Evidence Over Hope: Will Your Recovery Plan Hold Up Under Pressure? | STRIVE

In this episode of STRIVE, we explore ResOps (Resilience Operations)—a modern operational model designed to help organizations move beyond reactive recovery and toward proactive cyber and business resilience. Featuring Commvault’s Jason Cray, this conversation dives into how enterprises can shift from “hoping recovery works” to proving it under pressure through testing, coordination, and continuous improvement. As cyber threats accelerate and AI reshapes both defense and attack strategies, ResOps introduces a structured, cross-functional approach to ensure organizations can recover faster, minimize impact, and maintain business continuity—even in worst-case scenarios. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Cyber Resiliency and Operational Models 03:49 The Evolution of Disaster Recovery to Cyber Resiliency 06:55 Communication Challenges in Cyber Resiliency 09:47 Identifying Commonalities in Successful Clients 12:45 Understanding Resilience Operations (ResOps) 15:33 Building Trust and Confidence in Resilience 18:40 The Importance of Testing and Iteration 21:35 Community Involvement in ResOps 24:39 Future of ResOps and AI Integration Key Takeaways * Traditional disaster recovery often relied on untested plans and assumptions—ResOps replaces this with continuous validation * Organizations that recover best share a common trait: cross-team coordination and communication * ResOps focuses on identifying “minimum viable business” services and protecting what matters most * Testing must go beyond structured simulations to include realistic, unpredictable scenarios * AI is emerging as both a threat multiplier and a resilience enabler * Resilience is not a tool—it’s an ongoing operational discipline embedded into daily workflows TL;DR ResOps is a new operational discipline that integrates resilience, security, and IT operations to ensure organizations can continuously validate and improve their ability to recover from cyber incidents and disruptions. Who Is This For? * CIO (Chief Information Officer) * CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) * CTO (Chief Technology Officer) * IT Operations Leaders * Cyber Resilience & Risk Leaders * Infrastructure & Platform Teams FAQ Q: How is ResOps different from traditional disaster recovery (DR)? A: DR focuses on recovery plans, often tested infrequently. ResOps emphasizes continuous validation, cross-team collaboration, and real-world readiness. Q: Is ResOps only about cybersecurity? A: No—while cyber is a major driver, ResOps covers all types of disruptions, including outages, failures, and unforeseen events. Q: Do I need new tools to adopt ResOps? A: Not necessarily. ResOps is primarily an operational and organizational shift, though tools can support automation and testing. Q: Where should organizations begin? A: Start with critical services, understand dependencies, and build a repeatable testing and improvement process.