Cohesity DataProtect, their backup offering sold through a strategic partnership with AWS on the AWS Cloud, was announced in October. Cohesity is also announcing a second offering, Cohesity SiteContinuity to provide DR as a service, which will soon go into early access preview.
Today, Cohesity is announcing the general availability of Cohesity DataProtect delivered as a Service, the first offering through the comprehensive Data Management as a Service [DMaaS] solution that is the fruit of a strategic collaboration with AWS which was announced in October. The announcement is being made at the virtual AWS re:Invent event.
The Cohesity alliance with AWS involves more than just the solution now going into GA, and the others which are on the way. The collaboration also makes AWS Cohesity’s preferred cloud provider for DMaaS. Amazon also made an equity investment in Cohesity.
“This collaboration with AWS to deliver DMaaS changes the game, in terms of how we can help customers consolidate data more efficiently,” said Doug Ko, Director Product Marketing, Cloud Products and Solutions at Cohesity. “It provides the technology that we have offered in Cohesity DataProtect in a SaaS model. We have had partners lose deals to larger competitors and DMaaS should help them compete more effectively.” Cohesity has itself had a SaaS-based platform of its own for two years in Cohesity Helios, which provides the core technology for the DMaaS, but Helios does not have the market reach or the ecosystem of AWS.
“Customer and partner feedback in the preview of DataProtect on DMaaS has been great,” Ko noted. “It was oversubscribed.”
Cohesity itself began as a hyperconverged backup provider, and over the last two years has added additional services to its platform. The Backup as-a-Service is the initial core of the DMaaS. However, Cohesity and VMware have since announced that VMware workloads will be part of this service, and that is the case as it hits GA.
“We are also now announcing support for Microsoft 365 and SQL, as of Q1 2021,” Ko indicated, while also noting that many other applications will be part of the DMaaS solution going forward.
“Our goal here is not just backup, but to consolidate all data,” he said. “The world is our oyster within the AWS ecosystem. We will deliver on a promise of comprehensive data management, which will include Dev Test, security and compliance, files and objects and more.”
The second Cohesity service which will be available through DMaaS is actually being announced today.
“Cohesity SiteContinuity delivered as a service is our second offering within DMaaS,” Ko said. “It supports automated disaster recovery, with the goal of using the cloud as a DR destination.” It will be soon be available in early access preview.
Pricing for Cohesity DataProtect delivered as a Service is being announced now, and will be capacity based, based on front end TB, which will include data restores. SiteContinuity as a service pricing is still TBA.
For Cohesity’s channel partners, who are the company’s entire route to market, the DMaaS offering will be available through two routes.
“One is the traditional route through distribution, as a prepaid SKU, but it will also be available through the AWS Marketplace,” Ko indicated. “Partners have the choice of either route. Any customer that buys though the AWS Marketplace now gets enterprise discounts, which is a benefit for partners.”
Ko said that the DMaaS offering will provide new opportunities for partners. Some Cohesity partners like Cincinnati-headquartered RoundTower Technologies, which is also a strong AWS partner, will sell through both models.
“AWS also has partners who go through the marketplace alone, and these will be a net-new addition for us,” Ko said.
The DMaaS service is available in the US East and US West AWS zones. The service is available in Canada, but not in the Canadian zone.
