As far as I know devices like Access Points only need the Controller to be configured or monitored. Once they are configured they work completely without it.
What does that mean, that the controller won't work without a cloud account? :)
It doesn't really matter which part in the chain requires the stinking cloud as long as they sneak it in somewhere.
Speaking of which, I just bought a Razer mouse again because I've read they gave up on the login requirement for configuring your blinkenlights. But they didn't. They invented a 'guest login' instead.
You can run the controller locally or from the cloud. When it is running locally you have the option to tunnel to it through the cloud. It runs completely locally.
AFAICT, the controller is needed for fast roaming of clients.
I have the UAP-AC-LR and if you only need basic AP functionality you can even configure it from the phone (no cloud). 99% sure no cloud stuff is needed when self-hosting the controller. May have changed since then, though.
Yes you can just not enable it. It is disabled by default. Maybe if you register everything through the app on your phone you need to be a bit careful. I think that makes it easy to enable the cloud tunnelling.
Indeed. You need the controller running first before you can configure AP, Switches, and gateways.
It doesn't really matter which part in the chain requires the stinking cloud as long as they sneak it in somewhere.
Speaking of which, I just bought a Razer mouse again because I've read they gave up on the login requirement for configuring your blinkenlights. But they didn't. They invented a 'guest login' instead.
Burned twice so far.