Getting to know your Barracuda CloudGen Firewall work-from-home capabilities

Barracuda solutions have long been engineered to support distributed workloads and mobile workforces.  We fully embraced the changing nature of work a few years ago when we launched our Barracuda CloudGen Firewall (CGF).  The Barracuda CGF took firewalls to the cloud in a new way.

Why was this necessary?  Put simply, business was changing, and the pressure was on to make business as agile and profitable as possible.  As our friend Phil Sorgen once said, "Business used to be “big eats small.”  Now with the public cloud, it's “fast eats big.”"  The Barracuda CloudGen Firewall went beyond the next-generation line of capabilities, with robust support for widely dispersed networks, remote workforces, and the internet of things (IoT).  In short, it was designed to support the accelerating adoption of the public cloud, the increasing deployment of branch offices into local and emerging markets, and the enthusiastic embrace of SaaS solutions.

 With the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic pushing more workers out of corporate offices to practice good social distancing, it seems like a good time to remind customers of remote access capabilities of the Barracuda CGF that will help you empower your employees who are suddenly working from home.

Remote workers normally need access to corporate information just like they do when they’re in the office.  Because different field devices, access levels, and connectivity conditions require different options, Barracuda offers several solutions to support your remote workers.

CudaLaunch:  This application provides secure remote access to a corporate network and is ideal for BYOD support and mobile device deployments.  The application is available at no charge for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices, and because it's an application, it has an intuitive user interface and it offers a more consistent user experience than a mobile browser.  CudaLaunch provides users VPN access to all of the applications assigned by the company.  It is designed to be completely self-configuring and includes easy central management for large deployments.

Network Access Client:  Barracuda provides a Network Access Client that provides centrally managed access control as well as an advanced firewall on the endpoint.  Remote users can easily and securely access network resources without complex client configuration and management. VPN clients are available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and various Linux systems.  Every Barracuda CloudGen Firewall unit supports an unlimited number of VPN clients at no extra cost. This is the ideal remote access solution for home office workers who are using corporate-owned desktops.

Barracuda Browser Remote Access: The SSL VPN portal offers remote users the option to access assigned corporate resources simply by visiting a specified URL and entering their network credentials.  Upon login, the user will be able to securely access the applications and other network resources that have been provisioned according to the user’s permission set.  This type of access method is available from any computer with an internet connection and a browser.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall also supports BYOD practices, which can be even more critical as users move away from the corporate office and into their homes.  Studies have shown that 9 in 10 employees use their personal smartphone for work, which can be easier to manage if those employees are in the office and the smartphone is configured and restricted according to policies.  Studies have also shown that more than half of the mobile workforce use three or more devices to access network files and corporate information.  The Barracuda CGF offers CudaLaunch and the Browser Remote Access options to help you support these users.  With the Barracuda CGF, you can maintain the security of your corporate assets and make it easy for your workforce to access their files and applications.  In fact, many Barracuda CloudGen Firewall customers make CudaLaunch the cornerstone of their BYOD policy.

Barracuda CGF remote access solutions are easy for the user to adopt for their workflow, and IT departments can take advantage of Zero Touch Provisioning to keep deployment simple and fast.  This product is engineered to allow customers to quickly scale up to support a large number of remote workers while keeping deployment costs and IT overhead to a minimum.

See our Barracuda Campus documentation here for more information on how these features work.  If you need setup and configuration assistance, please contact tech support here.

If you would like to try a Barracuda CloudGen Firewall in your own environment, risk-free for 30-days, visit our corporate website here.