In today’s technologically advanced era, data is the lifeblood of businesses. That’s why it’s not worth taking any risks with it.
In the event of a data breach, natural disaster or purely through human error, data loss will bring your business’ operations to a halt, which isn’t something you can afford.
Simply having your data backed up isn’t enough anymore. Your business should have a business continuity plan in place which not only backs up your data, but also makes sure that when you do restore your information, it is done smoothly and quickly.
Picking backup and disaster recovery software isn’t easy, especially when there are so many options already out there, all of which offer a multitude of complex features. In this article, we simplify it for you by comparing two backup and recovery market leaders, in order to help you choose the right solution for your business.
Cohesity: The smart solution for small and mid-size enterprises
Cohesity is a data storage solutions company based in San Jose, California. The firm’s goal is to find ways to simplify enterprise storage and provide a kind of overarching system which contains all the functionality that businesses need.
What exactly is that functionality? Essentially, it comes down to replacing a firm’s existing storage infrastructure with something more “plug-and-play.” Instead of operating a complex network of various disjointed data silos, Cohesity brings them all together under a single umbrella program with an intuitive dashboard.
It’s not as simple to operate as a smartphone app, but it does take a lot of the complexity out of a firm’s data management system, boosting productivity and reducing training requirements.
Commvault: The king for data storage among large-cap firms
Commvault is one of the longest-standing players in the data protection and information management industry, having started in 1988 after a collaboration group came together in the world-famous Bell Labs. Today, the IT firm generates more than $650 million per year.
Commvault aims to help enterprises modernise their backup systems. The company’s Complete Backup and Recovery flagship product is, as the name implies, a recovery and backup platform that allows firms to access “lost” data, restore their systems to a particular time point, and continue with their operations with minimal disruption.
Commvault offers its clients all the standard backup and recovery features but also gives firms the ability to replicate live data at secondary locations and intelligently protect data stored in employee email inboxes. The program, therefore, has a degree of intelligence infused into it, making it more akin to a Google Mail-type service than just a basic platform.
Cohesity vs Commvault: Which is best?
For many firms, the differences between Cohesity and Commvault may not be immediately apparent. Both appear to offer a similar product that makes things like backup, recovery and analytics easier. So why would you choose one over the other?
The differences between Cohesity and Commvault are subtle. Cohesity is perhaps best for firms which currently have highly fragmented data repositories and need a platform they can use for both analytics and testing/development.
What does this look like in practice? Right now, many firms collect and store their data across a variety of network types and storage hardware. A typical company might have data on tape, media and servers on local systems and in the cloud. Cohesity’s platform (when fully implemented) can bring data from these disparate sources together and alert enterprises to “dark” data that they may have lost sight of. It’s a kind of remedy for the fragmenting of company data, allowing firms to take full advantage of their total data resource.
Cohesity, like Commvault, allows firms to back up and store data in the cloud, share files across the platform, and backup and archive everything all from a single platform. The solution dramatically decreases the complexity of storage and backup operations, allowing the management of everything from a single panel. Like Commvault, it enables IT managers to replace expensive data siloing with the ease of pay-as-you-grow storage infrastructure.
Commvault is currently the first choice for many major large-cap companies and has a well-established position in the market. It might be slightly more expensive than other offerings but offers a wealth of services, from the consolidation of siloed data to deduplication.
The most exciting differentiator of Commvault’s services, however, is the inclusion of artificial intelligence into storage and backup solutions. Take archiving, for instance. Putting data into archives is a time-consuming process. You need a human in the loop to determine whether a particular tranche of data needs to be sent for long-term storage, or whether it’s required on the network.
Commvault, however, unlike traditional backup and storage solutions, uses real-time machine learning to determine whether it should store a particular segment of data automatically or not. The AI operates across both platforms and applications and is equally at home in the cloud as it is in user mailboxes.
Commvault also uses artificial intelligence for a host of other purposes not commonly found elsewhere in the storage and backup market. The company uses algorithms to intelligently optimize storage performance (and reduce energy consumption) and discover unusual patterns which could be anomalous. This technology is particularly helpful for businesses with high data throughput or limited monitoring technicians. The program itself can store data intelligently and alert IT professionals if it detects an anomaly — ideal for protecting against data breaches.
The right backup and recovery for your business
Both Commvault and Cohesity give you tools to increase productivity, better manage your data and reduce complexity. It’s far easier to operate an IT department with one of these products on your side than without. But which is best for you?
If you run a large enterprise, then Commvault might be your preferred choice. Not only will you be able to pay the higher fees, but you’ll also benefit from the broad range of features offered by the Complete Backup and Recovery. Commvault’s AI tech allows you to process vast troves of data automatically, without having to incur significant labour costs.
Cohesity is better for smaller enterprises that want a solution that can grow with them. Cohesity is particularly helpful for those that want to bring together data from multiple sources seamlessly into a single platform.
Choosing the right data recovery platform for your enterprise is challenging. Often it’s difficult to know ahead of time which products meet your needs and which don’t. It’s worth pointing out that a robust DR strategy is more than about choosing the right software — it’s about using the right hardware and processes too. Implementing the right software solutions makes managing hardware much easier, but it’s not the complete story and won’t necessarily guarantee you achieve business continuity in the event of a breach.
Specialist advisors can help you make choices about your setup based on factors specifically related to your enterprise. With the right advice, you can build a complete data and recovery solution that will meet all of the needs of your firm.
