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Furqan Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at Pronet
Real User
It has strong support and good cloud features, but spam filtering could be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "I like Barracuda's cloud sandbox feature."
  • "Barracuda's spam database isn't on par with its competitors. Users complain about the spam email they're receiving, and we report the issue. Barracuda said they are going to update their system to block the malicious email we received, but we're still getting the same spam. The signatures are not in their database. They need to update their spam signatures because spam is bypassing Barracuda."

What is our primary use case?

Barracuda is similar to FortiMail. There is a cloud component that acts like a sandbox. The email enters, and you can open a suspicious attachment to see if it's malicious. If you find that it's malicious, you can block it and send it to Barracuda's on-prem device.

The on-prem device looks for other details like URLs and particular types of content. If everything looks okay, it's forwarded to the SMTP server and the user. We have around 20 to 30 users.

What is most valuable?

I like Barracuda's cloud sandbox feature. 

What needs improvement?

Barracuda's spam database isn't on par with its competitors. Users complain about the spam email they're receiving, and we report the issue. Barracuda said they are going to update their system to block the malicious email we received, but we're still getting the same spam. The signatures are not in their database. They need to update their spam signatures because spam is bypassing Barracuda.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Barracuda for almost three years.

Buyer's Guide
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Barracuda is quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Barracuda scales as well as FortiMail. You can scale up based on the number of users per box and the email receiver.

How are customer service and support?

Barracuda provides solid support, but they have a different model. They open the terminal, check the issue, and then tell us the problem. 

How was the initial setup?

Barracuda is just like Kaspersky or FortiMail. The initial setup is seamless. They provide the box, and we must mount and configure it according to the customer's environment. It takes about a day or a half-day if you're familiar with the Barracuda environment.

I can easily configure it because it's so typical. When I configure any box, I go over the features. For example, I will first configure the SMTP server if I want to create an inbound flow. I look for that feature and configure it. The fundamentals don't vary much between devices. Some options might be different, or the features may have another name. There may be some additional features that FortiMail has, but Barracuda doe not. It varies from device to device, but the basic configuration is the same.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway six out of 10. Based on my experience, we are recommending FortiMail or Barracuda because we find these two solutions the most stable. FortiMail has fewer issues with spam.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
AbdulHannan - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Pronet
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A security for managing both inbound and outbound email and preventing it from threats

What is our primary use case?

The solution helps manage both inbound and outbound email. It prevents email phishing, spam attacks, and major attacks, securing email communication against various threats, including social engineering and compromised addresses. It has multiple features to prevent the user from being the victim of attacks.

What needs improvement?

Barracuda does not provide support for DMARC for outgoing emails. DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance.

For troubleshooting it at the core, We have to open a separate support to provide accessibility to the IT team, facilitating engineers to get into it and offer support. We have to establish a separate support tunnel at the customer site to make it accessible to the cloud, allowing the tagged engineers, potentially situated in another country, to provide remote support to the customers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

After three or four years, you can switch the hardware. When a new technology becomes available or the existing hardware needs an upgrade, they replace the customer's hardware box with a new one without additional charges. Barracuda does not charge extra for deploying the new boxes or for replacement. The best feature is their box is refreshed after some time according to their hardware renewal policies.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable.

We deployed the solution on different company and customer sites.

We’ve around nine to ten customers using the solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

FortiMail Security Gateway is far better than Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

Barracuda’s reporting feature allows you to locate particular logs and issues. The solution analyzes the issue if an email is not received at the recipient site. It also monitors email in the queue. FortiMail is difficult to handle from a reporting perspective. You have to dig deep into the logs to understand why a specific email is not being sent or received.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup and configuration are straightforward. It requires no MF records to be enabled. The platform provides two distinct interfaces for easy domain and IP address management with blacklisting and whitelisting capabilities.

To configure the system, you must set up SMTP servers, mail servers, and email addresses, enabling various security features such as anti-phishing, antivirus, content deployment, email reconstruction, etc. It is very simple to configure and use.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is cheaper than FortiMail.

What other advice do I have?

I have deployed one box on-site but also provided support for deployed boxes in many customer sites, Government sites, and private sectors.


Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Network Administrator at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport
Real User
The solution did a great job of blocking EXEs and phishing emails
Pros and Cons
  • "Its backups are valuable."
  • "The dashboard's UI could be improved to make changes to the blocklist."

What is our primary use case?

All our Office 365 emails will first go through Barracuda. It checks for any EXEs and the like, checking the email contents to allow or stop those. We also use the solution for archiving and backups.

How has it helped my organization?

From a security point of view, Barracuda Email Security improved our mail environment. Other than that, its backups are valuable.

What needs improvement?

The dashboard's UI could be improved to make changes to the blocklist. We currently have to go into the mail and check the list and the dashboard, and it would be better if we could directly block particular domains or emails instead.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used this solution for almost four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Barracuda has been stable till now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 100 users using Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

How are customer service and support?

Barracuda's technical support is fine.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to have FortiMail, and we migrated to Barracuda. Barracuda is much more effective than FortiMail. Barracuda handles spam better.

What about the implementation team?

An integrator handled the initial setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We find the solution's pricing okay.

What other advice do I have?

Our management wants to migrate to E5 from E3 and says we don't need Barracuda Email Security. However, we are unsure if E5 will have the same features as Barracuda.

I recommend Barracuda, and from a security point of view, I would rate it a nine out of ten. It didn't let any EXEs or phishing emails through.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Igor Gutierrez - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Officer & DPO - Data Protection Officer at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Provides us with good email security maturity, keeping our employees productive by blocking unwanted email
Pros and Cons
  • "The spam filtering, in particular, is very important for us. We have a large volume of emails each month, something like 200,000, and Barracuda filters about 85 percent of the spam, malware, and phishing that comes in. It prevents our users from receiving this content on their computers."
  • "We still have critical threats coming into our environment and delivered to our users. When we compare it with other solutions, these other solutions can already detect those threats."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is the first security layer for emails that come into our network, and we use it to filter all spam, phishing emails, and malware that come in via email.

We are now using the virtual appliance in our VMware environment.

How has it helped my organization?

In the past, we had a lot of problems from threats and malware that came into our network, directly from email. Users would receive the content and click on a malicious link or open a malicious attachment, and that caused us a lot of problems.

By choosing Barracuda as our solution for filtering, year by year we have seen a big improvement in our environment with a significant reduction in the number of threats. Consequently, we have fewer problems with users. In the past, users who clicked on this malicious content had to stop work for a long period while our support team helped them. We have almost 600 employees, and every month we had a lot of problems with that. Today we have good security maturity using this solution. It has reduced the risk in our environment. Employees lose less time due to malicious content on their computers. Barracuda has helped to secure the gateway.

What is most valuable?

The spam filtering, in particular, is very important for us. We have a large volume of emails each month, something like 200,000, and Barracuda filters about 85 percent of the spam, malware, and phishing that comes in. It prevents our users from receiving this content on their computers.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In our environment today, the stability is good.

The problems we have at times are not about the performance or availability, but about the quality of the detection for some threats. The model that we have does not have a sandbox resource, which other versions Barracuda offer. Sometimes we receive a phishing email that has a malicious link, for example. Even though it is an old threat, Barracuda can't detect it. Sometimes these messages are delivered to our users. This is a gap that we have identified.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Because we use the on-premises version, we don't have many options when it comes to scalability. But in our headquarters, we have the same solution working at the same time in two different data centers for availability.

We have plans to update to the next version, preferably the cloud version, where we can have more options for using the other resources and layers that Barracuda offers. We don't have access to those today on the version we have.

How are customer service and support?

Everyone that I have contacted in their technical support is a professional. They always respond quickly and are very patient, for all the problems we have raised. The technical support really is very good. And today, that makes a real difference. Barracuda is a North American company, but they have support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are in a different time zone, but we always get support quickly.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In addition to Barracuda, we used an open-source solution from Linux.

How was the initial setup?

It's not so hard to deploy. Barracuda has a huge forum on the internet with a lot of simple guides to follow. In our case, it was very simple to deploy the solution. Obviously, you need to have some knowledge about your network and the protocols, but every time that we need to use support they are always available very quickly to help us. But overall, the deployment is very simple.

The first time we deployed it, it took about three hours.

Ahead of deployment, we had some meetings with our IT team at our headquarters in Germany because we needed to create some rules in our network in Germany as well as here in Brazil. We chose the best resources for virtualization in our environment. We needed to design exactly how it would work: how Barracuda would receive emails and how we would address emails from our Microsoft Exchange before they went to Barracuda. We always used the Barracuda guidelines in the deployment process.

For our 600 users we have two people involved in the solution, a security guy and a network guy.

What was our ROI?

If we didn't have a solution like Barracuda in our environment, we would probably have a lot of problems that would directly impact our business. There would be employees who wouldn't be able to work because their machines were infected by threats after they opened email. If we calculate how many users used to be impacted in a year, and how much each one cost the company when not able to work, it would not be a good result. 

With this solution, we can prevent users and their work from being impacted and, consequently, reduce the impact to our business.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Barracuda has the best price. Every year we need to renew our license, and every year I need to compare Barracuda to two or three other players in the market. Barracuda always has a price that is 30 to 40 percent less than the other players' prices.

Last year we paid for the possibility of changing our hardware every three years. But now, because we changed the licensing model to a virtualization model, we don't need that. We just pay for the product and the support. There are two separate costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Over the last two years, I have looked at other solutions that might give us more ability to handle new threats. For example, I have looked at solutions that have a sandbox feature integrated into them. But, Barracuda has given us a good idea of what it proposes to do. They already have the solution that I am looking for, but because of costs, we haven't been able to deploy it.

The advantage of Barracuda is its availability. Barracuda provides really good performance and is able to handle tons of emails by the minute and by the hour. The con is that we still have critical threats coming into our environment and delivered to our users. When we compare it with other solutions, these other solutions can already detect those threats.

What other advice do I have?

Barracuda's technology is the kind of technology that gives us a good balance among security, value, and user experience. It is not the best tool or technology on the market, but it does what it was developed to do. There are other possibilities, if you are willing to pay more. But Barracuda is the right solution for the problem in our environment.

A lot of companies pay for a good and comprehensive solution, but they usually only use 50 or 60 percent of what the solution offers. Barracuda is different. We use it 100 percent. I know what the Barracuda technology delivers for me and the value I get from it for what I pay and how I use it. It is that simple.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
PeerSpot user
Senior Account Manager at National Bank of Egypt
Reseller
Top 5
The solution has excellent customer support though it needs to improve its integration
Pros and Cons
  • "Customer support is the solution's strongest point."
  • "Some customers experience issues with integration."

What is our primary use case?

Our customers use this solution for screening.

What is most valuable?

Customer support is the solution's strongest point.

What needs improvement?

Some customers experience issues with integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

Our organization has integrated this solution for the last six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 12 customers using the solution.

How are customer service and support?

I used the support ticket and the response was perfect.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What about the implementation team?

Our engineer manages the implementation and maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's pricing is exceedingly high, and it continues to increase. Many-a-time, customers do not renew the solution due to the high price. I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Mohankannan Ramadoss - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Manager at Digitaltrack
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A stable and cost-effective solution that can be used for securing emails
Pros and Cons
  • "Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use."
  • "Barracuda Email Security Gateway should include ATP in the next release."

What is our primary use case?

We use Barracuda Email Security Gateway for securing emails.

What is most valuable?

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use. The solution is predominantly suited for less than 10,000 mailboxes. Barracuda Email Security Gateway has a simple dashboard.

What needs improvement?

Barracuda Email Security Gateway should include ATP in the next release.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have worked with Barracuda Email Security Gateway for the last 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten for scalability.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a cost-effective solution.

What other advice do I have?

I use the latest version of Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

Overall, I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Director Technical at CAD CAM Center
Real User
Top 10
Full featured, effective protection, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the complete capabilities it provides. Additionally, the phishing security and sandbox features are effective."
  • "The solution should add automatic alerts to the mobile."

What is our primary use case?

Our customers use the solution for security.

The solution can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the complete capabilities it provides. Additionally, the phishing security and sandbox features are effective.

What needs improvement?

The solution should add automatic alerts to the mobile.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for approximately 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is great.

I rate the stability of Barracuda Email Security Gateway a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is used by more than 2,000 users.

I rate the scalability of Barracuda Email Security Gateway a nine out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

We do not have any regional support in my area. We are having to provide all of the support ourselves.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used other solutions in the past but switched because Barracuda Email Security Gateway has a lot more features and became the leader.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is simple for the cloud base version. It takes approximately one hour for the deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We use two people for the deployment of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of the solution should be reduced. The price in the USA is less than where we are. Our local distributor of the solution is manipulating the market. 

The price of the solution can range from €6,000 to €23,000. The on-premise version is expensive. However, if it is on the cloud the price is better.

I rate the price of Barracuda Email Security Gateway a six out of ten.

The price is approximately 30 percent more than others on the market.

What other advice do I have?

If the solution is configured correctly then the maintenance is low. We are able to check the solution for our customers. We use two people for the maintenance if needed.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Saad Zarkout - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at BUTEC s.a.l.
Real User
Effective ATP, high availability, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP."
  • "Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve reporting and anti-spam. The anti-spam engine is not working well. We are seeing a lot of problems where spam is going through the gateway. Additionally, access privilege should be given to the IT support, because they don't have a lot of privileges. We are forced to give our IT support administrative access in order to clear and deliver emails and this should not be happening."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for ATP,  anti-spam, antivirus, and everything related to enabling flow.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP.

What needs improvement?

Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve reporting and anti-spam. The anti-spam engine is not working well. We are seeing a lot of problems where spam is going through the gateway. Additionally, access privilege should be given to the IT support, because they don't have a lot of privileges. We are forced to give our IT support administrative access in order to clear and deliver emails and this should not be happening.

In the future, having a schedule reporting for quarantine for all users or for selected users, without reading the content of the message would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is stable. We had issues with the on-premise version where they used to freeze from time to time, but with the cloud version, we have not had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a scalable solution.

We have approximately 500 people using the solution.

How are customer service and support?

I have used the support from Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

I rate the support from Barracuda Email Security Gateway a three out of five.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway took approximately two months to complete here in Lebanon. It was not an easy implementation.

What about the implementation team?

We used Barracuda Email Security Gateway partners to complete the implementation of the solutions.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is approximately $17 per user annually.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate another solution prior to selecting Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

What other advice do I have?

We chose the solution because it was high on the rating sites and some of my friends from other companies recommend it.

My advice to others is to make sure that their business use case is well optimized, to allow the solution to be set up in the right way.

We are a construction company and we make sure that the emails related to construction pass through the solution. Other companies, such as in marketing, will want to make sure that the marketing campaign passes through. We don't want any marketing campaigns to pass through. You need to see your business use case and your business needs, and you will have to adapt the solution.

I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Barracuda Email Security Gateway Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Barracuda Email Security Gateway Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.