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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
9th
Ranking in WAN Edge
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (23rd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (19th), 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 May 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 2.7%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 1.1%, up from 0.2% 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 Firewall2.7%
SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN1.1%
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

"Its ability to block incoming attacks is valuable. Its logging, traffic monitoring, and VPN capabilities are also valuable."
"Single device, multiple functions - I do not need to purchase a web application firewall, a proxy server, a VPN device and so many others because these are all built in to this one device."
"Scalability is good; the company wants to be able to handle large customers."
"It is a very stable solution."
"The encryption and the security standards are valuable."
"Live monitoring of what is happening inside and on the interfaces, either ingress or egress."
"Barracuda is very prompt at blocking any new spam which comes out."
"Scalability is always good because the company wants to be able to handle large customers."
"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."
"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use."
 

Cons

"I would say technical support is lacking. They don't have strong technical support; their abilities are not so good."
"There could be improvements in licensing."
"Command line could be more user friendly."
"Another problem with Barracuda, in my experience, is the appliance lifetime."
"There should be improvements in the management aspect of the firewall. Specifically, it would be beneficial to merge the existing application policy with the main policy into a single unified policy to improve manageability."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"However, the solution isn’t perfect. It sometimes lets through emails incorrectlycategorized as safe but malicious. I believe the tool could be improved by incorporating artificial intelligence to enhance its email analysis capabilities, though I’m unsure if this feature is currently available."
"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."
"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routing perspective, things like RSPs line support."
"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

"Pricing and licensing are fine. It's worth the value because every four years, if I buy any other product, I have to replace my hardware. But with Barracuda I get a free hardware upgrade. Today I'm using Xbox. After four years I can take another Xbox or a Ybox."
"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."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"Purchasing through AWS Marketplace was good. We did it because it was easy."
"It's not the most expensive, but it's certainly not cheap."
"My advice is to try and evaluate it (Barracuda offers a trial period of one month)."
"It is a product with a very transparent model of licensing. In the sense of hidden expenses, they do not exist with this model. ​"
"The 600 series is about USD $10,000 a year and the 80 is USD $400 a year."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

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

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
My experience with pricing is that while the licensing cost can be reduced and is somewhat costly, the price is good and affordable.
What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
There is room for improvement in terms of response time and first-level support quality. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall needs to learn from FortiManager and Palo Alto, as I see that they have automati...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?
My main use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is that we purchased it to replace our current Cisco firewall tool. We have always suffered issues trying to manage the Cisco firewall, which is the...
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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, Palo Alto Networks and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.