What is our primary use case?
We use Cohesity for backup and recovery primarily, though we are starting to look into it for file service as well. We perform on-premises backups of Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, VDI Golden Images, and a host of Windows Servers and Linux Appliances.
We test the restores weekly with file-based restores. The product makes this surprisingly easy to search for folders and files. The elastic search puts Cohesity above the competition. We will be leveraging the long term retention to the cloud later this year, but with the level of support that we receive from Cohesity, we don't anticipate any issues.
How has it helped my organization?
This product has allowed us to finally remove tapes from our environment. Prior to this, our service desk would waste two to three hours a week swapping tapes and then an additional five to six hours each month shuffling the tapes all over the place. All that time has been recovered.
For the admins/engineers, we would spend ten hours a week trying to keep our old backup system running properly, and that includes needing to be up at 1-3 AM when their "follow the sun" tech support would return your call from 10 AM (with a two hour SLA).
It also has allowed me to stop focusing on fixing the backups daily and I can trust that they will run reliably.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the rapid VM restores and the ability to quickly find files and download them directly to my desktop so that I can put them where I need them to be.
The elastic search function is unbelievable. It has saved us so much time, not just in finding files to restore but also in finding lost files or files that were misplaced by an employee. This has led to quick ticket turn arounds for our service desk and they are growing more confident in the backup solution. If they had to leverage our previous product, they considered the file lost.
The granular restore functionality in AD is also extremely helpful.
The best part about Cohesity is that there is an active user community that can request improvements and the developers will incorporate them as they move through releases.
What needs improvement?
The error handling could be improved. The errors shown on the GUI tend to be just what the log spits out and that can be quite confusing. The nice feature is that the logs are in the GUI, so you don't have to go hunting for them, you simply need click the drop down to show the information. There are a few cryptic error messages, thankfully the support staff is fantastic and knows what the errors mean.
There are a few user interface concerns with some of the functionality, such as what screens you get dropped back on when moving in between different areas. If you use the back button on your browser, you may not go back to the last page due to the coding. However, overall navigation isn't tough or complicated.
Buyer's Guide
Cohesity DataProtect
June 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cohesity for four months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been bumps in the road, but overall the solution is working wonders in our environment. A 38-hour full backup has been reduced to a 10-hour full (it was only needed once) and then 45-minute incremental backups after that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe it will scale up where we need it to and it can scale down where we expect it to. I think that it is great in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The tech support is fantastic. Even when I e-mail on the weekends I get responses within 20 minutes, tops. If I call, it is immediate.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched from a previous solution because it was unreliable and their tech support was unable to adequately fix the issues we were having.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was simple. There was an engineer who was on hand to do all of the work, but I chose to do quite a bit of the work myself instead. From power on to the first backup was about 30 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
The engineer that they provided to us was amazing. He was dedicated to getting the job done right and quickly. We couldn't have asked for better.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
With respect to pricing, make sure that you look at both Rubrik and Cohesity as they are very similar and are quite competitive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Rubrik, Unitrends, Veeam, Dell, and Cohesity for this project.
What other advice do I have?
Cohesity's elastic search gives it a leg up on Rubrik.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.