POE Switch For School

rosco

Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2000
Messages
722
We are looking at getting some Aruba access points for our small school. We are getting 20 IAP-205 units and one will go in each classroom.

What POE switch would you recommend for this? I am most comfortable with the Cisco SG300 lineup but didn't know if it made more sense to step up to something like the HP 2530. Aruba is owned by HP so of course the rep said the HP was the way to go.

What do you guys think?

Thanks!
 
What's your current network gear? Personally, I like keeping the same brands together when it comes to what's in the rack. the AP's only really need power so there won't be anything special between the HP and Cisco switches when only using them for the AP's.
 
If I had to choose between cisco small business line and HP, I'd go with HP. If I had budget for enterprise cisco gear I'd get that. The old saying "No one ever got fired for buying Cisco" comes in to play. They'll both eventually die anyway, but some exec will ask why you bought HP instead of Cisco and it will be all your fault the network goes down.

Also, I'd recommend not putting every AP on the same POE switch. If it goes out your wifi is gone. Split them over two switches and try to overlap the AP coverage so that if one switch dies you still have wireless. Unless it isn't mission critical

*EDIT* Just wanted to add if you do go cisco, make sure to enable LLDP on the switch as the AP's do better with POE with LLDP turned on. First hand experience with that little gotcha with Cisco and Aruba
 
Zyxel if you want a good value switch that's reliable and overall have a decent interface and performance, HP (2000+ series) if you want premium.
 
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