Splunk’s IT Unification Bet Meets AI’s Energy Reality
Splunk IT unification is taking center stage in the agentic AI era. Enterprise vendors must therefore rethink how they connect observability, security, and operations. On Techstrong Gang, Mike Vizard joins Jack Poller, Tracy Ragan, Jeff Reich, Camberley Bates, and Jon Swartz. Together, they unpack three stories about buying, powering, and governing AI-driven infrastructure. Read more about the panel and past episodes on our Techstrong Gang home.
Splunk’s push to unify observability, security, and agentic AI
Splunk is moving to reduce IT cost in the agentic AI era by folding observability, security, and agentic-AI operations into a single control plane. Cisco is bringing Splunk AI tools to on-premises IT platforms, giving Splunk the on-prem story it had been missing. Meanwhile, on the developer side, Splunk is prepping a second open-source LLM for telemetry data. It has also open-sourced a Token Meter tool to help application developers keep LLM usage in check. Splunk IT unification is now a Cisco-scale bet, not just a Splunk one.
The AI energy crisis reaches Congress
The physics of AI is running into public policy. Google and NVIDIA are pushing flexible AI data-center designs to help absorb load. At the same time, Sen. Martin Heinrich’s Senate data-center energy bill would keep households from footing the bill for hyperscaler growth. Enterprise IT buyers should expect capacity, siting, and cost structures to move quickly.
The King’s speech to AI leaders
Finally, the panel turns to King Charles III’s message at the AI summit in Scotland. The audience included Jensen Huang, Demis Hassabis, Sarah Friar and Tino Cuéllar. The King said AI must remain “firmly in the service of humanity, community and the natural world.” Techstrong.ai’s Frank Vizard asks whether the King’s speech fell on deaf AI ears. He also asks whether an independent watchdog like the UK’s AI Security Institute could give governance real teeth.
Watch the full panel above.
