Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Reviews

We use it for priority level security, to manage single sign-on applications and user base policy from a single firewall device. We use it for SSL inspection, for SSL site-to-site, for point-to-site, and for user base policy allocation.

I'm a network and cyber security consultant. This is not only for my offices, I have deployed it for many large enterprises where customers are remotely accessing their applications. We can define user application-level access, so our customers can work anytime from anywhere.

Live monitoring of what is happening inside and with the interfaces, either ingress or egress - this is a good feature of the device.

Secondly, most people use enterprise applications remotely, and there is no license for SSL VPN, or in other words point-to-site. There is no limit. On other devices there is a specific limit and you have to pay per use for SSL VPN.

Single sign-on is also good. If you are accessing your corporate firewall from your home, during that time there is an integration with the AD. You can use your AD's password to access your SSL VPN. It's not like if you buy a traditional SSL VPN. You have to define a specific password for your remote client application but there is no requirement of defining a specific password - which you would have to request from your admin - or to buy a token which can generate a password for your integration. You can directly integrate with your AD. If you change your password on the AD side, your client-to-VPN password also gets changed. You can integrate all your passwords from a single console. The admin doesn't has to change your password, it's a single sign-on.

It's a little bit complex in terms of handling. If you implement a change, there is a specific point where you have to commit it. It's not like you just push a button and it's always committed. If you don't know to check whether your commit command has been executed or not... that is something Barracuda needs to work on.

Secondly, when you do any commit, it locks your next access. If you are making a change to the device, from the security standpoint it's fine, but from the admin side it's not good. When you make changes, after each and every one it becomes locked.

It's really a good and stable product. I have worked with multiple firewall products and I can say that this is really very robust, good hardware. It's also good on the cloud side. I have deployed it on both sides, either on the public cloud or a virtual space, or a physical environment.

No scalability issues at all. When you buy this product it gives you multiple options: What can the maximum number of employees be, what can the number of concurrent users be. It's really good, there is no problem with the usability.

One of the most important parts is that there is auto-upgrade of the hardware every fourth year.

I would say technical support is lacking. They don't have strong technical support; their abilities are not so good. The support is not fabulous, it's okay. They need to improve their support.

I have used Cisco, Fortinet, Check Point, Palo Alto, Sophos Cyberoam, Dell SonicWall, and Juniper (both SRX and NetScreen).

One of the reasons I switched to Barracuda is that I was looking for real-time monitoring and Barracuda is good for that.

Secondly, SD-WAN. The first time I used this a question which occurred to me was regarding software-defined WAN technology. I wanted to go to a software-defined WAN and Barracuda have a specific protocol called TINA (Transport Independent Network Architecture). You can create a master policy over the internet and it allows you to do Quality of Services on top of it. It's really helpful for me.

When I saw that this box comes with software-defined WAN technology, along with all the firewall options, the specific user-level deep monitoring and real-time monitoring, that made me more curious about it.

Initially, it's complex when no one is familiar with it. The first time you use it, it is a really complex solution.

We have spent a good amount of time to "get in" to this box.

Pricing and licensing are fine. It's worth the value because if I buy any other product, every four years I have to replace my hardware. But with Barracuda I get a free hardware upgrade. Today I'm using Xbox. After four years I can take another Xbox or a Ybox.

When I initially started using it I was just an end-user, a technical consultant. And one of my customers said to me, "I want these and these features." I searched a number of products with respect to the customer's requirements and we chose Barracuda. I then signed on to be an OEM partner with Barracuda, about four years ago.

It's good to go with Barracuda. If your work is only on the internet, you can go with this product. If you want to create your own MPLS network, or you are more focused on application performance over the internet, you can go with Barracuda.

I would not blindly say go with any given product because there are multiple factors to consider. For example, there is no license for SSL. When you have a greater number of remote users, and you don't know what kind of scalability you will need, that is another thing. If you have multiple offices, all inter-connected via the internet, you want a single management console through which you can manage all you firewalls. In that case, Barracuda could be a good option.

If you want to buy a product which can challenge the industry-recognized leaders, like Palo Alto or Check Point, you should consider this product.

I rated it at nine out of 10. It's not a 10 because of their training - it takes a long time to understand this product. Also, it locks after each and every change, which is problematic. Also, when you login from some sources, there is no feature which can log you out after a certain timeout.

The product has a good interface. The system's logic is quite organized and effective compared to the pricing. Additionally, it provides a lot of functionality adhering to the current trends.

While using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we encounter issues with VPN profiles for Windows. It could be improved.

We have been using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall since 2016.

I rate the platform’s stability a nine out of ten.

We have 300 Barracuda CloudGen Firewall users. I rate its scalability a nine out of ten.

The platform’s technical support services are good. We refer to a published guide in case of errors.

Positive

I am familiar with FortiGate and Check Point. We prefer Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for a stable environment, new infrastructure, and reasonable implementation offers.

We have been using the platform for a few years now. So, the initial setup process is simple for us.

The platform is inexpensive compared to other vendors. I rate its pricing a five out of ten. We have purchased its support services for three years.

We are going to evaluate Barracuda and Cloud Genesys to get a better understanding of VPN issues.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall offers a separate license for VPN clients with some easy-to-use features. If you buy the module, you can use the entire features. The only issue is that it is not as popular as FortiGate.

I recommend it to others and rate it an eight out of ten.

The firewall is robust and performs well for us. The solution is fairly easy to maintain and monitor, check logs and updates, and do daily, weekly, and month-to-month maintenance. We've actually been very happy with the firewalls and also the support.

We have a whole lot more control over the level of protection. Most of my clients are simple manufacturers, and we use the solution to protect them from web bots. They do have an integrated firewall or integrated malware protection and antivirus protection on the firewall. They've solved a lot of service attacks and attacks from simple infection bots that we were experiencing beforehand. The solution has had no downtime since we installed it. As opposed to some other firewalls that tend to lock up occasionally, this solution has never locked up or had any issues. 

The only issues we've ever encountered have been during an update or a change, which were always solved immediately by me or through a simple call to support. The solution's monitoring and logs are very comprehensive, and I've been able to backtrace hacks. Their history logs are very easy to pull on their unit, and they keep tons of data that is way more than I would ever need as far as that point. I have one client to whom we have provided a higher level of protection. Certain machines based on IP or MAC addresses cannot access the Internet. So that took a little bit of advanced configuration to get that going. The solution has phenomenally helped that business to block internet access for certain IP addresses or MAC addresses and yet allow the antivirus and Windows updates to occur. So the solution is good enough for a simple firewall, but they're also advanced enough to do some interesting things depending on your needs.

The stability of the client-to-site VPN or the client VPN software has been excellent. The antivirus protection or malware protection has been great. I love the level of logging with it because it makes running my quarterly reports and things for our ISO certifications a lot easier for us.

The biggest downside is that it is quite an expensive product. So a little bit better pricing or some options for a little bit cheaper device would be nice. They are quite complex to get up and running for anything beyond a basic installation. They could do something better with their initial setup wizard to make things just a little bit easier. Besides that, they're pretty good as far as I'm concerned.

I've been using the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for a little over four to five years.

I rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall a ten out of ten for stability because their stability has been excellent.

The solution is very scalable because you can use it for a simple setup or some quite advanced features. I rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall a nine out of ten for scalability.

Their customer support has exceeded my expectations for every interaction we've ever had. I initially called them to ask how to set up the solution, and the guy walked me right through it. He was extremely knowledgeable, and he knew his stuff. Their customer support is available anytime, and it's quite easy to get a hold of them. Their process is a little strange. You have to get a call in and give them your info, and they log a ticket. After that, they get a tech to either work with you or they will call you back if their wait times are longer. Other than that, their support has been superb.

I rate their customer support a ten out of ten because they've been fantastic.

Positive

We used NETGEAR ProSAFE models. I also have quite a good experience with the D-Link AC line. Those were the two solutions that we were primarily using before the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall.

We decided to go with the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall because we wanted something more comprehensive and more powerful with better protection. The NETGEAR model is a thing of the past, and they're no longer selling those. The D-Links are still available, but they're nowhere near the protection and features that Barracuda CloudGen Firewall provides. So we were looking for a better product for small to medium-sized businesses, especially with all the hacking and everything coming out of other countries.

The initial setup is complex. I rate their initial setup a six or seven out of ten.

Setting up the solution with the company usually takes an hour and a half. Our most advanced case took about three hours.

I've always implemented the solution in-house or in-house with help from support. Typically, just one person is involved in the deployment of the solution.

There is minimal upkeep and maintenance on the device. You can configure it, set it up, and pretty much never touch it again if you wish. You may need to do the periodic updates they release that improve its features and protection. Once it's set up and configured, you can almost walk away from it until the device quits working. So far, we've only had one actual failure, and it was due to power issues. So, they've been rock solid, and you could configure it and walk away and not have any real maintenance if you wish. Or you can maintain it and keep it functioning at the top level.

I rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall an eight out of ten for its pricing. It's not the most expensive, but it's certainly not cheap. It costs around $2000 a year for licensing, instant replacement, antivirus, virus or malware protection, and the general support contract we use. I am not aware of any additional costs to the standard licensing fee we pay for this solution.

We have not had any major technical problems. If we do ever have technical issues, their support has been extremely helpful. It is quite a complicated piece of hardware to configure, and I would love to find better training for that. However, someone with a technical background can set them up. We usually do the hardware replacement through their system every four years. They will send you a new device so long as you have kept the hardware replacement and the support up during the four years. So that's been an incredible plus to the unit itself.

I recommend having a talented or knowledgeable IT staff install it or be prepared to call support and spend time with them to get it installed. It's not simple by any means. Beyond that, be prepared to have a little bit of downtime while you're doing the installation. It's not a quick install. It's not something you can put in and have the network up in a few minutes, and it will take you a little while. And also, you need somebody that's either quite knowledgeable about it or is willing to work with their support team to set up the solution.

Typically, the deployment model used is on-premises or an on-premise and hybrid setup.

Overall, I rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall an eight out of ten because my overall experience with the solution has been good.

Much quicker deployment, ease of troubleshooting and better cost compared to our previous solution.

• Ease of use and troubleshooting.
• Very easy to quickly identify issues and resolve them.
• Add-on features such as Virus Scanning, ATP, and web filtering - These features add another level of protection and block malware before it gets to the end user. 
• Single device, multiple functions - I do not need to purchase a web application firewall, a proxy server, a VPN device and so many others because these are all built in to this one device.
• TINA (Transport Independent Network Architecture) VPN features - Allows automatic VPN configuration with little or no input from the tech. Drag and drop lines between Barracuda units and the VPN is automatically built.

Can be underpowered if you choose to use all available add-on features. Just be careful when sizing your unit. Make sure you take into account what features you will be turning on, and work with your sales rep to get the model that can handle that load.

No stability issues.

No scalability issues.

I would rate the technical support nine out of 10.

This product was much easier to deploy, manage and troubleshoot than my previous solution.

Straightforward, very intuitive.

Pricing is good. Licensing is pretty much automatic if using Control Center.

Cisco and Fortinet.

I rate it a nine out of 10 due to its ease of installation, great technical support, very intuitive user interface, and numerous features.

Go through the training course.

Our primary use case is protecting companies from hackers. Everyone is vulnerable and it's a challenge to protect everything. 

Improvement should focus on fixing vulnerabilities. One of the issues with firewalls is that they don't dynamically update. If you experience an attack it can take a very long time to find a solution. It's the same issue with the Microsoft operating system which has all kinds of vulnerabilities and they put patches on to fix them. Firewalls are similar. 

It would be great to see a sharing of information but this is unlikely to happen. Everything in the industry is proprietary. It's similar to Dell computers, everything is proprietary and Barracuda is the same. They want to protect what they're doing with the firewall and so they don't want you to know how they work. For the user, there are tech people like network managers and security managers who won't share information about their vulnerabilities so you'll never know what's wrong. You know enough to use the product but not enough to enable you to solve the real security issues. 

At some point, they'll probably need to develop frequency hopping to make hacking more difficult. 

Scalability is always good because the company wants to be able to handle large customers. They can deal with both small businesses and massive companies. The ones I've worked for had thousands of computers. There are people still running Windows XP and Windows 10 and then you've got Mac users and cell phone connections. Scalability is there but it's a lot of work.

Technical support is quite poor, similar to Cisco. Technical staff are usually people that they've hired who are generally inexperienced. 

Initial setup is very complex and the firewalls can sometimes be unpredictable. A lot of this is connected to encryption. Every bit of encryption slows things down but if it's too light there's not enough protection. 

All the firewall companies such as Fortinet tend to go after certain markets. All the highly regulated industries such as banking and security exchanges have to follow a lot of rules. Firewalls can't provide them with all their specific needs. A lot of our time is spent trying to fix their problems. Our problem is that they all run different operating systems so it's difficult for them to do a good job at protection.

In another area, the more variation in equipment creates more issues. If you had a thousand computers, all identical and doing the same job, you wouldn't have as much trouble as you do when there are a thousand computers with 500 variations all doing different things; document control, engineering, facilities management and the most difficult to deal with is material management. 

I would rate this product a five out of 10. 

I think Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is one of the most advanced firewall platforms. I also like that it's easy to get top-level support right away. You get that security, and if you make a mistake, it doesn't break.

It would be better if they had a trace and trap feature. It's hard for me to say anything bad about Barracuda. This is because we had a firewall go down in the town of Kirkland Lake, and it was a blown-out port, and they had an instant replacement. 

I have been using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for many years. I have had it ever since I worked with CalGold.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a scalable solution.

It's easy to get top-level support. In contrast, Cisco takes a layered approach with its support services. That's why Barracuda is a little bit on the cutting edge. 

I've worked with many others, including WatchGuard, SonicWall, and Cisco.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

I have set it up myself multiple times. You can also pay a third party and call them during the process, and they will walk you through it.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Barracuda CloudGen Firewall a nine.

It is used to secure our local area network and provide VPN access for outside connections. We have its latest version.

Its ability to block incoming attacks is valuable. Its logging, traffic monitoring, and VPN capabilities are also valuable. 

The biggest issue that I have with this solution is that it is not super intuitive. Once you know what to do, things make sense, but you can't just open the program and start doing things. It would be great if there was a little bit more guided usage inside the program.

We got it around the end of 2018. So, it has been about two and a half years.

Its stability is great.

Its scalability is great. Currently, we have about 20 users. The model that we have handles up to 3,000 users. So, we won't have to scale it soon. As we get new employees, we will scale it up, but at this time, we don't have any big plans.

I have called their tech support a lot. They are great.

We had a SonicWall Firewall in place before this.

Its initial setup was of middle complexity for me. Some parts of it were really straightforward, but there were a couple of complex things. Most of it was straightforward, but the complex things were pretty complex.

We did it in-house, and we also had the company's tech support for a couple of items, but most of it was done without tech support on hand. It took two days for everything.

In terms of maintenance, I manage it myself, but it is not something that has to be managed every day.

Its licensing is on a yearly basis. There is an upfront purchase price, and there is also an annual maintenance fee. There are no additional fees.

I would advise others to make sure that they understand their network before trying to set it up. They should understand what they want the firewall to do and make sure that they know what needs to get through the firewall.

I would rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall an eight out of ten. I am very happy with this solution.

Our primary use case is the need for a VPN site to site connectivity across 30 or more sites. We employ the URL filtering, antivirus protection, malware, advanced threat protection, application control and identity fire walling. We're a customer of Barracuda and I'm a system administrator. 

I like the identity fire walling, malware protection and application control features. Those features provide us with the ability to give individuals or groups of users specific application access with the confidence that you have malware protection.

The solution could be improved with visibility into the traffic about what's happening at a given time. I think the analytics are weak and although it appears to be doing its job, it's difficult to know exactly what it's doing. 

I would like to see complete, real time and historical playback of all traffic and the amount of bandwidth utilized by each network.

I've been using this solution for three years. 

It's scalable but it's worthwhile scaling up physically before you need it. It means you basically have to overestimate the size of the appliance you're going to need. There isn't any trade up as you go kind of plan. If you think you're going to need more horsepower, you need to plan for that in advance so you're buying up more than you'll end up using. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

I think the technical support is very good, I haven't had any problems with them. 

The initial setup was a little complicated and it required an implementation strategy. You need to plan your VPNs and fail-over capabilities, the method or the order in which you build in your additional network settings is very critical. If you don't do it in the right order, nothing works and you have to restart the box which nobody wants to do. 

The licensing cost varies according to the size of the box. The 600 series is about $USD 10,000 a year and the 80 is $400 a year. There's a big difference.

If you're going to need advanced visibility into new areas, then you should plan on purchasing a third party product to be able to capture everything and you will then need to build that cost in. If you don't do that, you're just not going to have that visibility.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.