We were looking to replace our legacy tapes and Veritas Backup Exec. We were tired of spending money on tapes and the time it took to physically handle and transport the tapes as they cycled through the system. We were also looking to do something to get rid of some of our older legacy NetApp devices. In the end, we were looking for a solution with redundancy and support for encryption for data at rest. We were also hoping for something that would enable on-prem storage, but at the same time, give us cloud capabilities down the road when the organization was ready to make that leap.
Cohesity DataProtect OverviewUNIXBusinessApplicationPrice:
Cohesity DataProtect Buyer's Guide
Download the Cohesity DataProtect Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: April 2023
What is Cohesity DataProtect?
What is Cohesity DataProtect?
Cohesity DataProtect is a top-level, sophisticated, software-defined backup and recovery solution created for cloud environments. Cohesity DataProtect is made to hyperscale and is one the most thorough policy-based protection solutions available on the market today.
Cohesity DataProtect melds multiple-point products into a single software that is able to be deployed as on-premise or consumed as a service.
Top Features:
Hyperscale made easy: Cohesity DataProtect improves data protection by doing away with the need for backup silos and administers backup and recovery with a single user-friendly, easy-to-understand interface. Cohesity DataProtect provides extensive 24/7 enterprise-class protection for a large, varying set of sources, including virtual and physical servers, NAS and SaaS workloads, relational and distributed databases, and traditional and containerized applications.
Super fast recovery: Cohesity DataProtect offers near-zero recovery point objectives (RPOs) and near-instant recovery time objectives (RTOs) to satisfy your business service-level agreements (SLAs). Using Cohesity Helios’ unified data plane and control plane you can immediately search and recover data on any Cohesity cluster, located anywhere. DataProtect distinctively minimizes downtime by immediately mass restoring any amount of virtual machines (VMs) to any point in time, and lowers data protection costs by as much as 70% or more.
Backup as a Service: Feel free to take advantage of the elasticity of the public cloud and the cost-effective value of Cohesity DataProtect when delivered as a service. When you choose an OPEX option, you can eliminate the need for on-premises hardware. There is a SaaS option that will allow you to very simply configure your backup workloads and immediately begin protecting your vital all-important data and applications.
It’s as easy as: sign-up, connect, and protect!
Ransomware protection: Cohesity DataProtect offers stellar recovery at scale. The solution is so intuitive, it has machine learning-based anomaly detection to stop incidents before they happen. Cohesity DataProtection can provide immutable backups, Datalock write once, read many (WORM), encryption, and role-based access control (RBAC).
Cohesity DataProtect integrates well with many of today’s top solutions, including, but not limited to:
- Hypervisors: VMware vSphere (5.5 and later), Microsoft Hyper-V (2019, 2016, 2012 R2), Nutanix AHV and RHeV
- Kubernetes-based data and application state
- Cloud: AWS EC2, Amazon RDS, Azure VM, and Google Compute
- Physical: Windows, Linux(RHEL, CentOS, OEL, Debian, Ubuntu), AIX (7.x), and Solaris
- Databases: Oracle (11g R2, 12c), Oracle RAC and SQL (2008 or later)
- Distributed Databases (NoSQL and Hadoop): MongoDB, CouchbaseDB, Apache, Cassandra, Cloudera, and Hortonworks.
- Bare Machine Recovery: Windows and Linux
- Applications: MS Exchange (2010 SP3 or later), MSFT Active Directory, Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams, Groups), SalesForce (SFDC), and SAP HANA
- Primary storage: Pure FlashArray, HPE Nimble, and Cisco Hyperflex
- NAS: Pure FlashBlade, NetApp, Isilon, IBM GPFS, Google EFS, Elastifile, and generic solutions*
Reviews from Real Users
One reviewer, who is head of IT infrastructure at Kampmann says, “Cohesity really is a Next-Gen Data Management Software,” and goes on to indicate that Cohesity “works flawlessly with easy replication of backups and numerous supported backup sources.”
Another user, who is a senior network engineer at a legal firm, relates that "Cohesity is a robust and feature-rich solution"
Cohesity DataProtect was previously known as Cohesity.
Cohesity DataProtect Customers
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What users are saying about Cohesity DataProtect pricing:
Cohesity DataProtect Reviews
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Network Administration Supervisor at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
Easy to implement with great technical support and easy upgrading capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The system automatically takes down the nodes one at a time and performs the upgrade and brings the node back up before proceeding to the next. Upgrades can now be done at any time with a high level of confidence."
- "In terms of the product itself, there have been a handful of patches that have had to be applied outside of the GUI via the command line. It's very straightforward and easy and in the same redundant fashion, but not quite as simple as one or two clicks. I'm hoping that will decrease going forward."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
We were able to eliminate tape backups by utilizing Cohesity to backup our VMs. We then replicated the backup data to a second offsite Cohesity cluster. In the future, we will archive older backups to the cloud as well via Cohesity. We have also been able to utilize Cohesity as a replacement for our older legacy NAS devices - serving up unstructured data on file shares. This was a major win for us, as it greatly simplified our environment and we saw a substantial increase in speed from our legacy NetApp devices.
What is most valuable?
The overall ease of implementation and use has been outstanding. Upgrades are easy because of the way that redundancy is built into the Cohesity solution. You simply go to the web-based GUI, download the update, and apply.
The system automatically takes down the nodes one at a time and performs the upgrade and brings the node back up before proceeding to the next. Upgrades can now be done at any time with a high level of confidence.
The engineering team also seems to be working hard to constantly add new features. Since we purchased the product, Cohesity added the ability to perform Office 365 backups and AD backups at no additional cost. The features just showed up in the new release, which was great.
What needs improvement?
There have been a number of improvements since we purchased the product two years ago that has since made it even more attractive to users. Things liked education and training have been a greater focus. Cohesity now offers "Cohesity Academy" for education, and recently launched Cohesity User Groups for people to join other Cohesity users in discussing best practices, use case scenarios, etc.
In terms of the product itself, there have been a handful of patches that have had to be applied outside of the GUI via the command line. It's very straightforward and easy and in the same redundant fashion, but not quite as simple as one or two clicks. I'm hoping that will decrease going forward.
Buyer's Guide
Cohesity DataProtect
April 2023

Learn what your peers think about Cohesity DataProtect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2023.
690,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is absolutely rock solid. I'm not aware of any issues with file services and the backups have been 100%. We have not had any file share outage or issues with SMB which is awesome as SMB fileshares were a critical part of decision to purchase Cohesty.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. If you want to buy the boxes, this solution will work at the largest of enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
Support has been very good - particularly in the last 6 months. They seem to have grown the support organization as the install base has increased and the quality of the engineers is very good. The remote support functionality in the product makes it very easy for Cohesity staff to diagnose problems and either guide you through the fix or even perform it themselves.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used Veritas Backup Exec and LTO tapes. On the storage side, we had legacy Netgear and NetApp NAS devices that Cohesity replaced with a single device.
How was the initial setup?
Cohesity sent a local sales engineer out and in an afternoon we had it racked, networked, and backing up.
What about the implementation team?
Cohesity sent a sales engineer out and it was done in an afternoon. They made the whole process incredibly simple.
What was our ROI?
It's hard to estimate a dollar value for the peace of mind in knowing that my files and backups are there and they work. In the face of ransomware and other threats, I can roll back in a few clicks. Upgrades are simple and Cohesity has a security focus. I wish we could have made the change years ago.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The costs vary, but the vendors will sometimes work with you depending on your purchase and what time of year it is in order to make deals happen. The Cohesity licensing was pretty straightforward, which was also attractive in that we didn't have to license a whole bunch of features. Everything was bundled together.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Rubrik, which was pricier and did not offer file services at the time. We also looked at a budget play in Storage Craft but were not sure if the product was going to have enough market support to continue. Also, the features seemed rough compared to Cohesity, which felt more polished and finished.
What other advice do I have?
We have been very happy with the performance and ease of use of the solution. Support has been very good - even as they have grown and scaled up in size.
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.

Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Robust and feature-rich solution
Pros and Cons
- "I found value in the instant recovery with DataMove. I found value in the protection group model for applying policies to VMs. And in the overall UI navigation and the way that the application is laid out in the web browser."
- "Their UI requires a manual refresh. It doesn't seem like it updates itself sometimes when you're moving from screens or waiting for a change to take effect, so you have to manually refresh."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for both local VM recovery, exchange, SQL recovery, and disaster recovery.
How has it helped my organization?
We have an on-premise exchange environment and it is really large and sensitive to backup impact, where it'll actually slow down the mailbox servers due to the stunning effect of trying to snapshot the VM. We previously had to do dedicated backup servers, which was an additional consumption of on-premise resources of storage and compute. When we moved to Cohesity, we were able to target the passive copies of those databases so we no longer needed to have dedicated backup servers for the exchange environment, thereby reducing both the footprint of exchange and the resources consumed to support of the backup server.
What is most valuable?
I found value in the instant recovery with DataMove. I found value in the protection group model for applying policies to VMs. And in the overall UI navigation and the way that the application is laid out in the web browser.
What needs improvement?
In terms of what could be improved, their UI requires a manual refresh. It doesn't seem like it updates itself sometimes when you're moving from screens or waiting for a change to take effect, so you have to manually refresh. I would say that is an area for improvement, and I would also say that they have room for improvement for being able to roll back to previous versions after you've upgraded. They don't have a good rollback methodology to go back to previous versions if there is a problem with the new version.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cohesity DataProtect for two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I feel like it's very stable.
We are running with a full no-redundancy, so we can lose an entire node in the clustering and it will operate without any downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cohesity DataProtect is very scalable. You can add resources just by adding additional nodes to the cluster and it seems to be able to scale out as large as you need it to.
It is used primarily by engineering and by a couple people in the app team on the SQL side. I'd say maybe half a dozen people total use it in our organization and they're in a combination of apps and engineering.
Deployment and maintenance are all done by me and my counterpart for the most part, just senior engineers on the engineering team. There are just two of us that are primarily handling that.
It is being used extensively in both of our data centers for all virtual workloads, as well as the SQL Server and exchange application level workloads. Those are our use cases primarily for those applications and the VM.
How are customer service and support?
They have excellent technical support. I give them high marks for that. They all seem to know the product well and be willing to assist with things and have experiences all around with the support team.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Rubrik and we switched due to Rubrik tending to focus more on public cloud solutions over the past couple years and also the overall price of the solution - Rubrik was very expensive. We wanted to have more of a competitive product up against it.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup is straightforward.
It took one day for each site. We have two sites. We deployed each site in one day for a two day deployment total, and then our overall deployment strategy was to begin ingesting at the VM level and then start focusing on the agent-based deployments to equal an exchange.
What was our ROI?
In terms of ROI, the time of management is lower than what we were previously using so we are getting some cycles back from an engineering perspective. Also, we were able to reclaim our exchange environment in terms of resources, so there was some return there that we were able to recoup immediately, and then just the overall cost across the duration of the licensing and the hardware is expected to be lower than what we previously had.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is on a yearly license. It actually includes the cost of the hardware, as well. So the cost of the hardware and the licensing is all rolled into a single bundle with the support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before going with Cohesity, we spoke with Pure, Commvault, and with Rubrik and Cohesity and Rubrik were identified as the two finalists and we did a proof of concept for both of those.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to anyone considering Cohesity DataProtect is to try it out because the performance seems to exceed the competitors in the market. If it fits well in your organization or your use cases, then give it a shot.
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Cohesity DataProtect a nine. I did a lot of research into the different products and found this one to be pretty much top across the board and after using it, we are very happy with the performance and the results that we are getting.
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.
Buyer's Guide
Cohesity DataProtect
April 2023

Learn what your peers think about Cohesity DataProtect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2023.
690,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Infrastructure Architect at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Good backup and restore capabilities, scales well, and the instant recovery option saves us time for urgent cases
Pros and Cons
- "Instant recovery options are a big benefit for urgent restores, as we don't need to wait for hours or days for a restore to complete before being able to access the files."
- "Many of the reports are basic, at most, and at times we had to open a support ticket to help find or develop a report for our needs."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use this product for backups, reporting, and auditing. As we are a publicly listed company, we rely heavily on the reporting that comes out of Cohesity to ensure that we are compliant across all aspects.
The backup and restore solution is a big step forward from our last solution and packs more than just backup in a box, allowing for additional features such as Disaster Recovery and utilising the space available in the cluster for storing files.
The auditing and reporting features are as important as the backups themselves.
How has it helped my organization?
We moved over from another backup solution that wasn't as innovative, which made it an easy solution to move away from. Cohesity uses up less rack space in the datacentre and allows for more than just backups, paving the way for more hyper-converged solutions, not just physically.
The initial contract with Cohesity is an improvement in terms of pricing above our previous solution but it remains to be seen what will happen after the contract comes to an end. The fundamental tasks of backups are restores are ahead of its game, relative to our previous solution.
What is most valuable?
The backup and restore feature is the most valuable.
Instant recovery options are a big benefit for urgent restores, as we don't need to wait for hours or days for a restore to complete before being able to access the files.
The restore to the appliance itself allows for faster (instant) access that saves us from waiting for the restores to happen to the datastores/volume/containers, which can take upwards of weeks in our case if we were to restore the larger VM guests.
We have seen many iterations of this such as restoring to the cloud but the outcome has always been a hit-and-miss solution.
What needs improvement?
The canned reporting could be improved. Many of the reports are basic, at most, and at times we had to open a support ticket to help find or develop a report for our needs. This is something that even our last solution had in place already.
Error reporting could also be improved. Rather than 'errorcode -2', it needs to be more descriptive or at least, provide KB articles related to the error or problem. This would save time in creating a ticket and try to describe to the support engineer what happened to cause an 'errorcode -2' that most of the time, we don't know either.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cohesity DataProtect for seven months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, so far so good.
The initial implementation requires a lot of babysitting and reporting on issues is a bit lacking. Hopefully, you've purchased a good support contract to help with those teething issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. It doesn't require a replacement appliance to expand for more capacity. Simply purchase another block/node and it's done.
How are customer service and technical support?
My experience with support is mixed. There are times where the response and resolution are quick but at times, there are large gaps in the response. I'm not sure whether this is timezone-related.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched over, as the previous solution was very lacking behind in innovation. It was missing basic features such as finding VMs and we were told to simply use "ctrl+f" to find them. However, this didn't help if the screen spanned across multiple pages.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward, as we engaged with the company to help with the deployment. As long as the provided templates are completed and networking is done properly, it should be a smooth ride.
What about the implementation team?
Our deployment was completed by a mix of both. The vendor team was very qualified and personnel was made available at each region to assist the local teams with implementation.
What was our ROI?
This is difficult to measure and quantify but the time saved across the regions baby-sitting the previous solution would be about eight hours per week.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My advice is to always negotiate for better pricing.
A contract with any backup vendor will always be a long-term deal, so think ahead and force them to sharpen their pencils. Never sign up without evaluating the price of other vendors over a three to a five-year term.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Rubrik, Veeam, Nutanix Mine, Barracuda Backup, and Commvault.
What other advice do I have?
Although the NPS score was rated highly, this should not be the only factor to consider. There may be other factors involved that affect this score and as mentioned, backup solutions are a long-term deal. Not many companies will be willing to jump ship, risking their backups that are kept on proprietary platforms.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Engineer at Sky Lakes Medical Center
Easy to scale with excellent support and seamless backup and restore functionality
Pros and Cons
- "With instant DR failover using SiteContinuity, we are able to keep our files available no matter the situation."
- "Better support for legacy platforms would be nice, but we should be moving off those anyway."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is for backup and DR. We have two clusters. One is all-flash. The other is a DR cluster with spinning disks. We use the all-flash to host shared storage, as well as a number of other services. We also use a number of other features such as SmartFiles. SmartFiles allows us to host all of our shared storage on the all-flash nodes, while keeping a DR ready copy on the DR cluster. This frees us from the constant management of a traditional Windows SMB environment and allows us to maximize up-time.
How has it helped my organization?
The seamless backup and restore functionality has made file recovery and patch Tuesdays inconsequential. VM and SQL cloning in the test and dev feature sets allow us to immediately bring up backups both to test or for immediate availability (if needed). The VM can stand up within the Cohesity cluster and live vMotioned to our production VMware cluster.
While other solutions might take hours to recover a VM, we can instantly bring one up and have our users back to work. The file recovery is equally simple, with the ability to clone entire SMB shares with a click.
What is most valuable?
Cohesity DataProtect is just one suite of features. Obviously, instant recovery and a live VM environment to bring up backups in would be the top feature set, however, there is so much more.
ShareFiles allow for SMB shares to be stood up in minutes. Currently, we store our surveillance, user shares, department shares, and a number of other internal shares on SmartFiles. We even have a witness share for our SQL clustering.
With instant DR failover using SiteContinuity, we are able to keep our files available no matter the situation.
What needs improvement?
DataProtect is a full-featured backup suite. Better support for legacy platforms would be nice, but we should be moving off those anyway.
The marketplace app stability is still an issue at times. The company is very quick and hotfixes are released regularly. Their support is really fantastic, and I’ve only had one notable outage relating to an update. Ultimately it boiled down to a configuration error on my part, so I suppose I can’t blame them too much for that.
Now that we have added additional nodes stability has been much better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With only one (self-inflicted) outage, I would say it is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Adding nodes is trivial and can be scaled out to petabytes easily.
How are customer service and technical support?
I’ve had many experiences with Cohesity support. They clearly keep support a primary concern and I’ve never had a bad experience. Recently, I had to submit a P1 case, and I had two top-tier engineers on the phone within 10 minutes.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously we used CommVault. We needed a more agile and robust solution.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is simple. We simply had to assign the interfaces an IP, set up our port aggregation, and create the cluster.
What about the implementation team?
We had Cohesity support come on-site to assist, however, we were there every step of the way. The Cohesity PS teams are very knowledgeable.
What was our ROI?
Unfortunately, I am not privy to the business side of this decision, however, we've recovered from ransomware successfully without paying any ransom. Considering the organization wouldn’t exist any longer without Cohesity, I would say it was worth it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would advise others to invest in their backup infrastructure. It is literally the most important solution you will purchase for business continuity. As a ransomware survivor, I cannot stress enough how valuable this solution is.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate other solutions and Rubrik was a major contender. Ultimately, Cohesity won out with a Cisco Hyperflex platform and superior support.
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.
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Feature-rich, robust, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable features is the restore functionality that they offer."
- "I would like to see the management of multiple nodes inside a tenant. If you want to manage a Cohesity environment, you either go on a per-node base, and you can hop from one node to the other, or you need to implement their SaaS capability but it always needs an internet connection. We would really like to have some kind of local management entity so that we can see all the Cohesity nodes in a customer environment and manage those nodes centrally. That's something that we would really like, and they are really working on it."
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features is the restore functionality that they offer.
What needs improvement?
They are really ahead of the curve concerning development and telling it to the market. We are a partner, and we know that sometimes a certain technology about which they have been telling a broad audience is not really production-ready, or it is in a feature release. There is always a difference between general availability and general deployment. Sometimes, we sell the feature, but it is not in the GA. It is in one of the future versions. That's one thing.
The other thing is that they lack visibility. When talking about backup, the first thing that everybody says is Veeam. If you are talking about the appliance part of the backup market, Rubrik is the first one they're mentioning, but a lot of the Rubrik customers don't know Cohesity.
I would like to see the management of multiple nodes inside a tenant. If you want to manage a Cohesity environment, you either go on a per-node base, and you can hop from one node to the other, or you need to implement their SaaS capability but it always needs an internet connection. We would really like to have some kind of local management entity so that we can see all the Cohesity nodes in a customer environment and manage those nodes centrally. That's something that we would really like, and they are really working on it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with them for the past two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable, and the nice thing is that you can use it in combination. You can use it as a backup solution, but you can also use it as a file system solution with NAS capabilities.
How are customer service and support?
They're really good. A technical support guy can be a co-owner of a case. They are very good at connecting with the customer. The tools they provide to solve problems are very useful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Commvault. We see Commvault more as the Swiss army knife for backup solutions with a lot of features and functions. When we want to make backup more easy and robust, then we're positioning Cohesity. We see that one part of the market really likes the Commvault features and functionality, but there is another part in the Dutch market that says, "I don't want all that complexity. I just want it set and go," and that's when we're positioning Cohesity.
How was the initial setup?
It is really easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It has reasonable pricing, and we know they can give discounts. If you look at the primary pricing or the list pricing, it conforms to the market pricing, but you have to have a discount on it. Otherwise, it is way too expensive.
What other advice do I have?
You have to get the network right. The network stuff is really important for Cohesity, but we see that its implementations are way simpler than, for instance, Commvault implementations. For all the features, follow the documentation. There is a really good setup guide with some fill-in forms that you can use to get all the details you need, and if possible, consult a partner just to know all the functionality that Cohesity is offering. We sometimes see that people buy a Cohesity appliance, and they're just setting it up rudimentary for backup. When we come in and talk to the customer, we say, "Hey, this is also a feature. You can also use this. Have you looked at this part?" So, it is feature-rich, and you need to consult a partner to get to know the product better.
I would rate it a nine out of 10. It is a real robust product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Advisor Architect at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Very straightforward and modern interface
Pros and Cons
- "We are very satisfied with the product as a whole—all the backup functions, the data protection functions. We are very satisfied with those, and the product is very simple to use."
- "We have had our share of minor bugs over the past two years and a few bigger ones."
What is our primary use case?
We use the Data Protector to back up all our VMware virtual machines, as well as a SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange. We're not that big of a company anymore. We have three people who know the product: two specialists and someone from second-line support who can handle the tickets.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable thing about Cohesity is how it operates as a whole. We are very satisfied with the product as a whole—all the backup functions, the data protection functions. We are very satisfied with those, and the product is very simple to use.
What needs improvement?
We have had our share of minor bugs over the past two years and a few bigger ones. But I think it's because the product has so many features, and they try to add new stuff reasonably quickly. For example, Cohesity adds certain functionality in what they call a "feature release." This doesn't mean a long-term release. They added new functionality very quickly, and it was things we needed that were not yet available in a long-term release. When I say "long-term release," I mean one that is more static and gets updated once every few months. We wanted the feature, but we had more issues than some of us might've liked.
On the other hand, they managed to fix all the bugs without significant issues like data loss or anything like that. So it was more an inconvenience than it was a real problem. But if I have to have any criticism of them, maybe it's that. There are some minor improvements on SQL Server backups that we are waiting on, five services. We had one problem that will be solved in one of the subsequent releases, but those are small things. We are not waiting on any major stuff. The product currently meets all our backup needs.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cohesity for just two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cohesity's stability is very good. We haven't had any major issues with that.
How are customer service and support?
I would say Cohesity support is somewhere in between good and very good. But, of course, it depends on which region you get. We know that if we log a ticket before noon here in Belgium, we are not in the region where we want to be. It's something we told Cohesity about, as well. We asked them if they could arrange it so that our ticket will always get picked up by the people in Cork. For one thing, they're in our title. They're also much more capable compared to the other regions. But that's our experience. Generally, we are very satisfied with the support we are getting.
How was the initial setup?
Setup is pretty simple, especially compared to the product we had before. It was an older legacy product that was much harder to implement. We deployed with the help of an integrator, but we do all the day-to-day maintenance on the product by ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We paid for the entire solution because we have done a few expansions already. I think it's between 400 to 600k. That is the price for the complete system, including the hardware, the support, the subscriptions for the software, I think for four to five years.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Cohesity nine out of 10. So, I would recommend it because it's quite a simple product and can do a lot. With the last product we used, you had to be a specialist to navigate in it. It's a much more straightforward and modern interface—very intuitive to use. And the speed of the backups, we do much more backup than we ever did before. So, I would certainly recommend it, yes.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Enterprise search and instant restore are pretty valuable
Pros and Cons
- "The enterprise search and instant restore are pretty valuable. Also, the Helios stuff is pretty good and the SAS engine for ransom malware detection."
- "I think Cohesity could add more platform support. For example, they could improve integration with DB2 or make the integration S3 object storage a little tighter. Some of that stuff could use some work, but overall, it's a relatively comprehensive platform."
What is our primary use case?
I'm using Cohesity DataProtect to do product demo's for my customers.
What is most valuable?
The enterprise search and instant restore are pretty valuable. Also, the Helios stuff is pretty good and the SAS engine for ransom malware detection.
What needs improvement?
I think Rubrik and Cohesity are pretty similar in terms of the user interface and user experience, but I think Cohesity could add more platform support. For example, they could improve integration with DB2 or make the integration S3 object storage a little tighter. Some of that stuff could use some work, but overall, it's a relatively comprehensive platform.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We've never had a problem with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's easy to scale with their clustered architecture and add to the cluster. The builds join the cluster on their own without really having to do much. Most of our clients are mid-sized enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Cohesity support eight out of 10. I haven't had any issues. I guess it depends on who you talk to and what their experience was, but I think they do a pretty good job with Helios, where their support team can access the environment. I would say it's a little more modern approach than IBM, which has a 20-year-old support model, i.e., you capture and upload the logs. With Cohesity, you get a little more real-time visibility from support.
Then again, most of my support inquiries are in the pre-sales context, so our customers are the ones using it, but I haven't heard of any significant problems. Still, I think some of these companies are experiencing some growing pains. They're growing fast. Sometimes they get a little ahead of themselves, and maybe the support could be better.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up DataProtect is pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'd say the price of DataProtect is reasonable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In some cases, a greenfield approach is a better fit for the customer's needs. The marketplace is robust. They can work as a filer and replace certain file service workloads, like user share type. You're not going to replace a NetApp or an Isilon solution necessarily, but you can do some consolidation. For example, one customer wanted to do their virus scanning right on the cluster, not their hosts. So you can run Tenable or something. One customer liked it because we could run the Christie Bare Metal Restore. They had physical systems and wanted to have BMR.
What other advice do I have?
I would give Cohesity DataProtect nine out of 10. It's a relatively complete solution. If you are thinking about implementing it, I would suggest looking at opportunities to consolidate some file workloads. Many customers are still doing dump and sweeps, and this is a good platform for it. You just dump, and you don't have to do a sweep. Now, the question is: Do you want a lot of NFS mounts in your environment? But it's good. You can buy this data platform that they call "SmartFiles," I think. You can have a 100 terabyte cluster, with half of it devoted to file services and the other half doing backups, then license it accordingly.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
Centralized interface is simple to navigate, reduces storage space and related costs
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboard is very rich and provides details needed for a moderator."
- "Better documentation is needed because the lack of information has necessitated having our team depend more heavily on Cohesity support."
What is our primary use case?
We are the largest organization in Europe and have 10,000 servers in-house being protected by Cohesity. We use several solutions including Archive, DR, SAP, Oracle, VMware, and others.
Our business thrives on Cohesity storage. Cohesity makes data management as simple as Sign Up, Connecting, and Protecting through new SaaS offerings for backup and disaster recovery.
We have been testing DataProtect delivered as a service for some time, and we are very pleased with its performance. The UI is simple to navigate, and data ingestion and retrieval have been a snap.
However, the solution shared and features released are pre-matured. It needs more testing and hardening.
How has it helped my organization?
Before Cohesity, we were mostly de-centralized in operations. After implementing it, our operations are now managed in a single pane of glass.
We have achieved a single source of operation and observation for backups. Every team has a stake in operations, and policy management helps to delegate the proper roles.
The storage costs and storage area occupied are now reduced dramatically.
What is most valuable?
We are using almost all of the features available in Cohesity today.
Our favorite feature is DataProtect but there are many good features that are part of the DataPlatform.
We use Cohesity to eliminate mass data fragmentation by consolidating our silos onto a single, easy-to-manage software-defined platform that is managed using a single pane of glass.
The dashboard is very rich and provides the details needed for a moderator.
What needs improvement?
Cohesity needs more hardening, in terms of stability. From our experience, we noticed gaps in the product function and the solution guides and documents. Better documentation is needed because the lack of information has necessitated having our team depend more heavily on Cohesity support. We need to have a more self-sufficient system.
More automation is needed for easier management.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cohesity DataProtect for the past five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, Cohesity is moderate and needs more hardening.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We found scaling Cohesity to be very challenging.
How are customer service and support?
The product team and Cohesity representatives are always reachable and fill the gaps that are not available in the documentation.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to using Cohesity, we were using Agility Data Backup and Recovery.
We are moving to Cohesity by migrating existing backup/storage solutions. We switched because were not confident in delivering backup solutions and managing SLAs.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing model is impressive and very effective.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Prior to implementing Cohesity, we evaluated solutions by IBM, NetApp, Commvalut, and 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.
Last updated: Oct 6, 2022
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