SmartZone vs Cloud for MSP

Question

We are moving our clients away from Ubiquiti to Ruckus and have so far gotten away with Unleashed, but as we move some of our bigger clients, I'm try to decided between installing a virtual SmartZone in our private cloud and use the vSZ-H multi-tenancy or pushing everyone to use the Ruckus Cloud.

I understand the Ruckus Cloud would have better redundancy and that the self-hosted would have much better cost control as we scale, but I can't seem to determine if there are any features or capabilities that are different when using the SmartZone vs Cloud.

Any insight would be very appreciated?

Thanks!

DarrelRhodes · Answer

Hi William,

We would strenuously recommend you install 2x virtual SmartZone instances in a cluster configuration for N+1 resilience and automatic load-balancing of clients and managed APs and switches accross the cluster nodes. You only require a single license for each managed device as the cluster shares licenses for APs and switches. The only additional license you will require is the Right-to-Use license for the second vSZ.

Thanks,

Darrel.

paresh_patel_37 · Answer

Hi William,

I am using vSZ-H for all our different business clients.  Creating a dedicated Domain and Zones for each.  Analytics is not included.  You need to pay extra per AP to have analytics.  Analytics is cloud-based and you can enable it simply by one click as long as vSZ is reachable from the Internet.  My vSZ is behind the MGMT network and not available from the Internet.  The difference between vSZ and Cloud is with Cloud you don't need to worry about the resources.  But if the cloud is down,  you won't be able to reach to your APs.  But with all cloud redundancies build up on the platform,  it doesn't really go down.  You can easily scale with the cloud.  I like vSZ on private cloud better because we have control over the firmware upgrades and stuff.  Plus with vSZ-High Scale (if you have domained every business), you can push firmware upgrades on APs at your convenience.  Hope this is helpful.

unknown · Answer

You can still take advantage of the cloud analytics if you decide to go vSZ. It will just connect to Cloud Services under System -> General Settings.