Stronger Together: How Resilience and Intelligence Are Changing Cybersecurity

When did cybersecurity stop being just an IT department's headache and become something every leader in the company needs to worry about?

Maybe it was when production lines shut down for days, or when nurses had to scramble for paper records during a system lockout. Or maybe it was when stolen data started being sold to the highest bidder like it was just another product. At this point, having a backup plan just isn’t good enough.

On a recent trip to Silicon Valley with the IT Press Tour, Techopedia sat down with Sanjay Poonen, CEO and President of Cohesity, to talk about why the cybersecurity world needs to grow up—and fast.

What We Learned:

• Backups aren’t enough anymore. Today, staying safe means being able to bounce back and knowing what’s coming.

• Cohesity built something groundbreaking. Their new AI tool, the first Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) trained on backup data, turns buried info into smart insights.

• Their partnership with Nvidia is a game-changer. It brings real-time AI analysis straight to the data—without compromising safety.

• It’s still complicated. But companies are tired of patching things together. Unified platforms may finally make resilience easier to achieve.

• People matter most. It’s not just about having the best tech. It’s about teams who care, act quickly, and rebuild trust when it counts.

From One Tool to a Full Safety Net

Sanjay Poonen believes we need more than just fast recovery when it comes to data protection—we need smart systems that can think ahead. Imagine backup tools that not only bring your data back to life but also help you see threats coming and offer real business insights. That’s the future he’s building toward.

He shared a powerful moment with Techopedia:

“I was chatting with Satya Nadella—someone I’ve known for years—and I said, ‘What if we could run ChatGPT on our backup data?’ That’s when he introduced me to this idea called retrieval augmented generation, or RAG. It completely changed the way I saw things.”

That one conversation lit a spark.

Cohesity’s engineers dove deep into the idea and eventually built the world’s first RAG system on top of backup data. “We didn’t stop there,” Poonen said. “We began working with Microsoft, AWS, Google—and then Nvidia came into the picture. They believed in our vision enough to invest in us.”

Then came a moment that felt almost surreal.

When Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang saw what Cohesity was doing with RAG, he said, “I want you to build that application on our Nvidia Enterprise AI platform.”

Poonen’s voice lit up as he recalled:

“This morning we had an all-hands meeting. Jensen had recorded a message for us—he spoke directly to our entire team about how excited he is about this space. Hearing that from him, one of the most respected names in AI, was incredible. We’re genuinely proud to have Nvidia as both a partner and investor.”

Cohesity’s journey has been about timing, guts, and a willingness to see the future a little differently. While older companies were still focused on keeping backups safe—but dormant—Cohesity made a bold move early on: they built their systems with resilience and zero-trust security at the core.

Their mindset wasn’t just: Let’s clean up after a breach. It was: Let’s stop attackers from ever messing with our recovery lifeline in the first place.

That instinct turned out to be spot-on. Today’s ransomware doesn’t just go after your main systems—it goes after your backups, too.

With the recent merger with Veritas’s NetBackup, Cohesity’s growth exploded. They’re now on a $2 billion run rate, with 13,000 customers across industries like finance, healthcare, retail, and government.

This isn’t just a tech story. It’s a story about listening, taking risks, and building something that matters—before the rest of the world sees it coming.

Why Just Recovering Isn’t Enough Anymore

For years, backup felt like the quiet, reliable part of IT. It wasn’t flashy, and it rarely made it into big boardroom talks. It was more like a seatbelt—important, but rarely thought about unless something went wrong. But those quiet days are gone.

Cybercriminals have gotten smarter. They know if they hit your backup, they’ve got you cornered. Suddenly, your last line of defense is no longer safe. Once your backups are locked up or tampered with, the options get terrifyingly slim.

Companies that used to say, “No worries, we’ll just restore last night’s version,” quickly learned that recovery can take much longer than they hoped—sometimes days instead of hours. And in the real world, that downtime can be brutal: lost sales, patients turned away from hospitals, or customers walking away.

Now, boardroom conversations have changed. It’s no longer, “Do we have backups?” It’s, “Can we bounce back instantly—even if we’re already under attack? And can we make sure this never happens again?” That’s where Cohesity is stepping in with a bold new direction.

By using AI, they’re not just backing things up—they’re actively hunting for threats buried in the data. Suspicious files get flagged fast, cutting response time from days to minutes. That’s huge when every second counts.

Even better, backup data isn’t just sitting around anymore. It’s being turned into something useful—a live, trusted source of insights that can help with everything from legal reviews to making sure you’re ticking the right compliance boxes.

At first, pairing Nvidia and Cohesity might sound surprising. One powers the most advanced AI chips in the world. The other has roots in backup and data protection. But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. AI runs on data—and backups are full of valuable information most companies barely tap into.

Still a Tough Puzzle to Solve

Bringing everything together—like threat detection, backups, AI, and following strict rules—into one smooth system isn’t easy. Especially not for companies juggling older on-premise systems, new cloud setups, and outdated tech that just doesn’t play well with others. A lot of traditional businesses are stuck in their old ways, with separate teams and tools that don’t connect easily.

But Sanjay Poonen doesn’t see the Veritas deal as just another shiny win. He sees it as the raw material to build something better. NetBackup brings thousands of connectors—tools that would’ve taken Cohesity years to create from scratch.

Now, Cohesity can combine that power with their zero-trust design and tightly woven system. Think of it like switching from a fast but clunky PC to an iPhone—everything just works together, smoothly.

Of course, that sounds great on paper. But actually merging tech teams, cultures, and customer relationships? That’s hard. Really hard. Sanjay doesn’t sugarcoat it—he says culture can make or break the whole thing if it’s not handled with care.

The Human Side You Don’t Hear Much About

AI steals the spotlight, but if you spend even a few minutes talking to Sanjay, it becomes clear—he’s more focused on people than machines. While other CEOs get excited about software updates, he lights up when he talks about employees.

Here’s what he said:

“You can build great products and serve customers well, but I want our employees to feel connected. We try to make this a great place for all 5,500+ of them. Sure, not everyone will be happy all the time—life’s not perfect. But we listen. We care. We want this to be the best experience of their careers.”

 

And that mindset matters. Because people who care deeply about their work—and the customers—build smarter systems, better automation, and more meaningful AI tools.

While some tech companies put all their faith in tools, Cohesity believes innovation works best when real people are leading the charge—with heart.

Not Every Company Will Get It Right Away

Will every leadership team rush to blend resilience with intelligence? Probably not. Some are still rolling the dice with cheap storage and patchy planning—until a data disaster forces them to rethink everything.

Others will wait until regulators demand action. But make no mistake—the pressure is rising. Fines are getting steeper, reputations can be ruined in a day, and the public expects businesses to bounce back fast.

The Bottom Line

With giants like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google all chasing this space, the tech bar will keep rising. Companies that treat backup like a boring expense will keep falling behind. But those who see it as a living, breathing part of their business—powered by AI and cared for by real people—will unlock something special that no one else can copy.

Sanjay summed it up simply:

“Someday, I want to walk through an airport and see signs that say: your bank trusts Cohesity. Your hospital does. Your airline does, too. That’s when we’ll know we’ve done something truly meaningful.”