Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Reviews

Barracuda X200 is the edge of our home system for VPN traffic. It provides IPsec to two other sites, including remote VPN access for users who are off the network.

• Inbound and outbound traffic analysis
• Rule creation wizard
• GUI portal
• Quality online support

The unit seems to be handling our 150MB pipe okay, but logger refresh leaves a bit to be desired.

A rule for email announcements, when configured hits occur, would be a great improvement for a more efficient experience.

We replaced an underperforming, continually locking Cisco RV130 unit. However, the two are not an "apples to apples" comparison.

My current company operates in the financial arena so we have to maintain our infrastructure according to leading security standards (PCI DSS and PA-DSS). These devices allow us to pass external and internal penetration tests by supporting all the recommendations of those standards.

At the moment, the most valuable features are Application Control (Layer 7 filtering) and IPS/IDS. For existing network architecture, we use Barracuda NG Firewall as a border firewall. We use it to control all in/out Internet traffic.

Sometimes we have a need for detailed reports. Barracuda NG Firewall does not have a reports module and uses a satellite application (Barracuda NG Firewall Report Creator). In some cases, this report is uncomfortable to use.

Yes, we have had stability issues, but we use Barracuda NG firewall in HA mode. Therefore, we did not have problems with availability of services. HA mode operates very well.

We have had no issues due to scalability.

On a scale from one to 10, my rating is an eight. Level 1 and 2 of their support are good, but if you want serious expertise (Level 3), there are some issues. This is related to my area, maybe it is different in some other areas.

I have personally used a lot of different solutions in my career (Cisco, Fortinet, Check Point, etc.). 

I switched to this solution for the first time due to group standards. After trying this solution, I liked it and it became one of my favorites. 

The setup is very intuitive for people with network technology knowledge. 

It is a product with a very transparent model of licensing. In the sense of hidden expenses, they do not exist with this model. 

We evaluated a lot of different options. We concluded that Barracuda NG Firewall provided the most features for an exemplary price. 

My advice is to try and evaluate it (Barracuda offers a trial period of one month). I think that a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised with its possibilities.

The solution is deployed on premises.

The ability to be deployed and supported remotely is valuable. They also have a feature called instant hardware replacement.

Essentially, if you subscribe to a service, they replace the whole system in about four years, including the hardware. So, you have a new and upgraded one. Since there is a technology refresh, you don't have to consider replacing it or acquiring a new one.

The price could be better. The problem is that the network security landscape is very dynamic. New threats come in daily, and new approaches must be made. However, we haven't encountered anything Barracuda CloudGen Firewall couldn't handle so far.

We have been using this solution for several years.

Based on our experience, we find it very stable. We can set it up and forget about it. However, there are a few instances where we had to add capabilities and we did not have any problems.

The solution is scalable, but if you acquire it for a specific size or capability and exceed that capability, you need to acquire a new solution. You don't have to do a forklift upgrade, and you can add the capability. Essentially, they work together to provide a higher capacity and add solutions, but it's not elegant because you have multiple hardware platforms.

 The customer service and support team is very supportive.

Positive

The setup is a bit complex. However, if you have the required skill set, it is easy. Unfortunately, in our experience, we didn't have the skill set the first time we did it, so it took us a while. The Philippine distributor was also not well-versed with the solution when we had our first implementation. Now that we developed the skillset, setting up is not that difficult.

I rate the price seven out of ten.

We do not have the experience of comparing it with another NG firewall. However, we can compare it with the traditional hardware-based firewall. I think Barracuda is more flexible because of how it is designed, with the capability to add features. So it is very flexible.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. I would recommend Barracuda CloudGen Firewall to almost everybody, and I couldn't foresee anyone to whom I wouldn't recommend unless they are very price sensitive.

Our primary use case for this solution is to replace vendor-managed MPLS with in-house managed SD-WAN.

This solution has allowed us to use multiple commodity internet connections at our locations, added greater control of internet usage, and enhanced security.

The most valuable features are SD-WAN, URL filtering, IPS, and virus scanning.

The technical manuals, at times, have images that don't match the actual screens and are not always as clear as they could be on the configuration. This requires a call to their very good support department.

Technical support is very good.

We are mostly using it for spam filtering. We have had great success with Barracuda Cloud, using it to block any spam before it even gets to our on-premise devices. I also had the same results occur at my previous place of employment, so I have had a lot of success with the product.

If we didn't have it, then we would be spammed constantly. It has cut down the amount of emails that get through to our end users.

• It is easy to use.
• It actually works really well. 
• Barracuda is very prompt at blocking any new spam which comes out.

To start working with spam, it takes a while because the product has to see that multiple emails are coming in with all the spam. If it could reduce that amount of time, then we would reduce the amount of users who are receiving spam.

It is very stable. We haven't had any issues with it on the cloud or even on-premise. On-premise, we have two of them that are set to high availability, and they have never gone down.

It is very scalable, especially with its cloud feature. It doesn't matter how many users I have on my end, and we are a shop of about 800 to 1000 users. So, it is working perfectly.

I have called in a few times to the tech support, and they have been on top of it. If I have a problem, they respond immediately to help. Whomever I speak with is very knowledgeable about the product. Therefore, I have not had any issues with the technical support.

The initial setup for on-premise was an easy setup. 

I wasn't part of the evaluation process.

Give Barracuda a try because it has been successful in my experience. The product is foolproof. It has done everything that we have needed with the amount of email that we receive, and it handles it quite well. So, I would give it a ten out of ten and  recommend it to anyone for use.

I have used the on-premise and Barracuda Cloud versions of the product. We are only now looking into AWS.

They are already pushing it out to the cloud and putting another layer in front of it before it even gets to me.

We use barracuda firewall as edge router connecting to our ISP modem. we turn on firewall with IP, port, applications, web filtering. We also use its VPN site-to-site and client to site. 

What I like best about this product are the support and the features.

The interface should be more user-friendly and it should be easier to configure. Its configuration are divided per module/service. You will have Firewall service, VPN module and others service. Each services are under 1 server tree. You have to configure at different tabs to make it functions which I found easy to get confused. There are no wizard for guided configuration. You have to depend on their manual at barrcuda campus. Fortunately the manual is quite comprehensive.

The inclusion of a load-balancing capability in the future would be helpful.

I have been using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for about a year.

This is a stable firewall solution.

This product is easy to scale.

The support is okay but the response time is quite long.

cisco, out of support and pricing

The initial setup is difficult and the deployment took a few days.

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is to do a proof of concept first, to make sure that it meets the requirements.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use it for security.

We enjoy the reduction in terms of labor.

• The brand
• Agility
• Price per performance

The usability for the administrator's experience needs improvement. My system administrator has some questions about its overall connectivity and flexibility.

I would like to see UI improvements in the next release.

It is very stable, but I don't think we stress it to its capabilities.

The scalability meets our needs. It should scale to our short term growth needs without a problem, as our environment is fairly small. We are a small to midsize business.

The technical support is good.

The AWS integration and configuration was easy to use and set up.

Purchasing through AWS Marketplace was good. We did it because it was easy.

It would be nice if the pricing and licensing offered for less.

I would recommend to check out this product.

We have used other versions besides AWS, and we are still comparing them.

We implement it for customers. We have some customers in Mexico who need that kind of technology. We sell that technology to them. Some of our customers have experience working with previous versions of Barracuda; they ask us to implement that kind of device. We have certification with Barracuda, we have certification with some other brands.

Barracuda has a very simple interface, very good security, all the features of the best firewalls in the market, but with a very friendly interface.

Something that we've seen that Barracuda, and some other brands also, have. When you program the firewall to detect certain kinds of attacks, Barracuda can detect that kind of attack and automatically insulate, or remove, or encapsulate the very specific IP, if it's internal. And if it's external it just blocks any kind of communication with that specific IP. If you want, Barracuda will warn the security team. If you allow, or release, that IP, it will continue communication. If not, it will block it forever, or until you release it.

Internally, we'll remove it until you release also, but we allow the IT team to review what is happening with that particular piece of equipment, a computer, a laptop, a server, any kind of device into which a "back door" can be opened or through which they're trying to get some information. Barracuda can help with that. That is one of the most important features we've seen with Barracuda.

I cannot mention the name, due to the NDA that we have signed with a financial company, a financial entity. But we implemented Barracuda with them. Right now they are monitoring all the information that their employees are managing. If an employee tries to get or move a file that is not permitted to them - for example if he wants to copy it to a USB - he will not have the right to do that, because Barracuda manages who has the right to copy, and what you copy to a USB. The USB is encrypted with a specific code from Barracuda and will only be decrypted into any other laptop in the company if they allow it to see it.

Even in the network, a feature of Windows is to see how you are sharing files. Barracuda can help you to monitor how you are moving files.

When you are sending information to an external email address, Barracuda can warn you when you are trying to access a private or personal email, or trying to upload information; it's not allowing you to do that. That was the biggest feature that that financial entity admired in Barracuda, among others.

Easy integration with some other systems like LDAP or Active Directory to manage other permissions and the division of external access and internal access.

The problem we found was with the issue of configuration. Our engineers are working with some other brands, they have knowledge of other brands. With Barracuda it's a matter of translating the comments. So maybe one company calls something a "black box" and with Barracuda they call "black" "dark." So it's a matter of getting to know it.

We had only one issue. But after we did the analysis and we escalated the issue with the Barracuda service desk, the issue was shown to be coming from a failure in a RAM memory card in the Barracuda. That issue was detected by technical support. They sent a replacement, it solved the issue, and we continued working.

No issues with scalability.

When we buy the device for the customer, we buy the Enhanced Support, the extended support contract, 24/7 support. When we write in with issues we get very quick answers from technical support. The communication with their engineers is very fluid.

We had a couple of sessions at one point; the engineer working with us never put down the phone. When her work hours were supposed to end, we changed to another engineer, but not immediately. The first one didn't say goodbye immediately. She stayed behind for 30 minutes to explain and transfer the case to the other engineer and we completed the test with the other engineer. He detected the failure and created the RMA to change the problematic piece and that was it.

We are not entirely switching to Barracuda. We want to, but we are not because before we started selling Barracuda we had invested in other brands and, obviously, in the accounting and in reality, we need to complete using them. But yes, we are thinking of moving to Barracuda after we have had it for three years. We want to show our customers that we are using the technology we are selling.

The firewall we are using in our company is Palo Alto, it's a very good firewall, a very robust firewall as well. But when we are doing the comparison with Barracuda we can see it's not the same. The biggest difference between the brands is pricing.

This is something that I have never specifically asked my technical team. The simple answer is that they have told me there is no problem. It's very easy. We only need to know the names of the commented bits, because there are some comments where the names are changing.

We compared Barracuda with Cisco. We compared Barracuda, at that time, with Fortinet. When we did the comparison we felt Cisco was another great product. But the difference in this case, what made Barracuda the winner, was the price, at that time.

We are an information technology service provider in telecommunications. We can supply any kind of device, for a datacenter, and contact centers, for our customers. We are using technology from Dell, HPE, Palo Alto, Barracuda, and some other brands to implement technology solutions for customers.

Our principal service is a managed service, information security services, or cyber security. We sell those services to different customers in Mexico. We are serving Central America and some other countries in Latin America.

I give Barracuda an eight out of 10 because they can still give more to the end-user. They still have things they can improve. They have very good features but I think they can improve some of those features and make it into a super service. Today, they are a good solution. It could be a super solution.

Regarding Barracuda, Google has been using that technology for a very long time. If a company like Google is using that technology...

Take the opportunity to get to know the device. You need to request a proof of concept, in the case that you are comparing it with another brand. That is the best way to show what Barracuda can do, completely. It's not the same as a simple server, or any other device.

If you only want to secure internet access, Barracuda will comply completely with all the features you require. But if you have public servers, and you are looking for more security options, etc., and don't want to spend a lot, Barracuda is what you are looking for. If you are a company that has no specific standard to follow, Barracuda is what you are looking for. It has very good hardware, it has very good software - or operating system - and they have very good features and good pricing. If you compare it with other brands, Barracuda is a very good solution.