Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN comparison

Barracuda Networks and Riverbed are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0, while Riverbed is ranked #26. Barracuda Networks holds a 2.1% mindshare in SDW, compared to Riverbed’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Riverbed users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Barracuda CloudGen Firewall and SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Broadcom and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.3%, down from 20.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 2.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	18.3%
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall	2.1%
SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN	0.4%
Other	79.2%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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RobertSmith15

Product Manager - Cyber Security at M247 Ltd Miami

Ensures data security with advanced intrusion prevention and 24/7 monitoring

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.

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Jason Best

Data center network architect at Cloudwire

Analytics feature is very granular and comprehensive, although complicated to use

It's like an SD-WAN project basically. You really need to make sure that the product matches the needs of what the customer's trying to achieve and their overall strategy to meet their core business requirements. I think a certain customer made a mistake in choosing this solution because a large part of their network was Cisco and they had firewalls that were from Fortinet. I think they would have been better off and it would have been better from a CAPEX, OPEX point of view. It would've been more advantageous for them to have maybe chosen a Cisco or Fortinet solution based on their existing environment. Make sure you understand your network correctly before you try to implement any SD-WAN solution. That was one of the good lessons I learned about SD-WANs with this specific product. I wouldn't say it was a fault of the product. I would say it's more a fault of the CTO who tries to do things quickly without taking into account the existing environment or give the internal faculties the time to provide real low-level design implementation. It was more of a management mistake than from their technical team. In the next release, I would like to see things like integrated security but with local internet breakout instead of using third party solutions like NetScaler or Palo Alto. I would also like to see the integration of things like a VPN so that if you have remote sites where you might have remote workers that need to access the site from home or something, there's a VPN solution. Those are two key features and hotspots in the sort of global crisis. I would rate Riverbed a seven out of ten. I could never give any solution a 10 cause they all have good and bad points. To get any solution to a ten is pretty much impossible. If I was to rate it against others like Fortinet, I would probably give Fortinet an eight or nine. Again, I think you have to be careful because it's very subjective. I think it really depends on the type of environment, the type of customer you're deploying the SD-WAN solution for, and from which perspective you're looking at like if you an operator, if you're a large enterprise, if you're looking for a plug and play type solution. If you're looking for more of a security solution, I would go for Fortinet. It's kind of tough to say. I'd probably put the clouds a little bit ahead of the game because it does what it's supposed to do and easily. It's a little more of a plug and play type solution. Fortinet, for example, is more complex. I put it in a close second place, it's better from a security perspective. It has integration with FortiGuard. After that, I would put Riverbed in third place.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are UTM, web filtering, and IPS."

"We like FortiGate's website change feature."

"Mainly the FortiGate reporting system is very good. It guides us through all the expectations of security. Fortinet provides us all that we need for security. Also, Fortinet FortiGate is a next-generation firewall. It is much more advanced than others."

"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include the simple user interface."

"It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."

"Fortinet FortiGate is quite popular in my region, so we are implementing Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate is the best option on the market when it comes to firewalls. It's straightforward to deploy and has good stability and performance."

"The interface is user-friendly, so it's easy to add policies and block traffic."

"It is a good product. It does what we want it to do so. I didn't find many false-positives or things like that. We mainly use the IPS and URL filtering features, and they are pretty good."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I wanted to go to a software-defined WAN and in Barracuda they have a specific protocol called TINA (Transport Independent Network Architecture). You can create a master policy over the internet and it allows you to do Quality of Services on top of it. That is really helpful for me."

"It's great for handling complex items."

"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."

"Enables us to define user application-level access, so our customers can work anytime from anywhere."

"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."

"Inbound and outbound traffic analysis, rule creation wizard, and the GUI portal are among the key features."

"The features I find most valuable is the VPN and the fact that we can apply our policies to the program."

"One of the big benefits of the product is that it allows you to manage big environments with fewer resources."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pros

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use. If you're really interested in knowing what's happening on your network, it's a very good solution. That was the .NET Profiler part of the solution."

Cons

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."

"They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers."

"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."

"I believe there is room for improvement in machine learning and AI in Fortinet FortiGate. I would like to see more automation regarding AI and machine learning in Fortinet FortiGate."

"I believe one area that could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is posturing, specifically for remote VPN users, as there are OS-based limitations I encountered with only Windows; adding domain restrictions for VPN access would make it more competitive and useful."

"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."

"One area for improvement is the IPS engine."

"The solution’s stability could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Command line could be more user friendly."

"We would like to see a solution that is focused on container deployment, which is very important right now."

"It's a little bit complex in terms of handling. If you implement a change, there is a specific point where you have to commit it. It's not like you just push a button and it's always committed. If you don't know to check whether your commit command has been executed or not... that is something Barracuda needs to work on."

"Can be underpowered if you choose to use all available add-on features. Just be careful when sizing your unit. Make sure you take into account what features you will be turning on, and work with your sales rep to get the model that can handle that load."

"There could be improvements in licensing."

"The price could be better."

"While using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we encounter issues with VPN profiles for Windows."

"It would be better if they had a trace and trap feature. It's hard for me to say anything bad about Barracuda. This is because we had a firewall go down in the town of Kirkland Lake, and it was a blown-out port, and they had an instant replacement."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall cons

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routine perspective, things like RSPs line support. It was supportive but not really supportive."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is an expensive solution."

"The tool's pricing is neither cheap nor expensive. Overall, I find it to be competitive in the market."

"Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."

"I would rate pricing to be about four or five out of ten, it is reasonable."

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

"Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution."

"It is an expensive solution."

"At the time we bought them, I was satisfied with their pricing; I don't know how the new pricing will be."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"We pay around 150 to 200 Euros per year and there are no additional costs."

"The 600 series is about USD $10,000 a year and the 80 is USD $400 a year."

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

"The platform is inexpensive compared to other vendors."

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

"The pricing is very cheap compared to Cisco ASA, which we used before, and compared to Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet. Barracuda has different solutions for different people. So for my SMB-level infrastructure, Barracuda has given me a proper solution that is half of the price of Palo Alto or Fortinet."

"Pricing is good. Licensing is pretty much automatic if using Control Center."

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

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Retailer

Construction Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	130
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	5

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What do you like most about Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

The encryption and the security standards are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

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

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others. It is a bit complicated and could be ...

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Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

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Netgate pfSense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

OPNsense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Azure Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Nuage Networks vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

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No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

October 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

October 2025

Download Barracuda CloudGen Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

September 2025

SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN report

Download SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls

SteelConnect, Riverbed SteelConnect

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate excels in providing integrated VPN, firewalling, and Unified Threat Management (UTM) with centralized management and high availability. It supports remote access and comprehensive threat protection, making it a preferred choice for securing networks.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a robust security platform with features such as strong intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering. Its integration with Active Directory and SD-WAN functionality provides scalable solutions for large networks. Users appreciate its ease of use through centralized management interfaces, ensuring robust security with flexible configurations. However, FortiGate could enhance its graphical interface and technical support responsiveness, address firmware bugs and costly licensing, improve logging, integrate better with third-party tools, and strengthen scalability and memory for log storage. Complexity in configuration and the need for intuitive features are noted challenges, and there's a demand for advanced security, zero-trust capabilities, and AI integration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN: Secure remote access and connectivity.
Firewalling: Protects networks from unauthorized access and attacks.
UTM: Offers a comprehensive approach to threat management.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routing for efficient network performance.
Web Filtering: Controls and monitors web access and ensures Internet security.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures consistent security and network availability.
Scalability: Adapts to the needs of growing networks.
Comprehensive Threat Protection: Provides robust security measures.
Ease of Use: Minimizes the complexity of security management.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries like education, finance, and government. Companies use it for firewall protection, VPN, and SD-WAN capabilities, ensuring secure perimeter and data center security. It facilitates remote access management and traffic routing optimization, offering reliable security and connectivity solutions.

Fortinet

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a comprehensive network security solution that provides advanced protection for organizations of all sizes. It offers next-generation firewall capabilities, including application control, intrusion prevention, and web filtering.

With its integrated VPN functionality, it ensures secure remote access for employees. CloudGen Firewall also includes advanced threat intelligence, leveraging real-time updates to detect and block emerging threats. Its centralized management console simplifies administration and provides visibility into network traffic.

CloudGen Firewall can easily adapt to changing business needs based on its scalable architecture.

Barracuda Networks

Accelerate business velocity with enterprise-class SD-WAN. As enterprises and organizations adopt more cloud and SaaS applications to support an increasingly distributed workforce, the hybrid networks connecting it all have been more complex, less predictable and less secure.

Riverbed SteelConnect EX is a powerful enterprise SD-WAN solution that integrates best-in-class routing, application acceleration, network visibility, and security services – a flexible and complete WAN Edge platform that gives you what you need to modernize your network and propel your business in the digital age.

Riverbed

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

ARZ, Bauer, CBCX Technologies, Diamant-groep, Eissmann Group Automotive, European Youth Olympics, Exalo Drilling, FineLine Technologies, Geocell, Grimaldi, Infront Sports & Media, Odlo, Schenker Deutschland AG, Tilak, Verbandsgeneinde Zell, Conservas El Cidacos S.A., Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medicine Management, Erwin Muller GmbH, Info-Tech: NGF is Champion, Schoellerbank, IZB Informatik-Zentrum, RHI AG, Berglandmilch, Antenne Bayern, Sanochemia

Roxtec, Software Solutions Company, Rignet

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

September 2025

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