Report: Cohesity delivers 2.3X faster VM recovery—a critical advantage for cyber resilience

If you’re like most IT leaders, you’re tasked with safeguarding your organization’s data against escalating cyber threats like ransomware and data breaches—and restoring operations as quickly as possible when an incident strikes. In a crisis, speed is everything. That’s why choosing the right cyber resilience solution, despite competing claims and complex options, is essential.

A recent independent evaluation by Signal65, detailed in a just-published white paper, compared Cohesity’s data protection appliance against a leading competitor. The findings aren’t surprising to us, or any of our thousands of customers. Our customers tell us we are the superior choice for speed, reliability, and simplicity. Now, this third-party evaluation confirms it. Here’s a closer look at the white paper and its methodology.

The stakes are high: Why cyber resilience matters

Cyberattacks are growing in frequency and severity, with ransomware and data exfiltration threatening operations, revenue, and reputation. Recent market research highlights a rising awareness of the need for robust cyber resilience, as IT teams face pressure to protect data and recover quickly from disruptions.

For you and your organization, the decision isn’t just about backups—it’s about ensuring your organization can bounce back fast when incidents happen. Cohesity’s DataProtect solution, validated by Signal65, excels in delivering rapid recovery, high reliability, and cost-effective data protection.

Signal65’s head-to-head evaluation

Signal65 conducted a rigorous comparison of Cohesity’s hyperconverged appliance against a software-based competitor in an enterprise environment, testing backup performance, storage efficiency, and recovery speed. The tests included multiple backup operations—starting with a full backup followed by several incremental backups. Recovery testing measured both the success rates and the time required to restore virtual machines (VMs) to operational status. Backup and recovery testing were done across a range of VM sizes and volumes to reflect real-world scenarios. To start, the infrastructure difference was noticeable. Cohesity’s setup consisted of a single hyperconverged appliance, combining data protection software and backup storage in one platform. The competitor’s configuration was far more complex—requiring a controller VM, two physical data mover servers, and external storage. 

Cohesity’s streamlined, all-in-one design reduces complexity compared to the competitor’s multi-component setup, saving you time and administrative overhead.

Backup performance: Faster, more efficient

When it comes to backups, speed and storage efficiency are critical to minimizing operational impact. Signal65’s tests showed Cohesity outperforming the competitor across the board:

1. Cohesity provided on average 50% greater data reduction, thereby increasing the effective capacity of the storage system.
2. For backup operations, Cohesity was on average 46% faster than the competitor, with the advantage increasing with larger data sets.
3. When recovering VMs, Cohesity delivered at least 32% faster recovery speed than the competitor.
4. When using the NBDSSL (network block device SSL) method, Cohesity was able to recover 67% faster than the competitor.

This efficiency translates to lower costs and less infrastructure sprawl, a key consideration for budget-conscious IT directors. With Cohesity, you can protect more data in less time, ensuring your backup windows fit within tight operational schedules.

Recovery: Where Cohesity shines

When an outage or ransomware attack hits, recovery speed is your lifeline. Signal65’s tests revealed Cohesity’s unmatched performance in this critical area. Signal65’s independent testing revealed Cohesity’s unmatched performance in this critical area.  

For full recovery of 100 to 1000 VMs—from powering on to fully migrating the VMs to the target storage, Cohesity restored data 1.4X to 2.3X faster than the competitor.

The competitor’s limitation of handling only a few VMs at a time forced slow, batch-based recovery, whereas Cohesity restored all VMs simultaneously with a 100% success rate. 

Further, the competitor struggled with reliability, encountering errors when restoring more than 5–15 VMs at once, while Cohesity performed flawlessly. Cohesity’s ability to restore systems quickly and reliably means less downtime, protecting your organization from financial losses and reputational damage. 

Fast data recovery fuels faster forensics

The Cohesity advantages for backup performance, particularly storage efficiency, and recovery go beyond IT efficiency—they deliver critical value for security operations, too.

For Instant Recovery of 25 VMs, Cohesity powered on all systems in under 1 minute, while the competitor took over 8 hours—a 480X advantage.

Speed matters for security. Storage-efficient backups and instant recovery mean security teams get faster access to forensic data in backups—crucial when every second counts. With Cohesity, incident responders can quickly restore data to help investigate how the attack happened and determine which systems and data may be infected. This is a vital step in eradicating threats and mitigating vulnerabilities exploited.  

For IT operations, the ability to recover systems rapidly from multiple points in time to determine the most recent, usable image is essential to bringing critical services back online as quickly as possible,  In contrast, the competitor’s slower, error-prone recovery process can stall these efforts —adding risk, cost, and downtime when your teams can least afford it. 

With Cohesity, you gain peace of mind knowing your organization is equipped to recover quickly, securely, and at scale. 

Simplicity: Less hassle, more control

The competitor’s complex setup—requiring multiple servers, external storage, and ongoing maintenance—adds unnecessary burden to your IT team. Cohesity’s single appliance approach simplifies deployment and management. Signal65 noted the competitor’s solution suffered from issues like NFS timeouts and datastore access errors during recovery, while Cohesity reported no such problems. This reliability and ease of use make Cohesity a low-maintenance, high-impact solution, allowing you to focus on driving business value rather than troubleshooting.

It’s time to choose Cohesity

As cyber incidents rise, you need a solution that delivers performance, reliability, and simplicity to minimize business downtime and bolster cyber resilience. Signal65’s evaluation proves Cohesity outperforms the competition in every key metric: 

• Minimized downtime: Whether restoring a handful of VMs or 1,000, Cohesity consistently recovers data faster—keeping your business running during a crisis.

• Unmatched reliability: 100% recovery success rate, even for large-scale operations, unlike the competitor’s frequent errors. 

• Simplified management: A hyperconverged, all-in-one appliance reduces complexity, saving your team time and effort.

Don’t let indecision delay your cyber resilience strategy. Cohesity’s proven, third-party-validated solution empowers you to protect your organization’s data, recover faster, and stay resilient—all while streamlining operations. Choose Cohesity to confidently navigate today’s challenging IT landscape. 

 Get the report.