Commvault has launched a new tool that promises to restore Active Directory (AD) access within minutes of a cyberattack, rather than the hours or days recovery can typically take.

The Nasdaq-listed data resilience firm’s new Active Directory Pre Recover works by creating a clean, standby copy of AD in an isolated, air-gapped “Cleanroom” environment. If an organisation’s identity systems are compromised, it can fail over to this copy instead of running a full forest recovery.

Built on existing Commvault tools

Commvault‘s solution draws on two existing technologies: Cleanroom, the air-gapped recovery environment, and Threat Scan, which continuously checks AD backups for malicious content before they’re used. The company says pairing the two means organisations don’t have to choose between a fast recovery and a clean one.

Identity systems have increasingly become a first target in cyberattacks, since compromising AD can give attackers a way into almost everything else in a network.

“Identity is foundational to every enterprise application, user, and business process,” said Rajiv Kottomtharayil, Chief Products Officer at Commvault. “We are extending that progress toward near-real-time availability.”

What it means for IT teams

With a standby AD copy already sitting in Cleanroom, applications can keep authenticating against a trusted identity source without needing account replication across separate identity and access management systems, or a long wait for a full forest restore.

Active Directory Pre Recover will roll out for early access in the coming months as part of Commvault’s Identity Resilience portfolio. Existing enterprise AD customers will get it as part of their current licence, along with a lite version of Cleanroom, available through Commvault’s partner network globally.