Is Cobia® free?
Cobia Unified Network Platform™ (UNP) is free to use in your business, school, and home network infrastructure. There are certain premium modules that are available for purchase. However, the platform and accompanying modules in the download are free.
Leading resellers, ISVs, and hardware companies can utilize our commercial licensing and partner programs to bring Cobia to their customers.
See our legal section regarding our licenses.
View our partner’s page to learn about reselling.
Is Cobia easy to install?
Installing Cobia is simple. Everything you need to use Cobia in your network right now is included; all Cobia software, the pre-secured operating system and other necessary software. All you add is off-the-shelf Intel/AMD-based hardware and you can have Cobia up and running in just a few minutes.
The Cobia platform has been tested and certified by VMware as an official virtual appliance. This means that Cobia is ready-to-run on any virtual machine, and tested by the VMware Certification Lab for stability, compliance with best practices, security, and comprehensive user resources.
Can I use Off-the-shelf commercial/commodity hardware?
Cobia users can take advantage of the latest Intel/AMD hardware advances such as multi-core processors and high speed PCI-Express bus at off-the-shelf hardware prices. With Cobia, upgrades can be as simple as adding more memory, upgrading the processor or installing Cobia on the latest computer hardware from your favorite hardware manufacturer.
See our system requirements.
What is a plug-n-play modular architecture?
This means that network and security functions are placed in the network where you need them, rather than living with the limitations of all-in-one hardware appliances. Install and move Cobia's plug-n-play modules whenever and wherever you need them.
See our support section.
Can I run a single module, or do I have to run all of them?
You are able to run as many or as few modules as you like. You may have one, two, three, or all of the modules running on a box or VMware instance. You may run different modules spread out over several boxes as well. Flexibility is one of the key traits of the Cobia UNP.
Check out our document library
See our support page
Is Cobia community open source?
All Cobia source code is provided for you to be able to inspect, customize, extend, innovate, and develop new modules. You can also use Cobia without ever touching and code. Source code allows for transparency that fixed appliances don't provide. Security professionals want to know what software is running and if it is configured securely. With Cobia, everything is visible right down to the source code.
Download source code
See our legal section regarding our licenses
What are the Cobia download options?
As a software option, Cobia is ready to use with download options that turn off-the-shelf hardware into a network and security appliance in one simple installation step.
If you are looking for even more convenience, Cobia is offered preinstalled on a hardware appliance. Simply unpack the Cobia appliance, apply the IP address settings for your network and start using Cobia's intuitive web-based console. Unlike other hardware appliance products, Cobia still remains open. You have full access to Cobia, with the ability to customize by adding additional Cobia modules, modifying the configuration or installing your own Linux-based software.
You can also download a Cobia VMware certified appliance and run on one or more Windows or Linux computers.
Cobia download page
Cobia system requirements
Cobia appliance options and partners page
