For many business customers today, having to piece together and manage multiple cybersecurity tools from various vendors has become a huge burden that also can leave them vulnerable to hackers and cyberattacks due to unintended gaps in their security.
To battle these challenges, Barracuda Networks has unveiled its new
BarracudaONE cybersecurity platform, which brings together all of its individual security offerings into a single platform that customers can use to bolster the security of their infrastructure.
BarracudaONE was developed in response to customer concerns about escalating cybersecurity management difficulties caused by having to make different tools from multiple vendors work well together,
Brian Downey, vice president of product management at Barracuda, told ChannelE2E.
In a recently commissioned study of about 2,000 security decision makers in businesses, Barracuda found that some 65% reported that they struggle with this complex problem, said Downey. The respondents said that the multiple tools drive inefficiency, increase their costs, and reduce the effectiveness of their security, he added.
To address these issues, the BarracudaONE platform uses AI to combine Barracuda’s offerings, including email protection, data protection, network and application security, advanced threat protection, managed extended detection and response (XDR), and Barracuda support.
“It avoids the holes lining up in the ‘Swiss cheese’ security model that allow for breaches by having closely integrated complete security solutions,” said Downey. “The close integration and AI-powered capabilities help reduce the chances of human error breaches – one of the leading causes of cybersecurity risk and breaches.”
BarracudaONE provides a centralized dashboard that aims to reduce operational complexity while improving visibility and minimizing administrative burdens, according to the vendor. Also included are robust reporting capabilities that deliver clear, actionable insights to customers to help security teams, MSPs, and channel partners show the results of the platform’s performance. BarracudaONE is now available at no additional cost to MSPs, other channel partners, and customers already using Barracuda Email Protection, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, and Barracuda Data Inspector.
Analysts: Weighing in on BarracudaONE
Anurag Agrawal, the founder and chief global analyst with Techaisle, told ChannelE2E that having an all-in-one security platform today is the direction that many vendors are taking in the marketplace, but said that market saturation could be an issue for the company.
“The XDR market is already crowded with well-funded and established players, including Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft, which hold significant market share, brand recognition, and substantial R&D budgets,” said Agrawal. “Barracuda will need to differentiate BarracudaONE.”
In addition, “simply offering a unified platform is not enough,” he said. “BarracudaONE will need to demonstrate superior or unique capabilities in areas like AI-driven detection, automation, ease of use, and reporting compared to mature offerings.”
But the real challenge, said Agrawal, “will be how deeply and effectively these different solutions – email protection, cloud-to-cloud backup, data inspector, and potentially others – are integrated at the data and intelligence layer. A superficial integration where it is merely a single dashboard for disparate tools will not be a true platform and will fall short of market expectations.”
And though Barracuda is saying that its new platform includes everything that is needed, customers will still want to integrate other third-party tools for their operations, especially in larger enterprises or complex MSP environments, he said. “Barracuda will need to articulate a clear strategy for how BarracudaONE can ingest data or integrate with other security solutions its customers might already be using,” said Agrawal.
“No doubt, BarracudaONE presents an opportunity to simplify security operations and enhance client value through a unified, AI-powered platform,” he said. “However, to truly capitalize on this, MSPs must demand clear and continuous support from Barracuda, including robust training, sales enablement, and marketing resources that go beyond generic ‘simplification’ to articulate tangible ROI and competitive advantages. Furthermore, for MSPs to fully embrace BarracudaONE and confidently recommend it to their clients, Barracuda must provide concrete evidence and case studies demonstrating the real-world efficacy of its ‘battle-tested AI’ in threat detection and response, fostering critical trust in the platform's advanced capabilities.”
Another analyst, ,
Shelly Kramer, founder and principal analyst at Kramer & Co., said that her research shows that security tool sprawl is definitely a reality for many organizations today, but that for vendors bringing everything together under one platform it can sometimes be easier said than done.
“The security tech stack is complex, and eliminating silos, connecting data, and integrating capabilities is the path forward,” said Kramer. “Some vendors are moving forward on this front already, but many are not quite there yet.”
The BarracudaONE platform could help with this conundrum while also providing a competitive differentiator for MSPs and other channel partners to offer customers these services, she said.
“Visibility is key, as you can't protect against what you can't see, and real-time alerts are business mission critical today,” said Kramer. “Having these capabilities in a unified platform, combined with powerful AI reporting, gives MSPs and channel partners exactly what they need to best serve their customer base.”
Kramer said she agrees that many other vendors are already doing this today. “This isn't a novel offering by any measure; other vendors have similar offerings. But these capabilities are, by and large, not just the future of security operations, they are the ‘need it now’ of security operations."
