Cisco vWLC vs Cisco Mobility express controller

[Asfandyar70754]

 Hey guys,

So one of my client is looking to deploy wireless infra in their environment, so they have ordered Cisco WLC appliance and Access point 9k series, now the APs have been delivered but WLC isn't delivered yet, but he wanted wireless up and running soon so I was wondering what is the better option Cisco vWLC or Mobility Express controller bearing in mind that the WLC appliance is to be delivered in couple of months.

[Karsten Iwen]

It depends on how many and which APs you have. With under 50 APs I would probably go for the EWC (this is what was Mobility Express on the x800 series). If you have more APs I would probably go for the virtual WLC.

[Rich R]

NO @Karsten Iwen !!!!   ME and vWLC are both legacy AireOS based solutions approaching end of life so that would be a backward move! Correction I see you already mentioned EWC instead of ME 🙂

@Asfandyar70754 You already have Catalyst 9000 series APs although you don't mention which model(s).  Those can run EWC on AP which is the modern equivalent of ME based on 9800 series IOS-XE and much better than ME.  Supports up to 100 APs (depending which model of AP you run it on). 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/nb-o6-embded-wrls-cont-ds-cte-en.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/embedded-wireless-controller-catalyst-access-points/white-paper-c11-743398.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/embedded-wireless-controller-on-catalyst-access-points/215303-embedded-wireless-controller-conversion.html

If you need to support more than 100 APs then you can use 9800-CL virtual controller.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9800-cl-wireless-controller-cloud/nb-06-cat9800-cl-cloud-wirel-data-sheet-ctp-en.html

[Karsten Iwen]

@Rich R (Correction, I see you already read again ... 🙂 🙂) please read again, using EWC is exactly what I suggested. And with the APs being of the Catalyst 9100 series it is clear that we are not talking about AireOS any more. Same for the vWLC, with that I was talking about the 9800 virtual controller. Regardless which 9800 hardware controller model was ordered, *no* Cisco partner would "sell" a legacy vWLC when the hardware controller is delayed to speed up the deployment.

[Rich R]

@Karsten Iwen I had already updated my reply noting your reference to EWC.

vWLC is the product name of the AireOS product so you need to be clear when recommending a product to anyone reading who may not realise you were referring to 9800-CL which is the new product name.

[Karsten Iwen]

I have not expected any confusion here and I do not think that the OP is talking about an AirOS product, but instead of the type of device. And at least here the term vWLC is also used for the class of products of virtual WLCs. But you are right, with being a little more specific I could have avoided any confusion what I typically try to achieve. I'll promise to do better in the future (or the next beer is on me if I do that again ...).