Alert Logic vs. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

This is pretty good AV product - lightweight, easy to install, and easy on system resources. It will take some getting used to on the end user side, it doesn't scan in a traditional way, and it does not have a taskbar icon so it hard to know if it's working or installed. My only complaint would be the false positives which I know every AV system has, but the problem with Barkly is that it alerts the users with a message (which they freak out about) and it alerts IT with an email. Again, not a major issue, but it can be annoying until it is overridden. The override process is super easy though, so its again, not a big deal.

Incentivized

I would say a small business with a basic firewall and security needs would be a perfect fit for the Barracuda CloudGen firewall. I know that they soon end up leaving the NG models and are moving forward with the F series firewall. I think the F series is a much more difficult to manage device and doesn’t offer simplistic configuration or use and lacks cloud control so I don’t understand the move on Barracuda’s part to nix a great easy to manage the firewall. I do think that the NG line is maybe too simple for bigger businesses and would lack some main features that they would require.

Incentivized

• Customer Service. Usually, I'd put the technical details up front, and they're good with that too. But the service from pre-sales all the way through onboarding and continued account management is top tier. Our onboarding schedule got messed up, partly because of us, but that was rather minor. I always get prompt replies to any tickets, and they've even reached out to discuss my feature requests. When it comes to security, it's critical to have a responsive team, and they've got it.
• Detection seems good. It's hard to quantify exactly, but it seems that they always detect the bad actors. And when we get an alert, they include a bunch of details so we know what kind of scan they're trying to do, how far they got, etc. You can't prevent everyone from doing a scan on your IP, but it gives you a really good idea of where your soft spots might be. And if you're getting those low-level alerts, it's a reminder that it's there and working if you have a major event too.
• Very easy setup. This goes back to their customer support to some extent, as they walk you through all the steps required. But it's also about their technical solution, it's not so overly complex that it's fragile, nor does it take a great deal of time to deploy. And it's been zero effort to maintain since then.

Incentivized

• The management software is excellent. It make it much easier to manage the firewalls than some of the other vendors.
• Watching real-time traffic is easy to do when trying to troubleshoot a users issues getting to a particular service.
• Support from Barracuda has been excellent. We rate their phone and online remote support as being the best in the business.
• We like the QoS and Traffic shaping of the NG Firewalls. They help is manage our limited bandwidth, so that business critical resources are available over lesser critical resources.
• Integration with Active Directory makes it easy to identify users activities in logs.

Incentivized

• The interface is a little lacking from a search perspective but its not really meant for us to have to do the work

Incentivized

• Very complex and steep learning curve to get up to speed.
• Multiple ways to configure for the same service or feature. Takes time to determine "your" customized build.
• Interface can sometimes be clunky when trying to determine how it's organized or arranged. Again, steep learning curve.

Easy enough to use and configure using the management UI. Reporting from the web filter is a little clunky, and not very user friendly. To be perfectly honest, once it's set up and running, there isn't a lot to do from the day-to-day side of things, which is not a bad thing.

I could go on and on about how good Barracuda's support really is. I have yet to have a problem they didn't help me fix and I always learn something when talking with them. The story that best describes my overall experience with Barracuda's support is this: When I first put in the xSeries they had a problem with a policy route. There was a bug in the code and in the one situation I was it, it just would not work. I went up the levels of support and they couldn't fix it. Well, next thing I know I am on the phone with 2 of the guys that programmed the thing and they work out the solution in no time and get me going. That is support. That is what I have come to expect from Barracuda. If the tech on the phone doesn't know the answer, they do not stop until they find it. Grant it, I also have to admit I do not call support with every problem, I try to work it out on my own first as that is how I learn best, so when I do call support it is going to be complicated.

Incentivized

I was using Alert Logic Insight for myself to improve my skills and ability to it. My organization was not happy using our previous website security program so I recommended for them to use this software. It has been more than 1 year and still, they are using this program without having any problem so far.

Incentivized

Our Cisco firewall was always difficult to make any changes against. It had no user-friendly GUI interface. We were calling technical support most of the time whenever we needed to make any changes. The Barracuda CloudGen Firewall has a GUI interface which we are looking forward to getting better acquainted with as we move off of our old Cisco. Of course, Barracuda's technical support is always there and is top notch!

• Return on Investment is measured in how protected our reputation is and Alert Logic contributes to this is a large way.
• Alert Logic provides excellent information security assurance to the business and allows us to feel more proactive.

Incentivized

• We saved multiple thousands of dollars the first year out with the firewall in maintenance fees. We paid for the firewall and 3 years of service and still saved money.
• The ease of management allows me to do my job more efficiently. I save a lot of time when doing my day to day job because I can get to my firewall virtually anywhere.
• I feel a lot safer and my business more secure knowing that I have configured things the way they need to be and it was simple and not overly complicated.

Incentivized