Cohesity has released Data Cloud 7.0 with stronger privileged admin account access and better data retention controls.
Cohesity originally launched its DataPlatform management software and DataProtect backup and recovery software in 2015, with DataProtect running on the Data Platform. v2 and 3 releases were delivered in 2016 and the Helios SaaS management for DataPlatform sites came in 2018. Cohesity also introduced DataPlatform Cloud Edition, running on AWS and Azure, that year. A marketplace for apps running on DataPlatform, which is cloud-native by the way, was introduced in 2019. v4, 5 and 6 releases were delivered and Cohesity moved to offer all its data management products as a service (DMaaS) from 2020. Now DataPlatform has been renamed to be Cohesity’s Data Cloud and includes products or services such as DataProtect, FortKnox, DataHawk, SmartFiles and SiteContinuity.
Chris Kent, VP for Product and Solutions Marketing at Cohesity, said: “Cohesity Data Cloud 7.0 adds a new layer of protection and recovery to organizations’ most critical data. We are seeing continual threats facing our customers from external and internal malicious actors, and with these latest enhancements, customers can face these challenges from the start.”
The background to this is that “organizations are facing significant challenges with managing and securing their data estate across cloud and on-premises, with ransomware and data theft as their number one concern. Protecting and securing data starts before an attack and provides organizations with the ability to mitigate damage from an attack and quickly recover, with minimal impact to the business.”
There are three main features in Data Cloud v7. With hardened privileged access, two people are now required to access privileged administrative accounts (split key access) so that no one person can, for example, set a retention period for critical data to zero. A bad actor gaining privileged access credentials can no longer act alone. Auto-failover has been added to the Key Management System (KMS).
The SmartFiles offering now ensures data is not retained for longer than necessary, and custom security policies help further secure unstructured data from unauthorized access and attacks. There are new capabilities for analyzing and visualizing data utilization on third-party NAS systems to help move data from them to SmartFiles for affordable long-term retention and data immutability.
v7.0 adds support for AWS GovCloud for target data and metadata protection. Additional storage targets for long-term retention, and support for local backup on third-party platforms, include Lenovo SR645, HPE DL360 and DL380, Cisco UCS C220M6 AFC and C240 M6, and Dell 740XD for private cloud deployments.
The direction of Cohesity’s development is towards integrated data management, protection and security covering all of an organisation’s data assets and data access operations. It is working with security ecosystem vendors in a Data Security Alliance and aims to have capabilities in each of NIST’s five cybersecurity framework elements: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
You can watch a Cohesity video about Data Cloud here.
