Cohesity DataProtect Reviews

Our primary use case is as a backup solution. We also use Cohesity for cloud enabling and seconday storage.

With respect to backup, our environment is based on virtual and physical machines, and Cohesity fits great. The virtual machines are based on VMware 6.5/Nutanix solution with vCenter. Cohesity can handle up to 2,000 virtual machines with a classic schdule of one backup per day. CBT works great so it is an incremental forever solution.

For our physical system, we use agents for AIX, Windows from 2003 to 2016, SUSE, and RHEL.

The application backups handle SAP, SAP HANA, Oracle, and SQL Server.

Cohesity has improved our backup architecture. Now everything is simple. Before using this solution there was a master server, media server, repository, dedupe server, cloud server, and a report server.

Cohesity is an all in one solution in a hyper-converged way. From three nodes and more, you can have one platform for everything. The storage and compute exist in the HA cluster.

No more IT department is required for backup. From four-person teams to general system administration, everything is logical and there are no more difficult concepts. There is no need for training and certification.

The most valuable feature is the cloud support. We can use it as a lift and shift solution for cloud migration. This feature is called CloudSpin. After linking a cloud subscription, like Azure for example (AWS and Google are also supported), you can "spin" a VM onto the cloud from any backup snapshot.

You can use this solution for test and dev, or for testing migration to the cloud. However, it is not so useful for massive cloud migration, so it is better to use the Azure migration tool for that.

It is useful for backing up a cloud workload. For better value in terms of cost, I suggest deploying a cloud edition of DataProtect. 

I would like to see the CDP features integrated into this solution.

Replication is working great, but with backup replication, you should have the option to link and RPO to the backup schedule. This would reduce the RPO in case of a disaster. It would be great to have something like the Zerto software.

The GUI is in need of improvement.

The upgrade path is not so clear because there are too many branches.

We have been using Cohesity for about ten months.

The cluster is stable.

This solution has good scalability by adding more nodes.

Cohesity provides great support, both remote and onsite.

We use TSM from IBM, NetBackup from Veritas, and Veeam.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We have implemented this solution on two occasions. The first was with the Cohesity team, and the second was done with our in-house team.

Sizing is important and it is easy to overestimate. It is difficult to understand how dedupe will work with your workload.

We are near a coin-flip with Rubrik. Same benefits but less power on dedupe.

Cohesity can replicate backups to a secondary cluster (also virtual edition).

Hybrid Cloud

We use it in the realm of data protection. We have comprehensive coverage, including backups for all our databases, VMs, file systems, and various auxiliary components.

One of the notable benefits is its user-friendly interface, making it easy to navigate. Additionally, it demonstrates faster performance compared to other vendors.

The recovery process is effective, especially when it comes to other types of data, such as VMs, and overall, the performance is commendable.

We have been facing challenges, particularly with HANA databases. Despite initial promises of delivering an agent within a few months, it has been over two and a half years, and there is still no indication of when the Cohesity agent for HANA systems will be available. The absence of an agent for replicated recovery makes it impractical for our current needs. We are highly dissatisfied with the level of support and functionality provided for HANA within the Cohesity product.

I have been working with it for two and a half years.

The overall stability has been consistent. The only noteworthy concern is related to the HANA aspect, which falls short of expectations. However, in terms of performance and support, there have been no issues.

I would estimate that approximately two hundred users are involved.

The support quality is commendable – upon opening a ticket, a responsive and capable team promptly assists. However, managing cases with a global team working across different time zones can pose challenges in terms of knowledge transfer and handovers between teams. Occasionally, the transition between teams for a specific case doesn't go smoothly, resulting in the need to repeat explanations for each new team member involved. I would rate it seven out of ten.

Neutral

The installation process requires a couple of straightforward connectors to be installed on our servers, and the setup is quite simple. It's a one-time task, and overall, we haven't encountered any issues with the setup.

We conducted a POC with testing and various evaluations, completing it in a couple of months. The deployment spanned across a broad range of systems, including both production and non-production, and we successfully implemented it within three months. This encompassed all our SAP systems, including ECC, BW, and others, up to ADA and earlier versions. Maintenance is necessary, but the majority of patches and updates at the cluster level can be seamlessly handled online.

Despite encountering challenges with HANA, I would recommend moving forward with Cohesity. The observed improvements and overall convenience make it a worthwhile choice. Comparatively, the experience has been preferable to Symantec or other alternatives. It is an evolving product, and we've witnessed substantial enhancements from its initial stages. Overall, I would rate it seven out of ten.

On-premises

We primarily use the solution for VMware Backup and SQL backups that are replicated and copied to the cloud.

They basically can do what Rubrik does. It's a backup device. There aren't necessarily any special features. 

What it does well, it does very well. It just works. 

The initial setup is easy.

It's stable.

The solution scales well.

It's not overly expensive.

Support needs improvement, but the product is fine when well deployed.

I've used the solution for a few months.

This is a solid product. It's quite stable. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

I found the product to be scalable. You just add nodes if you need to. It's a hyper-converged solution, and scaling is easy.

I have not had a good experience with support.

Neutral

I am also familiar with Rubrik.

I've also worked with Commvault and find that you do have to do a lot of fine-tuning with it during implementation. This solution is easier. Commvault is also a lot more expensive. Cohesity has a simpler workflow and for people in operations, it's a blessing. 

The setup process is very straightforward and simple. It doesn't have huge requirements and it is not that complex. 

The pricing is okay. I'd rate it seven out of ten in terms of affordability. How expensive it is depends on how big the contract is. 

I'd advise potential new users to do their due diligence before, know what they want, and get some training.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

On-premises

We are using Cohesity DataProtect for all our platforms, including the VMware platform and the site server. 

I like that Cohesity offers the chance to have data on-premises and on the cloud. All the data is automatically sent to the cloud.

DataProtect's recovery time is too high. It takes a long time to recover things from the cloud. I'd also like them to increase the capacity of the file server. 

DataProtect is very stable. We haven't seen any great problems with the platform.

DataProtect is totally scalable. 

We've contacted Cohesity support at times. It's good.

We were using Symantec. It was so expensive to add new hardware. We have more capacity on Cohesity than with the Symantec appliance.

Setting up DataProtect was very easy. With two people, we could deploy it in a couple of weeks. 

We had help from a consultant to deploy DataProtect.

We evaluated Rubrik. Cohesity is less expensive, and I think it gives us more capacity.

I rate Cohesity DataProtect 10 out of 10. I would advise new users to be careful with traffic from the cloud. If you don't manage your traffic, it might spike one month, and you end up paying a lot. 

Hybrid Cloud

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. 

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. 

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.

We have been using Cohesity for just two years.

Cohesity's stability is very good. We haven't had any major issues with that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We are using Cohesity DataProtect to protect our internal data, specifically on the servers. We are also incorporating some capabilities for SQL and Java.

Its flexibility is the most valuable. Being a cloud version, it has more flexibility, and it allows me to incorporate different workloads and consolidate all the data in one place. It has good high availability, and it is also easy to maintain.

We would like it to have more capabilities for different kinds of PaaS or SaaS services in the Azure cloud, such as Azure SQL or Azure Cosmos DB.

We have been using this solution for less than a year. We got it last year, but we implemented it in our company this year.

It is a very stable product.  We don't have any problem with the solution at the moment.

Its scalability is very good. You just need to add another node. Currently, we have ten users who use this solution, and they belong to the IT group. However, we are using it to protect the data for the whole company in some of the cases.

Their support works very well. From the technical aspect, they are very good. I would rate them a nine out of ten because it is always possible to improve.

It wasn't easy, but it also wasn't complicated. We completed the deployment in two or three months.

It is important to establish beforehand what you are going to use because you need to pay for the license based on your subscription. It is a very good product. We have a good experience in using this product.

I would rate Cohesity DataProtect a nine out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Our primary use is to back up our server from VMware ESXi, including MSSQL and Exchange. We also have a file server and it's possible to search for specific files in Cohesity.

You can create Auto BackUp Groups. As s soon as a VM is moved into this folder, Cohesity starts the backup process.

We use it also for archiving our e-mails and Metalogix data. That works fine, and also, the migration from our old archiving solution was done well.

When you restore a VM, it starts immediately. This means that you can have your downtime very short. After the completed file and data restore, it will be moved to your storage.

You can create BackUp Groups and sync them with vCenter. As soon as you create a VM in the specific folder, it will be backed up. That is very useful and you don't have to configure every backup for each VM.

We used to have to create a backup job for every VM and also SQL and Exchange Backups. This process was very complicated. 

With Cohesity, you have a template that helps you to backup and restore the right thing to the right place. There is no configuration overhead. The admin can restore within seconds.

The SQL Backup and Restore is very easy. Also, File Search is a key feature. 

It doesn't take very much space in the rack and has enough disk space available for you to use.

Once you have configured your backup groups and have them in vCenter, they will start automatically and you never have to worry about forgetting because it will do that for you.

You can start an SQL Database wherever you want. From production to testing, it will perhaps only take a few minutes to set up.

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

It can be that some Bugs will be fixed in future updates and you have to wait. But normally they will release a Hotfix for you.

One thing that would be great to see in the next release would be an complete restore for an SQL Instance (or multiple Databases). At the moment you have to restore one by one.

We have been using Cohesity DataProtect for one year.

Cohesity support will help you with every problem, regardless of the environment.

Prior to Cohesity, we used Actifio. It was an old solution and we wanted to switch to a new one.

As is the case with any product, I recommend running a proof of concept before fully implementing it. This will help you to make sure that it fits the requirements.

In the proof of concept, you can test everything you want. Examples include SQL, Exchange, and File Backup. You should also test the replication between nodes.

On-premises

Our experience with the Cohesity DataProtect Platform has been overwhelmingly positive as we been able to manage our 500+ VMs and physical servers with only a few backup policies. Backups: VMs are currently being added to jobs automatically through tagging. But, we also manually add VMs to jobs at times as we need to split up the load of VMs to multiple backup jobs. We try to keep a ratio of 15 VMs to 1 job. After getting a Cohesity Agent on a SQL server and syncing it with Cohesity, it is simple to set a backup/retention schedule for Log, Incremental, and Full backups based on policy. We utilize the Cohesity APIs to produce daily reports on jobs that have succeeded, failed, paused, etc. We send an email to our Systems team with this information and log it in a .csv. This allows us to give a timeline to backup auditors as well as let us know when something isn't going right. Restores: We have used Cohesity to restore granular files as well as restore SQL databases. VM's restore to vSphere directly. VM's typically restore quite quickly and work right away as long as they're restored to the original vSphere they came from. Individual files can be searched on multiple VM backups and downloaded locally or placed back on source machine. SQL Databases can be restored to any SQL server instance, not only the original. As long as the SQL versions match. *We have had some luck restoring databases from older SQL versions to newer SQL versions. Support: Cohesity has been very responsive to support requests and resolved issues in a timely manner. They openly assist in filling in knowledge gaps about the application.

Our previous backup solution was unable to be upgraded after several engagements.

I was surprised to see how well the Cohesity appliances performed and how easy the setup was. After a couple of hours, the cluster was up, and we were able to take backup of our VMware infrastructure. After that, I tested a few backups and restores, and everything was running smoothly.

Our previous backup solution was unable to be upgraded after several engagements.

I was surprised to see how well the Cohesity appliances performed and how easy the setup was. After a couple of hours, the cluster was up, and we were able to take backup of our VMware infrastructure. After that, I tested a few backups and restores, and everything was running smoothly.

Reliable backup solution with many options and friendly/logical backup/restore infrastructure.

The product is easy to put in place, all backups are done very quickly, and it's easy to perform restores. What I prefer in the product is its simplicity. No useless settings to define, everything is ready just after the initial setup.

I also had the opportunity to deploy new nodes and upgrade the cluster; everything is well thought and is running very well.

Reliable backup solution with many options and friendly/logical backup/restore infrastructure.

The product is easy to put in place, all backups are done very quickly, and it's easy to perform restores. What I prefer in the product is its simplicity. No useless settings to define, everything is ready just after the initial setup.

I also had the opportunity to deploy new nodes and upgrade the cluster; everything is well thought and is running very well.

Volume Shadow Copies can get very large on SQL servers so be aware of this if OS says a drive has a lot of space but everything else is saying that the drive is out of space. This mostly occurs when the backup job fails, which is very uncommon. We've run into issues where network segmented computers couldn't reach back to Cohesity over 445 and that has caused restores to fail. Split large Database/NAS/Phycial backups into their own backup job so smaller devices can stay on their backup schedules and backup more often. SQL and Physical (Block Level) backups need to have a Cohesity Agent installed (requiring a restart) and they have to be manually added into Cohesity but the process is still pretty simple. Cohesity cluster upgrades have not been as easy as a single button click but a manual process that requires upgrading each node in the cluster individually. The upgrades do go pretty smoothly though.

Less than one year.