Cohesity DataProtect vs Microsoft DPM comparison

Cohesity and Microsoft are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Cohesity is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3, while Microsoft is ranked #27 with an average rating of 8.3. Cohesity holds a 3.5% mindshare in BRS, compared to Microsoft’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cohesity users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Cohesity DataProtect

Read 72 Cohesity DataProtect reviews

9,187 Views
5,666 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Microsoft DPM

Read 19 Microsoft DPM reviews

2,916 Views
1,768 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

Cohesity DataProtect

Microsoft DPM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Microsoft DPM and Cohesity DataProtect compete in the data protection and management category. Cohesity DataProtect has the advantage with more comprehensive data management solutions despite its higher cost.

Features: Microsoft DPM integrates seamlessly with Microsoft environments, offering efficient backup and recovery tailored for Windows Server systems. It also supports application, file, and system backups. Cohesity DataProtect provides a flexible, scalable platform with cloud-native support and advanced security measures. Its rich feature set supports multiple environments and robust data protection capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft DPM could improve by enhancing its user interface and expanding its capabilities beyond Microsoft products. It also needs to address issues like system synchronization failures. Cohesity DataProtect can improve by simplifying its complex deployment process and offering better support for massive cloud migrations. Offering more cost-effective solutions could also be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft DPM benefits from straightforward deployment within Microsoft ecosystems, making it smooth for existing users and aligning with Microsoft's support services. Cohesity DataProtect offers a more complex but versatile deployment process, suitable for diverse IT environments, while providing personalized customer service that addresses specific needs efficiently.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft DPM offers a lower initial setup cost, appealing to businesses already invested in Microsoft products, with reasonable ROI through integration capabilities. Cohesity DataProtect involves a higher initial investment but its extensive feature set and scalability can justify the cost, offering potentially higher ROI when fully leveraged.

To learn more, read our detailed Cohesity DataProtect vs. Microsoft DPM Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect vs. Microsoft DPM

March 2025

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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

8th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (6th)

Microsoft DPM

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

27th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Cohesity DataProtect is 3.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft DPM is 1.2%, down from 1.3% 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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RifkanHasan

Group Assistant, General Manager of IT at CIC

Backup and recovery that is stable but support is no longer in existence

The DPM is pretty good, but when it comes to external devices, you can't back up to the external device. It's a huge drawback because once everything goes down, it goes down fully. We can't take a snapshot and take it outside, which is a problem. Also, when it comes to recovery, the recovery process doesn't work properly. It doesn't recover. One of our drives failed and when we wanted to recover it from the other drive, it never worked. So, we couldn't recover the data. Recovery of data if the server goes down, is not very good. The DPM is good apart from the support services. We were told that the support was no longer in existence, which is why we are looking for another provider. In the next release, I would like to see backup to external devices, so it can always restore the backup and we can take it externally and store it somewhere that it is off-site and archived. Currently, it does not allow us to do that because it is required to be in one location.

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

"The solution is stable, with regular updates and patching."

"Within the system, we have rule-based access control, single sign-on, multifactor authentication, and basic identity and access management features."

"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."

"With instant DR failover using SiteContinuity, we are able to keep our files available no matter the situation."

"Setup was extremely easy from racking to backing up was about one hour."

"Cohesity DataProtect is a converged solution that simplifies backup and allows use of the backed-up data."

"Cohesity's web-scale architecture enables us to scale up as needed."

"It makes our administrators' lives much easier to combine backup, archiving, and services like hosting file shares in one central system with only one user interface."

More Cohesity DataProtect pros

"The most valuable feature is that DPM has an index so individual files can be searched."

"One of the most effective features of Microsoft DPM is its integration with the entire Microsoft ecosystem."

"Microsoft DPM is scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the total integration of the System Center solution."

"The user interface is very good. The reporting and monitoring features are also good."

"Its capability to give a BMR for all the workstations that I want to connect to."

"One of the most effective features of Microsoft DPM is its integration with the entire Microsoft ecosystem."

"The automated procedure is quite good for us, as it is able to capture all of the information that we require."

More Microsoft DPM pros

Cons

"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."

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

"I would like to see the management of multiple nodes inside a tenant. If you want to manage a Cohesity environment, you either go on a per-node base, and you can hop from one node to the other, or you need to implement their SaaS capability but it always needs an internet connection. We would really like to have some kind of local management entity so that we can see all the Cohesity nodes in a customer environment and manage those nodes centrally. That's something that we would really like, and they are really working on it."

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

"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 tool could benefit from further improvements in AI features, particularly in areas such as a generative AI chat interface. This feature could help answer queries about the data being protected. One feature that would greatly improve our experience with the product is the ability to identify data redundancies through a central console. This feature would help us reduce storage costs by managing redundant data."

"I would like to see Microsoft Exchange DAG supported as soon as possible."

"This solution is only compatible with a limited number of storage arrays, including Pure and Cisco Hyperflex."

More Cohesity DataProtect cons

"There is a very poor online user community in terms of people blogging about their experiences with DPM."

"Compatibility and integration with other products needs improvement."

"The data tagging feature needs improvement. The solution could be a bit more intuitive in certain aspects."

"We can't take a snapshot and take it outside, which is a problem."

"It needs portability for other vendors. It is good for backing up Microsoft servers, but it doesn't support third-party solutions such as Oracle Database. It depends on Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy, especially for Hyper-V, which has a lot of problems. They should enhance the Volume Shadow Copy functionality. Its reporting should also be better. Reporting is too weak in DPM."

"You have only a few settings and if you change them for some special configurations, it's very difficult."

"The problem lies with the 2019 version, it's the file system they’re using."

"Management reporting could be improved."

More Microsoft DPM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is average."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly. It is cheaper than other backup solutions."

"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."

"Ensure that you understand the per TB licensing model. Also, Exchange backups are not native to Cohesity and require Kroll."

"With respect to pricing, make sure that you look at both Rubrik and Cohesity as they are very similar and are quite competitive."

"Cohesity came in at the best price. Setup was included and done in half a day."

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

"The solution's pricing is in the mid-range, where it's neither costly nor cheap."

More Cohesity DataProtect pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft DPM is a free solution. However, we pay approximately $3,000 annually for support."

"Microsoft DPM can be considered as an expensive solution for smaller or medium enterprises, but we have been satisfied with the price structure as it is fixed and it offers a variety of useful features"

"I think Microsoft DPM pricing is reasonable. The additional costs are related to storage and technical support."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

44%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

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?

While there are improvements to be made, such as providing support for older systems like IBM iSeries and tandem systems from HP, the solution overall shifts from older methods to modern practices....

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft DPM?

This solution helps us to manage all of the operations across servers and different workstations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft DPM?

Microsoft licensing is complex, especially for enterprise or data center solutions. However, it's not more complicated compared to other competitors and the market is well balanced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft DPM?

I am not sure if I am competent enough to address areas for improvement in Microsoft DPM.

See all answers

Comparisons

Rubrik vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 27% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 15% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 13% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Backup vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 4% of the time

More Cohesity DataProtect Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 52% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 11% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 7% of the time

Rubrik vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Backup vs Microsoft DPM

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft DPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect

March 2025

Download Cohesity DataProtect product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft DPM

March 2025

Download Microsoft DPM product report

Also Known As

Cohesity

DPM, Data Protection Manager, MS DPM

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"

Cohesity

Microsoft Data Protection Manager (DPM) is an enterprise backup system that can be used to back up data from a source location to a target secondary location. Microsoft DPM allows you to back up application data from Microsoft servers and workloads, and file data from servers and client computers. You can create full backups, incremental backups, differential backups, and bare-metal backups to completely restore a system. Microsoft DPM can store backup data to disks for short-term storage, to Azure Cloud for both for short-term and long-term storage off-premises, and to tapes for long-term storage, which can then be stored offsite. Backed up files are indexed, which allows you to easily search your recovered data.

Microsoft DPM contributes to your business continuity and disaster recovery strategy by facilitating the backup and recovery of enterprise data, ensuring resources are available and recoverable during planned and unplanned outages. When outages occur and source data is unavailable, you can use DPM to easily restore data to the original source or to an alternate location.

Key Features of Microsoft DPM:

Application-aware backup: Application-aware backup of Microsoft workloads, including SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint.
File backup: Back up files and folders on computers running Windows Server and Windows operating systems.
System backup: Back up the entire system state or run complete backups of physical computers running Windows Server or Windows client operating systems.
Hyper-V backup: Back up Hyper-V virtual machines running either Windows or Linux. You can choose to back up an entire virtual machine or specific applications on the virtual machine.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft DPM stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust and flexible backup capabilities and its being easy to manage with one central dashboard.

William M., the head of ICT infrastructure & security at a tech services company, notes, "The automated procedure is quite good for us, as it is able to capture all of the information that we require. The compatibility is very good. We have an IBM AS/400 machine in our office that we're using, and we're able to back it up fine. This is the same for other systems, as well. I think that overall, it is really adaptable, compatible, and scalable."

Mohammed I., a managing director at Adalites, notes, "I would definitely recommend data protection DPM. It has an application backup, a file backup, a system backup and a hypervisor. It works flawlessly, never a problem."

Rodney C. a system analyst at a financial services firm, writes, "The most valuable feature is that DPM has an index so individual files can be searched. This is our primary tool for recovering deleted files or folders. Once we implement a System Center Operations Manager, all of our DPM servers can then be seen on one dashboard."

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Tribune Media

Medical Park, Centropol Energy, a.s., NCFE, D & H Distributing, Metalor, Colosseum, a.s., Sanitas S.A., Icebreaker

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect vs. Microsoft DPM

March 2025

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