Cohesity Blends Cloud Data Management, Security Services -

Cohesity, a cloud backup and data management company, continues to push deeper into the security market ahead of a potential IPO (initial public offering).

The latest Cohesity business moves involve the new DataGovern and Project Fort Knox security and governance offerings. The offerings help channel partners and customers to help organizations identify cyber threats, protect their data and recover from cyberattacks.

DataGovern offers a data security and governance service. The service uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the discovery of sensitive data and detect anomalous access and usage patterns in near real time. It also can be used in conjunction with security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platforms to trigger remediation workflows based on an organization's security policies.

Project Fort Knox allows organizations to leverage a cloud-based repository to store a copy of their data, Cohesity indicated. It ensures that organizations can identify a clean copy of their data and recover it on-premises or in the cloud following a cyberattack.

DataGovern is available now for early access preview, and Project Fort Knox will be available for early access preview in the coming quarters, Cohesity noted. Pricing and exact timing for general availability were not disclosed.

Cohesity Business Background, Rivals

Cohesity’s go-to-market sales strategy is “100 percent partner-focused,” and the effort leverages solution providers, global system integrators (GSI), service providers, and distributors.

Cohesity was founded in 2013 and emerged from stealth mode around 2015. Early efforts included hardware appliances, but the company has since emphasized software as its primary focus. In recent years, the company has been a fast-growing provider of cloud-centric data protection, backup and disaster recovery (BDR), ransomware recovery, and other software services that protect hybrid IT systems.

Key Cohesity rivals include Druva, Rubrik and Veeam, among many others. If Cohesity extends down-market into the SMB sector, additional rivals could involve MSP- and channel-friendly software and data protection companies like Acronis, Arcserve-StorageCraft, Axcient, OpenText’s Carbonite, and Datto, among many others.

New rivals also are emerging. For instance, HYCU, an enterprise software company specializing in multi-cloud data backup and recovery as a service, has raised $87.5 million in Series A financing led by Bain Capital Ventures, the companies disclosed in March 2021.

Cohesity Intellectual Property, Data Protection Services

Cohesity offers the Helios multicloud data management platform. Helios includes several data management services, including:

DataProtect: Provides data backup-as-a-service.

SiteContinuity: Automates workload disaster recovery failover and failback orchestration.

SmartFiles: Helps organizations manage on-premises and cloud data.

In addition, Cohesity provides a partner program for MSSPs and MSPs. The program enables partners to incorporate Cohesity's data management capabilities into their portfolios.

Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.