Commvault, TIME launch CISO award for cyber resilience

Commvault and TIME have launched a CISO of the Year award to recognise chief information security officers in large organisations.

The award will be decided by Commvault and a panel of industry experts. Entries will focus on security leaders who are reshaping cyber resilience as companies face growing pressure from cyber attacks, regulation, cloud migration and wider use of artificial intelligence.

The launch reflects the rising prominence of the CISO role in large businesses. Security leaders are increasingly expected not only to prevent breaches, but also to support operational recovery, maintain business continuity and work closely with boards and other senior executives, including chief information officers.

Under the entry rules, nominees must hold a CISO role or equivalent C-level security leadership title and be serving in that post at the time of nomination. Candidates must also demonstrate leadership aligned with what Commvault calls Resilience Operations, or ResOps.

Selection Criteria

The judging framework emphasises organisational outcomes rather than technical defences alone. It favours leaders who can unite security and IT teams, test their organisations regularly, plan for disruption and recovery, and support technologies such as AI without making operations more fragile.

That focus reflects a broader shift in how companies assess cyber leadership. Rather than treating cybersecurity as a narrow technical discipline, boards and executives are increasingly judging it by service continuity, recoverability, internal coordination and the ability to demonstrate preparedness under pressure.

ResOps, the model highlighted in the award, is described as a way to connect operations, security and infrastructure teams around critical services, resilient design and continuous validation. In practice, this means preparing organisations to absorb disruption, recover within defined tolerances and show evidence that the process works.

Commvault, which sells data protection and cyber recovery products, has been promoting resilience as a broader business issue rather than an isolated backup or security problem. By attaching its name to an award with a global media brand, it is also taking that message to a wider executive audience.

TIME's involvement gives the programme a platform beyond the cybersecurity industry. The initiative is intended to highlight security leaders whose responsibilities now extend across operational stability, trust and decision-making at the top of major organisations.

Bill O'Connell, Chief Security Officer at Commvault, said demands on CISOs have risen sharply as enterprises adopt cloud services and AI tools while facing more frequent and complex attacks.

"As cyber threats grow in frequency and sophistication in today's AI-enabled, cloud-first world, the role of the CISO has evolved into one of the most consequential leadership positions in the enterprise," O'Connell said. "Through this award with TIME, we are proud to recognize the CISOs who are embracing a modern ResOps framework and shaping the future of cyber resilience."

Mark Howard, Chief Operating Officer at TIME, linked the award to the rising visibility of security leadership in large businesses.

"CISOs are among the most consequential leaders in enterprise today," Howard said. "This partnership with Commvault is an opportunity to shine a light on the security leaders who are protecting their organizations and building a more resilient future."

Wider Pressure

The launch comes as security leaders face broader demands than in earlier years. Boards want clearer evidence of readiness, regulators are tightening expectations around incident reporting and operational resilience, and business units are pushing to adopt AI tools quickly while keeping data and core systems secure.

That has expanded the CISO's remit beyond defensive security into crisis planning, recovery oversight and collaboration across technology, legal, risk and operations teams. In many large organisations, the role now sits closer to the centre of business strategy than it did only a few years ago.

The award criteria are designed to reflect that shift. They reward leaders for keeping services running, breaking down silos between teams, pressure-testing readiness, designing for recovery rather than perfection, and giving organisations confidence to innovate.

Finalists and the winner will be selected by Commvault and an expert panel using those measures.