Likelihood to Recommend 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.
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1) For huge DC environments and complex networks 2) Where clients were consistent up-time like FSI and healthcare 3) Application-aware client req. and preventing day 0 cyber attacks. 4) Securing East-West traffic, hyper-scaling capabilities 5)Some advantages - Best Security meets Ultimate Hardware and SandBlast Zero Day Protection out of the box, Modular hardware 6) High Performance CPUs
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Check Point Software Technologies
SSL inspection provides more effective mitigation of threat and data leakage with the ability to inspect and analyze encrypted traffic. Threat emulation and extraction provides protection against zero-day threats without compromising the data of infected files. 'Office mode' VPN provides a seamless connected experience for remotely connected individuals. Application control features provide granular restrictions to the type of application traffic than can pass through the network. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Check Point Software Technologies
HTTPS Inspection -- The firewall has troubles re-packaging the packet in a way that some websites are able to interpret correctly Support -- Even getting support directly from Check Point isn't the easiest of experiences. They are more concerned about how fast they can close a ticket out, rather than fixing the problem. Custom reports -- Custom reporting is extremely limited Read full review Usability 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.
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Support Rating 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.
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Check Point has a variety of support options that can be used to optimize your investment in the product. Companies with a larger information security and certified checkpoint engineer employee base can benefit from a standard SLA, while companies with a smaller security engineering footprint or more critical implementations can opt for premium, elite or diamond packages that even include the ability to provide on-site engineers for major security incidents. Check Point PRO support also provides the ability to outsource maintenance concerns by automating case creation and follow up when application components fail.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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!
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In a heterogeneous environment, we wanted to keep multiple vendors for multiple purposes. CP was found very good in handling basic Next generation firewalls features along with handling of VPNs.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Check Point Software Technologies
Although there are better alternatives out there, Check Point delivers results for the price we paid for the system. Since implementation, we have not have any major issues with the product, minor issues were resolved in a timely fashion. Check Point currently fulfills our need for an outside facing firewall, when our organization grows larger, we will be looking at higher level enterprise solutions. Read full review ScreenShots Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Screenshots