Immersive took top honours in the Best Professional Training or Certification Programme by redefining cybersecurity training around practical capability building rather than traditional compliance-focused awareness programmes. 

Founded in Bristol in 2017, the company argues that conventional cyber training often fails to prepare organisations for modern attacks because it focuses too heavily on static compliance exercises rather than hands-on operational skills. In response, Immersive develops role-specific labs, simulations and crisis exercises designed to help both technical and non-technical teams practise responding to realistic cyber threats in live environments.  

Through the Immersive One platform, organisations can deliver customised training aligned to specific roles, risk profiles and emerging threat scenarios. The company says the platform enables security teams, executives and operational staff to validate readiness through interactive exercises rather than passive learning modules.

Its offering is grounded in speed and realism. Immersive highlights its ability to rapidly create new labs and exercises in response to emerging threats, vulnerabilities and cyber intelligence developments. The company says this allows organisations to train against current attack techniques rather than outdated or generic scenarios.

The platform also differentiates itself through features including an AI Scenario Generator and the Dynamic Threat Range, which enables live-fire simulations within customer environments and integrates directly with operational security tooling such as SIEM platforms. Immersive positions these capabilities as critical for helping organisations move beyond theoretical learning toward practical operational preparedness.

“A clear winner: an innovative, evidence-rich training platform delivering practical cyber capability at impressive scale.”

The company additionally emphasises accessibility and flexibility, offering certification-aligned learning pathways, self-paced content and role-specific progression tracks aimed at reducing the cost and complexity often associated with advanced cyber training.

The judging panel highlighted the platform’s hands-on labs, crisis simulations and realistic training environments as major differentiators, describing Immersive’s approach as a significant step beyond compliance-driven cyber awareness programmes.

Judges gave Immersive strong marks for the launch of 421 new labs in 2025, an average turnaround time of 11.2 hours for cyber threat intelligence and CVE-led lab creation, more than 2.5 million completed labs and nearly 30,000 participants in crisis simulations. Customers including the Metropolitan Police, Ministry of Defence, NHS and Citibank were also viewed as reinforcing the platform’s credibility in high-pressure and security-critical environments.

Kelley Damore Chief Content Officer CyberRisk Alliance

Kelley Damore is Chief Content Officer at CyberRisk Alliance, where she leads content strategy across the company’s digital brands, research, communities and live events serving CISOs and security practitioners. At CyberRisk Alliance, she is focused on delivering 365-day engagement, trusted journalism and actionable insights to help security leaders navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape.