What is our primary use case?
The security team is in charge of backup. They used to do what Barracuda does now manually. It was a huge overhead for them. The problem is now solved by going to the cloud. There's only one admin who does everything.
The implementation and management are done by one engineer. His role is just to set up the account the first time and that's pretty much it.
Maintenance is as easy as opening a Google email account. There's nothing much to be done. We'll have to look into customers internal issues on occasion, but these are all internal processes and have nothing to do with the performance of Barracuda.
If a machine disappears from the network and the customer unplugs it, Barracuda's not going to be able to see that machine. If there is ever a problem, it is with Windows itself or the operating system.
We have 12 customers right now and they've all been expanding the capacity slowly over the past year. Twelve customers might not be a lot, but for our country, that's quite good.
How has it helped my organization?
The backup has provided solutions that are very helpful to all clients. For example, we have customers who have multiple branches who used to backup things on premises. It was a really hectic process because the branches were remote. With Barracuda, we put everything under one account and they back up all the data from different branches into the same repository. They can restore all these accounts from a single backup.
It reduced really the overhead for storage.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable things about this solution is that it's easy to manage. We're selling multiple Barracuda products and all of them can be managed through one interface and one management console.
It is a very efficient solution. Even just the standard package is amazing.
What needs improvement?
We look forward to their upcoming release of a hybrid on the cloud. Apart from that, there is nothing needed.
Another thing is that some customers want to backup individual users. They do not want device based, not machine based, not IP, but a backup of personal folders on a Windows machine. Barracuda doesn't have this functionality. It does backup over machines and shared folders, but not user profiles. Backing up user profiles might be an extra feature that will be useful.
Maybe technicians who work the field might have more suggestions.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the product for more than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is really only a matter of communication. After installation, everything is done in just a few minutes. The program compresses the data and does encryption, so it's quite secure.
There are no complaints about stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is really only limited by Amazon. Their hosting platform is huge so it is virtually unlimited. The customer can choose to scale as they want. Barracuda is able to handle as many accounts as we give them.
How are customer service and technical support?
We are a Barracuda partner. We just attended their annual meeting last month and annual partner meeting. They have an amazing road map of what is planned for the future. We are in touch with all of the leaders within the company. We have very easy access to their technical layers, the sales there and so on. They are a really good, responsive company.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We resell, so we do sell some other competing backup systems to meet specific needs. We resell full disaster recovery solutions, for example. I can't offer Barracuda in that case. When clients are migrating from one site to another and they want a hot backup, we would use a different solution for that as well. But for standard backup requirements, we cover them pretty nicely with Barracuda.
Clients use Barracuda for one of two reasons. Either the low cost or to solve multi-branch issues. If a customer is managing ten appliances in ten different branches, it is very easy to explain the cost benefit and the benefit of zero management.
We sometimes have a problem with some customers who fall under government regulation. They are generally not allowed to send any data outside the country. In that case, they have to continue with an on-premise solution unless Barracuda opens a cloud within the country, which is not likely.
How was the initial setup?
It really takes about five minutes to set it up. It's all on the cloud, as I said. Straightforward. There's no appliance on the customer's side, just an account managed through the cloud.
We expect that there will be issues once they start offering services on premium hybrid cloud just because it will be a new way of providing services. But we expect that will be minimal and they will have it tested beforehand.
What about the implementation team?
We do our own installations and it takes hardly any time at all.
What was our ROI?
Customers get a return on their investment from day one. They automate backups and secure their data immediately. They don't have to worry about that anymore and it costs less. They used to have to upgrade equipment every five years and that responsibility comes off their plate.
Even if you buy that equipment Barracuda gives you a free upgrade and replacement every five years. Your cost is known in advance. You do make savings in cost and have reduced overhead as well.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is great and the functionality is amazing. Barracuda holds space on the Amazon cloud which makes it highly efficient. There's no problem with storage. The remaining challenge is just the client internet connection which will be more of an issue than Barracuda functionality.
The pricing is pretty straightforward.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There are other providers for the same type of service, but Barracuda has a good reputation. Sometimes we just upsell to people who already have Barracuda Email Secure Gateway. If you add the backup product, you managing it from within the same console so it's much easier than going with another solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this product a nine out of ten because giving it a ten is an admission of perfection. I can't do that. I don't believe they are perfect yet. I love it, I never have complaints from customers and usually most of the problems that we face are not necessarily Barracuda's issues. I can say it's quite a good product. I'll recommend it easily.
There are situations where improvements can be made to anything. For example, they don't cover every possible operating system in the world. I don't expect them to do that, so that will always be something missing. Even if the same is true for any other solution, they have to be so good that they surpass my imagination.
I believe they are doing some interesting stuff right now to improve what they already have. They are improving integration for example, their backup with other services will work better. They are enhancing the alert service, and so on. There are quite a few interesting things that they're doing.
They are also introducing an API, which allows other products to interface with Barracuda backup. The backup can be responsive instead of a pre-scheduled function. For example, if the number of attacks on the company increases by 7%, I might have a trigger for Barracuda to do a backup just in case. These are not backup issues, they are enhancements. They're not related to the main reason why the customer asks for Barracuda backup but they're nice things to have. It's really amazing stuff they're introducing.
Everything is done by Barracuda on Amazon. All we have to work with is just a simple interface. There are no problems at all. The advice I can give to people who use traditional backup solutions is to look into the benefits that you get from the cloud and the cost savings that you get.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller.
