Barracuda Email Security Gateway Reviews

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.

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.

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 have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for 15 years.

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.

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.

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.

Positive

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is primarily employed for safeguarding emails, focusing on email security.

It can effectively combat phishing attacks, block spam, provide confirmation, and ensure operational manageability with a strong focus on product stability.    

The pricing needs improvement.

I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for the past ten years.

I would rate the stability nine out of ten.

I would rate it eight out of ten. 

There are occasional delays in their response. They do not always reply on time.

Neutral

We often encounter challenges because each customer has unique network configurations, security hardening requirements, and specific solutions. This includes migrations and email address configurations, which need to be updated periodically to stay in line with the solution. Regarding deployment, I believe we can complete a few files quickly, but the implementation phase will require more time.

We consistently monitor service support to handle various customer services, and we have a team of five individuals responsible for managing different customers.

It is an expensive solution and I would rate it a five out of ten.

Overall I would rate it seven out of ten. 

Our primary use case for this solution is spam filtering. It extracts messaging for us. Thanks to Barracuda Email Security Gateway, I have seen increases in productivity and functionality in terms of spam reduction and filtering against different threats, which is a benefit by default.

The things I find valuable are how it is easy to maintain and its seamlessness. I cannot say it's better or worse than any other solution, but I have no issues with it as it does what it needs to do.

I have noticed that it takes a little time to get familiar with after deploying and some tweaks need to be done as things come up.

I have been using this solution for three years.

We've had a couple of issues pop up over the three years but they were resolved within 15 minutes. One issue that wasn't critical took around a day to resolve.

I would rate the scalability of this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Currently, there are about 175 users of this solution in our company.

I would say that their customer service is quite good. You will always be able to get someone on the line whenever you call. 

I would say the initial setup was super simple and quick. It takes a couple of hours to deploy. After that, you're up and running. 

I would say that this solution is more expensive than the competitors.

I would rate this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. Barracuda Email Security Gateway has been fine for our use case.

The solution is primarily for email security. For example, if an email comes through, we need to know what sort of email it is. We have enabled the SPF and the DMARC on it. We've also enabled those security elements so that it has some threat prevention before any unsolicited email comes to our gateway. This basically does all the filtering, before we actually receive an email. There are a number of undeliverable emails we get in our inboxes. In that event, if we are not able to see these emails, we can always log onto the Barracuda Gateway to actually see the emails to say whether they're valid or not. If the authenticity of the email is revealed, we are able to release them.

All of it has been quite useful. All features it provides on the cloud environment are very, very useful, including the antivirus that is enabled on it. 

It also has a threat management tool on it. It does a self-scanning so that it actually does zero-day tolerance. It's able to look at other Barracuda databases and is able to find the latest data and protect the network. There are a number of features that it has that we actually use to protect our network from email.

The setup is straightforward. 

Barracuda itself should be actually working on their DMARC setup. There is a little bit of downtime in terms of that. There are some times when legit emails are trapped on Barracuda and we are unable to get that information unless we actually log on to the network to find out. The good thing is that we get logs now and you can schedule the logs and you'll be able to see the logs in the event. The user gets to see the logs. In the event you don't receive the email, so you can schedule it for every hour or whatever schedule is important for the organization.

We set ours at one hour and in the event, if there's an email that didn't reach you, you'll get a notification after an hour to say, okay, this email was trapped and you are able to self-release it with the user's login, or IT can release it.

I can't think of any other features that are needed. 

I've used the solution from 20016 or 2017 onwards. 

It is very reliable and stable at the same time.

We have between 45 and 50 users.

It is pretty easy to scale. In the event that you want to increase the number of users, you can always do so. All you have to do is buy additional licenses. 

In the event that you need technical support, the support team is always available and they'll probably respond to you in an interval of an hour or two.

If there is a need for escalation, they normally do that. They do give you a call. Once you log a ticket, they give you a call and if they are unable to resolve it at a particular time, they'll give you a timeline as to when it's going to be fixed.

Setting up the solution is simple and straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult. 

The only thing to do is set up some protocols. You set up some protocols, you go and get some policies enabled, and you can choose whatever policy you want and you enable it on your exchange and that should kick you off. All you do is point your gateway to Barracuda instead of your exchange, and you'll be able to get your email through.

Deployment doesn't take long. It probably takes a day or two, depending on how you want to configure it. You don't really have to do much. It is just that the protocols are already out there. All you do is tick whatever you want and it gets deployed. You set your parameters.

Maintenance is done by the support team. It's cloud-based; we don't really have to do maintenance on our end unless we have a device on our end. We don't have a device on our end. In the event that we have user changes, we do it in-house. For example, if a newbie has joined the organization or somebody is leaving, we make administrative changes.

We did an in-house setup. We buy it from the retailer and the retailer gives us access to the vendor there, the actual supplier. Then we have that privilege too, in the event that if we get caught out for some reason, we are able to liaise with the vendors directly, the suppliers, and we are able to log calls, et cetera, and they're able to sort out issues. We have that kind of support.

It's pay-per-user licenses. We pay around 5,000 Fijian dollars for probably 50 users. The pricing is pretty good for the type of support they give us. We are not looking at anything more expensive than what we're currently paying.

Globally, it's used pretty extensively and it's regarded as one of the top three packages.

We are end-users.

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We are happy with the product.

One advantage is its immediate deployment capability. So, the fast speed to deploy is a big plus point. 

Another plus is the broad security coverage provided by the Barracuda email security gateway, which shares the same approach to security events as the firewall. This can help improve the security of the MRA system.

There is room for improvement in the speed of the interface; specifically, the cloud interface is a bit slow. I work exclusively in the cloud and not on-premises. The cloud interface is quite slow, especially when you're searching or navigating between menus.

So, in the future, I'd like to see a faster interface.

I have been working with this solution for 10 to 12 years. 

Stability has never been an issue with the cloud, so I'd rate it a nine out of ten.

Scalability is a nine out of ten because it's in the cloud, and it can scale and improve the solution immediately.

Around eight to ten companies use it, and there are possibly thousands of protected email addresses.

We have five engineers involved in maintenance, and our help desk team consists of the same individuals.

I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is expensive, and ten is low price. Compared to other products, this solution is quite affordable. 

I also work with the proxy and some IoT devices that have been introduced in the last one or two years. Barracuda has recently released a new IoT device. Additionally, I resell and offer security applications in the cloud. Barracuda has different solutions for Microsoft Office 365, such as email filtering. Both of these solutions are ones I'm familiar with and offer to my customers.

I would definitely recommend using this solution. Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. It's better than the appliance and firewall solutions.

In Barracuda Email Security Gateway, a cloud protection layer spools emails for 96 hours. When your email server recovers from downtime, all the emails will be shown in your inbox. Barracuda Email Security Gateway has a good feature of email spooling, which acts as a first line of security.

The solution also has the ATP cloud control option, which is directly connected to the cloud, works fast, and has all the signatures worldwide. Barracuda Email Security Gateway protects from zero-day attacks and zero-hour attacks. It detects attacks from all around the world about to happen in an hour.

Few customers require an on-premises fabric ATP box for attack detection and response. These customers are government organizations that don't want their data to be on-cloud.

I have been working with Barracuda Email Security Gateway as a reseller and distributor for more than three to four years.

Since Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a stable solution, people prefer it and also go for upgradeable versions.

Most of our clients are enterprise-level businesses. We also provide the solution to businesses with 50 to 100 users. Barracuda Email Security Gateway can be offered to big enterprises or the financial sector with sensitive data and clients with 10 to 15 users.

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

Barracuda Email Security Gateway provides good technical support.

Positive

Barracuda Email Security Gateway's initial setup is more user-friendly than its competitors.

I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway a nine out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

Barracuda Email Security Gateway's deployment takes about an hour. To deploy the solution, we need the MX record and the email services the client is using.

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is an affordable solution that caters to small, midsize, and high-end businesses with great revenue. Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a more than feasible solution for customers who want to secure their data and have a service that cannot be breached or compromised.

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is deployed for our customers on-premises, on-cloud, and as a hybrid solution.

We have the solution on-cloud, on-premises, virtual, and hardware. In Pakistan, most people use Barracuda Email Security Gateway in the financial sector and big enterprises. Our customers are more than satisfied with Barracuda Email Security Gateway and have used it for the last 13 to 14 years in Pakistan.

Many resellers are working on Barracuda Email Security Gateway and are satisfied with the solution.

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

We use Barracuda Email Security Gateway for securing emails.

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.

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

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

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

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

Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a cost-effective solution.

I use the latest version of Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

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

It's easy to use. The configuration and web interface are user-friendly. The spam filter and other features work well.

Barracuda Email Security Gateway helps me filter many emails each day. The tool for sending emails is easy to configure. In my company, we send a high volume of emails daily. Barracuda system is useful.

The most valuable feature is the spam filter.

Barracuda should have a sandbox feature in the appliances. That's the only thing missing. In my company, we have four appliances, and we have to use a third-party brand for sandboxing.

Moreover, sometimes phishing emails still pass through, which is a drawback. I would say it's about 80% to 90% effective.

I have been working with this solution for seven years. We have deployed it on VMware. Moreover, we are using Barracuda Email Security Gateway 400.

Stability is a ten.

I rate the scalability of Barracuda an eight out of ten.

The initial setup was easy. I had to change all the appliances in the past due to a hardware refresh, but configuring the new appliances was easy.

It's a good investment. We've seen a significant return on investment.

In my opinion, I only have experience with Barracuda so I might recommend it. But, I would suggest exploring other options as well, like Microsoft, to have a better understanding.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.