Saturday, May 9, 2020

Equipment recommendations for moving away from UBNT gear

So, we've been selling UBNT gear for the longest time as we've found that in the price bracket, there are few competitors while at the same time the gear is good enough that it can give us "good enough" performance for clients that don't want to pay too much in small-medium office settings. We use their access points/switches (never routers/firewalls) and the camera gear. The fact that their cameras included "free" NVR and the networking gear included a "free" controller was a nice touch.

But as with all things, it appears when it is "free", you are the product.

The last few firmware/controller releases, UBNT has been collecting telemetry, first starting without making it obvious to us that they were doing so. It was an opt-out rather than an opt-in. The most recent release, they've begun collecting even more data and making it very hard to stop it. My concern is even if I stop it, there is nothing stopping them from pushing out another update that collects more data.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/gfxwsw/new_firmware_for_unifi_line_431311253/

Since I care about my privacy, I must investigate other options that fit the bill. Historically we have stayed away from many "industry standard" gear like Cisco/Ruckus due to costs, but now that may be justified.

What equipment (switches, access points in the 1st instance, ip-cameras & NVR software in the 2nd) would you suggest to someone that wanting to no longer use UBNT gear?

Our key requirements (in order of importance) are:

  • Equipment performance & stability
  • Ease of management (central management ideal, but not essential)
  • Available at a price point that won't get us laughed out of small businesses

Thanks for reading.



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