you cant reach it, too bad. Moreover, this does not count as a service downtime and therefore the customer is not eligible for any recompense from Meraki. If the cloud is unvailable, who do you call? Merakis technical

* Prices shown are list price (North America) ** Meraki support is standard, 9/5 instead of 24/7 (not available) At list price, the MR24 is still almost twice the cost of Ruckus and the lower end MR16 a bit more than Ruckus. But note the recurring yearly costs are nearly 3x the cost of Ruckus regardless of hardware. The longer a Meraki installation is kept, the higher these yearly operating expenses will grow. Ruckus higher AP performance will likely only require 6 Ruckus APs to deliver the same or better coverage and density as 10 Meraki APs. With only 6 Ruckus APs that reduces the initial Ruckus cost to $7,233 and yearly support to just $1,339.

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Why Ruckus?

support is only business hours, 9/5 rather than 24/7. If something happens outside of tthese hours, the customer is stuck. The Meraki web site claims to have 24/7 support but it is not on their price list and is, apparently, a series of one-off deals with no real description of the service, a concrete and comprehensive SLA, etc. For off-hours, Meraki offers an online-knowledgebase. A quick check shows how difficult this is to use. Searches constantly bring up articles that have little or nothing to do with the search keywords. Only the most determined user can find real answers. All Ruckus ZoneDirector Wi-Fi controllers are simply and easily configured and can operate from any data center. No Internet or WAN connectivity is required. Ruckus also offers 24/7 support for all customers. For customers looking to reduce their operating costs even further, different levels of support are available on a per unit basis. This empowers customers to pick and choose the level they wish to pay for different equipment. This is unlike Meraki with its one size fits all approach; forcing customers to pay the same level of support for all equipment, regardless.

date software in a lab first, before releasing it onto a production network. This is not an option with Meraki. They decide when and what to run on your network. Custmers have the option to specify preferences for when upgrades will happen, but cannot completely block it. There is no way to opt-out completely. Perhaps even worse, upgrades are system-wide so there is no chance of testing new software in a lab prior to deployment. In this way, production networks are completely at the mercy of Meraki. Bottom line: Meraki owns your network, not you. Cloud-based management is just another way of paying someone else to own and operate the hardware that runs your network. There is nothing magical about a controller in the cloud that couldnt be done with an appliance in the customer data center. Unless of course you have a business model like Meraki in which constant payments by its customers to relicense their network over and over again is major portion of revenue. Meraki will never make a customer-owned premise version of their controller. It would kill their profit. If they did create a premise-based controller, customers would quickly realize the Meraki solution is no different from anyone elses - except more expensive and lower performance.
Meraki Networks

Its Not Your Network Anymore

Ruckus offers wireless controllers that are easy to configure and simple to use. Each ZoneDirector controller is wholly owned and controlled by the customer: no grey areas of doubt or uncertainty or potential finger-pointing if problems arise. Administrators are in the drivers seat and know exactly what is happening at all times. With cloud-based services, there is always the question of control: who decides when to upgrade your network? Who has physical access to the hardware and how is it protected? How much of our data is visible to people outside of your company and control? This may not be a big deal when purchasing videos on Amazon.com, but it is a huge issue for any enterprise. One glaring issue is software management. Most enterprises are used to controlling their own network and decided when and how to upgrade it if they find it necessary. Indeed, many organizations tend to find a version that works and stabilize on it for long periods of time. Others prefer to run the new candi-

RF Analysis
The single most important factor in Wi-Fi performance is local RF environment. Once a packet is transmitted by the radio its too late to do any more improvement. Optimization has to happen at the AP and with the Wi-Fi system. RF is the thing that is typically out of an organizations control. The option to change neighboring Wi-Fi networks behavior is practically impossible. RF changes every day and sometimes in unpredictable ways. The only way to stay on top of this is a system that is capable of automatically tuning and optimizing itself as well as offering a rich set of RF analysis information for performance visibility and troubleshooting.

What to Expect from an Enterprise-class System

Within the wireless industry, RF analysis has a specific mean-

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Why Ruckus?

ing: the ability to view what is happening in the RF spectrum. This typically includes information such as capacity and usage, identification of heavily loaded channels and identification of foreign RF sources. Over the air packet capture is another common feature. This information is typically provided from the central management/controller system.

ing, costly on-site service calls are required. This is how an enterprise troubleshoots their network - cleanly and efficiently.

RF Meltdowns
Wi-Fi is extremely popular. It is difficult to find any location with

Merakis concept of RF analysis is quite different: RF analysis information is only available from a web page

no neighboring Wi-Fi or any other kind of RF transmissions. This harsh RF landscape will only get worst as more networks are deployed with higher numbers of clients and densities. Because wireless performance is so dependent on the local RF conditions, optimization is critical. Once a packet is transmitted by the AP radio there is nothing that can be done to make it faster or better. RF optimization must occur at the AP and it has to be smart and agile enough to cope with quickly changing enviornments. The list of RF optimizations available to Meraki customers includes: Change channels (1, 6, 11 only) due to Wi-Fi interference Band-steering

that can only be accessed by a wireless device currently attached to a Meraki AP. No remote troubleshooting options are available - a laptop must be on-site and able to associate to the Meraki network. None of this information is sent to the cloud or available from the cloud interface. The analysis consists of a single graph showing a percentage of channel usage - but only for the channel the AP occupies. Even with background scanning enabled, no other channel information is available. No other RF information is available No over the air packet capture is available

In contrast, Ruckus offers a well-planned and easy to use RF troubleshooting tools such as remote packet capture from any AP. This gives administrators a precise view of exactly what is happening in their network. Best of all, this information is available from the central interface on the ZoneDirector. Once the packet capture is launched, an administrator can view the over the air traffic from anywhere with network connectivity: a remote location, office, home or on the road. No time consum-

Thats it. In constrast, compare what Ruckus deep RF knowledge and expertise provides: Channelfly - a interference and capacity-aware channel

selection method that uses Wi-Fi, non-802.11 and capacity potentials to optimize channel section and performance across the entire radio spectrum Client load-balancing - balances large device populations

Meraki Spectrum Analysis Tools (on-site only)

Ruckus vs. Meraki RF Troubleshooting: Which one do you think says more about your network? Ruckus Centralized Spectrum Analysis & Packet Capture Tools
(RF reports available in 9.5)

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Why Ruckus?

across multiple APs to improve performance and lower contention Band-steering - helps ensure dual-band clients connect to 5 GHz (802.11an); easing congestion on the crowded 2.4 GHz (802.11bgn) spectrum for single band devices Airtime Fairness - ensures each device gets a chance to transmit rather than allowing a few devices to grab all of the bandwidth BeamFlex - dynamic adaptive antenna arrays with over 4,000 antenna combinations connects clients at the highest transmit rates over the greatest distance while mitigating RF interference by up to -17 dBm These kinds of features are essential for any kind of Wi-Fi performance. They are particularly valuable as more and more Wi-Fi devices connect to the network. The ability to keep performance high for every client becomes critical. 60 Simultaneous Clients (TCP Downlink)

Dynamic PSK and Zero-IT. Dynamic PSK is a highly secure version of Pre-Shared Key networks that allows IT to provision each client with its own unique key. These keys cannot be shared; making the network more secure. They also support expiration dates and immediate administrative revokation. Both Dynamic PSK and 802.1X client configuration is also a breeze with Ruckus patented Zero-IT software. Zero-IT is a simple program that can be run on a wireless client (Mac OS, Windows, Android, iPhone, and more). The program will automatically configure the client to connect to whichever SSIDs they are authorized to use. This makes deployment of 802.1X and D-PSK networks even more simple, faster and less prone to trouble or helpdesk calls. Although the Meraki system supports 802.1X authentication, There are huge limitations. Each Meraki AP must be configured on the RADIUS server Adding new APs means touching RADIUS every time APs need static IP addresses to work correctly with RAReaddressing APs means touching RADIUS every time

as a NAS client rather than just one controller like Ruckus

DIUS

This kind of clumsy implementation is most definitely not considered enterprise class and will severely hobble any Meraki 802.1X implementation.

Meraki fails to even complete a test with 60 simultaneous clients

(Data courtesy of Toms Hardware)

Enterprise-class Wi-Fi Security

802.1X is the authentication method of choice for enterprises to securely connect employees, VoIP phones, etc. to their wireless network. Although it is the most secure option, 802.1X suffers from a reputation for being difficult to configure and setup. With Ruckus 802.1X is simple - its as easy as configuring the ZoneDirector as a NAS client on the RADIUS server. Just one device, done once for the life of the network. For those who are not ready to use 802.1X, Ruckus also offers

Summary
Investing in a Wi-Fi network is an investiment in time as well as money. The balance of cost and usability is strongly affected by initial cost, yearly costs, future-proofing for growth and reliability (helpdesk/maintenance costs). No one likes to have to go back and ask for more budget to pay for an existing network or upgrade it. Ruckus Wi-Fi products are designed to support hundreds of devices per AP and work around the most difficult RF problems automatically.

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Why Ruckus?

Key questions to ask: Exactly what errors and conditions are considered downWhat visibility does a customer have into these errors from What kind of performance metrics are guaranteed for

Can the system make sure all clients get airtime access How does the system help automatically reduce and miti-

without allowing bandwidth hogs or starving clients? time? Merakis side? latency, responsiveness of the system, etc.? How much control do I have over my network? Can I opt gate RF interference? Meraki consistently fails to provide an enterprise-class experience for its customers. The Meraki solution appears cheap and simple but hides significant underlying costs and maintenance pains. All of this is provided with low to average performance that fails to meet the demands of an ever more challenging RF landscape, higher performance clients or growing density populations. Ruckus Wireless is laser focused on building the best Wi-Fi networks bar none. A Ruckus network provides the enterpriseclass tools and control administrators expect in a simple interface that makes configuration a breeze. This is complemented by a rich and robust set of RF optmization features that quickly respond to changing RF conditions for the best possible perfomance and reliability. As demand for Wi-Fi increases only Ruckus offers future-proof deployments that easily meet current demands and provide headroom for future growth. A well designed Ruckus wireless network can provide excellent service for years with minimal effort and a great TCO.

out of software upgrades if I dont want them? How much downtime are current customers experiencing

due to mandatory software upgrades? How will the system perform in real-world environments What can the Wi-Fi network do to help me understand

with lots of clients, obstacles, interference, etc.? and troubleshoot my RF issues? Can it do it remotely without requiring an on-site visit? What does the system do to select optimize channel selcWhat can it do to load balance clients in high density sitution? ations?

Additional Reading
Toms Hardware Part 1 - an explanation of wireless performance Toms Hardware Part 2 - performance testing and multi-vendor bakeoff results Wired Magazine - Ruckus smart antennas may be the key to natiowide Wi-Fi Everything Wireless: Talks from the Experts - 802.11ac, BeamFlex, client load balancing, airtime fairness and much more
(www.ruckuswireless.com/library)

ZoneDirector Demo on Demand - quick, easy demonstrations of the Ruckus product line

Ruckus Wireless, Inc. 880 West Maude Avenue, Suite 101, Sunnyvale, CA 94085 USA

(650) 265-4200 Ph \ (408) 738-2065 Fx

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