A Game-Changer in Data Backup and Cyber Resilience
On December 10th, 2024, Cohesity and Veritas announced that they have finalized their union. This is a major development as it will create the largest player in the rapidly growing market for cyber resilience and data protection. Data is not only fundamental to all organizations’ business processes but now also defines the very infrastructure upon which these processes depend. Cyber-attacks and ransomware are an existential threat to this data and data protection solutions are essential for cyber resilience. This union represents a pivotal moment in the worldwide marketplace for these solutions.
Why This Merger is Important
Digitalization of business processes has increased the potential impact of cyber threats. This, taken together with increased regulation on cyber resilience, makes the market for these solutions strong. Based on our current research the Cloud Backup market size was last estimated at over $5.75B with an annual growth rate of 18.7%.
The merger of Cohesity and Veritas underscores the importance of dependable, scalable, and innovative data protection solutions for cyber resilience. Both these vendors are recognized as leaders in our recent Leadership Compass report Cloud Backup for AI Enabled Cyber Resilience with each bringing their own complementary strengths.
Complementary Strengths
Cohesity brings its modern, cloud-native approach to data management and Veritas brings its long-standing expertise in enterprise-grade data protection. By combining their strengths, the new entity is well placed to address the full spectrum of data protection and cyber resilience needs.
Cohesity offers the Cohesity Data Cloud (CDC), built on SpanFS, an immutable filesystem ensuring data integrity and security plus instant file serving of backed-up NAS data, and using SnapTree chain-free metadata such that essentially each point-in-time backup can be accessed as rapidly and efficiently as if it had been originally made via a full backup. Veritas products include Veritas Alta™ Data Protection, NetBackup – an enterprise backup and recovery solution, and Backup Exec - designed for backup and recovery for small to mid-sized businesses. Together these combine modern architecture with a wide range of capabilities and coverage.
The Importance of ML and GenAI
An important market trend is the evolution of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in particular generative AI (GenAI). ML and GenAI provide capabilities that can be helpful to enhance cyber resilience, and we expect cyber resilience solutions to exploit these technologies where appropriate.
Both vendors have recognized the importance of ML and GenAI both in terms of the opportunities they provide as well as the data protection needs, they introduce.
Veritas uses GenAI/ML with the AI-powered Operational Assistant, Veritas Alta™ Copilot. Alta Copilot brings the power of GenAI to Alta View, making it more intuitive and accessible for all users to detect suspicious activities.
Cohesity’s AI framework, including the patent-pending Cohesity Gaia, leverages GenAI throughout the platform to offer operational insights, anomaly detection, information insights, and predictive analytics. Gaia enables users to search based on meaning rather than search based on characters, and converse with their data using natural language. The platform also includes AI-driven data classification and threat detection, utilizing machine learning to enhance security and compliance.
In our view, in future an organization should be able to give a GenAI based backup and disaster recovery solution a set of resilience objectives, compliance requirements and cost constraints for the system to build, evaluate, and implement the technology elements and support the manual processes needed to meet these.
Impact on Customers
Not all marriages last and customers may be anxious about what this union may mean for them. Both companies recognized that it is easier to lose customers than to gain them. In February 2024, when they announced their intention to combine, the announcement included a “no customer left behind” product roadmap in which “...all products will be supported for many years. Customers can migrate when and if they want, on their own schedule.”
Here is what we expect the new entity to provide:
Transitional Arrangements – to ensure that all capabilities from the existing products remain available with the opportunity to mix and match between the two product ranges. No enforced customer migration.
Enhanced Capabilities: a unified portfolio that combines the best of both companies' technologies. These will likely be based around the Cohesity Data Cloud (CDC), to provide a unified interface and exploit the wide range of data connectors from Veritas.
Global Reach and Support: With their combined resources, the new entity will be better positioned to provide support and expertise across regions and industries. This is particularly important for enterprises operating in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare, finance, and government.
Technology Advances to Watch For
The Cohesity-Veritas merger is not just a consolidation of market share but a bold move to accelerate technological advancements in data backup and recovery. Key innovations we anticipate include:
AI and Machine Learning for Data Resilience: Leveraging Cohesity’s AI-driven analytics and Veritas’s deep integration capabilities, the new entity is likely to push the boundaries of predictive and autonomous data recovery. This could minimize downtime and enhance ransomware recovery strategies.
Seamless Multi-Cloud Integration: As businesses increasingly adopt hybrid and multi-cloud environments, the combined expertise of Cohesity and Veritas will result in more robust and seamless cloud-native solutions, protecting data and data defined infrastructure in a common way across diverse environments.
Comprehensive Data Governance and Compliance: With increasing regulations on data protection and cyber resilience worldwide, the union offers an opportunity to deliver solutions to help organizations to meet and exceed their regulatory obligations.
Our Opinion
The union of Cohesity and Veritas is a transformative moment for the data protection and cyber resilience market. As the largest player in the market, the combined company has the power to set new standards, influence industry trends, and drive the next wave of innovation. For customers, this means access to unparalleled technology and expertise, though the path forward may ultimately require customers to adapt and align with new offerings.
As dust settles on this announcement, one thing is clear: the data protection and cyber resilience market has forever changed, and we are just beginning to understand the full impact of this historic combination. Stay tuned and book now for EIC in May 2025 to hear the latest news.
