Commvault unveils AD forest recovery for cyber resilience

Commvault has announced an expansion of its platform with the introduction of an automated Active Directory forest recovery feature, aimed at enhancing cyber resilience amid increasing ransomware attacks.

The new offering, titled Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery for Active Directory Enterprise Edition, integrates seamlessly with the current Commvault Cloud platform, which is designed to protect businesses by offering automated and swift recovery solutions for Active Directory forests. This system manages authentication for over 610 million users across the globe and is a frequent target in a significant majority of cyberattacks.

The importance of Active Directory, often deemed the "backbone of enterprise IT," is underlined by its role in managing authentication and access to critical business systems. When disrupted, businesses can face operational halts. Commvault's updated solution aims to address the traditionally challenging and labor-intensive process of manually recovering Active Directory following an attack.

By providing an automated recovery process, Commvault eliminates the previous complexities associated with restoring Active Directory. Jeffrey Day, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at the Nevada Department of Transportation, stated, "Active Directory is the heart that keeps our business functioning and in the event of a ransomware attack, recovering it will be one of our top priorities. Commvault's innovation with Active Directory forest recovery will provide us with the confidence and peace of mind that not only can we recover our Active Directory data, but we will be able to do so quickly and accurately. And, having this offering integrated directly into the same cyber resilience platform that we use to protect mission-critical workloads is a win-win."

The system's functionality includes automated runbooks which aid in the recovery of Active Directory forests by streamlining the multi-step process, transferring key roles, and enabling fast recovery of critical infrastructure using visual topology views. These runbooks can be used for regular testing in non-production environments, thereby enhancing readiness against cyber threats.

Pranay Ahlawat, Chief Technology and AI Officer at Commvault, commented on the significance of the advancement, "Recovering Active Directory is foundational to maintaining continuous business after a cyberattack, yet traditional methods are too complex and prone to error. With automated Active Directory forest recovery, we are giving customers game-changing recovery capabilities, and by integrating this into our unique cyber resilience platform with broad workload support, we're bringing a new era of continuous business to our customers that nobody can match."

Krista Case, Research Director at Futurum Group, highlighted the importance of Commvault's approach amid increasing identity-based attacks. "With identity-based attacks on the rise, it has never been more critical to protect Active Directory. Commvault's approach, which includes automated workbooks and folding Active Directory recovery into the same platform that also protects a wide range of other workloads, addresses several critical requirements we hear from practitioners, including the need to streamline security operations and to accelerate recoveries."

The release of Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery for Active Directory Enterprise Edition is anticipated within the first half of 2025, with pricing set on a per-user basis.