Technical Review

Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform
Date: January 2023 Author: Tony Palmer, Principal Validation Analyst; and Justin Boyer, Validation Analyst

Abstract
This Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) Technical Review examines the Cohesity Data Cloud software-defined data
management platform, focusing on how Cohesity reduces capacity, cost, and complexity by consolidating functions:collapsing workload silos, eliminating copies, and enabling efficient access to and sharing of data. ESG also examined how
Cohesity delivers 96x data reduction or greater to most of their customers.

The Challenges
Organizations have made tremendous improvement in their ability to mine, organize, and create new value from their data.
This ability enables companies to leverage their data to transform both IT and their business for the digital age and deliver a
genuine competitive edge. Yet, as data grows and proliferates among different geographic and operational silos, including
the cloud, the ability to see, access, manage, and harness the power of that data becomes considerably more challenging.
Organizations are still experiencing significant “data sprawl,” reporting that for every 1 TB of production data, they need 4
TB or more of secondary data, for both data protection (58%) and non-protection/non-production purposes (51%).1
Digital transformation is also leading organizations to modernize and re-invest in data centers to take full advantage of theinsights possible. Today, more than three-quarters (77%) of companies surveyed are operating at least three data centers,with nearly two-thirds (63%) of organizations planning to operate at least six data centers in five years (see Figure 1).2
Modernization strategies for data centers can include consolidation and shifting adoption to public cloud resources. Thishas caused a rise in efforts to both increase interoperability across hybrid clouds, as well as invest more in data centers toachieve a cloud-like experience on-premises. This indicates that data sprawl is on an upward trend, making data reduction
technologies critical.

Figure 1. Organizations Are Investing Heavily in New Data Centers Over the Next Five Years
How many data centers did your organization operate 5 years ago? How many data centers
does your organization operate today? How many data centers do you expect yourorganization will have in five years? (Percent of respondents, N=372)
Number of data centers five years ago

Number of data centers today

Number of data centers five years from now

37%

34%

32%

28%

16%

5%

2% 1% 2%

6%

0

1

13%

2

17%
8%

3 to 534%

13%

6 to 10

29%

5%
8%

More than 10

2% 2%

4%

Don’t know

1 Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Complete Survey Results, From Data Backup to Data Intelligence, January 2022.
2 Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Research Report, Application Infrastructure Modernization Trends Across Distributed Cloud Environments, March

2022.
This Enterprise Strategy Group Technical Review was commissioned by Cohesity and is distributed under license from TechTarget, Inc.
© 2022 TechTarget, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

The Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform
Cohesity Data Cloud is a modern data management platform designed to provide a comprehensive range of data services
for data protection, data isolation, file and object storage, and disaster recovery. Cohesity Data Cloud is available as selfmanaged software and SaaS. Cohesity uses its hyperscale architecture to keep pace with organizations’ businesses and data
growth across data centers, edge locations, and public cloud environments. Cohesity's analysis of call-home data from theirglobal customer base shows that the overwhelming majority of their customers achieve 96x data reduction or greater.
Cohesity’s variable-length deduplication engine runs globally across the cluster and can execute inline or post-processdepending on the workload and data attributes. Cohesity’s patented SnapTree snapshotting technology limits the numberof hops to retrieve data blocks to two to enable the platform to offer virtually unlimited immutable snapshots without
impact to performance.
Cohesity offers multiple data services that run discreetly on the Data Cloud platform.
• Cohesity DataProtect: A software-defined backup and recovery solution, DataProtect eliminates multiple legacy point

products, including backup software, master and media services, target storage, and cloud gateways—simplifying dataprotection and providing comparable functionality on a single scale-out solution.
• Cohesity SmartFiles: Designed from the start with security, manageability, and scale top of mind, SmartFiles optimizes

cost and efficiency for unstructured data management with modern software-defined file and object services for the
hybrid cloud. SmartFiles consolidates data silos target and securely manages unstructured content and application
data, including digital libraries, archives, rich media, video surveillance, big data, and backup data sets.
• Cohesity DataHawk: DataHawk provides multiple cloud service offerings to repel and recover from cyber incidents. It

leverages AI/ML to detect anomalies that could indicate an emergent attack, utilizes threat intelligence to ensure
recovery data is free of malware, and provides data classification to identify the exposure of sensitive and private
information when an attack occurs. It also provides point-and-click data isolation and integrates with numerous SIEM,
SOAR, and vulnerability scanning solutions.
• Cohesity FortKnox: FortKnox is a SaaS data isolation and recovery solution designed to enable a modern air gap

strategy for the cloud era and improve cyber resiliency. FortKnox balances organizations’ security and agility priorities
with an immutable copy of data in a Cohesity-managed cloud vault via a virtual air gap. This can give organizations
relying on FortKnox an additional layer of security against ransomware and other cybersecurity threats throughphysical, network, and operational isolation.
• Cohesity SiteContinuity: This disaster recovery offering is engineered to automate failover and failback orchestration

for mission-critical workloads. SiteContinuity can be self-managed by customers for site-to-site disaster recovery (DR),or it can be procured from Cohesity as a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution using AWS infrastructure.
• Cohesity Marketplace: An ecosystem of apps and integration solutions—both Cohesity-native and third-party—that

run directly on Cohesity’s Data Cloud platform to allow data processing in place. By unifying all integrations andfeaturing them in the Marketplace, Cohesity enables customers to easily find solutions for their evolving data
management and protection needs.
Cohesity Data Cloud scales simply by adding hyperconverged nodes to the cluster, each of which brings CPU and storage
capacity, expanding the global filesystem. Data Cloud includes near-unlimited snapshots that can be created on demand;
instant restores at scale; global deduplication across the cluster; a simple UI for end-to-end workflows; policy-based
automation; linear scalability; granular VM-, file-, and object-level recovery; AES-256 encryption; and integration with tape
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Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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libraries and the cloud for long-term archiving. Once data is backed up on Cohesity, it can be used for other use cases suchas spinning up zero-cost clones for test/dev and analytics.

Figure 2. Cohesity Data Management Platform

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Data is intelligently tiered between HDD and flash, and the cluster maintains two or more copies for availability. Cohesity
has multiple data redundancy options that administrators can select based on their needs. Data replicates automaticallywithin the Cohesity cluster and is optimized for fault tolerance. Upgrades, node addition or removal, and other maintenancetasks are non-disruptive.
Cohesity Data Cloud is a SaaS-based application that provides a single view and global management of all organizational
data and workloads wherever they reside—on-premises, in the public cloud, or at the edge. Cohesity Data Cloud utilizes
machine learning algorithms to proactively assess IT needs and automate infrastructure resources.

Case Studies
Enterprise Strategy Group recently interviewed several Cohesity customers to quantify the economic value of Cohesity’ssolutions.3 One customer mentioned that their storage costs dropped by more than 70% after implementing Cohesity
SmartFiles. Another customer appreciated the visibility and insight into the data that Cohesity provided, allowing them totake action to contain data sprawl. Another cited the ability to recover from ransomware attacks in less than two hours
instead of two to three weeks as Cohesity’s biggest benefit. Altogether, customers interviewed cited cost savings, improved
operational efficiency, and improved business agility/reduced risk as benefits they saw from using Cohesity.

3 Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Economic Validation, Benefits of Managing Unstructured Data with Cohesity SmartFiles, February 2022.

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Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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Cohesity Delivers Up to 96x or Greater Data Reduction to Optimize Savings
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) analyzed data reduction statistics from Cohesity’s global installed base. Our goal was todetermine the extent of data reduction the typical Cohesity customer could expect. This review gave ESG an opportunity to
see what real customers were experiencing with Cohesity.
Figure 3 shows the Storage Dashboard Cohesity customers use to view storage statistics. These statistics can be used tomeasure the average data reduction performed by Cohesity for their customers. Logical Data refers to the combined totalof data in the objects managed and protected by Cohesity. Data Written refers to the data written to the Cohesity cluster
after data deduplication and compression. The Resiliency Impact is the space required to honor resiliency settings inaddition to the data written. Cohesity charges customers strictly on the Data Written.
ESG verified the data reduction calculations of real-world Cohesity customers. For this calculation, the resiliency impact isignored since it represents the space Cohesity uses to ensure resiliency and the customer is not charged for it. Therefore,
the calculation used to determine total data reduction for a particular customer takes the logical data (the totality ofcustomer data being protected) and divides it by the data written (the data after compression and deduplication).

Figure 3. Cohesity Real World Data Reduction Screenshot

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Figure 4 shows the real-world data reduction based on a sampling of over 3,000 Cohesity customers. The X-axis shows theranges of data reduction the customers experienced. Above each range, the chart displays the percentage of customers
whose data reduction calculation fell within that range. ESG found that 89% of customers achieved data reduction of 96x or
higher, with many achieving much higher reduction rates.

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Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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Figure 4. Cohesity Real World Data Reduction Chart

0.42%

1.14%

2.93%

2.04%

1.07%

0.85%

2.26%

4.30%

1.80%

4.69%

5.08%

5.24%

6.22%

5.92%

8.03%

7.14%

9.50%

9.41%

3.55%

7.41%

11.02%

89% of Cohesity Users

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Enterprise Strategy Group Tested
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) previously examined data reduction and small file efficiency in a controlled environment.4
We compared Cohesity Data Cloud global variable-length deduplication and small file optimization to a system that utilizes
fixed-length deduplication and does not deduplicate globally across views—Vendor X. We used synthetic data sets
generated specifically for these tests: A 1TB unstructured data set with a duplication factor of 2:1 for the deduplication test,
and a set of 1 million 1KB files for the small file efficiency test. Erasure Code (EC) redundancy was set to 2:1 in both systems.
While these tests used fixed data sets in isolation, the results support the global deduplication rates observed in the field.
In the first series of tests, we copied the 1TB unstructured data set to two views—think volumes—in the Cohesity platform
and two views in the alternative system. As seen in Figure 5, Cohesity’s global deduplication alone reduced the data
footprint by 60.7% while the non-global deduplication system was only able to achieve 6.4% data reduction.

4 Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Technical Review, Cohesity Data Management, October 2019.

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Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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Figure 5. Cohesity Variable-length Deduplication Versus Fixed-length Deduplication(Smaller Is Better)
2500

-6.4%

Disk Space (GiB)

2000

1500

1000

-60.7%

500

0

Fixed-length Deduplication

Cohesity Variable-length Deduplication
Data Ingested
Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Next, we looked at small file efficiency. We copied 1 million 1KB files to a view on the Cohesity data platform and a view on
the Vendor X system. To isolate the effect of small file optimization, we disabled deduplication for this test and set EC
redundancy again to 2:1 in both systems. Due to its 8KB block size and the requirement to store three copies of the data for
redundancy, Vendor X inflated the data to 25.6GB. Cohesity was able to store the data on disk using only 1.5GB of capacity(see Figure 6). It is important to note that this test was designed to highlight the small file efficiency of the Cohesity
platform and does not represent a real-world application by itself. Organizations that have a sizable number of small (sub8KB) files should see some benefit, depending on the workload and how the files are written.

Figure 6. Small File Efficiency(Smaller is Better)
30

25.6GB
Disk Space (GiB)

25
20
15
10
5

1.5GB

0
Vendor X

Logical Data

Cohesity Data Cloud

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.
© 2022 TechTarget, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

Why This MattersEnterprise Strategy Group (ESG) research clearly shows that organizations today are still dealing with extremely
fragmented data assets, but what are the ramifications? In 2019, organizations told ESG that 42% of administrators’ dayto-day tasks—on average—concern managing their organization’s secondary data, applications, and copies across onpremises and cloud environments.5 If 42% of a typical IT admin’s job is managing fragmented data, then 42% of theircost is ultimately wasted in non-productive, non-profitable endeavors. Worse, 49% of respondents reported believingthat MDF leads directly to overworked employees.6 There’s every reason to believe these are still challenges today sincedata volume is growing and organizations are still managing multiple secondary copies of production data.
Since we know that employees seek intelligent, meaningful tasks as a condition of employment and job satisfaction,organizations are making their businesses undesirable places for the best talent to work by continuously demanding thatskilled employees perform menial, mundane jobs.
Cohesity global, variable-length deduplication was able to provide nearly 60% data reduction in testing audited by ESG,
compared with just 6.4% reduction for the tested non-global deduplication system. Cohesity also clearly demonstrated asignificant small file efficiency advantage. Cohesity was able to store one million 1KB files on disk using only 1.5GB of
capacity, whereas the alternative system tested increased the footprint of the files on disk to more than 25GB.
These factors, combined with compression, enable the majority of Cohesity customers to achieve a 96x or higher data
reduction rate. This translates to easier integration into an organization’s existing environment and substantial savings in
disk capacity, network bandwidth, and administration.

5 Source: Enterprise Strategy Group Research Insight Paper, Mass Data Fragmentation Is Quietly Killing Digital Transformation Efforts, May 2019.
6 Ibid.

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Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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The Bigger Truth
Data growth is the root cause of all data fragmentation, but it is also a universal truth among digitally enabled organizations.
Among organizations surveyed by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), growth in storage capacity is significant: 59% oforganizations believe their total storage is increasing by more than 20% annually (see Figure 7). Interestingly, when asked
how much secondary storage they needed per 1 TB of primary storage, the majority of organizations reported that theyneeded 4 TB or more, for both data protection (58%) and non/protection/non-production purposes (51%).7 It’s easy toconclude that organizations with the biggest data management jobs to do today are going to be under the greatest data
management pressure as time passes.

Figure 7. Total Annual Volume of Data Growth
At approximately what rate do you believe your organization’s total volume of data is
growing annually? (Percent of respondents, N=360)

39%
31%

20% or less annually

28%

21% to 50% annuallyMore than 50% annuallySource: Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Cohesity has created a way to eliminate not only costly redundant data copies, but also the redundant infrastructure silosorganizations buy and manage to act on that data. Cohesity’s Data Cloud is a single, highly scalable, intelligent solution thatfirst protects data and then uses the copy an organization already has for production and to create snapshots for secondary
uses. Many organizations are still relying on legacy integrated backup appliances, deduplication target appliances, and copy
data management solutions. The question organizations should be asking is: Why maintain multiple copies of data on
disparate hardware and software platforms when all can be retained in a single, scalable solution that not only stores data
more efficiently, but allows organizations to repurpose data for compliance and analytics use cases?

ESG validated that Cohesity Data Cloud can house all these copies of an organization’s data, deduplicating across views,
applications, and workloads, with a highly efficient mechanism for storing small files. The platform is expandable andflexible to meet the needs of each customer. The ability to scale incrementally and seamlessly means the environment cangrow organically as needed, with predictable cost and performance. It offers greater insight into data, with simpler
management.
ESG also validated that the majority of Cohesity customers see a 96x or higher data reduction rate, based on an audit ofCohesity’s call home data, confirmed by interviews with Cohesity customers.
Organizations need to consider how to store, protect, access, govern, and retire data based on each data operational area—and stop just assuming “someone will do it.” ESG believes that a more intelligent plan can save incalculable time and money
and lead to much better knowledge worker productivity, all of which mean a better bottom line. If your organization isready to address the challenges of data sprawl and redundancy, a look at Cohesity’s data management platform would be asmart first step.

7 Source: ESG Complete Survey Results, From Data Backup to Data Intelligence, January 2022.

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Technical Review: Cohesity Data Cloud Data Management Platform

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