Masterclass with Chris Melin
Book an interactive masterclass with Chris Melin, Recovery Consultant at Cristie. In 30–90 minutes, you'll understand why untested backups are one of the most common and costly assumptions in IT, and what it actually takes to build a recovery process you can trust. The session is scenario-driven, honest, and built around your current environment and recovery obligations.
Chris Melin | Recovery Consultant at Cristie
About this Masterclass
Most organisations have backups. Far fewer have recovery.
The difference isn't technical - it's a question of whether the restore has ever actually been tested. In practice, manual restore testing happens once a year at best, usually under time pressure, against a single non-critical system, documented in a spreadsheet no one reads again. That's not a recovery strategy. That's compliance theatre.
Automated restore testing changes this entirely. In this masterclass, Chris draws on hands-on experience from recovery projects across industries to walk you through what it actually looks like:
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Why manual restore testing fails in practice and why organisations continue to rely on it anyway
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The difference between a backup existing and a backup being recoverable: what can go wrong between the two
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How automated restore testing works, scheduled, clean-room, triggered on every backup completion, without manual intervention
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What a clean-room environment is, why it matters, and how it prevents reinfection during a recovery from ransomware
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How to validate your actual RTO against your assumed RTO and what to do when they don't match
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How Rubrik Recovery Plans and Cristie Recovery Assurance combine to give you continuous, evidence-based proof that your systems can be restored
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What NIS2, DORA, and ISO 27001 actually require from your restore testing and what audit-ready documentation looks like in practice
The goal is not to tell you your current setup is wrong. It's to give you an honest picture of where the gaps are and a clear path to closing them before they become a crisis.
Who is this masterclass for?
This masterclass is suitable for organisations that:
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Have a backup solution in place but cannot confidently answer the question: "When did we last test a full restore and what was the result?"
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Are operating under NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, or sector-specific compliance frameworks that require documented, repeatable recovery testing
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Have experienced a recovery incident, or a near-miss, and want to understand what a more robust process looks like
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Are evaluating whether their current backup investment is actually delivering recovery capability, or just storage
Typical participants: IT managers, backup and recovery owners, CISOs, compliance officers, and IT architects responsible for business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
Structure and format
Duration: 30–90 minutes depending on your needs
Format: Online or on-site at your premises
Style: Scenario-driven introduction - what real recovery failures look like and why they happen - followed by a concrete walkthrough of automated restore testing in practice, from clean-room design to compliance reporting
Materials: Basic presentation material and a brief written summary can be shared afterwards
Each masterclass is adapted to your environment and your current recovery maturity. You won't leave with a vendor pitch. You'll leave with a clearer picture of where you actually stand - and what the next step looks like.