Cohesity: VMware Workload Protection & Recovery

Name: Cohesity: VMware Workload Protection & Recovery
Uploaded: 2026-08-17T10:08:58-04:00
Duration: 4 min 4 s
Description: In this demo, Shelly Calhoun-Jones shows you how you can protect and recover VMware workloads with Cohesity Essentials. Learn more about VMware recovery with Cohesity: https://www.cohesity.com/solutions/vmware/ SUBSCRIBE to stay updated on Just Cohesit...

Cohesity

08/17/2026

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Transcript

at Cohesity. In this video, we'll take a look at how you can use Cohesity Essentials to quickly protect a VMware workload and demonstrate reliable recovery during a suspected ransomware event. Let's get started. In the context of this demo, I handle VMware workloads and IT operations. The team manages both cloud-based and on-prem workloads, as this organization is in the middle of their cloud migration journey. We recently received a high severity alert about possible ransomware activity. Leadership needs to know today that we can restore an order processing application because every minute of uncertainty adds to downtime and risk. Cohesity Essentials is purpose-built for exactly this scenario, a lean IT team that needs enterprise-grade cyber resilience without the complexity or overhead of traditional backup solutions. I'll show you how to protect and recover critical VMware applications during an incident by following a clear policy-driven workflow, so you can confidently ensure application recovery in your own environment. We've already registered our VMware vCenter as a source, so it's ready to use. IT operations can pick VMs for protection and recovery. If you need to onboard another environment, just click on Register Source up at the top in the Sources section. Note that Cohesity Essentials also supports Azure, AWS, and other hypervisors. Since we know the risk, I'll protect the VMs backing up the order processing application so we're not guessing during recovery. I'll select a protection policy specifying the when, where, and how protection occurs. This shows how you can quickly and consistently bring new workloads under protection without manual one-off configurations if this is a mission-critical workload. I can choose specific quiet times and disk exclusions without changing the core flow. I'll verify the protection job started and is progressing so we catch problems now, not while someone's waiting on recovery. While the protection jobs are running, we don't just wait. We focus on what matters most during an incident, recovery. I'll take one of these VMs and do a test recovery to a new location with a clear prefix so we verify that the workflow works. At this point in a real incident, ops are watching two things. Is the recovery running and where is the VM landing? I'll kick off the recovery so you can see the configuration and job start, then we'll time skip to completion to confirm that we can bring the service back online quickly and predictably. Now we'll check the recovery in vSphere, just like operations does. I'll find the restored VM using the restore prefix and name, make sure that it's powered on, look at recent tasks and events to confirm the restore went smoothly. After that, I'll quickly check the basics, the correct data store, the expected network, and the right folder for resource placement. This way, we can be sure the restore actually works, not just that it's marked as finished. This completes the demonstration. We took a look at how you can use Cohesity Essentials to protect and recover a VMware workload. Thanks for watching.

TL;DR

Cohesity Essentials is designed for lean IT teams that need enterprise-grade ransomware recovery without complex backup infrastructure or manual one-off configurations.
The demo follows a policy-driven workflow: register a VMware vCenter source, apply a protection policy, verify the backup job, then immediately test recovery to a new location.
Recovery validation goes beyond a 'job complete' status — operators confirm VM power state, datastore, network, and folder placement directly inside vSphere to ensure the restore actually works.

Summary

This product demonstration walks through how Cohesity Essentials enables lean IT teams to protect and recover VMware workloads during an active ransomware incident. Presenter Shelly Calhoun-Jones frames the scenario around an order processing application under threat, where leadership demands proof of recoverability within the same day. The demo covers registering a VMware vCenter source, applying a policy-driven protection job to the relevant VMs, and verifying that backup jobs are actively running. From there, the workflow moves directly into recovery — initiating a test restore to a new location with a clear naming prefix, then validating the result inside vSphere by confirming power state, datastore placement, network assignment, and folder location. Cohesity Essentials is positioned as purpose-built for organizations that need enterprise-grade cyber resilience without the operational complexity of traditional backup platforms, with additional support for Azure, AWS, and other hypervisors beyond VMware.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction & Scenario Setup
0:54 - Cohesity Essentials Overview
1:28 - Registering Sources & Applying Protection
2:35 - Test Recovery & vSphere Validation

Key Quotes

0:54 "Cohesity Essentials is purpose-built for exactly this scenario, a lean IT team that needs enterprise-grade cyber resilience without the complexity or overhead of traditional backup solutions."
2:35 "While the protection jobs are running, we don't just wait. We focus on what matters most during an incident, recovery."
3:39 "This way, we can be sure the restore actually works, not just that it's marked as finished."

FAQ

Does Cohesity Essentials support cloud workloads in addition to VMware?

Yes. The demo notes that Cohesity Essentials supports Azure, AWS, and other hypervisors in addition to VMware vCenter, making it suitable for hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

How does the demo verify that a recovery actually succeeded?

After the restore job completes, the presenter checks the recovered VM directly in vSphere — confirming it is powered on, reviewing recent tasks and events, and verifying the correct datastore, network, and folder placement rather than relying solely on the job status in Cohesity.

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