Cohesity DataProtect vs Dell Avamar comparison

Cohesity and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Cohesity is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.3, while Dell Technologies is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.8. Cohesity holds a 3.8% mindshare in BRS, compared to Dell Technologies’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cohesity users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Cohesity DataProtect

Read 71 Cohesity DataProtect reviews

10,430 Views
6,604 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Dell Avamar

Read 88 Dell Avamar reviews

8,250 Views
5,969 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Cohesity DataProtect

Dell Avamar

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Dell Avamar and Cohesity DataProtect are powerful data protection solutions. Cohesity DataProtect has the upper hand due to its broader feature set, including data management and analytics.

Features: Dell Avamar’s valuable features include efficient deduplication, reduced backup windows, and integration with VMware environments. Cohesity DataProtect offers integrated cloud support, seamless scalability, and robust data analytics tools.

Room for Improvement: Dell Avamar users mention the need for a more intuitive management platform and better integration with cloud services. Cohesity DataProtect users indicate improvement in simplifying complex deployments and enhancing support for legacy systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell Avamar deployment is generally straightforward, but some users encounter challenges with setup and configuration. Customer service is rated positively but could improve in responsiveness. Cohesity DataProtect users highlight the complexity of setup as a pain point but commend the extensive support during deployment. Cohesity's ongoing customer service is praised for its proactive and supportive approach.

Pricing and ROI: Dell Avamar is considered cost-effective with good ROI due to reduced storage needs from deduplication, although setup costs can be high. Cohesity DataProtect, while more expensive initially, is viewed as offering better value over time with its wide range of features and performance. Users find that the higher initial investment in Cohesity pays off with greater long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Cohesity DataProtect vs. Dell Avamar Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect vs. Dell Avamar

January 2025

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Helped 831,158 peers since 2012

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 DataProtect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

9th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (7th)

Dell Avamar

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

12th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Deduplication Software (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Cohesity DataProtect is 3.8%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell Avamar is 3.6%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Giovanni Golinelli.

Hybrid IT Architect at Quanture Spa

Easy to use, offers good scalability and responsive support

The deployment depends on the environment. Deploying on VMs is relatively simple. But for most of our customers, we implement physical clusters with at least three configured hosts using the existing model. So, it depends on the setup. Implementing DataProtect itself wasn't particularly challenging. One key requirement for successful DataProtect deployment is proper network configuration. If the network setup isn't right, you won't achieve optimal performance. We have developed a service for some of our customers where they implement an appliance or physical cluster of Cohesity at the customer site. Then, we use cloud clustering to replicate, and even in production, a second copy of the protected data. And in some cases, we have developed some disaster recovery procedures using Cohesity.

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Rahul Sarangdhar

Senior Specialist at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Works excellently for on-prem backup but not the best for Azure backups

Avamar is not the best tool when it comes to taking Azure backups. Like Commvault, if Avamar can support VM-level backups for the cloud, that would make it a bit better. There is another Dell EMC tool called NetWorker, which is a bit centralized tool. If you deploy a storage node locally, you can use the same UI tool for central management, but in the case of Avamar, it needs to be deployed individually on a site, irrespective of whether it's small or big. So, if I have 10 sites, I have to manage 10 Avamar. That's a bit of a headache. The Dell EMC solution professionals who connect with the clients should suggest NetWorker to clients with multiple sites rather than Avamar. That's because NetWorker gives more centralized control, but they keep recommending Avamar, which isn't the best practice. There are no free or cheaper training plans. Unless your company is a partner with Dell, you don't get the student guide training, etc. Their administrator guide does not have all the information required for a new person. It doesn't cover the basics. The student guide is good, but it's not free. If you are a partner, only then it's free. Otherwise, there is a cost of $2,000 to $3,000. For people who are new to Avamar, there should be some resources to enable them to study on their own at least 50% of the basics. If I want to study Commvault, I get so many documents and resources to study, but in the case of Dell EMC products, there aren't any free resources. Only if you're a partner, the resources are available for you to learn. The user manuals and administrator guides are just for deployment. They aren't good for learning the basics for a fresher.

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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

"With the ability to stage an entire lifecycle through versioning, integrated with AWS, it has made it possible to protect our corporation from end to end."

"We like that we can use production data to run intensive reports that would otherwise bog down the production server."

"Its most valuable feature is its ransomware protection, so it has immutable backups."

"Instead of four different solutions for protecting VMs, physical servers, SQL, and NAS, we now have one solution with Cohesity that is lightning fast and has amazing features."

"Several features enable us to perform fast recovery, such as instant fast recovery. All our virtual machines protected with the product can be quickly restored to another healthy environment with minimal downtime for our main customers. These features have significantly improved our recovery time objectives."

"The customer service and support are fast and professional."

"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."

"Cohesity DataProtect is more of a unified solution, which is also trying to expand for ransomware protection."

More Cohesity DataProtect pros

"What I found valuable in Dell Avamar is the deduplication feature. I also like that the solution can be integrated with Data Domain."

"Avamar's source side deduplication is very strong, it can easily back up remote sites' data, and not much bandwidth is required on the Avamar side."

"We've been using this solution to backup our servers. It is a simple backup and restore data application."

"The performance of Dell EMC Avamar is good."

"It's simple to configure."

"The solution integrates well with Unix, Windows, Hyper-V and VM."

"The most valuable feature of Avamar would have to be the way it works over needing very little bandwidth to move data across a WAN or LAN."

"The most valuable feature is the virtual backup."

More Dell Avamar pros

Cons

"We aren't missing any features. In terms of the solution overall, it's so far so good."

"The support team sometimes takes a long time to resolve issues, although, in our experience, these have been specific things like SQL blobs."

"We are highly dissatisfied with the level of support and functionality provided for HANA within the Cohesity product."

"Initial setup can be complex if you need to change IP addresses. Hopefully, they improve that in a future release."

"At times, you may click the wrong server or click too fast and accidentally restore a cluster of servers. It would be very helpful to have a cancel option under restores."

"The product is still young and is continually improving. There have been a couple of buggy releases in the software that have caused us minor issues, so possibly some better QA before releasing would prove to be useful. We have also been inquiring about new app and functionality via the Marketplace that was teased months back but has yet to come to fruition."

"There is limited support for legacy systems, which is something that could be improved."

"We have had our share of minor bugs over the past two years and a few bigger ones."

More Cohesity DataProtect cons

"The interface could be more helpful for people."

"Avamar cannot back up Nutanix as a virtual solution."

"The user interface still needs to have some level of improvement. It could be more user-friendly and intuitive."

"The performance takes up a lot of resources, unfortunately."

"If there is a need to move the data from one backup solution to another, it might be difficult since there is no option for a straightforward migration."

"EMC has discontinued their Avamar hardware version. They only advertise the Avamar virtual edition."

"The interface has room for improvement. It's not ideal right now."

"Dell EMC Avamar is a very complex product. It took a lot of time for the IT admins to get trained on how to use it. It is not very user-friendly, and we won't be using Avamar anymore. It needs a lot of improvement in terms of how the backups have been configured, and the reporting is too complex."

More Dell Avamar cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We purchased support from Cohesity to ensure that should we face an issue, we don't have to deal with different service providers."

"The ROI is huge. Not really measurable at this point, but the price of the unit was a fraction of what a couple hours of downtime could result in."

"I expect the system to probably pay off within the first two years."

"Pricing, setup costs, etc. are pretty typical. The initial cost for Cohesity was less than other products the we evaluated. Cohesity's pricing does offer benefits as DR target costs are less than other solutions. You are not charged for DataProtect licensing for target DR data consumption."

"My advice is to always negotiate for better pricing."

"If SQL is in heavy use at your location, I would highly recommend narrowing your PoC testing to Cohesity and Rubrik. They will be competitive on pricing with each other, so really put them through the paces."

"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."

"Sizing is important and it is easy to overestimate."

More Cohesity DataProtect pricing and cost advice

"When it comes to competition the price is not what is important, it's not the problem."

"Its price should be reduced. It would be good if you could pay as per usage, and there is a subscription model like VMware. There should be some flexibility because sometimes, the customer only uses the backup for one month or three months. Currently, I have to pay whether I use it or not. Its licensing should be flexible and based on consumption."

"The solution is expensive."

"It's a very high-end solution and comparable to Rubrik and Cohesity."

"Dell Avamar is a moderately priced solution."

"Dell's pricing structure is not overly expensive."

"There is a license required for this solution."

"It was approximately $70-80,000 when it was under support, but right now EMC has not been supporting this product for two years."

More Dell Avamar pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

42%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cohesity DataProtect?

Several features enable us to perform fast recovery, such as instant fast recovery. All our virtual machines protected with the product can be quickly restored to another healthy environment with m...

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

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 licens...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cohesity DataProtect?

Cohesity DataProtect needs to improve its reporting capabilities.

See all answers

What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?

From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC Avamar?

I don't currently have detailed knowledge about the pricing, however, it is geared towards enterprise businesses and might be on the higher side.

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell Avamar?

Easy to configure and highly reliable for backup.

See all answers

Comparisons

Rubrik vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 27% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 14% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Backup vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 3% of the time

More Cohesity DataProtect Competitors

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell Avamar

Compared 32% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell Avamar

Compared 16% of the time

Dell NetWorker vs Dell Avamar

Compared 12% of the time

Rubrik vs Dell Avamar

Compared 6% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DP (IDPA) vs Dell Avamar

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell Avamar Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect

January 2025

Download Cohesity DataProtect product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell Avamar

January 2025

Download Dell Avamar product report

Also Known As

Cohesity

Avamar

Learn More

Cohesity

Dell Technologies

Overview

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"

Dell Avamar data protection software delivers flexible and efficient backup and recovery operations that can scale from daily backup protection for endpoints to high-performance protection for large enterprises with diverse applications and workloads. With application consistent recovery, automation and fast backup and restores, Avamar can help you meet your SLAs and optimize your backup and recovery processes

If you are deploying all or part of your backup environment to the cloud, Avamar enables you to make the most of your cloud investment, enabling replication, disaster recovery and long-term retention for customers using AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.

Avamar is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite, which offers comprehensive data protection software applications and tools. Avamar is delivered as software and as a virtual edition.

Sample Customers

Tribune Media

Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect vs. Dell Avamar

January 2025

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