Barracuda Application Protection

What it does

Barracuda Application Protection is a Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) platform that combines a web application firewall, API security, bot defense, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation in a single offering. It shields web applications and APIs from the OWASP Top 10, zero-day exploits, data leakage, and application-layer denial of service attacks, and is delivered either as the Barracuda Web Application Firewall or as the cloud-hosted WAF-as-a-Service.

How it works

Traffic to protected applications flows through the WAF engine, which applies OWASP rule sets, rate limiting, brute force protection, and client IP reputation analysis. Barracuda Advanced Bot Protection applies machine learning, informed by the cloud-based Active Threat Intelligence service, to separate malicious and human-mimicking bots from legitimate traffic. Machine learning-backed discovery surfaces shadow and zombie APIs, and protection rule sets can be generated automatically from API definition files. The bundled Vulnerability Manager and Remediation Service finds application vulnerabilities and remediates them with a single click, and a REST API connects the platform to configuration management and SIEM tools.

Credentials and traction

WAF-as-a-Service is SOC 2 Type II certified, with the audit report available on request through the Barracuda Trust Center. Barracuda is listed as a Representative Vendor in the June 2026 Gartner Market Guide for Cloud Web Application and API Protection. The vendor serves more than 200,000 customers worldwide, and the platform targets small and midsized enterprises alongside managed service providers delivering it as a managed offering.