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Cohesity Data Cloud vs Dell PowerProtect Data Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
3.3
Cohesity Data Cloud users reported cost savings, time efficiency, enhanced security, scalability, and improved ROI through simplified data management and reduced downtime.
Sentiment score
3.5
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager improves ROI with automation, efficient recovery, and deduplication but lags behind Cohesity and Veeam.
If I find myself stuck in a cyber recovery situation, this tool can help me avoid spending my money on ransom payments.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The level of confidence that Cohesity Data Cloud delivers to the clients is worth that cost.
Senior Manager Advisory Services at Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems)
Previously they had somewhere around 100 TB of capacity for the backup for a few VMs on one side. Now, the overall setup is hardly 80 TB, where they use almost 240 TB of production data into that 80 TB.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would recommend Dell PowerProtect Data Manager to other organizations because it is cost-effective and delivers good performance compared to alternative solutions.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I do find that with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, the ROI is good when compared to other Dell products, but when compared to others in the current market, such as Cohesity or Veeam, it is not as good.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Cohesity Data Cloud customer service is responsive and reliable, though improvement is needed in legacy systems and issue resolution speed.
Sentiment score
6.2
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager's customer service is adequate, with appreciated 24/7 support but inconsistent response times and regional presence.
issues with Cohesity Data Cloud have not been encountered, suggesting a robust service.
Evangelist / CTO at fgnext
They need to work faster to meet client requirements, especially when business is affected.
Technical Lead at Cognizant
They probably upstaffed and made sure their knowledge was more up-to-date.
Owner at hq-12b
Dell provides reliable support for PowerProtect Data Manager, with 24/7 availability and a qualified support team.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
My experience with the technical support team of Dell is that they are actually great.
Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at BCX
When we had the compliances and any of the backups were getting failed or we identified that some of the backups were frequently failing, the system would alert us.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Cohesity Data Cloud offers seamless scalability and performance improvements, simplifying expansion with flexible resource adjustments and enhancing ROI.
Sentiment score
6.1
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is scalable, easily customizable, well-supported, and aligns licensing with capacity needs, though cloud improvements are suggested.
Scaling depends on subscription levels - when customers exceed their subscribed storage capacity, they can pay Cohesity to scale the resources.
Subject Matter Expert at Engage IT Services Pvt Ltd
There are no issues with scalability on the cloud end.
Technical Lead at Cognizant
It's easy to add additional nodes to a current existing cluster, making it quite easy to expand.
Owner at hq-12b
Its capability to back up existing environments can be improved, particularly when it comes to disaster recovery in the cloud.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
As per the documentation, that is an easy process, whether you need to scale up or scale out.
Ops Specialist: System Engineer Backup at BCX
If you are okay to purchase the license, they have the feasibility to increase the capacity as well.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cohesity Data Cloud is praised for reliability and efficiency, with stability rated exceptional despite minor hardware and support issues.
Sentiment score
8.1
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is stable, reliable, user-friendly, with minor upgrade issues; overall a dependable data management solution.
Compared to other tools, it is very efficient and simple to learn.
Technical Lead at Cognizant
I couldn't find anything negative about Cohesity Data Cloud specifically.
Sr. Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Cohesity Data Cloud is quite reliable.
Subject Matter Expert at Engage IT Services Pvt Ltd
It is extremely reliable and I have never experienced a crash.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Making sure the system is properly understood before deployment and handling upgrades efficiently would improve stability.
System Engineer at Konvergenz
I would assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager as quite stable; there are no issues with the workloads I am using.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cohesity Data Cloud users desire improved documentation, support, and integration, plus cost-effectiveness, security, and enhanced functionality for various needs.
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager needs improved installation, support, cost-effectiveness, user interface, and additional features like desktop backup and SaaS protection.
Issues such as ransomware protection and fixing vulnerabilities should be prioritized.
Sr. Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Cohesity Data Cloud scans backups by default for ransomware and malware, sending notifications if there are any security concerns or compromised systems.
Subject Matter Expert at Engage IT Services Pvt Ltd
The primary drawback is the need to transfer large amounts of data to the cloud via an internet connection, requiring significant bandwidth.
Evangelist / CTO at fgnext
I would like to see improvements that include bare metal restore capabilities and enhanced data restore features in Dell PowerProtect Data Manager.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard.
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enhancements for microservices and container backups would be beneficial, enabling a more consolidated management platform for modern architectures.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cohesity Data Cloud offers value with strong security, structured pricing, and flexibility, despite higher costs than some competitors.
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager offers flexible pricing options, often viewed as affordable, with discounts available and additional feature costs.
Cohesity Data Cloud is more costly in the long term compared to physical tapes.
Evangelist / CTO at fgnext
Comparatively, compared to IBM and Commvault, Cohesity Data Cloud offers the best deal for my environment.
Sr. Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
All organizations are very interested in as-a-service model where they do not pay upfront cost, but they only get the services and pay for what they use as they use it.
Senior Manager Advisory Services at Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is cost-effective, as it is licensed per socket rather than by workload.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Overall, pricing does not significantly impact our decision.
Business Development Manager at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
compared to some other products, it is a bit more costly.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Cohesity Data Cloud provides scalable, secure data protection with efficient storage, easy integration, and comprehensive management for MSPs.
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager provides efficient management, high deduplication, and seamless integration, enhancing data protection and operational cost savings.
It replicates data to the cloud in a tamper-proof manner, offering protection against ransomware attacks since it is not under administrative control.
Evangelist / CTO at fgnext
They have a feature called DataSock, which enhances data protection.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The initial deployment of Cohesity Data Cloud, from my experience, is easy.
Sr. Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
It provides a seamless backup solution integrated with a dashboard full of capabilities, enhancing recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives.
Senior System Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
It satisfies my customers' scalability needs and provides interactive features, allowing efficient integration.
System Engineer at Konvergenz
Compared to other products such as Veritas, Dell offers more competitive pricing while other vendors charge significantly more.
Backup Administrator at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cohesity Data Cloud
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
19th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (14th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (6th), AI Data Analysis (11th)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Cohesity Data Cloud is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is 2.4%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager2.4%
Cohesity Data Cloud0.9%
Other96.7%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

ME
Senior Manager Advisory Services at Optimum Online (Cablevision Systems)
Has provided strong data protection and unified access while streamlining backup operations
Cohesity Data Cloud is not unique in this area. There are a couple of other vendors who are playing in the same area. They provide some sort of isolation for the protected data that makes it very difficult, almost impossible to tamper with once it is stored on the platform. One of the major issues of ransomware attacks is that they happen in the background and it is too late after being hit. Giving a hard time for bad actors to access the data provides more immunity for your data from ransomware attacks. All organizations are very interested in as-a-service model where they do not pay upfront costs, but only get the services and pay for what they use. Converting from CapEx to OpEx is the ultimate goal for any financial manager in any organization. The model uses some sort of object storage for the backup data and contents, which gives a better level of safety than the traditional file system because normally the object storage is not subject to alteration. The only concern I have with cloud implementation is that if you have a presence on-premises, trying to use the cloud may become a performance challenge. It is a perfect situation for workloads that live in the cloud. The way I design things is we should not send data across the WAN to the cloud if it is a large volume that could potentially affect performance. A cloud solution is ideal for a cloud workload from Cohesity Data Cloud perspective. It is best to have some sort of local presence of a repository to do the backup using LAN performance. Then we can always send or upload the data to the cloud without impacting the actual backup window. Support for additional platforms and the option to do multi-tier performance would be beneficial. For example, if I have three types of workloads - SAP database, Oracle database, and SQL database - each with different backup window requirements, the ability to tier performance to meet these specific needs would be perfect for the actual workload and meeting the availability requirements of each application domain. The general perception is if it is not broken, do not fix it. In most cases, organizations do not see value for security until they are hit with something bad. With ever-increasing threats and risks of ransomware and data theft, the problem is becoming more obvious. Looking at what is happening in the market and seeing organizations being hit by security threats, the level of loss of services and client dissatisfaction makes security investment worthwhile. There is no real tangible ROI for security, but considering the potential of losing data forever or having it exposed unnecessarily to the market, it is worth the investment. The bad actors and risks are always reinventing themselves, so we must reinvent our security posture.
reviewer2767527 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized backups have simplified hybrid protection and improved ransomware recovery and compliance
The majorly needed improvement is that the product should easily simplify the upgrade and installation process. Sometimes Dell support should be more active. They take time for P1 issues. Sometimes it is not a P1 for Dell, but it is P1 for the customer, and the support needs to be very mature. That is a major drawback I see. Otherwise, the product is quite well. This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard. In that way, it makes their backup management easier and they can get detected anomalies as soon as possible. This is one of the solutions I would recommend. However, if it is a very small company, they really need to think about the cost, as it is very costlier for them. But as an enterprise solution and a mid-enterprise solution, this is the solution where companies think their data is very critical, in sectors such as financial, banking, and health. This kind of sector should go with that solution because it always gives the compliances of HIPAA, GDPR, and all those things that are really required for them. From management perspectives and consolidation solution perspective, the integration is quite easy. With respect to the backup administrator and everything, it is quite straightforward. There are some layers that need to be improved and should have the internal feature instead of creating the additional VMs for the NAS backup. It should be internal and directly have the agent base or something that can communicate easily with Dell storage. If it is third-party, I would understand, but it should be able to communicate. The benefit of it is that it is easily understood and you can do knowledge transfer with a lot of documents available. The drawback of it is that when it comes to the installation, Dell always takes a lot of time for all these things with third-party involvement in between Dell and the customer. Support is the major part of it. People need to understand that when a customer raises their ticket for P1, they should treat it as a P1. Instead of by their book being P3 or P2, sometimes they only treat it as such when the complete backup server is down. However, for the customer, if it is not happening with the critical system of backup, then it is a P1 for them. From Dell support, they do not treat it as a P1, or they treat it as a P3 or P2. That kind of understanding and some agreements need to be done between the customer and Dell. It is a costlier solution. Comparatively, other backup solutions make this one of the costlier solutions. However, someone who has their enterprise data or needs protection in a good way can go for it. I could say it is a mid-enterprise or enterprise level solution. Otherwise, people do have the same solution but with differentiated features. However, it is costlier compared to the other.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
University
7%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cohesity DataPlatform?
All organizations are very interested in as-a-service model where they do not pay upfront cost, but they only get the services and pay for what they use as they use it. Converting from CapEx to OpE...
What needs improvement with Cohesity Imanis Data?
Cohesity Data Cloud is not unique in this area. There are a couple of other vendors who are playing in the same area. They provide some sort of isolation for the protected data that makes it very d...
What is your primary use case for Cohesity Imanis Data?
I have been in a relationship with Cohesity Data Cloud for more than five years now. I have used Helios in the past.
What do you like most about Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
One notable feature is its robust backup support for Kubernetes and container environments. Additionally, PPDM stands out for its ease of deployment and management compared to other backup solution...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
Regarding the pricing aspect of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, I am not very happy with that; compared to some other products, it is a bit more costly, and there are definitely areas for improvement.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
I apologize, but I'm not in a position to answer what areas of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager I would like to see improved or enhanced. There is still a lot of features that we haven't tried yet. I...
 

Also Known As

Imanis Data, DataPlatform, Cohesity Helios
PowerProtect, Dell EMC PowerProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Navis, 1st Security Bank, Brown University, WestLotto
National Bank of Greece, USC Australia, PCS Publishing, Dell Digital IT, Rushmore Electric, Melanson Health, Arrow Electronics
Find out what your peers are saying about Cohesity Data Cloud vs. Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.