Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Reviews

In the time we were using it:

• Intrusion Prevention System/Intrusion Detection System (IPS/IDS)
• Layer 7 filtering
• DDoS prevention
• HA
• Traffic management, among others.

During the testing time, the improvement was prominent as we stop unwanted outgoing traffic and were able to get real-time logs. This provided us with better bandwidth administration and usage.

If I compare it to other firewalls like Kerio Control, I would say that, probably, the GUI/Configuration Menu is something that could be more user friendly.

We used it for almost two months while we were researching firewall solutions and this was one option.

Not much, the problem was on our side because it was the first time with this kind of firewall (and brand), but the installation of the virtual appliance was really easy.

None, from the first day to the last, the firewall ran with no issues at all.

None at all as long as you have the money to pay for the licenses to scale the system.

Nil, here in Argentina, the distributor was limited to providing the price of the product. We had to resolve issues by doing our own research.

We didn´t use the technical support, however we watched, many times, the webinars that Barracuda gave.

At that time we were using pfSense, which is not bad at all, but we needed something more enterprise-class like, and Barracuda Networks gave that to us. The monitoring tools are great.

Compared with other Firewalls, yes, it was complex but that´s for two reasons,

1. The firewall has plenty of options to configure
2. Because we were not trained or used to this kind of firewall, the initial set-up was long

We installed this application on our own, and we didn't receive any advice on it. I can say that the Latin America team at Barracuda took some time to reply to our questions through email.

We were evaluating a lot of appliances/firewalls/UTM like,

• Sonicwall
• Checkpoint
• Bluecoat
• Kerio Control
• Cisco ASA
• Sophos Gateway (formerly Astaro Gateway)

There were also many others that I don´t remember now as well. We were looking for simplicity and effectiveness.

Try it before you buy. Barracuda gives the chance to try the hardware and the software before buying it so you can test all the things that you will need and use day-to-day. And if you can, take a seminar to get the most out of the devices. However we found the product a little harder to configure than others, and so it´s not a product for unskilled/inexperienced administrators. You will need training to get the best of this product.

• Firewall
• VPN protocol - TINA
• Antivirus
• URL filter
• Web filter

It is already a complete product.

We've used this product since 2012.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Support is really great as we are a a diamond partner.

I used Cisco ASA before, but the Barracuda NG Firewall is better.

It can be complex, but also straightforward.

We are a managed service provider. So we setup a lot of boxes, and the implementation depends how complex the clients' network is.

Since updating single boxes or large amounts of systems only requires a couple of mouse clicks, it allows us to keep the firewalls up to date, both for firmware and on fixes, in demanding locations around the globe. This process is such that we trust it to handle nearly impossible to reach systems too.

The real difference is the fact that it truly scales, and fully managing a thousand firewalls worldwide with a team of two is quite doable. Even with serious hardware failures, you can often still securely manage the system and analyze the issue at hand, or even fix certain issues. Other indispensable functions, are the full transparency of handled data, both real time and historical, the ability to create VPN tunnels in the blink of an eye, the multiple parallel VPN tunnels, and near infinite routing options.

Although IPv6 was implemented a couple of years ago in the Barracuda NG Firewalls, the real use of IPv6 is still rare. This means that the “real world exposure” of these parts is less than the IPv4 parts. This is obviously a general issue for security vendors.

None what so ever, we use these systems in critical 24x7x365 environments because of their stability and resiliency.

Barracuda offers a wide range of models ranging up to 40 GB sustained firewall throughput, and since all their systems work from a single image, I’ve never had an issue with scaling or migrating them.

The Barracuda NG Firewall, managed through the Barracuda Control Center thrives in large to very large environments. Unlike other vendors, the management really scales. Managing (all aspects) a thousand firewalls anywhere in the world with just a couple of engineers, is quit doable. The current practical maximum of firewalls to manage simultaneously is around 7,500, but that is quite beyond my scope.

Customer Service:

I’ve been in IT for nearly 40 years, and I’ve had my share of dealings with “service/support organizations”, often service/support was just the name of the department, but down the line it got a different meaning. Barracuda’s definition of support however extends every definition of the term to a new level.

These guys are accessible, no phone trees etc., they are polite, extremely knowledgeable, and customer oriented. Officially you need a subscription to be eligible for support, but I’ve never seen them turn their back on anyone. Barracuda Service is really Barracuda Service.

Technical Support:

There is not really a difference between customer service and technical support except maybe in the questions asked (and the people assigned to answer these questions).

Every user is entitled to full technical support which, as states, is unsurpassed in the IT industry.

I’ve been working with firewalls in small, medium and world scale solutions, since approx. 1994. and have dealt with a substantial amount of systems from number of vendors (like Check Point, Juniper NetScreen, Cisco PIX and ASA and some smaller ones).

Over the years, I’ve seen many sales guys promising “the world” but upon closer scrutiny actually offering very little. I must confess that I told the Barracuda (Phion back than) sales guy of my experiences, and his reply was; “you’re right, I’ll organize a phone conference with one of the developers”. My immediate reply was “Do these guys talk to mortals?”

After a very frank and open call lasting far beyond the one hour initially set, I was convinced that this product truly did stand out. Seven years of experience later, I’m even more convinced that this solution is unparalleled.

Let me rephrase, my “first setup” was complex, as the Barracuda NG firewall is different to others, but once you understand what you’ve got, and can get your head around it, it’s tremendously straightforward.

I’ve received full training of the Barracuda NG Firewall, and I’m the guy that designs the entire environment, and gets to setup the complex parts, and for the really insane tweaks, I can always count on the help of the entire Barracuda team. They are always reachable and will come over on short notice for special cases. These are the people who were part of team that build the systems back in the very early 2000’s and working with these guys is always a pleasure.

It is a real next generation firewall, if you’re looking for any run of the mill box and have little requirements, it’s probably not for you. If your requirements are more demanding and especially if you’ve got a number of locations, this is the product to consider.

The price itself is in the normal range, so the real benefit lies in the savings in management and amount of staff. Furthermore, Barracuda offers a so called instant replacement contract that not only entitles you to replacement of defective hardware, but also after four years enables you to replace the system with a brand new system for free.

As stated, I’ve worked with firewalls from different vendors, also in quite large environments, but they are no match for the Barracuda NG Firewall, not by a long shot. The vendors were:

• Check Point
• Cisco PIX and ASA
• Juniper NetScreen
• CyberGuard
• SonicWALL
• IIS

Although it is a truly great firewall it is certainly not a “run of the mill” product, and even if you have thorough knowledge of other firewall environment, don’t go in there without a good partner that will guide and support you.

Not really a Barracuda NG Firewall but a Barracuda rack mounted device (EON) that is capable of running the NG Firewall, next to instances of e.g. Web Application Firewall, Web Filters, etc., the sustained throughput on these boxes is around 250 GB.

Showing an F10, low-end, firewall and an F600, mid-range, model Barracuda NG Firewall

Just the first screen of a (demo env.) Barracuda Control Center showing the status of some firewalls

The Barracuda tool (NGEarth) that allows you to monitor in real time your VPN tunnels and system status (again demo)

Example showing traffic history (just one of the many screens.)

• TINA tunnels
• Real time firewall logs
• GFI editor

It upgraded the previous Linux Clark Connect infrastructure and established proper site to site VPN tunnels for all offices across Canada and the US.

The GUI can be confusing and overwhelming at times.

I've used it for two years.

Initially we had some problems getting the TINA tunnels working, but after a while things went well. The support techs for the product were great.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

9/10.

9/10.

We used Clark Connects and we switched because the product was at its end of life and was no longer supported by the Linux community.

Setting up the BGRP routing protocol was a bit confusing but otherwise not so much. The ability to create the shell of the gateways before deployment on the NG management made things fairly straight forward.

We did it in-house.

It has offered improved network monitoring and intrusion prevention which we otherwise had none of. The office was under constant spamming by Chinese and Russian IP sub-nets and at one time the exchange server was covertly hijacked as an SMTP relay. The NG gateways helped mitigate these issues.

If you have an issue call support. If you're a Cisco net tech prepare for different terminology and network design.

The VPN feature.

The drag and drop features of VPN are really convenient to be configured. Additionally, the VPN tunnel provides a secure environment in the organization.

Nothing much except some little buggy issue sometimes, such as unable to login using the default login when out-of-box and will required factory reset once again.

About one year.

Nothing much except some buggy issues sometimes as mentioned above.

Nothing much except some buggy issues sometimes as mentioned above.

No issues encountered.

5/10.

7/10.

We switched as this is cheaper than our previous solution.

It is pretty straightforward for a basic configuration.

We also looked at Cisco ASA.

Request the assistance of experts when going for a deployment.

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.

We use the solution to secure network infrastructure.

The solution provides essential security features to protect our customers' applications.

The solution has the best security features.

The solution's interface is complex at the moment. It could be more user-friendly.

We have been using the solution for four years.

The solution is very stable. I haven't seen any downtime in the past two to three years.

I used Cisco Secure Firewall earlier.

The solution's initial setup process is easy. It requires a team of five to execute the deployment.

We implement the solution with the help of Barracuda partners.

The solution's price is affordable.

We are evaluating Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Cisco products. In comparison, Barracuda offers a reasonable price.

I rate the solution a ten out of ten.