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reviewer1036158 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Mar 14, 2019
The product is easy to put in place and all backups are done very quickly
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to put in place, all backups are done very quickly, and it's easy to perform restores."
  • "Currently, the product is lacking some features like BMR and backup for the cluster, but I think these are things that would be added in a few months."

What is our primary use case?

Backing up of our virtual environment (VMware) by replacing our current backup software that is more of an old fashion solution: not very scalable and not really well designed for multitenancy.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What is most valuable?

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. 

What needs improvement?

Currently, the product is lacking some features like BMR and backup for the cluster, but I think these are things that would be added in a few months.

Buyer's Guide
Cohesity DataProtect
March 2026
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For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far so good, I've never had any major issue, and deployment of the cluster was really easy.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is highly scalable.

How are customer service and support?

So far so good, a few little issues, nothing dramatic but support was able to help.

Their support site already contains a lot of information where most of the answers you might have can be found.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The solution we had before was not very reliable, not scalable, and the security was poor.

How was the initial setup?

Very easy to do, not much documentation to read, and really easy to work with. Everything is logical, and you can easily do what you want to do.

What about the implementation team?

One Cohesity team came during the POC, but it was really easy. So as a test, I also reinstall the cluster myself very quickly when all requirements are met.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is fair for what the product does, compared to our previous solution, it's even cheaper.

We will also save a lot of money on the support as we had a lot of issues with the previous product.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also checked Commvault and Rubrik.

Commvault was also a very complete solution but much more difficult to put in place. Also, the lack of hyperconvergence on the storage side was a blocking factor.

Rubrik was very similar to Cohesity, but we liked in Cohesity the NAS, TEST/DEV and WORM options that allow us to use it for our archives.

What other advice do I have?

Cohesity offers the possibility to do a free POC, so if you have any doubt, try it, and I am sure you will see a lot of their advantages.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1011498 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Feb 13, 2019
The ability to host file shares and back up our environment in one device is amazing
Pros and Cons
  • "We have found that being able to host file shares and back up our environment in one device is amazing."
  • "I would say they could work on the update process of the nodes."

What is our primary use case?

We use this to back up our VM environment. We are also using this to store file shares for our customers.

How has it helped my organization?

It's allowed us to consolidate various backup solutions into one. This has helped us from paying separate vendors for our past backup solution.

What is most valuable?

We have found that being able to host file shares and back up our environment in one device is amazing.

What needs improvement?

  • I would say they could work on the update process of the nodes. 
  • They could also make it easier to try out beta versions of their software without the need of opening tickets.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cohesity DataProtect
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cohesity DataProtect. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
885,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer966867 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Engineer
Reseller
Dec 5, 2018
Searching data in VMs for restore and downloading specific files
Pros and Cons
  • "The nice thing is there is no further licensing when you purchase the system, all is integrated."
  • "Support is good, but some functions are added pretty late, like vCloud Director support."

What is our primary use case?

Backing up virtual machines on our public and private IaaS platforms. It is also used as an NFS shared secondary storage to virtual machines.

How has it helped my organization?

We got rid of not being able to scale our storage, having to constantly add new storage and use windows as a repository doesn't scale above 2TB.

What is most valuable?

  • Scale-out
  • Test and dev
  • Directly spinning data
  • Searching data in VMs for restore and downloading specific files.

What needs improvement?

Support is good, but some functions are added pretty late, like vCloud Director support. This could speed up adoption for service providers.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've had no downtime in the time it's been used. Some minor issues that we do get are resolved really quickly with support.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scale-out capabilities are great.

How are customer service and technical support?

They are a great help on performance issues and minor bugs.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Veeam, we came upon Cohesity while searching for scale-out storage.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward, it's almost plug and play.

What about the implementation team?

In-house, we're a service provider.

What was our ROI?

We resell the product.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The nice thing is there is no further licensing when you purchase the system. All is integrated.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

What other advice do I have?

Take it a go, I think you'll love it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Director of Information Technology at Lighthouse Resources Inc
Real User
Nov 29, 2018
Replication to other Cohesity clusters is a breeze
Pros and Cons
  • "We have quick, reliable, verifiable backups that replicate off-site, the system is easy to administer and troubleshoot, and support is quick to respond and helpful."

    What is our primary use case?

    Secure backup solutions that can replicate off-site to a variety of secondary storage solutions, including other Cohesity clusters.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We have quick, reliable, verifiable backups that replicate off-site. The system is easy to administer and troubleshoot. Support is quick to respond and helpful. We used to have Avamar, and they were none of those things.

    What is most valuable?

    • Replication
    • Easy SQL and VM restores
    • Clones for the development environment
    • I can do fewer full SQL backups because the retires will auto replay the log file backups for me.
    • Full SQL backups essentials happen every hour, but they are a combo of full and log backups, and restore takes no longer because of auto log replays. 
    • VM backups are quick as are restores.
    • Google cloud archival was easy to set up.
    • The Google project side was more difficult than setting up an archive. 
    • Replication to other Cohesity clusters is a breeze.

    What needs improvement?

    Navigation is sometimes a challenge from the aspect of drilling down into details which isn’t normally needed.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    reviewer958335 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Works with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    Nov 13, 2018
    It has the ability to sync our latest backups to amazon web services for offsite DR
    Pros and Cons
    • "We love the near-instant recovery windows, as well as the ability to sync our latest backups to Amazon Web Services for offsite DR."
    • "We don't love the Exchange integration, it works fine but requires a third-party application called Kroll."

    What is our primary use case?

    We utilize Cohesity as our backup solution, it provides tiered backup layers of our VMware and physical environment as well as replaces tape storage for archival uses.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We no longer need to use tape storage, which saves us many hours of effort managing them. Additionally, we have a very responsive environment for recoveries and test/dev.

    What is most valuable?

    We love the near-instant recovery windows, as well as the ability to sync our latest backups to amazon web services for offsite DR.

    What needs improvement?

    We don't love the Exchange integration, it works fine but requires a third-party application called Kroll. We'd rather have a built-in solution to manage Exchange messages/DB level restores such as what Veeam provides.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Less than one year.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's relatively new, but it's growing rapidly, and their support team has been excellent when we've needed them.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Excellent scalability, just add more nodes.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Extremely fast response both to email and phone, very knowledgeable.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We've used multiple solutions in the past, most recently Veeam for VMware backup and doing long-term archiving to tape. We liked the built-in dedupe/compression features of Cohesity, the near-instant recovery, and the cloud archival options.

    How was the initial setup?

    Fairly straightforward, especially with a VAR assistance.

    What about the implementation team?

    VAR and a Cohesity rep.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    It's not cheap, but you get what you pay for, and it is really an all-in-one solution.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    ExaGrid and sticking with Veeam.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    Adrian932577 - PeerSpot reviewer
    IT Manager at a university with 1-10 employees
    User
    Oct 11, 2018
    It's completely reliable and easy to restore
    Pros and Cons
    • "It has a lightning fast restore."
    • "The spin-up of a VM within a test environment for backup testing along with quick restores."
    • "It's completely reliable and easy to restore."
    • "It's completely reliable and easy to restore."
    • "Microsoft Exchange online mailbox backups would be fantastic."
    • "Microsoft Exchange online mailbox backups would be fantastic."

    What is our primary use case?

    • Virtual machines
    • Four physical machines
    • A lot of SQL databases
    • A huge amount of applications and application databases. 
    • Mainly backing up locally, then replicating to the cloud, for three months.

    How has it helped my organization?

    • The complex, cumbersome restores are gone.
    • It's simple to back up.
    • It's completely reliable and easy to restore.
    • It has a lightning fast restore.

    What is most valuable?

    The spin-up of a VM within a test environment for backup testing along with quick restores.

    What needs improvement?

    • Bare metal backups of MS AD
    • Microsoft Exchange online mailbox backups would be fantastic.
    • Restoring OUs/individual users from the AD would be awesome.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Less than one year.
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Data Center Technician at nuskin
    Real User
    Oct 10, 2018
    We used to use NetBackup. We are tired of using tapes and Cohesity has the features that we're interested in.
    Pros and Cons
    • "Cohesity will save us money, time, and manpower."
    • "We have encountered a few cluster crashes because of indexing on XFS file systems this should be fixed in 6.1.0"

    What is our primary use case?

    We were backing up about 160 TB to tape per week. We are still moving over to Cohesity, however, we will not have the need to have the hardware related to tapes next year. Also, the money we spend on new versions of tapes is not going towards more clusters. In Cohesity, my backups are running faster and I have more frequent crash consistent data. 

    How has it helped my organization?

    Cohesity will save us money, time, and manpower. We will have quick redundancy to AWS for our Cohesity node. I am new to backups and I have been able to quickly learn the basics in the tool. 

    What is most valuable?

    This tool is very straightforward and clean. The menus are not over complicated or cluttered. I have very little experience with backups, but Cohesity has made it simple to learn the basics. There are also more complex integrations and programming that can be done if desired.

    What needs improvement?

    Cohesity is working on this, however, I would like to see a more expanded KB section. They have created a few videos also, more would be great. Their documentation is also currently being expanded.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Still implementing.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We chose to go bleeding edge with the 6.0.0a release. We have encountered a few cluster crashes because of indexing on XFS file systems this should be fixed in 6.1.0

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Not yet. 

    How are customer service and technical support?

    So far support has been amazing. 

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We used NetBackup. We are tired of using tapes and Cohesity has the features that we're interested in.

    How was the initial setup?

    With the help of our local tech, the setup was quite easy. 

    What about the implementation team?

    We used our local Cohesity sales and tech team. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    During your implementation stage, make sure you have a good Cohesity rep. Ours had completed over 200 implementations. He was very knowledgeable.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Rubrik was the main tool we looked at. 

    What other advice do I have?

    At this time I don't, as I learn more I will update my review. 

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user847872 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Quality Engineer II at Cvent
    Real User
    Aug 15, 2018
    A cost-effective storage designed for secondary or archival data
    Pros and Cons
    • "Cohesity is a cost-effective storage designed for secondary or archival data. It also integrates well with a number of other systems, like VMware, Pure Storage, or AWS with its large array of APIs available to the user."
    • "The four independent node cluster architecture is redundant. It maintains data integrity and load balancing."
    • "Compared to the products that we had earlier, Cohesity replaced our primary backup solution, runs VMs, and hosts all our backup mount points in our environment at a fraction of the cost."
    • "Since it is an evolving product, there are lot of frequent releases which require upgrades to be done every other weekend."
    • "The support team could do a better job. Sometimes finding the correct person is cumbersome and time consuming."
    • "The support team could do a better job. Sometimes finding the correct person is cumbersome and time consuming."

    What is our primary use case?

    Cohesity has acted as a perfect secondary storage for storing our archival data, as well as running the non I/O intensive VMs directly on the NFS data stores.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Cohesity is a cost-effective storage designed for secondary or archival data. It also integrates well with a number of other systems, like VMware, Pure Storage, or AWS with its large array of APIs available to the user. Backing up VMs, indexing data, and restoring data can be lightening fast. At the same time, the data compression and dedupe are robust and the best in this category.

    What is most valuable?

    • Restoring the backed up VMs directly on vCenter through API integration, which is lightening fast. 
    • Integration with cloud storage, like S3 from AWS and Pure Storage.
    • The four independent node cluster architecture is redundant. It maintains data integrity and load balancing.

    What needs improvement?

    Since it is an evolving product, there are lot of frequent releases which require upgrades to be done every other weekend. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Sometimes new releases have a few bugs, but they are promptly fixed by the support team. Other than that, it is a fairly stable product.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is highly scalable and follows a scale out approach. You need a minimum of four nodes to make a cluster.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The support team could do a better job. Sometimes finding the correct person is cumbersome and time consuming. 

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We were looking to replace multiple backup solutions for physical servers and VMware virtual machines. Cohesity has been a one stop solution for us. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is fairly simple. 

    What about the implementation team?

    Support guided us remotely throughout the installation.

    What was our ROI?

    I cannot disclose the exact numbers. Compared to the products that we had earlier, Cohesity replaced our primary backup solution. It runs VMs. All our backup mount points are on Cohesity in our environment, and this is at a fraction of the cost. 

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Cohesity DataProtect Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: March 2026
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Cohesity DataProtect Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.