Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SonicWall NSA Series

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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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Defense & Space Company, 201-500 employees

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SonicWall NSA is an excellent mid-range firewall suitable for branch office locations that expect a lot of network traffic. The higher-end NSA can take the bandwidth requirements of thousands of users while using Deep Packet Inspection and Antivirus features. We currently have SonicWall NSA deployed in a high availability mode configuration, and amazingly can failover to the backup hardware without dropping VPN connections. SonicWall NSA series is not recommended for companies who integrate VPNs with Cisco devices, as I've had difficulties with the VPN staying up.

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Kenny McGarrity

IT Infrastructure Manager

Pace SupplyWholesale, 1001-5000 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

SonicWall NSA Series

Identification Technologies

Visualization Tools

Content Inspection

Policy-based Controls

Active Directory and LDAP

Firewall Management Console

Reporting and Logging

VPN

High Availability

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

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.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 201-500 employees

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Ease of configuration. Easy to add WAPs, etc.
Reliable.

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Mike Narumiya

President, Principal

Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees

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Cons

Not come across any yet! A nice-to-have could be a mobile app which allows you to monitor it on your phone or mobile device.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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The logging interface is voluminous and difficult to get quick and good information from.
SonicWall NSA is trying to mimic Palo Alto Network's investigative features but falls far behind.

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Kenny McGarrity

IT Infrastructure Manager

Pace SupplyWholesale, 1001-5000 employees

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Usability

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall 5.5

Based on 1 answer

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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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall 8.4

Based on 6 answers

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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Paul Metzger

Senior Network Engineer

Pine Belt Mental HealthHospital & Health Care, 501-1000 employees

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SonicWall NSA Series 9.0

Based on 3 answers

Cost, ease of use and reliability after implementation. It's a great and easy product to use to meet the needs of smaller organizations that want a more "legitimate" setup without going overboard or spending Cisco money. Great product. Can be rack mounted or stand alone. VPN easy to setup and update. A great product to start with and grow with in a developing organization.

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Mike Narumiya

President, Principal

Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees

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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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Jay Glatt

Vice President of IT

GiumarraFood & Beverages, 201-500 employees

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SonicWall NSA series interface is way better than either Watchguard or Checkpoint. Even though people want to dismiss SonicWall NSA, they have the advanced features of its competitors, but with the easy interface. With all things being equal, I consider Palo Alto Networks to be the most preferred enterprise firewall, with SonicWall NSA being second and the rest trailing far behind.

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Kenny McGarrity

IT Infrastructure Manager

Pace SupplyWholesale, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

Positive: highly customizable and can control the entire network from one location.
Positive: all services and processes work very well and are reliable.
Positive: MSPs looking to deploy and control numerous firewalls with ease, this is hands down the best product.
Negative: very high learning curve, definitely not a one-and-done firewall. Requires a lot of dedicated time to get the machine running the way you want.

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Derek Schroeder

Service Manager

Accellis Technology GroupInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

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Saved money on implementation and administration staff.
Covered the sophisticated needs of many organizations.

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Mike Narumiya

President, Principal

Klaxon IT SolutionsHospital & Health Care, 11-50 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Rating Summary

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

SonicWall NSA Series

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

SonicWall NSA Series

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

SonicWall NSA Series

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SonicWall NSA Series