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Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
8th
Ranking in WAN Edge
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (15th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (15th), IoT Security (6th)
SteelConnect EX Enterprise ...
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
24th
Ranking in WAN Edge
21st
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 2.6%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 1.2%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall2.6%
SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN1.2%
Other96.2%
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

Jennifer  Bernice - PeerSpot reviewer
Dotnet Developer at Kohl's
Centralized firewall management has saved time and improved network security across locations
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall could be improved as it has a very high learning curve. It is definitely not a one and done firewall, as a one and done firewall requires a lot of dedicated time to get the machine running the way you want. To improve Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, there should be a lot of tutorials and videos online to help new users. Multiple ways to configure for the same service or feature takes time to determine your customized build. In addition to previous points, the interface can sometimes be clunky when trying to determine how it is organized or arranged.
Jason Best - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use Barracuda NG Firewall as a border firewall. We trough it to control all in/out Internet traffic."
"Barracuda CloudGen Firewall has positively impacted my organization by saving us lots of time and man-hours, ultimately saving us lots of money."
"Ability to manage multiple firewalls."
"It provides a lot of functionality adhering to the current trends."
"The drag and drop features of VPN are really convenient to be configured, and the VPN tunnel provides a secure environment in the organization."
"Since switching to Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we have saved time of 30 to 40 percent because we are able to control the network from one location, and we have also saved costs of 20 percent because we do not have to move from one location to another to control the network."
"TINA (Transport Independent Network Architecture) VPN features - Allows automatic VPN configuration with little or no input from the tech. Drag and drop lines between Barracuda units and the VPN is built automatically."
"Enables us to define user application-level access, so our customers can work anytime from anywhere."
"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

"Sometimes we have a need for detailed reports. Barracuda NG Firewall does not have a reports module and uses a satellite application (Barracuda NG Firewall Report Creator)."
"If you experience an attack it can take a very long time to find a solution."
"The administration UI could be better. It should also have better application detection policies."
"The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others. It is a bit complicated and could be improved."
"The UI can be improved because it looks very old and complicated."
"From a performance and scaling perspective, I have seen that performance can be impacted when all security features are enabled."
"I would like to see a more user-friendly dashboard and an easier interface."
"However we found the product a little harder to configure than others, and so it´s not a product for unskilled/inexperienced administrators."
"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

"The product is a bit cheaper than some solutions."
"The 600 series is about USD $10,000 a year and the 80 is USD $400 a year."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"Pricing is good. Licensing is pretty much automatic if using Control Center."
"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"
"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."
"Purchasing through AWS Marketplace was good. We did it because it was easy."
"It is a product with a very transparent model of licensing. In the sense of hidden expenses, they do not exist with this model. ​"
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise13
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
Although I am not directly involved in that particular segment, from what I understood from the pricing information, it is a very cost-effective solution compared with other well-known firewall ven...
What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
When I consider what I dislike about Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, there are a lot of competitors in the market. Next-gen firewalls offer a lot of capabilities. From a capability standpoint, competi...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
I use Barracuda CloudGen Firewall for multiple functionalities. One function is an email security gateway. It also acts for network security protection, network security and threat protection, whic...
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Also Known As

Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls
SteelConnect, Riverbed SteelConnect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions. Updated: July 2026.
909,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.