Barracuda

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I handle IT for a law firm that specializes in intellectual property. We’re a firm of about 50 people, and I ensure that we’re able to communicate internally and externally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Barracuda?

Our firm receives thousands of emails that we aren’t able to sort through. On any given day, any one of our attorneys or support staff can receive hundreds of emails.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Barracuda has provided an email spam filtering solution. If a particular email is not desirable according to the rating system that Barracuda set up, it’s moved to a quarantine folder.

Twice a day, our attorneys receive emails listing specific pieces of mail that are in quarantine. If they want to read a quarantined email, they’re able to have it delivered back into their inbox. If not, they can just delete the quarantined items. Barracuda’s rating system also blocks some emails sent from sites known to be phishing or showing other suspicious activity.

Barracuda also provides a VPN service for us, allowing our users to access our network remotely.

What is the team composition?

We have an account manager assigned to us, and if we encounter any issues, we’re able to call Barracuda’s support number. 

How did you come to work with Barracuda?

Barracuda has worked with the law firm since before I began work here, so I don’t know the genesis of this relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

I would assume we’ve invested over $100,000 with Barracuda.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Barracuda on January 2, 2013, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Barracuda’s tools are user-friendly, and my users are extremely happy with them. We utilize another VPN service as well, but some of our users find the Barracuda VPN to be more reliable. When we ended up having to work remotely due to the pandemic, Barracuda’s VPN helped make the transition seamless for our users. We once switched from Barracuda for about 30 days to save costs, but we ended up switching back to Barracuda.

How did Barracuda perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. They listen to our needs and tell us what tools they can offer to meet those needs. We speak with Barracuda via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Barracuda’s customer service is outstanding.

Barracuda proactively improves their services. For example, up to about a year-and-a-half ago, you had to physically be in the office to access any of our spam-filtered quarantine messages. Now Barracuda has a cloud-based tool, so my users can retrieve their quarantined messages remotely.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Whenever I think of an area that Barracuda could improve, they usually anticipate and meet the need before I even raise it with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give Barracuda an accurate description of your business needs. Barracuda tailors their solutions to each client, and they don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach. They can customize your desired email flow and set the strictness of your quarantine and blocklists.