Barracuda Sentinel is a Game Changer
Updated December 29, 2020
Barracuda Sentinel is a Game Changer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Barracuda Sentinel
Sentinel is being used across our enterprise. It is addressing the major problem we were having with phishing and spear-phishing. We were receiving approx. 20-30 attack emails per day and were being overwhelmed. Microsoft email filtering was not getting it done no matter how aggressively and quickly we created new rules
- Phishing prevention; Sentinel has reduced our instances of phishing by some absurd number. Previously we were no only "underwater" when it came to phishing, we were drowning in it. This product reduced that number by upwards of 95%+.
- spear-phishing prevention; see above.
- User detection; using the free trial, Sentinel examined our network for the better part of 24-48 hours over our O365 instance, not our network. The product was able to a 100% rate identify all of the critical users in our firm AND show the number of hits they recently endured.
- The free trial not only identified critical users (people who had signature authority, spending authority, etc.) but it also started intercepting phishing attempts. When I went to sell this to my boss, I had a stack of over 60 attempts over two weeks to show her proof that the product worked.
- The product is pretty solid so I am not sure how it can be improved. One thing I noticed recently, I am not getting the emails back from Sentinel when I send in a "miss". Used to be I got an email back saying "sorry we missed this, we are improving." That does happen anymore, so I am assuming that when I send a miss, the AI is getting better.
- I would expand this to cover all kinds of email fraud like ransomware and spam rather than creating another product.
- All positive, prior to deploying Sentinel we had at least 3 times when users bit on phishing attacks and bought $500 in iTunes gift cards as requested by the phisher. Our HR Director was also ready to send another phisher all the company W2's as requested. Since deployment, we sleep a little better at night.
- It's really hard to put a value on this product. It has been worth every penny by reducing our Spear Phishing and Phishing attacks by upwards of 90-95%+. How do you put a figure on that? In two months of testing, it intercepted 240+ Phishing and Spear phishing attempts. How do you attach a monetary figure to a situation where you are able to not have to deal with a problem and work on something else? 15 minutes per attempt? Times 60 in 60-days? $45/hour for an engineer? The ROI has been well worth it.
My firm has a Barracuda Back-up 490 and a Barracuda Web Filter. In a previous life, the firm I worked for, were Barracuda resellers, I know the quality of the products from the sales side, the training side, the support side, and the user side. We were posed with Barracuda vs. Mimecast. In the end, Barracuda won because of the reputation of the product, the company, and its people. Another big piece of the choice was the ability to "test drive" the product, testing gave me concrete data with which to the sell the product to my management. We are looking to expand this footprint to one of our sister companies now. Wasn't even a competition really. The other thing in retrospect? The installation was seamless and took no time. All we had to do was develop a 1-pager to send to staff warning them of the change, the emails they might see, and how to self administer the client.
Do you think Barracuda Sentinel delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Barracuda Sentinel's feature set?
Yes
Did Barracuda Sentinel live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Barracuda Sentinel go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Barracuda Sentinel again?
Yes
Using Barracuda Sentinel
250 - Everything, executive management, client facing and back office.
2 - We rarely have to touch it. I could put an entry level system admin. in charge of this.
- Stops Phising
- Stops Spear Phishing
- Easy to use
- Reliable
- We have not gone too far off the stated purpose, would love to know about what else we could do with the product. We are a 2-man shop, and there isn't a lot of time to consider alternatives uses.
- Not sure, I would love to understand how other organizations are using the product differently that I currently am using Sentinel.
Evaluating Barracuda Sentinel and Competitors
Yes - Yes, if you consider Microsoft O365 email security a solution.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
Nope. We made a perfect decision the other product we evaluated did not look like it was easy to use and maintain (Mimecast).
Barracuda Sentinel Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation - Not much, my IT Team is pretty good with Change Management. We just supplied a one-page "How to..." to the staff an explained to them "in depth" what was going on.
- Getting users who didn't pay attention to our change management efforts to understand what the end result would be.
Barracuda Sentinel Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - We buy it with out subscriptions.
During the set-up of the test. I think I was talking with the lead person of the Sentinel team, I think I figured that out about 1/2 way through the call. But as I was setting up the trial run or the test run, he was very patient and knowledgeable and walked me through everything. Once the scan was done, the results poured in exactly as I was told. 60-days later I was in front of my boss asking to buy this for my enterprise. Every time we call and it's not often, we are greeted with knowledgeable, polite and professional people who help us right away and then check-up later to make sure everything is going well post-call.
Using Barracuda Sentinel
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Releasing non-Phishing emails
- Reporting missed Phishing emails
- Beyond the basic functionality I am unaware of other features that I could be using. A user group or directed emails "Hey, did you know?"
Yes, but I don't use it