Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for AWS - PAYG

Our primary use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall  is as a central firewall to connect to the internet. It's mainly used in hospitality and industrial sectors.

The most valuable features of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall  are its next-generation capabilities such as URL filtering and application control, which enhance security by allowing better management of network traffic and preventing unauthorized access. These features help secure the network when connecting to the internet, thus improving the overall security posture.

There should be improvements in the management aspect of the firewall. Specifically, it would be beneficial to merge the existing application policy with the main policy into a single unified policy to improve manageability. Some changes in the management features would enhance its usability.

I have been a partner working with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for five years.

Deployment is a lengthy process. It requires replacing old components with new ones piece by piece, and there is a need for extensive fine-tuning afterward. The time required depends on the customer's environment and existing infrastructure.

I have encountered some stability issues, particularly with connectivity in the Barracuda portal. Version 8.0 had issues, but the newer version 9.0 seems to have improved performance regarding these issues. However, the customers using the portal are still on version 8.6.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is quite scalable, and I would rate it a seven out of ten in terms of scalability.

The technical support from Barracuda is very good. I would rate it nine out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is moderately challenging. Initially, it may not be easy, but with experience, it becomes more manageable.

Barracuda is reasonably priced in Slovenia. It is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive option available. The licensing is charged per year.

For those planning to use Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, I recommend thoroughly reviewing the manuals, especially if you are new to it. It is different from other firewalls like Cisco or Palo Alto. Overall, I rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall a seven out of ten. The management features are better on other firewalls, and there is room for improvement in this area.

On-premises

We use Barracuda CloudGen Firewall  for protection in our network and IPsec. We also set up BGP for our customers.

The most valuable features of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall  include antivirus protection, anti-DDoS, and IPS. We also find the bandwidth management and traffic shaping features effective for traffic optimization. The policy that allows for license renewal and hardware refresh every four years also offers cost efficiency for us.

The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others. It is a bit complicated and could be improved. The initial setup can also be complex because it involves navigating different menus instead of a linear setup process. Integration with AI would be helpful as modern attacks often utilize AI.

I have been using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for eight years. We are a partner of Barracuda.

When we use Barracuda, we have not experienced any attacks or security breaches.

I am quite satisfied with Barracuda's technical support. However, the menu is not as user-friendly, though the overall security has been satisfactory, with no breaches.

I have worked with several firewalls before using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall.

The initial setup can be a bit complex because it involves different menus and sections. It is not straightforward like others, which use everything in one flow.

The license price of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is lower than others, and maintenance or support is included.

Customers seeking other options often consider solutions like FortiGate  due to its reputation in Gartner Quadrant.

Customers seeking products based on Gartner Quadrant leadership might not prefer Barracuda, as it is not positioned as a leader. 

I would rate Barracuda CloudGen Firewall at eight out of ten. 

I recommend this firewall for small to medium businesses, however, larger enterprises might look for something with a higher brand reputation.

Other

Primarily, we cater to data center customers who locate their servers, applications, and data within one of our data centers. These customers use the firewall to secure their perimeter.

I find the intrusion prevention system to be valuable, along with the fact that it can now integrate with Barracuda's XDR . This integration helps secure our data and applications from attackers trying to gain access and detect malicious activity. 

Additionally, the easy addition of XDR  allows us to have 24/7 SOC monitoring. All of the information is located in the central management system, enabling customers to see performance and get reports. We can also access the system for policy updates, firmware updates, etc.

There could be improvements in licensing. Some licensing aspects are challenging; for example, if you're using an active-passive setup, you have to license both firewalls. Some competitors now offer a floating license between the two. They offer more streamlined license allocation. 

I have used the solution for one year.

I rate the stability as ten. We have very few issues with Barracuda Firewall, even in the case of zero-day vulnerabilities, which are fewer compared to competitors.

The firewalls are very good and scalable. However, if you are moving into higher-end services, there may be some other products that are more viable. 

When positioning into customers, some larger enterprise customers tend to move towards one of the top three: either Cisco, Fortinet, or Palo Alto. For SME and SMB partners, the scalability of the solution is really good, however, enterprise customers may start seeing additional features in other larger players that they might be looking for.

I rate the customer service as ten out of ten. Barracuda's partner support is better than the majority, and it stands out as one of their strengths. It covers solution design and is available to assist with the configuration of devices, onboarding, and support, offering enhancement and optimization for ongoing services.

Positive

I'm aware of Meraki. With Meraki, if you have two firewalls, you only need one license. However, with Barracuda, you need to license both firewalls, which makes them more expensive.

I rate the initial setup as ten out of ten. 

It is straightforward to set up a CloudGen file, taking a couple of hours. Once we have the configuration agreed with the customer, the setup and onboarding are completed within a few hours. 

We receive the box from Barracuda or from our stores, pre-stage it into our network for initial configuration and Soak testing to ensure functionality. The customer can install it at their location, or we do it on their behalf. 

We run the firewall in simulation mode to observe traffic and ensure service transition is effective. After confirming functionality with the customer, we transition to a live service.

I would strongly encourage considering the full stack solution offered by Barracuda, including their XDR overlay service and wider secure edge service. These integrate closely with the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall  and offer a holistic security layer. 

I rate the overall solution nine out of ten.

On-premises

We use the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall to monitor all incoming emails to our corporate domain. Additionally, we use the device to manage and control outbound traffic from our internal email servers. One of the most beneficial features of this solution is its ability to effectively control traffic.

Since implementing the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we've seen significant benefits, particularly in stopping a lot of unnecessary or dangerous emails. One key feature we value is the ability to train the solution with emails categorized as threats, giving it a learning capacity.

However, the solution isn’t perfect. It sometimes lets through emails incorrectlycategorized as safe but malicious. I believe the tool could be improved by incorporating artificial intelligence to enhance its email analysis capabilities, though I’m unsure if this feature is currently available.

I have experience with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for ten years.

We haven’t had any stability issues; the device is very stable, even without redundancy.

In terms of scalability, the on-premise solution isn't very flexible. If our corporation's email volume increases, we’d need to change the device as it's impossible to form a cluster by adding another unit. But in the cloud environment, there are no scalability issues. 

We’ve had some issues where support didn’t provide clear solutions or explanations.

Neutral

Setting up the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall was easy. You must configure an IP and set up the domain and DNS servers.The deployment took about a month, and we configured it according to new rules. For example, we noticed it blocked certain needed emails, so we adjusted the settings. We also have the ability to configure both blocklists and allowlists, which adds more control but requires a bit more manual configuration.

We only have one person responsible for maintaining the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, and it’s easy to manage.

In terms of return on investment, it's good. We generate reports about the device's activity, including the emails it blocks, which prevents users from wasting time on commercial, unwanted, or spam emails.

When the corporation purchases something, it follows a request-for-proposal process and the best price wins. So, I think Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is reasonably priced, though I’m not sure of the exact amount

I’d rate the firewall a seven because it hasn’t been upgraded in recent years, and attacks keep evolving. We now need other consoles to complement it since it lacksdevelopment.

Hybrid Cloud

One of the big benefits of the product is that it allows you to manage big environments with fewer resources. The product offers very good management.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall should work a little bit more with the logs so that, in our company, we can generate a little bit more reports and get a bit more statistics, which would be fine for us. The firewall's functionalities are okay, including network and security. The tool should improve its reporting and security areas, which are the only areas of concern related to the product.

I have been using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for twenty-two years. I use the solution's different model versions, including Barracuda CloudGen Firewall F12.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

The product is easy to deploy, configure, and update.

I would prefer users to opt for Palo Alto in enterprise-sized environments, like energy companies, health companies, or financial organizations. Compared to Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls, Palo Alto offers its users a little bit more security. Palo Alto's threat prevention, sandboxing functionalities, and web filtering features are good. I don't know the other vendors so well that I could talk about them.

Though there are some issues with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, those working with it in our company are mostly satisfied with it.

I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.