Cohesity SpanFS vs Panzura CloudFS comparison

Cohesity and Panzura are both solutions in the File System Software category. Cohesity is ranked #7 with an average rating of 10.0, while Panzura is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0. Cohesity holds a 3.3% mindshare in FSS, compared to Panzura’s 13.2% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Panzura users are willing to recommend the solution.

Cohesity SpanFS

Read 2 Cohesity SpanFS reviews

348 Views
195 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

Panzura CloudFS

Read 5 Panzura CloudFS reviews

789 Views
563 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Cohesity SpanFS

Panzura CloudFS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 12, 2025

Panzura CloudFS and Cohesity SpanFS compete in the cloud storage and data management domain, with Cohesity SpanFS generally favored for its robust features, although Panzura CloudFS attracts interest due to competitive pricing and strong customer support.

Features: Panzura CloudFS offers global file system capabilities, enabling seamless file sharing and collaboration across distributed teams. It includes data immutability and rapid recovery options for strong data protection. Cohesity SpanFS provides a comprehensive data management suite, efficient backup, analytics, and recovery across diverse environments. It supports advanced data indexing and search functionalities, alongside strong integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cohesity SpanFS deployment may be intricate due to its comprehensive suite, but offers extensive support to aid deployment with solid customer service focused on guiding complex installations. Panzura CloudFS provides a more straightforward and rapid deployment process, with responsiveness and effective customer service that addresses issues quickly.

Pricing and ROI: Panzura CloudFS offers a cost-effective solution with favorable initial setup costs and steady ROI, making it appealing to cost-sensitive clients. Cohesity SpanFS, while having higher initial costs, delivers significant ROI with advanced data services and integration benefits, suitable for enterprises seeking comprehensive data capabilities, balancing costs with benefits.

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

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS

March 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 845,406 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 SpanFS

Ranking in File System Software

7th

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

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

NAS (11th), Cloud Storage (13th), Cloud Storage Gateways (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the File System Software category, the mindshare of Cohesity SpanFS is 3.3%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Panzura CloudFS is 13.2%, up from 9.8% 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.

Read full review

Andy Knauf

CIO at Mead and Hunt, Inc.

Reliable file management and disaster recovery with minimal overwrites

For me, it is the stability aspect. It is a lot more stable now than it ever has been, but just keeping that stability is important. 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. We have had some problems in the past, but in the last couple of years, we have not had any issues like we had early on. 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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

"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."

"It is a very solid product. We keep all of our older files on their system. It is easy to restore if a file gets deleted. We have good disaster recovery. It is very reliable and very quick, and we do not have files that get overwritten because it locks the file."

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

"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."

"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."

"Panzura has not increased its data storage costs."

"Panzura is a hundred percent better than what we had before."

"The assistance of support has been excellent."

Cons

"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."

"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."

"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS."

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

"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS. Specifically, the GIS data formats, such as a geo database, have been found better kept outside of Panzura CloudFS."

"It has not reduced the data storage cost."

"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 should be easy for people not on the network to connect and access their files."

"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."

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 solution's pricing is on the expensive side."

"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."

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which File System Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Real Estate/Law Firm

13%

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Construction Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

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.

See all answers

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?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle ZFS vs Cohesity SpanFS

Compared 100% of the time

More Cohesity SpanFS Competitors

Nasuni vs Panzura CloudFS

Compared 79% of the time

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Panzura CloudFS

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Panzura CloudFS

Compared 10% of the time

More Panzura CloudFS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

File System Software

March 2025

Download Cohesity SpanFS product report

Buyer's Guide

Panzura CloudFS

March 2025

Download Panzura CloudFS product report

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

March 2025

Free Report: Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS

Find out what your peers are saying about Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cohesity SpanFS vs. Panzura CloudFS report.

See our list of best File System Software vendors.

We monitor all File System Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.