Cohesity CyberScan Checks Backup Data to Look for IT System Vulnerabilities

… using a method he hasn’t seen any other vendors adopt.

SHI’s Jerrod Janes

“It is an evolution of how we will manage and protect data,” he said. “Security will continue to rise in importance as data becomes more and more valuable. This is just another layer of security to keep organizations safe.”

The Cohesity backup platform continues to provide new opportunities to expand services and revenue, said Janes.

“The beauty of Cohesity is its simplicity. As the offering continues to mature, we will look to add managed services to some of the offerings.”

Scott Crawford, an analyst with 451 Research, said Cohesity’s approach to scanning backups for vulnerabilities could be a useful means of evaluating environments in ways that minimize disruption to production availability, integrity and performance.

“It would also help guard against the recovery of virtual systems that may not have been updated with the latest security fixes, as more recent production environments might be, which would pose a risk of reintroducing vulnerabilities an organization had already considered remediated,” said Crawford. “It can help add to the arsenal of security preparedness that channels make available to their customers and enhances the value of backup protection against threats such as ransomware attacks.”

Another analyst, Christophe Bertrand of Enterprise Strategy Group, said his company’s research shows that cybercrime continues to accelerate and that Cohesity’s latest product could help in that fight.

“It’s an opportunity for channel partners to expand their capabilities and strategic advisory roles beyond storage and backup and recovery, and for those who also have a strong cybersecurity offering, a way to combine services on one platform, reducing complexity,” Bertrand said.

For businesses, the ability to non-disruptively check for potential cyber issues is a very important capability, said Bertrand.

“Doing it directly on the platform simplifies the effort technically and economically. It’s a very astute way for Cohesity to leverage its platform, and this will benefit end-users in their quest to mitigate cyber risk,” he added.

For channel partners, CyberScan provides VARs with short-term and long-term benefits, he said. “They can provide their clients with a critical new capability to strengthen their infrastructure and mitigate risks today and keep adding services as the platform evolves over time and as customers deploy the Cohesity technology further.”

By reusing data for business and technical outcomes that add value, the new applications could be valuable for users, he added.

“Fighting ransomware and cybercrime can be complex and costly, but it is another outcome that customers can now more easily achieve by further leveraging their data backup investment.”