Cohesity DataProtect Reviews

We basically have standard use cases such as backing up our virtual machines on VMware and restoring them if we need to.

The most valuable aspects of the solution include being able to select sources and set a schedule, set up a backup time, and be able to restore.

It's stable. 

I can't identify a specific area that needs improvement. 

They could always keep up with continuous interface refinements.

I've used the solution for almost a year.

The stability is good. I'd rate it nine out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

It's very scalable as a solution. I'd rate it nine out of ten.

We have five users on the solution.

I personally haven't dealt with technical support in the past, however, one of my colleagues has. My understanding is the experience was positive. We were able to close the ticket.

I wasn't too involved with the initial setup. Some other team members were.

The deployment took a few months. We had a team of four people in place to deploy the solution. One was a network engineer. The other one was a systems analyst. There were also a couple of network analysts.

I don't have any details about the pricing.

We evaluated a couple of other products. Rubrik was one of them, and obviously, we selected Cohesity.

I'd advise potential new users to just compare it to something else, and maybe you'll arrive at the same conclusion that we did - that it's a good product.

It's a good product. It integrates pretty tightly with our VMware infrastructure.

I'd rate it nine out of ten.

Cohesity DataProtect is a reliable solution for performing backups within a suitable timeframe, and its forever incremental model is particularly effective for the customer's needs. Additionally, the solution handles instant recovery and file-level recovery from a VMware image backup seamlessly.

The platform has certain limitations, mostly stemming from the restrictions imposed by the VMware API and some other factors. One area where there is room for improvement is the tracking of replicated copies, especially in the context of remote archive duplication.

Although there are certain interfaces and reports within the solution that provide detailed information about features like duplication to archive, they are not well-documented. In my experience, I have used some of these interfaces and reports in the past to gain additional insight. However, it would be helpful if these interfaces were properly documented and made readily available, instead of relying on support calls and breaking down URLs to access them. This would make it easier for users to leverage the full functionality of the solution.

I have been using Cohesity DataProtect for two and a half years.

Our primary use of Cohesity DataProtect is for backing up VMware, with some Microsoft Windows workloads also included. At present, our usage is limited to Microsoft Windows and VMware only.

Generally, the solution is stable.

I have observed some stability issues when scaling the Pure Storage solution, and one of our customers who used it experienced some problems. However, I believe these issues were due to the solution being relatively new and possibly oversold in an environment without adequate hardware to support it. Overall, these issues were rare and isolated, and I have not seen similar problems with other customers.

The solution scales well up to a certain point. When dealing with larger environments, it's crucial to exercise caution while distributing IO and managing the number of nodes in use. However, for small to mid-sized environments, it is perfectly scalable. In scenarios involving massive enterprises, it may be worth considering the Pure Storage solution or Cohesity DataProtect with a peer back end, rather than Cohesity DataProtect with their standard nodes.

I have had a positive experience with the tech support provided by the vendor. Their ability to access the system remotely and provide insights or fix issues has been particularly helpful. It is beneficial to be involved in the support process and to observe how they resolve issues, so I can replicate the solution in the future. Fortunately, the support team is usually willing to share their expertise and help me learn, which is greatly appreciated.

The initial setup of the solution is simple.

From my last assessment, the pricing for Cohesity DataProtect was reasonable. Compared to its closest competitor, Rubrik, I found Rubrik's pricing to be somewhat high-end. While Rubrik may have more advanced security features than Cohesity DataProtect currently, Cohesity DataProtect is releasing a new solution in the near future that will compete directly with Rubrik.

I have evaluated other solutions, such as Rubrik.

I have recommended the solution to multiple customers, and it has been well-received. While we do not currently use it internally, we have successfully recommended it to new customers who have implemented it based on our suggestion.

I would recommend that others give Cohesity DataProtect a try, provided that their environment can support it. It is important to note that like any other solution if it is deployed in a poorly designed environment, it may not perform well. However, in a well-architected environment, Cohesity DataProtect is a reliable and robust solution.

I rate Cohesity DataProtect an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for backup.

The tool is faster and easier to use than others. The most critical feature for our data protection needs is the accuracy of backups and restores.

Cohesity DataProtect needs to improve its reporting capabilities. 

I have been using the product for two years. 

The solution has been stable, and we haven't had any significant challenges with stability.

The scalability works well for all our systems—we have various servers with two to three petabytes of data. Data recovery is pretty fast. We can bring up VMs instantly and haven't had any issues.

We earlier used Commvault and switched to Cohesity DataProtect since it was easier to use. 

While I didn't take part in the initial setup, I understand that the setup is relatively easy. Maintenance is also pretty easy.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten. 

Primarily, we back up our VMs on the solution. All kinds of VMs are backed up on it. Not all of them we back up, however, the major ones we do.

The most valuable aspect for me is that I don't have to deal with media in terms of tapes like our existing system does.

Pricing was one of the big features. We chose it largely based on this.

The solution scales well.

We've found the product to be stable.

It's my understanding that the initial setup is simple. 

In terms of the solution overall, it's so far so good. I'll have to check with my team, however, so far, from my perspective, it's working great. We aren't missing any features.

We just got the solution last May. We haven't used it for too long just yet.

The stability has been good. There aren't bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite reliable. 

The scalability has been fine. It's used by us, the IT department. We back up the servers for our entire organization.

I haven't had to call tech support. I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

As far as I know, the initial setup was pretty straightforward. My team members dealt with all that. I did not directly participate. 

We have a team of five people that can handle maintenance duties such as updates, et cetera. Both users and sysadmins can get into it if they need to. 

Our team members handled the implementations. 

The pricing is pretty good overall. It's less expensive than some competitors, such as Rubrik.

I'd rate the solution at a five out of five. It's quite affordable. That said, I can't speak to the exact pricing. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees. 

We were going against another option. It was between Cohesity and another vendor, a pretty big player, called Rubrik. The pricing was better with this solution.

We're a customer and an end-user.

We have an appliance and cloud. We have two deployment models. 

I would advise those considering the solution to watch the demo and compare it to Rubrik and make your own opinion.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. 

We use it for data corruption exaltation.

Software immutability is a valuable feature, and the varying deployment options.

In addition, from a data security perspective, zero trust access is a key function. Within Helios, we have role-based access control, single sign-on, multifactor authentication, and quorum for user approvals.

On-premises multi-tenant services need improvement.

I have been using Cohesity DataProtect since 2019.

Cohesity uses hyper-converged cluster architecture (min. 3 nodes) for on-premise deployments which provides erasure coding within the cluster and non-disruptive change control. Nodes range from 8 to 96 TB capacity and clusters are extensible with additional nodes of different sizes, provided they are certified platforms. Cohesity also offer a SaaS platform. The on-premises deployments are scalable provided a cluster has been deployed.

The initial setup is straightforward. We have somewhere in the region of thirty customers using Cohesity. 

Typically on-premises nodes/clusters are deployed for primary backup (to enable instant mass restore) so price will be dependent on chosen OEM and capacity required. MSPs like us utilise PPU licensing.

My recommendation would be that if you have an intent to use all of Cohesity's feature set, then you should probably consider using Cohesity cloud services, especially if you're a service provider, and you're going to be delivering Cohesity to more than one customer as a managed service.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use the product as a primary backup. 

Cohesity DataProtect is easy to deploy and operate. 

You need to put the full name instead of a few letters while searching for backup. It should also improve customization. 

I have been using the product for more than a year. 

Cohesity DataProtect is very stable. 

The product is scalable. My company has eight users. 

The tool's deployment is easy. The deployment takes around 30 minutes to complete. 

Cohesity DataProtect supported us during the deployment. 

The tool's licensing costs are yearly. It is cheaper than other backup solutions. 

I rate Cohesity DataProtect an eight out of ten. 

We use it for both local VM recovery, exchange, SQL recovery, and disaster recovery.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Cohesity DataProtect for two months.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

I've been using the solution for two years.

With only one (self-inflicted) outage, I would say it is very stable. 

Adding nodes is trivial and can be scaled out to petabytes easily. 

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. 

Previously we used CommVault. We needed a more agile and robust solution. 

The setup is simple. We simply had to assign the interfaces an IP, set up our port aggregation, and create the cluster. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

We did evaluate other solutions and Rubrik was a major contender. Ultimately, Cohesity won out with a Cisco Hyperflex platform and superior support.