Cohesity SpanFS vs Panzura CloudFS comparison

Cohesity and Panzura are both solutions in the File System Software category. Cohesity is ranked #6 with an average rating of 10.0, while Panzura is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. Cohesity holds a 3.6% mindshare in FSS, compared to Panzura’s 17.1% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Panzura users are willing to recommend the solution.

Cohesity SpanFS

Read 2 Cohesity SpanFS reviews

345 Views
127 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

Panzura CloudFS

Read 8 Panzura CloudFS reviews

890 Views
95 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Cohesity SpanFS

Panzura CloudFS

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Executive SummaryUpdated on May 18, 2025

Panzura CloudFS and Cohesity SpanFS are competing in data management and storage solutions. Cohesity SpanFS seems to have the upper hand with its extensive features, though Panzura CloudFS benefits from competitive pricing and reliable customer support.

Features: Panzura CloudFS provides robust scalability, efficient file sharing, and strong cloud integration. Cohesity SpanFS offers advanced data protection, seamless backup capabilities, and comprehensive disaster recovery options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Panzura CloudFS is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, contrasting with Cohesity SpanFS's thorough setup and excellent support infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI: Panzura CloudFS is recognized for competitive pricing, presenting a potential for faster ROI. Cohesity SpanFS may have higher initial costs, yet its comprehensive features and security measures provide a compelling long-term investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cohesity SpanFS

Ranking in File System Software

6th

Average Rating

10.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Panzura CloudFS

Ranking in File System Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NAS (10th), Cloud Storage (12th), Cloud Storage Gateways (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the File System Software category, the mindshare of Cohesity SpanFS is 3.6%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Panzura CloudFS is 17.1%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File System Software

Featured Reviews

Stefan-Motsch

Evangelist / CTO at fgnext

Along with offering competitive prices, the solution can be used by small, medium, and large businesses

While guaranteeing the strictness of the file system, there is a lot of performance involved. The performance is not as good as I expected. It's not the functionality here but the performance level. It won't be a problem if it's twice as fast. Even though its stability has room for improvement, I would recommend it to my bigger customers. The only problem is the current performance of the individual nodes. As a sale-out solution with integrated load-balancing functions, performance is in principle not a problem at all. Capacity and performance are linearly scalable over the number of nodes in the cluster. An increase in the performance of the individual nodes in future releases would be desirable.

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Roger Clark

I.T. Infrastructure Manager at Thompson Engineering

Handles file locks effectively enabling seamless remote collaboration in global teams

It has not reduced the data storage cost. We have been trying to come up with a plan internally to archive project data at a certain time frame. However, our data continues to grow, so at the point of 25 terabytes, we had to buy another 25 terabytes license to exceed that threshold. It would have been nice if they had offered them in increments, of 5, 10, 15, or 20 terabytes than having to get a whole chunk of 25 terabytes again for licensing purposes, which is a little costly. It would be nice if Panzura offered data in increments instead of 25 terabytes per license. They have done a pretty good job of development from the point of offering new products. Pricing seems to be high for certain things, such as the audit feature of Panzura Data Services. It would be nice to see who deleted that 100 gig of data out there. They should make the pricing plan more attractive for a company of our size. We have almost 700 employees over the southeast from Texas to Florida and up to Tennessee, so we are a pretty big region.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It has snapshot capabilities. We take advantage of those."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The core function of Panzura CloudFS, with its synchronizing of files across multiple servers, provides us with a much more efficient workflow for our production staff."

"The main thing in Panzura is that there are three key components: PanFS, NAS, and collaboration. These are strong features, and a big benefit is that you can access everything from anywhere."

"The assistance of support has been excellent."

"Primarily, it is the way Panzura CloudFS handles the file locks and the way these filers, along with the authoritative copy of all our data, which is about 27 terabytes located in an AWS bucket in the cloud, operate."

"What I appreciate most about Panzura CloudFS is that it really solves the problem we had when we moved all our server workloads to Azure, reducing our on-prem data center footprint sizably. We don't have to maintain a huge on-prem storage array, which is nice. It just works, and we haven't had any issues this whole time."

"What I appreciate most about Panzura CloudFS is that it really solves the problem we had when we moved all our server workloads to Azure, reducing our on-prem data center footprint sizably."

"Its most valuable features are the collaboration, the file snapshots, and the data protection the solution provides."

"Panzura CloudFS has helped to increase the network resilience by 100%."

More Panzura CloudFS pros

Cons

"The only problem is the current performance of the individual nodes. As a sale-out solution with integrated load-balancing functions, performance is in principle not a problem at all. Capacity and performance are linearly scalable over the number of nodes in the cluster. An increase in the performance of the individual nodes in future releases would be desirable."

"Its read performance can be improved. It is just slow in comparison to other file systems, but a lot of it also has to do with the fact that they have a limited number of spindles under each node."

"There could be a slightly better dashboard or a better pane of glass. When something goes wrong somewhere, there should be a little bit better alerting with issues before they become a big problem."

"One area for improvement regarding Panzura CloudFS is moving away from on-prem or local Active Directory. We're exploring a transition to Azure AD or Entra ID, aiming to keep the product functional without heavy reliance on the local Active Directory."

"It has not reduced the data storage cost."

"Master Snapshot feature is the only exceptional feature, but the rest of the features are similar to other storage solutions."

"It would be nice if Panzura offered data in increments instead of 25 terabytes per license."

"Previously, a new update would come out, and there might be something wrong with it, or it may not sync up as well as it should, or it may cause something to lose access to the server."

"It is a little costly. The NFS service needs development. While Windows and SMB are effective, the NFS service shows some lag, making it a pain point for our many clients who use Linux devices."

More Panzura CloudFS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I won't talk about specific numbers, but it is a little hard to compare it to other products out there because there is nobody out there that does exactly what they do. If you are just comparing it to another NAS box, it is probably going to look higher, but that's an unfair comparison because it does things that a NAS box can't do."

"When it comes to pricing, I know the prices because I am also running tenders for customers where I am not offering other solutions. Hence, the prices are pretty competitive."

"The pricing seems high on certain products and features, such as the audit feature of Panzura Data Services. They should consider more attractive pricing for companies of our size. The renewals are yearly, but the pricing is a little high for us."

"The solution's pricing is on the expensive side."

"It is not bad. It is like everything else. Pricing has gone up quite over the last couple of years, but everybody's pricing has gone up. For what they deliver, it is right in line with what everybody else has."

"Overall, it is quite costly compared to NetApp and similar solutions."

"It's competitive. I don't know what competitors are charging, but they have been very transparent, which is nice, and we've negotiated to avoid percentage increases."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Real Estate/Law Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Construction Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cohesity SpanFS?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cohesity SpanFS?

When it comes to pricing, I know the prices because I am also running tenders for customers where I am not offering other solutions. Hence, the prices are pretty competitive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cohesity SpanFS?

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What are the products that Panzura provides?

Panzura offers four main products: CloudFS, data services, smart apps, and global services. They call this "all-in-one solution" and it's for end-to-end cloud data management. Why is it called that...

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What kind of industries does Panzura serve?

Hello, I think businesses from all industries that have their data on a cloud can benefit from Panzura. Especially if you have offices in various locations or your employees are working from home a...

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Why was Panzura acquired? Is the acquisition going to cause a change?

I think Panzura may change in a positive direction now that it's been bought by Profile Capital. That's a very big investment company for technology businesses and I think it's an opportunity for ...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

File System Software

June 2025

Download Cohesity SpanFS product report

Buyer's Guide

Panzura CloudFS

June 2025

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Also Known As

SpanFS

Panzura Freedom

Overview

Designed to combine the best of enterprise and cloud stacks, SpanFS exposes industry-standard, globally distributed NFS, SMB and S3 interfaces.

The IO Engine detects random vs. sequential IO profiles, splits the data into chunks, performs deduplication and directs to the most appropriate storage tier.

SpanFS also includes a new Metadata Store based on a consistent, distributed, NoSQL store for fast operations at scale.

SnapTree® provides a distributed meta data structure based on B+ tree concepts. It supports unlimited, frequent snapshots with no performance degradation.

Cohesity

Panzura CloudFS connects data across a distributed network, offering an efficient solution for file storage and management in a cloud environment.

Designed for businesses needing robust data management, Panzura CloudFS enables seamless access and high availability by providing advanced capabilities for distributed file systems. This technology ensures collaboration and data consistency across multiple locations, optimizing enterprise storage strategies and enhancing data governance and compliance. Effective in reducing latency and operational complexity, it addresses the demands of global enterprises seeking scalable and reliable cloud file services.

What are the key features of Panzura CloudFS?

Global File System: Offers a unified view of file storage across multiple sites.
Data Consolidation: Merges various data silos into a single, cohesive storage network.
Security and Compliance: Ensures data protection with built-in encryption and compliance features.
High Availability: Provides continuous access to data with fault-tolerant architecture.
Quick Deployment: Enables rapid integration into existing infrastructure with minimal downtime.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Cost Reduction: Minimizes data storage costs through efficient use of cloud storage.
Improved Collaboration: Facilitates real-time file access and sharing across geographies.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs without significant infrastructure investment.
Enhanced Productivity: Reduces operational inefficiencies with streamlined data management.
Security Enhancements: Protects critical data assets with advanced security measures.

Panzura CloudFS finds applications in sectors such as finance, healthcare, and media, where data integrity and accessibility are critical. Financial institutions benefit from secure and synchronized data access, while healthcare providers utilize it for managing patient data across locations. The media industry leverages its capabilities for collaboration and efficient media file handling worldwide.

Panzura

Sample Customers

Tribune Media

Petrofac, Komatsu, HCA Healthcare, Vanguard, Disney, Pokemon, US Department of Justice, Gensler, Fluor, AFRY, Milwaukee Tool, Navy Federal Credit Union, TechTarget

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS

June 2025

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