Barracuda Email Security Gateway - PAYG
Barracuda Networks | 9.2.1.002-20240209Linux/Unix, Other 2.4.9 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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Barracuda Email Security Gateway Review
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of setup, ease of use and accuracy of filtering make this second to none.
What do you dislike about the product?
If using the appliance version of the product, the cost per user is much higher (if using at a smaller organization) than the hosted product.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Reduction of spam
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Barracuda is the spam filter that large or complex organizations should avoid.
What do you like best about the product?
Because it's lacking many features, and doesn't offer much granularity with the ones it does, Barracuda is relatively simple to learn and use. Their support, though usually not helpful, is also offered 24/7 for that extra piece of mind.
What do you dislike about the product?
Regrettably, I've had too many incidents and outages caused by Barracuda. For a while, Barracuda didn't even have a method to communicate their own outages adequately, The majority of my disappointment lies with the training/knowledge of their support staff. In the past, I've opened multiple tickets with the same source issue, only to be given completely different solutions.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Barracuda is currently used to filter our emails, both inbound and outbound. When working correctly and with the additional "ATP" subscription they offer, their solution does offer adequate spam/virus filtering.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you are a large or complex organization, I would suggest looking at something that offers more granular features and supports complicated mail routing.
Simple but powerful solution for email protection, control and management.
What do you like best about the product?
The interface is fairly intuitive. It was also nice to have an appliance, to keep the burden of spam off my general system, but also to prevent the possibility of viruses/malware from getting on the exchange server prior to being detected. The hit rate for spam is quite good - I have it dialed down quite far and we get very little spam to the inbox.
What do you dislike about the product?
Little nuances that are irritating. You don't have a good way to save certain searches, like a filter for emails blocked, so you have to put them in each time. Some of the features are hidden, as the interface, while intuitive has a lot of options, which could probably be consolidated. One big annoyance is if your mail gets delayed (email server problem etc) there's no way to "batch send" all the pending mail, you have to wait as the appliance sends it on its time, so it takes a while to clear.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Two major problems were reducing the threat from spam and phishing emails. The gateway does a good job of preventing spoofed emails. Also it works well as a proxy for outgoing mail, preventing an internal host from sending emails out of its own accord. Some other benefits are the ability to queue inbound and some outbound mail if the primary email server is down, and can deliver it afterwards.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
The security gateway is fine, but in the future it's more likely we'll use the cloud offering. Really depends on if you need an on-prem appliance or not (your regs, setup, etc).
Spam firewall works efficiently
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of setup and use. Can unblock any inadvertent blocked messages easily.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing really, As the unit ages, it does start running slow, however, support is good at cleaning things up if needed
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Filtering out 95% of our spam from ever reaching users.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I would highly recommend this unit, it works very well.
Barracuda Spam Firewall (Virtual Appliance On-Premise)
What do you like best about the product?
Very good support from the vendor. I have always been able to call or email and get a prompt answer from an on-shore technician who is understandable and knowledgeable. I have found them willing to answer questions and provide some education at the same time. The documentation is also good. I also like the fact that it can inspect the URLs within emails to find out if any linked sites are potentially malicious, and then grade the email accordingly.
What do you dislike about the product?
The web administration site needs a redesign. It has improved significantly in recent versions, but still has room for improvement in the navigation of the site and the organization of the settings. It should be easier to find what you are looking for and use standard conventions for web site navigation. As a side note, it also should not be called a firewall because it is not a firewall; it is a filter. The other problem that I Have found with the admin interface is their rudimentary interface for adding entries to whitelists and blacklists. It presents a single-entry text box for adding new lines, which works fine for adding a single entry--but multi-entry editing is done through a new dialog that allows the entire list to be edited. Unfortunately, there is limited validation when editing this list. It is unwieldy to view, and if there is a problem when submitting, it does not indicate which line the problem exists on, it simply fails to submit the form.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The Barracuda Spam Firewall provides spam filtering and email attachment malware filtering. It does this using configured options for content filtering, RBLs, SPF checking, recipient validation, and IP filtering.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
It is a decent spam filtering engine. Be sure to order the right size/model for your environment, but also be sure to evaluate other options. Choose what is right for your organization, and not just the most recognizable brand in the market.
Solid on premise spam filter appliance
What do you like best about the product?
The Barracuda Spam Firewall appliances are surprisingly easy to deploy and maintain. The ease which a help desk user can quickly log in and track an email that may have been caught or determine why it wasn't delivered (typo in recipient email address) makes having these appliances a must. Our help desk does not need to know how to dig into tracking log of the mail server to help a user with a simple delivery issue any more and rarely needs to escalate an issue to the mail server admin.
We find that spam rarely gets through. Occasionally a new spam campaign will start to get through but we find it gets quickly discovered by Barracuda and new definitions, which are downloaded and installed automatically, block it and we never see it again.
There is a per user quarantine feature you can enable to have the unit hold on to emails that are most likely but possible not spam. It can send the user a daily email showing them what is in the quarantine and give them the option to release the email for delivery if they want to see it. They can also access the web portal directly and see their quarantine. And with SSO they do not need another user name and password for it.
They provide an Outlook plug that users can use to Block and Report As Spam any email that is delivered that should not have been. And again, with SSO it is seamless for them, just another button on their toolbar.
There is a clustering feature to help you provide truly resilient mail flow. No more worrying about a down line, or maintenance windows on the units, just let it fail over to the other one.
We find that spam rarely gets through. Occasionally a new spam campaign will start to get through but we find it gets quickly discovered by Barracuda and new definitions, which are downloaded and installed automatically, block it and we never see it again.
There is a per user quarantine feature you can enable to have the unit hold on to emails that are most likely but possible not spam. It can send the user a daily email showing them what is in the quarantine and give them the option to release the email for delivery if they want to see it. They can also access the web portal directly and see their quarantine. And with SSO they do not need another user name and password for it.
They provide an Outlook plug that users can use to Block and Report As Spam any email that is delivered that should not have been. And again, with SSO it is seamless for them, just another button on their toolbar.
There is a clustering feature to help you provide truly resilient mail flow. No more worrying about a down line, or maintenance windows on the units, just let it fail over to the other one.
What do you dislike about the product?
The annual renewal prices could be better, but for the quality of the product we don't even hesitate to renew it annually.
They tend to remove some functionality from the lower grade devices that should be there. SNMP monitoring is not an option on one of our units which seems like a petty thing to disable. We also lost the ability to change the custom logo we use on another one of our units, we had the ability on one firmware version, but after upgrading we lost it. We confirmed with support that custom logos are no longer supported on that model. Unfortunately we had uploaded our logo right before a re-imaging, so we are stuck with an old logo and users occasionally bring it up.
They tend to remove some functionality from the lower grade devices that should be there. SNMP monitoring is not an option on one of our units which seems like a petty thing to disable. We also lost the ability to change the custom logo we use on another one of our units, we had the ability on one firmware version, but after upgrading we lost it. We confirmed with support that custom logos are no longer supported on that model. Unfortunately we had uploaded our logo right before a re-imaging, so we are stuck with an old logo and users occasionally bring it up.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
You can not have a mail server without a spam filter. I would shut down our mail flow before I allowed the server to receive mail directly from the internet. Barracuda not only does and excellent job preventing spam but gives the users and the help desk a great experience using the product.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Barracuda offers trial units of all their products, give them a call to set one up. Their support is top notch, they offer training videos and configuration support.
Make sure you test out and show the users the quarentine feature and outlook plugin, they are a big hit. Users don't want to call the help desk or open a ticket to ask if an email to them got caught in the filter. Have a portal where they can check for themselves makes it much easier, and more likely they will check.
Make sure you test out and show the users the quarentine feature and outlook plugin, they are a big hit. Users don't want to call the help desk or open a ticket to ask if an email to them got caught in the filter. Have a portal where they can check for themselves makes it much easier, and more likely they will check.
Effective email security system
What do you like best about the product?
Effective email security system for the company
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes catches emails that should be allowable
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Email security
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