Barracuda has been in the spam-fighting business since 2003, when we launched our award-winning Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Business messaging has evolved over the years, to the point where it doesn't always make sense to drop a spam-fighting appliance into a network. Companies may be using Office365, they may have multiple locations to protect, or they just don't want to deploy any more hardware or software on-premises. If you find yourself in a situation like this, Barracuda Email Security Service (BESS) is a great option to consider.
BESS is a cloud-based solution that is affordable and easy to use. It provides inbound and outbound protection against email-borne threats as well as data leaks. Here are some of the features included:
- Award winning Virus Protection and Spam Protection – Just what you would expect from Barracuda.
- Barracuda Central – Our advanced 24×7 security center that monitors and blocks the latest threats.
- Denial of Service (DoS) Attack Protection – BESS mitigates DoS attacks by stopping spam before it hits your network.
- Email Spooling – Our Cloud Protection Layer will spool email for up to 96 hours in the event of a mail server outage. (Here's our BESS team in action during a widespread outage)
- Elasticity of the Cloud – The flexibility to handle email surges and attacks, while keeping threats from ever reaching a network.
- Cloud-Scaled Email Security – BESS offers a number of encryption features and is fully integrated with a cloud-based email encryption service for outbound email.
- Outbound Filtering – Our outbound filtering prevents organizations from being put on spam block lists and prevents sensitive data in email from leaving the organization.
- Cloud-Based Central Management and Simplified Management – BESS has an intuitive web interface and is integrated with Barracuda Cloud Control, making it easy for companies to deploy and manage the service without very little IT overheard.
BESS is easy to get rolling in your organization. Head over to the Barracuda Email Security Service website and sign up for a 30-day fully functioning, risk-free trial. When you are ready to use BESS to protect your organization, you can simply sign up for the service right through the website.
Getting started with BESS is easy. Here are the primary tasks you'll need to complete to set up BESS protection for your organization:
- Link your BESS account to your Barracuda Cloud Control account. This is just a matter of logging in to Barracuda Cloud Control and following the instructions to run through our “express setup” procedure.
- Add your domains on the Domains Manager page. You can use domain name or IP address, and add port information, priority, and additional servers as needed. After a quick domain verification process, you can start adding aliases and other configurations like spooling, encryption, and LDAP settings.
- Add your users. This can be done manually through BESS, or you can use LDAP synchronization to create users. We have detailed instructions on both of these methods in our TechLib documentation. You can have the system send login information to each user upon creation. BESS is simple enough that it shouldn't require much end-user support by your IT team.
- Configure of outbound scanning. BESS scans inbound and outbound mail simultaneously. Outbound scanning configuration includes adding valid sender address ranges, mail servers or smart hosts, and verifying that mail is flowing. Once mail is flowing, you can move on to configure encryption of outbound mail and setting up the outbound message footer.
As you can see, it's a fast and easy process to get set up with the award-winning Barracuda Email Security Service. Head over to the Barracuda Email Security Service corporate site and sign up for a free trial to get started.

Click here for the BESS Demo on Demand video
Christine Barry is Senior Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager at Barracuda. In this role, she helps bring Barracuda stories to life and facilitate communication between the public and Barracuda internal teams. Prior to joining Barracuda, Christine was a field engineer and project manager for K12 and SMB clients for over 15 years. She holds several technology credentials, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Master of Business Administration. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
Connect with Christine on LinkedIn here.