The cloud key is the central part of the Ubiquiti Unifi managed network system. Ubiquiti offers a cloud version of the Cloud Key, but I guess I'm old school and want to keep my management mostly in-house. I have used this with 2 clients.
One was a couple of unifi switches and half a dozen access points spread across 2 networks connected via VPN. Setup was easy after actually reading instructions and watching a few YouTube videos.
The next client was a 2 building wifi infrastructure setup. It had 24 unifi AC Pro access points, a 5 16 port unifi PoE switches and a 24 port unifi switch spread across 2 3 story buildings adjacent to each other. Setup was super easy after the first one and each access point was configured within minutes of setup.
The cloud key is brilliant. It's PoE powered (or optionally via a AC adapter) and has a microSD slot which came with a card (for backups). The web interface and remote access capability facilitate management off-site. Device discovery works great and makes deployment so quick and easy. Monitoring lets you ID problems and overloaded access points. It's been a great troubleshooting tool. The cloud key is the management beating heart of a unifi network.
One thing to be aware of: make a backup of your cloud key!!! I found that on 2 occasions cloud keys required a reset and restore after nasty power failures. It doesn't take a long time, so do and It could save your proverbial bacon. Oh yes, when you make changes make another backup.
Going from more old-school network management to the beautifully integrated Unifi system was a bit of an adjustment and learning curve. Once I "got it" it's my first choice for installation with more than a couple of access points.
| Standing screen display size | 1 |
|---|---|
| RAM | 2048 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11n, 802.11a, 802.11ac |
