Cohesity delivers a SaaS data isolation and recovery solution

Cohesity, a data management provider, today announced the general availability of Cohesity FortKnox — a software-as-a-service (SaaS) data isolation and recovery solution. This adds to the company’s data management-as-a-Service (DMaaS) portfolio of offerings that run on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Cohesity FortKnox complements the company’s Threat Defense data security architecture.

Malicious cyberactivity has risen dramatically in recent years. This has put all organizations, particularly those in NATO countries, at risk of politically motivated cyberattacks. The sophisticated malware deployed in the war in Ukraine is an example. CIOs and CISOs around the world are faced with the ever-increasing threat of a cyberassault like ransomware, which can shut down an organization’s commercial activities and compromise data integrity.

Data security in 3, 2, 1…

As a result, it is critical for businesses to strengthen their cyber resilience and protect sensitive data from cyberthreats. Cohesity offers a modern take on the 3-2-1 rule for data protection, which states that businesses should keep three copies of their data in two locations, one of which should be isolated.

Cohesity DataProtect provides customers with the ability to rapidly recover from ransomware attacks using operational copies. The company’s SiteContinuity offering yields the ability to replicate and failover/failback data between two locations. With the new FortKnox, Cohesity now has the capacity to build a cloud-based isolated duplicate of an organization’s data.

According to Adrian De Luca, director of solution architecture, global partner strategic development at AWS, enterprises place a high priority on data security, but the complexity and prevalence of cybersecurity attacks is making data protection not only more critical, but also more challenging.

“With Cohesity FortKnox, customers are able to utilize the scalability, security and accessibility of AWS with Cohesity’s next-gen data management for a solution that can help protect their data from ransomware and other cybersecurity threats,” said De Luca.

Eliminating mass data fragmentation

Cohesity’s founder, CEO Mohit Aron, founded Cohesity in 2013 to address greater difficulties in the constantly changing world of data management. Employing more than 1,900 people around the world, the company brings ease to data administration by making data protection, management and value extraction simple across the data center, edge and cloud.

Data from businesses is being targeted by more advanced bad actors than ever before. In fact, according to Enterprise Strategy Group’s “The Long Road Ahead to Ransomware Preparedness” survey, 79% of respondents had experienced a ransomware assault in the previous year and 86% of those who paid the ransom did not get all of their data back.

Cohesity’s FortKnox makes it simple for organizations to make a third copy of their valuable and vulnerable backup data, isolate it in a virtual air gap and recover it safely in the case of a disaster.

Through Cohesity’s Helios platform, it employs AI-powered anomaly detection, which aids in the discovery of potential signs of emerging ransomware attacks, allowing administrators to take the necessary steps to reduce the spread and effect. In the event of a ransomware attack, FortKnox detects a clean copy of data and restores it to the preferred place — on-premises or in the cloud.

To counteract the threat of ransomware and state-sponsored assaults, CISA and the FBI recently issued new recommendations strongly advising enterprises to offer physically isolated data. FortKnox keeps data safe through operational isolation achieved with separate Cohesity-managed keys (inaccessible to a rogue administrator) and separate workflows for read and write operations. It employs rigorous access restrictions, such as granular, role-based access control, multifactor authentication and in-flight and at-rest encryption.

FortKnox also allows organizations to move costs from CapEx to OpEx, allowing IT directors to devote more time to strategic initiatives rather than infrastructure maintenance and operations. Four of the top 10 Fortune 500 corporations, five of the top 10 U.S. banks and two of the top five global pharmaceutical companies use Cohesity today.

Cohesity introduced FortKnox as an early access preview at the close of 2021. Customers have been enthused about FortKnox’s capabilities and potential to help them protect their data and boost their cyber resilience, even though it is new to the market.

“With cyberattacks growing more and more frequent and devastating, Cohesity FortKnox adds a new layer of protection to our most essential data,” said Olivier Pouvesle, CTO at early access customer BRGM.