Splunk .conf 24: Where now for Cisco's latest acquisition

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At its annual conference, Splunk embraced AI for observability, unveiled new security products, and aimed to reassure customers over Cisco fears

The words ‘Splunk .conf24: Where now for Cisco's latest acquisition? ’ overlaid on a lightly-blurred image of the keynote hall at Splunk .conf24 . Decorative: the words ‘Splunk .conf24:’ and 'Cisco's' are in yellow, while other words are in white. The ITPro podcast logo is in the bottom right corner.
(Image credit: Future)

When Cisco announced it would be buying Splunk, doubts were raised over the company's future within its new home.

Splunk .conf24, the company's annual conference, was a proving ground to see if these fears were well founded. According to ITPro's intrepid features editor, however, Splunk's brand is as strong as it ever was, with both Cisco's CEO and Splunk's GM offering reassurances that neither company's customers or partners will suffer in the wake of the acquisition.

In this episode of the ITPro Podcast, Jane talks to Rory about his experiences attending the conference, where Splunk sits in Cisco's strategy, and if we're likely to see a .conf25.

Highlights

“Something that Splunk has really leant on throughout .conf is that AI is a data issue, and data is something that Splunk knows very well. So the AI assistants that Splunk has introduced at .conf essentially make Splunk's existing platform more accessible for workers. You can now use natural language prompts to kick off an analysis of, say, a Kubernetes cluster that is malfunctioning.”

“I think Cisco sees the enthusiasm for Splunk that partners and customers really have. There is a community atmosphere and Splunk certainly leans on that messaging around its dedicated community, how much it relies on them for feedback.”

“Observability and security, while nominally different areas, obviously have a lot of crossovers and if you're looking for proper resilience, which is the kind of the keyword there, you cannot have one without the other. Splunk published a report at this year's conference, in which it found that the top 2000 global companies lose $400 billion dollars due to downtime per year.”

Footnotes

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Rory Bathgate
Rory Bathgate
Features and Multimedia Editor

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.