Barracuda Releases Firewall for Cloud-Based Environments

Barracuda announced the launch of Barracuda NextGen Firewall F-Series version 7.0, designed for organizations adopting cloud-based applications, operating dispersed network environments and leveraging public cloud platforms.

Barracuda’s NextGen Firewall was built for highly distributed networks with hundreds or even thousands of locations. It provides dedicated dashboard widgets that display data such as public IP, domain name and DNS name received from the cloud data center where the NextGen Firewall is hosted.

The company’s central management capability allows for quick deployment and management of endpoint protection (remote offices, branches, users, etc.), which translates well to the public cloud environment, according to the company.

The firewall can be deployed natively in public cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide segmentation, security and connectivity in cloud and hybrid environments.

“When shifting to the cloud, many organizations find that they don’t know how to re-create the same kind of security controls that they had in place with their physical data centers,” Klaus Gheri, Barracuda’s vice president of network security, told eWEEK. “A cloud-ready firewall can leverage all the benefits of the cloud, and at the same time make up for gaps.”

He also noted that as cloud utilization increases, especially by larger and more dispersed organizations, this requires a rethinking of traditional paradigms such as backhauling of traffic.

“Additionally, multiple breakout points to the internet may provide better performance, and connectivity becomes more critical than ever before. All of this may not be readily doable with the incumbent product, or only at an exorbitant cost,” Gheri said. “A firewall designed for cloud combines security inspection with an affordable and smaller form factor, and a central policy management that keeps things simple, but allows for multiple enforcement points to the internet that optimizes traffic flow to the cloud without security compromises.”

The F-Series includes advanced next-generation security capabilities such as application and user awareness and control, fully integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS), Web and email security and fully integrated Advanced Threat Detection.

“As a whole, the speed of innovation will create a lot of vulnerabilities, and I suspect we will see more attacks with new and interesting consequences,” Gheri said. “Exposure will only increase as the number of networked devices continue to ramp up at an incredible rate, while our business processes will become even more dependent on the seamless functioning of these devices.”

This ties into the cloud, he said, as many applications we use for business gather data and control from the cloud. Attacks are becoming more targeted and sophisticated.

“Just look at the how ransomware has become an everyday occurrence costing companies and individuals billions,” he said. “Data theft is a top concern for every organization and not just those in highly regulated industries. In our case, we’re well-positioned to help organizations adjust to these new security challenges.”