Sysadmin

But how will you manage your internal LAN from "the cloud" if your configuration isn't created, stored and managed from "the cloud"? Surely, you aren't some heathen who would rather not create the extra attack surface of having all that exposed to the internet? No, this is The Way. Cloudify ALL THE THINGS! No local configs. Trust "the cloud" to always be there. There has never been any example of service providers turning off cloud services and leaving users with expensive door stops. Nope, never. There is no Nest of products for which this had happened.

Sarcasm aside, never buy hardware which can't be used without a proprietary cloud service. If you can't turn those requirements off, then you don't really own the device. You're just renting it with a high, up-front activation fee and the requirement to handle disposal. Even worse, you get to go through all those costs again when the company decides you need to buy a new version.

I would have packed the fucker back up in the original box and sent it back. Fuck your app, HP. Oh, and fuck your printers, too.

I think you misunderstood the target audience of the Aruba instant on series. It's a direct competitor to the Ubiquiti Unifi brand and solely designed for easy centralized management. You manage multiple sites from a single pane of glass. I work for an MSP and we use them all over the place for the ease of management it gives us. One dashboard to see our out clients switches and access points. If this isn't you, then you're not the target audience, but that doesn't make it bad. With that said, if you spent a little more time researching, then you would have found that these switches can be converted to FULLY local management. Absolutely no cloud. It even has more features when locally managed. It's not the fault of the product if you purchase a device without due diligence into the feature, support, configuration, management, etc.

Do you mean Aruba "Instant On"? If so, you are withholding some important bit of information.

They are perfectly usable without an app or cloud console. Will get DHCP IP and you can log in to the local web interface and manage it that way. The caveat is that it has to be VLAN1.

I’ve been a big proponent of HP Procurve switches in the enterprise but if cloud connectivity is going to be a requirement then I’d rather just go in with Cisco/meraki.

Avoiding the confusing licensing/connectivity requirements were why I used procurve in the first place

I work in business tech support for an ISP. I wonder how many times I’ve been yelled at by IT because of those and them not understanding the fucking product they bought.

I had to install an app for Ubiquiti access point too, no Linux client provided

Like others stated, if it's an Aruba Instant On switch, it's easily configurable without any app or registration.

I actually really appreciate just whipping out my phone and hitting "Adopt" when I am setting up new hardware at a site (UniFi stuff). It gets added, updated, and it's done. Then I can leave and go manage it from the office.