Access Points and Switches – UniFi ❤️

We are now making it official, although we switched months ago for a variety of reasons. Our technicians now implement new projects only with UniFi Access Points or Switches.

Ecosystem: Integration and Management

With UniFi, management is highly flexible. UniFi products are centrally managed through a user-friendly interface that is available both in the browser and via a mobile app. The UniFi Controller can be hosted in the cloud, purchased as a hardware appliance, or installed on a Linux or Windows machine. This makes the system extremely adaptable and easy to scale, which is a major advantage especially in larger projects with multiple Access Points.

Price-Performance Ratio

In projects, the price-performance ratio plays a decisive role. Customers are looking for products that are technologically up to date – currently Wi-Fi 7 – while also offering strong value for money. In our view, the UniFi portfolio meets both requirements.

The portfolio is also very clearly structured.

On December 3, 2024, UniFi expanded its portfolio with powerful Enterprise Access Points. These new models support the Wi-Fi 7 standard and deliver higher speeds as well as improved efficiency for enterprise networks.

The Enterprise 7 offers 10-stream Wi-Fi 7 performance with a 10 GbE uplink and a redundant GbE port for high availability.

The Enterprise 7 Campus stands out with its robust IP67-certified design and PRISM™ technology for active RF filtering, which reduces adjacent-channel interference by a factor of 1,000.

The Enterprise 7 Audience features 12 spatial streams and an integrated antenna array with adjustable beam widths, ideal for high-density environments such as events and stadiums.

We appreciate being able to find a product for every requirement from one manufacturer. More about the new Enterprise Access Points in this video.

Development and Features

UniFi regularly releases updates and enhancements for its products – without additional license costs. This shows that Access Points and Switches are not a side product at Ubiquiti, but a central part of its portfolio.

OEM - Access Points

OEM products (Original Equipment Manufacturer) are hardware produced by one manufacturer and resold by another company under its own brand name or integrated into that company’s own products.

Unfortunately, this approach has the drawback that the latest technology is never available immediately, because developing the software and integrating it into the ecosystem takes a lot of time.

This delay has led many of our customers to stop waiting and choose other solutions. With UniFi, we know that we are relying on a manufacturer that keeps its products close to the pulse of the market and can deliver current technology.

End-of-Life Strategy

UniFi follows a very customer-friendly strategy. Even Access Points sold seven or eight years ago continue to receive updates and can still be used. This means customers are not forced to keep investing in new hardware as long as the existing infrastructure serves its purpose.

UniFi Switches

Another important area we want to highlight is switching. Especially in scenarios where comprehensive management of the entire network is required, core switches are crucial.

UniFi offers a broad product portfolio, including powerful core and aggregation switches that can also be used in larger environments. The top models are the Enterprise Switches:

UniFi - Etherlighting

UniFi offers innovative solutions for network management, such as the Etherlighting feature, which simplifies the management of a network rack.

With Etherlighting, you can search for a device in the UniFi app or web interface, for example the lobby phone, and the corresponding LED on the switch lights up. This lets you immediately identify the associated cable. Cameras can also be identified just as easily, or devices in a VLAN can be displayed.

Etherlighting also allows you to assign colors to device types, link states, VLANs, or PoE ports. This makes it easier to maintain an overview of the network.

UniFi - Augmented Reality

UniFi’s AR function (Augmented Reality) uses QR codes to show details in an AR view on your smartphone. This lets you visually capture network status and port assignments in the room. It makes management simple and intuitive.

UniFi revolutionizes network management through innovative and visual solutions that make complex structures easy to understand.

But see for yourself:

Experience and Projects

We have many years of experience with UniFi products, which have been running successfully for some of our customers for more than eight years. Our experience has shown that UniFi is the best choice when it comes to price, functionality, stability, flexibility, and performance. We have carried out installations ranging from simple setups with one switch and one access point to larger customer data centers where UniFi switches are used.

Our latest project includes more than 350 Access Points and 90 Switches, all running on UniFi and managed by a cloud controller hosted in Azure – and the infrastructure runs absolutely smoothly.

Support

In the past, UniFi was often seen as a product for home use. More than ten years ago, I personally had the same opinion. But the product has developed tremendously since then and now offers solutions for enterprise requirements. There are now enterprise products for very demanding use cases, including 100 Gigabit switches and Access Points with 2x 10 Gigabit interfaces – high-end devices that can meet all requirements.

Another prejudice that still persists is that UniFi does not offer support. For a long time, it was true that if you had problems, you mainly had to rely on forums or the community. But since this year, 2024, UniFi has offered comprehensive 7x24 support specifically for businesses. This means that a lack of manufacturer support is no longer a reason not to use UniFi. This support provides reliable assistance even in critical situations. Further information can be found here: https://ui.com/site-support

UniFi is our future

As mentioned in the introduction, UniFi Access Points and Switches are our first choice for new projects. The combination of an excellent price-performance ratio, a mature management platform, a reliable End-of-Life policy, and continuous product development has convinced us. UniFi offers our customers a more stable and economically sensible solution.

Our experience shows that our UniFi projects run consistently and smoothly, and that customers are satisfied with them – both in terms of performance and device management.

Firewall

UniFi also offers firewalls, and of course, we have looked at them more closely.

For professional business use, we currently do not consider UniFi Firewalls sufficient. If you would like to know more, there is a video that shows the current features and possible use cases of UniFi Firewalls:

Conclusion

UniFi products have proven to be stable and technologically advanced in all these scenarios. UniFi’s portfolio is broad and offers the right solution for every need, whether for small budgets or demanding enterprise environments. The combination of modern technology, scalable management, and reliable support has convinced us that UniFi is the better choice in every case.

Do we get money from UniFi for this post? No. We sell UniFi products and earn money from them when we use them in projects where we take care of the network and supply the required hardware. However, we do not yet sell UniFi products in the shop. Who knows what the future holds? 😊 For stable, scalable, and economically sensible Wi-Fi solutions, we currently see UniFi as the better choice.

FAQ