Barracuda Networks, Inc. is a privately held company providing security, networking and storage products based on network appliances and cloud services. The company’s security products include products for protection against email, web surfing, web hackers and instant messaging threats such as spam, spyware, trojans, and viruses. The company's networking and storage products include web filtering, load balancing, application delivery controllers, message archiving, NG firewalls, backup services and data protection. 

 

History

Barracuda Networks was established in 2003 and introduced the Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall. In 2007 the company moved its headquarters to Campbell, California, and opened an office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

 

In January 2006, it closed its first outside investment of $40 million from Sequoia Capital and Francisco Partners. Sequoia Capital had previously provided financing to Cisco Systems, Google,Netscreen, and Yahoo!. 

 

On January 29, 2008, Barracuda Networks was sued by Trend Micro over their use of the open source anti-virus software Clam AntiVirus, which Trend Micro claimed to be in violation of their patent on 'anti-virus detection on an SMTP or FTP gateway'. In addition to providing samples of prior art in an effort to render Trend Micro's patent invalid, in July 2008 Barracuda launched a countersuit against Trend Micro claiming Trend Micro violated several antivirus patents Barracuda Networks had acquired from IBM. 

 

In December 2008, the company launched the BRBL (Barracuda Reputation Block List), its proprietary and dynamic list of known spam servers, for free and public use in blocking spam at the gateway.[8]Soon after opening BRBL many IP addresses got blacklisted without apparent reason and without any technical explanation. 

 

As of October 2009, Barracuda had over 85,000 customers. As of November, 2011, Barracuda had more than 130,000 customers. As of January, 2012, Barracuda had more than 150,000 customers. 
 

 

In 2012, the company became a co-sponsor of the Garmin-Barracuda UCI ProTour cycling team and entitlement sponsor of the 2011 Indianapolis 500 champion Bryan Herta Autosport in the IZOD IndyCar Series, with the #98 Lotus driven by Alex Tagliani, who will defend the team's championship. 

 

Barracuda Networks continued to grow its research and development facility in Ann Arbor, expanding to a 12,500 square foot office building on Depot St. in 2008. By 2012, the Michigan based research division had grown to about 180 employees, again outgrowing its physical space. In June, 2012, Barracuda signed a lease to occupy the 45,000 square foot office complex previously used as the Borders headquarters on Maynard St in downtown Ann Arbor, announcing it is expecting to grow the office to 400 employees in the next five years. 

 

In July 2012, Dean Drako, Barracuda Networks’s co-founder, president and CEO since it was founded in 2003, resigned his operating position, remaining on the company’s board of directors. At the time of Drako’s departure, the company stated it had achieved profitability, a nearly ongoing 30 annual percent growth rate since inception, 150,000 customers worldwide, nearly 1,000 employees, 10 offices worldwide, and did business in 80 countries. The company created the office of the CEO as it started a CEO search. 

 

Products

• Spam and virus firewall - In October 2003, Barracuda announced its spam and virus firewall plug-in appliance. In June 2008, Barracuda launched a spam and virus firewall for large enterprises and ISPs.

 

• Web filter - In April 2005, the company introduced its web filtering appliance to prevent spyware and viruses from gathering and transmitting user data, and to control web surfing.

 

• IM Firewall - Launched in September 2005 to protect and archive instant messaging content.

 

• Load balancer - In November 2006, the company introduced a load balancing appliance for high availability distribution of network traffic across multiple servers.

 

• Message archiver - In July 2007, the company introduced message archiving to index and preserve emails, and to meet legal and regulatory compliance.

 

• SSL VPN - In November, 2008, the company launched its secure sockets layer virtual private network product to provide secure, clientless, remote access.

 

• Web Application Firewall - Announced in February 2008, for securing Web applications for large enterprises and to address regulation compliance such as PCI DSS.

 

• Link Balancer - Announced in September 2008, to optimize and aggregate internet connections from different providers.

 

• Backup services - In November 2008, the company announced a service to back up data in the cloud, including on-site backup with data deduplication and off-site data replication for disaster recovery. In January 2009, Barracuda added message-level backup for Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise, integrating Barracuda Backup Service with Yosemite Backup, formerly Tapeware.

 

• Purewire Web Security Service - In October 2009, in conjunction with its acquisition of Purewire, Barracuda Networks launched the Purewire Web Security Service which is a software as a service offering for Web filtering, content security, and safe web surfing.

 

• NG Firewall - In February 2010, Barracuda announced its NG Firewalls to protect enterprise network infrastructures. The firewalls integrate web and email filtering, intrusion prevention, layer 7 application profiling, and network access control into one platform that is centrally managed across multiple distributed enterprise network locations. NG Firewalls are available both as hardware or as a virtual appliance and include wide area network traffic optimization.

 

• CudaTel Communication Server (PBX) - in August 2010, Barracuda announced the release of CudaTel, a VOIP Private branch exchange designed for IT administrators. CudaTel features FreeSWITCH, a open-source project sponsored by Barracuda Networks.

 

Acquisitions

In September 2007, Barracuda Networks acquired NetContinuum, a company providing application controllers to secure and manage enterprise web applications.

 

In November 2008, Barracuda Networks expanded into cloud-based backup services by acquiring BitLeap.

 

In November 2008, Barracuda Networks acquired 3SP, allowing the company to introduce Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Virtual Private Network (VPN) products to perform malware scans on files uploaded during a VPN session to network file shares or internal Web sites.

 

In January 2009, Barracuda Networks acquired Yosemite Technologies to add software agents for incremental backups of applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL Server, and Windows system states.

 

September 2009, Barracuda Networks acquired controlling interest in phion AG, an Austria-based public company delivering enterprise-class firewalls.

 

In October 2009, Barracuda Networks acquired Purewire Inc, a software as a service (SaaS) company offering cloud based web filtering and security.

 

Security Issue

In January 2013 a backdoor was discovered: "A variety of firewall, VPN, and spam filtering gear sold by Barracuda Networks contains undocumented backdoor accounts that allow people to remotely log in and access sensitive information, researchers with an Austrian security firm have warned." 

 

Glassdoor

Company Rating: 3.5

CEO Approval: Dean Drako, 68%

 

Bottom Line: Barracuda Networks is a great company for young professionals, but appears to have a bit of a clique-y environment and doesn't pay as well as other companies. It's a great place for learning how to become a better engineer.

 

Employee Feedback:

"Good team mates, nice atmosphere, lots of things to learn for someone who is new to networking or application side networking."

 

"The pay is little compared to others in the industry with the same title. The staff can be very clicky and gossipy."

 

"Its a point of pride with the managers they pay 15% below valley average. There is no feedback other than the yearly review which they nit pick anything you may have done wrong and do not allow you to explain yourself."