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New Barracuda NextGen Firewall Desktop Appliances Provide Branch Offices with Affordable Security and High Availability for Cloud, SaaS, and Other Mission Critical Applications

Campbell, Calif. (Nov. 4, 2015) – Barracuda Networks, Inc. (NYSE: CUDA) –

Next-Generation Firewalls for Modern Networks

Barracuda today launched its new Barracuda NextGen Firewall desktop appliances, which are the industry’s first advanced next-generation firewalls that include advanced traffic optimization capabilities available in the sub-$700 price range. These powerful desktop appliances are designed for distributed networks, and provide branch offices with improved security and network performance as those offices access private and public cloud-based applications. The new models include F18, F80, F180, and F280, which all have the ability to run full security and network optimization. They also provide intelligent traffic regulation at the network perimeter to ensure business quality access, performance, and reliability to mission critical applications.

“Typical gateway security devices for remote locations can be a bottleneck when all security functions are enabled. This issue is compounded when you take into account the growing number of organizations that rely on SaaS and public cloud applications,” explained Dr. Klaus Gheri, VP Network Security, Barracuda. “As the adoption of these cloud-based applications increases, organizations are forced to rethink their network architecture and thus the technology needed to protect it. Most ‘next-generation’ firewalls today are designed to filter out undesired application traffic rather than proactively regulate and prioritize business critical traffic. The new Barracuda NextGen Firewall desktop appliances change that approach. Barracuda NextGen Firewalls provide a high level of security, and play an active role in application delivery and network performance, which other security devices used to secure remote locations in this price range typically do not offer.”

“Companies are using the cloud every day as well as supporting remote workers through VPN access. Cloud applications like Salesforce are no longer a luxury but a necessary part of business operations,” said Jason Pappalexis, Research Director, NSS Labs. “A next-generation firewall strategy that includes secure access and full next-generation firewall functionality with central management will be important for today’s hybrid networks where application-aware traffic distribution is key. The most successful firewall vendors will be those that help address the unique challenges created within a hybrid network.”

Security and Performance: No Longer “Either/ Or” for Branch Offices

Organizations today run hundreds of Internet applications such as Office 365 and Salesforce, and enterprise applications increasingly reside in virtual data centers and public cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. With the increasing adoption of SaaS, virtualization, and public cloud applications, the network architecture and security requirements have evolved, and specifically, the firewall has evolved from a security-only device to one that also improves network performance and availability. Historically, this functionality has been reserved for large enterprises with the resources and budgets to support it.

With today’s announcement, Barracuda is changing that approach. Highlights of the new Barracuda NextGen F-Series desktop appliances include:

• Leading Pricing - Offers industry’s lowest price point for advanced desktop appliance next-generation firewall functionality.
• High Performance - Improves bandwidth availability and user experience with built-in WAN Optimization and intelligent dynamic link balancing and failover.
• User and Application Awareness - Allows organizations to prioritize traffic for active bandwidth management, application usage, and customized network access.
• Dynamic Link Balancing - Ensures business continuity and bandwidth management via dynamically balanced traffic across multiple Internet connections.
• Intelligent Site-to-Site Connection Management - Provides high quality, reliable connectivity across multiple locations (both hardware and virtual appliances). IPsec VPNs ensure secure connectivity to other remote sites, centralized offices, as well as public cloud offerings like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
• Next Generation Security - Delivers application control, user awareness, deep SSL traffic inspection, web filtering, IPS, and optional malware and Advanced Threat Detection (ATD).

Barracuda NextGen Firewalls

Barracuda next-generation firewalls allow organizations to safely, efficiently, and reliably access applications hosted in private and public cloud environments. Alongside the launch of the new desktop appliance models, Barracuda rebranded its next-generation firewall product line as Barracuda NextGen Firewalls, which include models designed to meet the needs of small office and retail networks, up through to high performance firewalls for large managed service providers, data center and highly distributed environments. The Barracuda NextGen Firewall product line includes two series:

• Barracuda NextGen Firewall X-Series¹ - Cloud-managed next-generation firewall designed for small and medium sized businesses.
• Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series² - Next-generation firewall with advanced central management designed for highly distributed environments.

¹ – Barracuda NextGen Firewall X-Series – formerly known as Barracuda Firewall

² – Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series – formerly known as Barracuda NG Firewall