Barracuda Load Balancer ADC vs. Riverbed SteelHead

Barracuda is an inexpensive solution for load balancing web traffic of all kinds and works as a reverse proxy if you need one. It is efficient and has been a very stable solution. If you need extremely granular configuration for your load balancing traffic, then you may need to go with one of the bigger brands. Barracuda will more than handle regular small and medium business use and do so at a greatly reduced price point.

Incentivized

If you are dealing with large CAD files on a daily basis "remotely", Riverbed Steelhead makes your home office feel just like the office

Incentivized

• Excellent Load Balancing.
• Flexible configuration - It's very simple to configure and powerful enough to handle many more websites than just our exchange site.
• Continuously updated - Barracuda makes fairly frequent updates to address issues and improve features.

Incentivized

• Effectively improves data throughput over VPN WAN connections.
• Seamless operation.
• Optimizes a variety of applications. Including, HTTPS, Citrix, Netapp SM and SV, Exchange, etc.

Incentivized

• Overall, there are no issues. It just runs.

Incentivized

• A reduction in price is always welcomed
• Simplify and streamline advanced features and add-on pieces for more detailed traffic analysis
• Getting granularity into traffic behavior becomes confusing and very expensive

Incentivized

It is a product we plan on continuing to use.

Incentivized

It is fairly easy to learn after support helps you set it up and shows you how things work. Which they will do.

Incentivized

It did well for basic needs but would not deliver for all our services.

Incentivized

We also had looked at Kemp and F5. The Kemp and F5 had a lot of horsepower and advanced configuration and functionality. When we looked at our workload and how we were planning on using the load balancers, we really didn't need all those extra bells and whistles. Barracuda provided all the standard functionality we needed and were looking for and did so at a greatly reduced price point.

Incentivized

We tested Cisco eleven years ago in parallel with Riverbed in a PoC. The Cisco configuration was very complex and sticky based on the location. The Riverbed configuration is flexible based on the whole storage. A software client for devices like laptops or tablets is not available for Cisco WAAS, therefore we selected Riverbed based on a PoC.

Incentivized

• It has allowed us to maintain a very high level of uptime.
• It has allowed us to perform server updates without the downtime of services.
• It has provided a consistent user experience by properly balancing service loads across servers.

Incentivized

• Files now open a lot quicker, at near local speeds.
• We are able to respond to customers quicker as we can get access quicker.

Incentivized