Zonedirector 3050 vs 1200

[wayne_smith_bib]

I'm relatively new with our organization.  We have a ZD3050 licensed for 100 APs.  I don't know how old it is.  We have some money available and I'm wondering if I should consider upgrading to a ZD1200.

[michael_brado]

Hi Wayne,


   The ZD1200 is the only appliance in Ruckus' future plans, as all previous ZD models have now been EoL'd.
A ZD1200 can manage as many as 150 APs (50 more than your ZD3K license), so you do have room to add
more if your business grows.  I'd contact your vendor and see about the possibility of transferring licenses

between model types, if you were to invest in a ZD1200.

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/products/73-zonedirector-1200

[jamie_walmsley]

Personally id look at virtual smartzone(vsz). for that many APs the resource requirements would be low and it offers much more flexibility and a better feature set.

[francis_aromin]

+1 on Smartzone (either vsz or sz100) if you're using relatively new access points.
We also have a 3-year old ZD3000 at one of our sites.   Since we had to expand the network, we chose to move everything to VSZ, instead of buying additional AP licenses for the ZD.  
It'll turn out cheaper to maintain with lower support costs too.

[wayne_smith_bib]

Thanks, everyone.  I was just looking at Zonedirectors.  I didn't realize that apparently the Smartzone products are the logical upgrade path.  We're a school using grant money, so we would probably have to go with the physical box.  We can't count on continued monies to support a subscription license.  However, I would like to hear some opinions -- do we need to replace the ZD3050 or will it be fine for another five years.  We are replacing our 200mb WAN connection with a 1gb connection this summer.