IBM partners up with Cohesity for better data defense in new storage suite

IBM and data security and backup provider Cohesity have formed a new partnership, calling for Cohesity’s data protection functionality to be incorporated into an upcoming IBM storage product suite, dubbed Storage Defender, for better protection of end-user organizations’ critical information.

The capabilities of Cohesity’s DataProtect backup and recovery product will be one of four main feature sets in the Storage Defender program, according to an announcement from IBM Thursday.

The Storage Defender suite is designed to bring together IBM and third-party products in order to unify primary, secondary replication, and backup management, said IBM. It’s an as-a-service offering that features a single-pane-of-glass interface, SLA-driven policy automation and the ability to work with a wide variety of data sources, including physical storage, cloud hypervisors, and an assortment of different database types.

DataProtect also provides snapshot functionality and cybervaulting for quick recovery from ransomware incidents or other disasters, as well as reduced data footprints via deduplication and compression.

The idea, according to IBM’s announcement, is to provide modern scale-out architecture to the company’s clients, while simultaneously offering some peace of mind in a world where cyberattacks remain common.

“When we looked at the overall market, we were impressed by the Cohesity platform and team’s differentiated focus on scalability, simplicity, and security,” according to a statement from the general manager of IBM Storage, Denis Kennelly. “Cyberattacks are on the rise, but data can be protected and restored when you are prepared.”

In addition to Cohesity’s DataProtect, the newly announced Storage Defender also integrates IBM Storage Protect, which has been renamed from “Spectrum Protect.” This is an organizational software offering designed to provide resilience and integration for a range of different storage form factors. Storage Defender also includes IBM’s Storage FlashSystem, an all-flash storage platform for high performance workloads, and Storage Fusion, which is a data orchestration engine designed to work with containerized applications.

IBM said that Storage Defender will likely become generally available in the second quarter of this year, with Storage Protect and Cohesity DataProtect being the first feature sets available. Pricing details were not available at the time of this article’s publication, but IBM did say that Storage Defender will be sold both directly through the company and via its business partners.