OMAHA, Neb., (August 23, 2022) – DCIG is pleased to recognize Cobalt Iron Compass as a TOP 5 solution in the forthcoming 2022-23 DCIG TOP 5 AWS Cloud Backup Solution Large Enterprise Edition report. That report is based on DCIG’s independent research into the rapidly maturing Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud backup marketplace.

AWS Maintains Its Cloud Leadership Position
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That French proverb still applies even today as enterprises continue their journey into the cloud. Despite large enterprises having multiple general-purpose cloud providers from which to choose, many still prefer Amazon Web Services (AWS).
On a broad scale, enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure continues to experience double digit growth. Between 2021 and 2022, spending in the overall cloud market grew by 29 percent.
Of the monies spent on cloud infrastructure, a recent survey of cloud market spending found AWS remained the cloud market leader with 34 percent market share. Equally notable, AWS grew its market share one percent quarter over quarter even as its competitors declined or stayed the same. Yet as large enterprises host more applications, data, and workloads in AWS, they must also take steps to protect them.
DCIG Ranks Cobalt Iron as a TOP 5 AWS Cloud Backup Solution for Large Enterprises
DCIG identified over 30 solutions in the marketplace that offer backup for the AWS cloud. Of these, DCIG identified and classified fifteen of them as meeting DCIG’s definition of a large enterprise AWS backup solution. Upon DCIG’s completion of reviewing these 15 large enterprise AWS cloud backup solutions, DCIG ranks Cobalt Iron Compass as a TOP 5 solution.
Compass delivers a full-featured SaaS backup offering that scales to meet large enterprise backup and recovery demands. A young company founded in 2013, Compass includes multiple features to create a unique SaaS offering.
Compass’ differentiators show up in two broad ways. First, Compass uses AWS EC2 instances to deliver backup in the AWS cloud. This minimizes or eliminates the need for enterprises to deploy Compass or perform ongoing software and backup storage management. Second, Compass monitors, accelerates, analyzes, and then orchestrates backup and recovery activities in AWS.
Additional features that Compass offers to differentiate itself from other TOP 5 large enterprise AWS cloud backup solutions include:
- Comprehensive analytics engine that automates backend backup operations. Monitoring, managing, and optimizing backend backup operations represents a time-consuming task in most enterprises. The analytics engine included with Compass eliminates most of these tedious tasks. Compass constantly monitors and evaluates available and used storage capacity; the health of the backup environment; performance metrics on the backup infrastructure; and any occurrences of cyberattacks. Compass uses this information in multiple ways. It may automatically act on that information to optimize the infrastructure for faster backups, to better utilize available capacity, or both. In cases involving security incidents or cyberattacks, enterprises may configure Compass to respond in a manner that complies with corporate standards.
- Stores backups in an inaccessible, immutable format. Ransomware attacks represent a primary threat that more enterprises expect backup software to proactively address. To meet this growing demand, Cobalt Iron offers Compass Cyber Shield. Under Cyber Shield, Compass encrypts all backups as it moves and/or stores them. Compass then stores these backups in an immutable format inaccessible to any external user or entity. Only authenticated, properly credentialed Compass users may access backups for restores. It also uses retention policies established by the enterprise to restrict any backup modifications and deletions.
- Integrates with leading enterprise management tools. Large enterprises want to centralize and automate management of their cloud infrastructure. As part of this centralized management, more enterprises want to manage the backup software they use in AWS. To meet this growing demand, Compass integrates with multiple enterprise management tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, ServiceNow, and vRealize.
Quotes
“Cobalt Iron Compass addresses many of today’s modern enterprise backup challenges head-on,” said Jerome Wendt, President and Founder of DCIG. LLC. “The analytics included with Compass specifically merit attention. It goes beyond simply identifying and helping to detect and resolve ransomware threats to also simplify and automate backup operations. This feature set helps enterprises meet current challenges while better positioning them for the future.”
About Cobalt Iron
Cobalt Iron is the global leader in SaaS-based enterprise data protection technology. The company was founded in 2013 to bring about fundamental changes in the world’s approach to secure data protection. Through analytics and automation, Cobalt Iron’s software platform, Compass®, enables enterprises to transform and optimize legacy backup solutions into a simple cloud-based architecture with built-in cyber security. Processing more than 8 million jobs a month for customers in 44 countries, Compass delivers modern data protection for enterprise customers around the world.
Protecting corporate data is paramount but the investment in backup is often an afterthought. While many applications in the enterprise have benefitted from modernization, automation, and SaaS economics, the backup and recovery environment has largely been left to incremental feature improvements. Many believe that it is too complicated, too expensive, or just impossible to break free from the complex, expensive, daily grind of backup and recovery at the enterprise level. Bt it is possible – we invented it.
About DCIG
The Data Center Intelligence Group (DCIG) empowers the IT industry with actionable analysis. DCIG analysts provide informed third-party analysis of various cloud, data protection, and data storage technologies. DCIG’s audiences include C-level executives, IT managers, IT professionals, magazine editors, bloggers, analysts, and providers within the IT and cloud service industry. More information on DCIG: www.dcig.com
Report Availability
The DCIG Cobalt Iron Compass TOP 5 AWS Cloud Backup Solution Profile may be accessed by following this link.
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To learn about DCIG’s forthcoming research and publications, see the DCIG Editorial Calendar.
Technology providers interested in licensing DCIG TOP 5 reports or having DCIG produce custom reports, please contact DCIG for more information