Mishaps to Meltdowns: Protecting and Recovering AD and Entra ID | SHIFT 2025

In this SHIFT 2025 session, host Darren Thompson sits down with identity expert Dan Conrad to dive deep into one of the most overlooked yet mission-critical areas of cyber resilience: Active Directory (AD) and Entra ID recovery.

With AD still serving as the backbone of authentication and access for most organizations, its vulnerability to modern cyberattacks—especially ransomware—puts businesses at enormous risk. In this candid conversation, Darren and Dan explore why AD failures can trigger full-scale outages, how attackers exploit identity systems, and why manual forest recovery strategies often fall apart when organizations need them most.

You’ll learn how Commvault Cloud is redefining automated AD and Entra ID recovery by eliminating hundreds of manual steps, reducing recovery times from days to hours, and giving IT teams confidence under pressure. Dan explains what makes AD forest recovery so complex, what “minimum viable Active Directory” really means, and why practicing recovery in an isolated Cleanroom environment is essential for cyber readiness.

Key Topics Covered

Why Active Directory and Entra ID remain high-value attack targets

How ransomware has changed the identity recovery landscape

The complexities of AD forest recovery and the risks of manual processes

What minimum viable AD looks like—and why it matters

How Commvault automates 100+ orchestration steps for fast, accurate recovery

Clean OS Recovery, real-time AD auditing, and new AD assessments

The role of the Commvault Unity Platform in securing identity, data, and applications

Best practices for testing, chaos engineering, and preparing people, processes, and technology for a true cyber event

Whether you’re a CISO, identity architect, AD admin, or security leader, this episode delivers practical insights on building a resilient identity foundation and ensuring your organization can bounce back quickly from even the most sophisticated compromise.


🔗 Learn more about protecting and recovering AD and Entra ID with Commvault Cloud:
 https://www.commvault.com/ad-exposed?...