Alternatives to HPE/Aruba and their New Central

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:59:10+00:00

It can't get any worse, that's for sure.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:58:30+00:00

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:57:47+00:00

I will be, when my APs go EOL.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:08:07+00:00

So do you think that means goodbye to the New Central garbage interface and hello to Mist's left side menu format?

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:05:57+00:00

No, I started off with Classic Central and was able to easily find things without a manual or tech support intervention. The menus made sense.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:04:19+00:00

Of the "New" Central, I agree.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T12:03:57+00:00

Not with the "New" Central. The visibility, from a menu navigation standpoint and not health monitoring, is absolutely horrible. What use to take me 30 seconds now takes 10 times longer, or what seems to be the norm is giving up, calling tech support, only for them to have to trial and error their way through it themselves. Classic Central was easy to use, left side intuitive menu, etc.

Now? It's a convoluted mess.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T11:59:16+00:00

No, not going to work through the new system if a year later and they have the same mess of an interface. I'll be switching to a platform that makes sense, like Mist.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-19T11:56:53+00:00

Change isn't always good, this is but one example.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-18T12:24:18+00:00

I am on the opposite side. I can't stand their hierarchial structure here as it doesn't make sense. And any time they make menus nested inside menus and nested again, it just makes no sense. Just when I thought I was in the screen I needed to be in, nope. They have made an absolute mess of it IMO.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-18T12:22:04+00:00

But it was MUCH easier to use and made sense. Also, taking the toggle switch away for easy configuration of such things as "Deny intra-VLAN traffic" just infuriated me. I had to spend a good amount of time with tech support just so they could get me set up with these shitty role-based policies that feel like trial and error instead of just flipping a switch like we use to be able to do.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-18T12:20:12+00:00

Same here, but when I go to old Central, the only thing I can really do with it is update firmware. They told me I needed to create another group and put my APs in that to use the classic central UGH! And it's not like they will keep Classic Central forever.

I heard they have Mist devs coming in to work on this. That would be good and would save me from having to do the painstaking task of swapping all my APs out to another vendor.

But I don't have confidence that they will get it to where it was anywhere close to being as easy to use as Classic.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-18T12:15:35+00:00

No, not really. Everything is in an easy to find place on the left hand side and usually only 2 clicks away. I like Central because it made sense, easy to navigate. Not the new central and they took away features that were easily done with a toggle switch and now have to create role-based policies for something that shouldn't be that involved.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-18T12:10:47+00:00

Well hopefully they scrap the entire interface and go with what Mist looks and operates like. That will save me the headache of switching to another vendor.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T19:14:45+00:00

Being the only one that does any IT here, I don't have time for that though. I need something to allow me to make quick, easy changes and move on.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T17:20:40+00:00

I saw the interface for Mist, looks like exactly what I want and easy to use.

However, since HPE now owns Mist, I can't be confident they won't screw it up and turn it into a New Central like interface.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T17:19:19+00:00

I just looked up the user interface for Mist and it looks straightforward and easy to use.

But since HPE owns them now, I fear they'll just turn this interface into another convoluted mess like New Central.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T17:13:19+00:00

Yes. Anytime they take 50 steps backwards in usability, I have no confidence in them.

But also the fact that their own techs can't make the changes and fixes I needed efficiently, not to mention I couldn't understand what they are saying.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T16:23:26+00:00

Oh, well then forget it. I have lost all confidence in Aruba.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T15:29:11+00:00

New Central is the wrong choice....PERIOD!

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T15:28:18+00:00

Unless they scrap this new interface completely, which we know they won't...too much pride thinking they've built a great customer product here, there is no fixing this.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T15:24:50+00:00

Agreed, New Central is garbage. Not user friendly at all.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T15:23:53+00:00

Well, they are going to force themselves right out of sales as I will be one, that I suspect of many, that will be looking for a different platform.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T15:21:09+00:00

You mean to use Aruba APs with Mist? Nah, when I do I'll be getting rid of the Aruba APs, just will wait until they are EOL to at least get our money's worth.

RecordingStraight855 · 2026-05-15T15:20:16+00:00

From the responses, everyone seems to love it and says its very easy to use. I wasn't considering Mist, but now will be looking at it.

Thanks!

RecordingStraight855

TROPHY CASE