Data Resilience, Insights, Action! Recapping Splunk .conf23

.conf23 has wrapped up, and what an incredible journey it’s been! For the first time, Hurricane Labs proudly sponsored the event, interacting with customers, partners, and devoted blog enthusiasts. 

A special highlight? Seeing our clients and our very own Tom Kopchak illuminating Splunk administrators of all levels with real-time implementation advice, making it a truly interactive session. Look out for a deep dive on his session including searches, dashboards, configuration settings, and expert advice, coming to our learning platform soon. 

The overarching theme of .conf23 was digital resilience – building on Splunk’s commitment to advancing beyond security and into comprehensive business and IT insights. An array of product and portfolio enhancements were announced to enable SecOps, ITOps and engineering teams to work from a unified platform to swiftly tackle threats. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Splunk & Microsoft Collaboration Splunk’s exciting announcement: a strategic partnership with Microsoft. Splunk will now be native to Azure and readily accessible in the Azure Marketplace. For Azure aficionados, this means seamlessly integrating Splunk into your cloud strategy.
2. The Emergence of Splunk Edge Hub Introducing the Splunk Edge Hub, an IOT-enabled data collector. It captures physical environment metrics – from temperature to vibrations. Ideal for IT and OT realms, it’s a game-changer for areas where collating both physical and virtual data posed challenges. It’s an exhilarating era for data collection!
3. Meet the Splunk Edge Processor Incorporated within the Splunk Cloud Platform, the Splunk Edge Processor gives users the power to filter, redirect, and mask data. And the best part? It’s free for Splunk Cloud customers.
4. Splunk Attack Analyzer – The Future of Threat Analysis Previously known as TwinWave, the Attack Analyzer is now the go-to for automated threat analysis. From identifying malicious content to detecting evasion tactics, paired with Splunk SOAR, it could redefine your threat analysis approach.
5. Splunk’s AI Ambitions Saving the best for last, Splunk highlighted their approach to AI and covered a collection of new AI and ML capabilities across Splunk products, emphasizing:
   • Domain Specificity: Concentration on security and observability sectors.
   • Human-in-the-loop: Accelerating detection while ensuring human oversight.
   • Openness: Users can choose between Splunk’s AI, their solutions, or third-party tools. 
   • These principals are key as they are foundational to the future of AI development at Splunk. An exciting standout? The debut of Splunk’s AI Assistant, a generative AI that crafts Splunk Processing Language (SPL) to fulfill natural language queries, making Splunk’s insights accessible to organizational users of all experience levels.

.conf23 was a transformative experience. With eyes set on the horizon, we’re eagerly awaiting .conf24. Mark your calendars and join us in Vegas next June!