Barracuda combines firewall and cloud security to guard off and on the network

Barracuda has announced an integration between its next-generation firewall and cloud security to offer protection both off and on the network.

According to the corporate, this integration of the Barracuda NG Firewall and Web Security Flex offloads security and reporting functions to the cloud by adding Layer 7 application control, user identity, intrusion prevention and detection, WAN optimisation and network access control enforcement.

The intention is to permit enterprises to regain control of dynamic networks, Barracuda said, so as to protect users with disparate devices who access applications and resources, both off and on the network.

Steve Pao, vice-president of product management at Barracuda Networks, said: “While the historical firewall market has emphasised the box and its associated network accelerators, coprocessors or ASICs, the truth is that needs continue to conform.

“For example, a key challenge with today's solutions is that network accelerators don't improve reporting performance. With our new angle of using lightweight on-premises hardware for core network security functions and the cloud for more resource-intensive content security functions, we will apply one of the most up-to-date security countermeasures against the newest threats, while minimising the hardware footprint and upgrade cycles required to offer that protection."

The company claimed that by moving web filtering to the cloud, organisations may be able to simplify capacity planning in order that they don't seem to be so rigidly certain to the compute cycles available at the on-premises firewall. It also claimed that this is able to maximise security across all locations as organisations can size their on-premises firewalls while still providing advanced malware scanning, content filtering and centralised reporting to branch offices.

Launched in 2010, the Barracuda NG Firewall integrates next-generation firewall technologies including Layer 7 application profiling, intelligent traffic management, intrusion prevention, web filtering, anti-virus, anti-spam and network access control.

Web Security Flex is a cloud-based web security offering that protects users both inside and outside of the workplace from malicious content, with complete management and reporting within the cloud.