Ah, the final day of Splunk .conf24 – the grand finale of a whirlwind of sessions, customer showcases, and more tech buzzwords than you can shake a stick at! Day 3 was no different, packed to the brim with talks on security, observability, and AI. Because, of course, no tech conference is complete without reminding you that AI is taking over the world (but in a good way, we hope).

I took some time to explore the Innovation Labs, where the future is made of shiny things and clever ideas. What’s shown here often ends up in future software releases, so it’s like getting a sneak peek into tomorrow. Spoiler alert: it’s usually pretty cool.

The evening brought the infamous Search Party. This year’s star guest was TLC, and no, not the home improvement channel, but the legendary music group. Talk about a blast from the past! There was finger food, free alcohol, and enough long foosball tables and arcade games to keep our inner child delighted. The music was loud – very loud. But that’s America for you. Who needs conversation when you’ve got decibels, right?

After the official festivities, a few of us took the party elsewhere. Let’s just say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and leave it at that.

All in all, Splunk .conf24 delivered in spades. The quality of the talks was as high as ever, though it seems the peak attendance we saw pre-COVID might never be topped. There’s also a looming question: will the Splunk conference remain a standalone event, or will it be absorbed into Cisco Live? Only time will tell.

In any case, I highly recommend attending, especially for newcomers. The university sessions are incredibly valuable, and there’s no substitute for the learning and networking that happens here.

The second day of Splunk conf has wrapped up. This time, we kicked things off with a technical keynote that had everyone buzzing.

Keynotes are here to set the vibe/mode of a conference, with the technical details coming later in the tech sessions or hallway conversations. Last year’s keynote received mixed reviews-maybe it was a bit too negative and certainly not a highlight. From what I’ve heard, this year’s keynote was significantly better.

So far, the general mood among customers and partners is pretty positive, though they have completely different perspectives. Customers want solutions for their challenges, features they can ride on, and roadmaps, which usually goes quite well. On the other hand, the technical sessions spark a lot of cool ideas for techies to implement back at their companies.

For partners, it’s more about what’s next now that Cisco has bought Splunk and how the integration of 75’000 Cisco partners with the significantly fewer Splunk partners will play out. But even here, the message delivered was cautiously optimistic.

As a highlight from the keynote, there was the unveiling of Splunk Security Enterprise 8.0, the Splunk AI Assistant for SPL, ITSI 4.19 with AI features, the Splunk Edge Processor now in GA, Splunk SOAR 6.3, and general news about Splunk Observability.

But hey, I think I’ll save the deep dive for a separate blog post someday. This micro blog is just to keep things light and breezy.

After the keynote, the technical sessions began. I focused on ITSI and Security, although I did miss a few planned sessions due to catching up with various people. For clients who couldn’t attend, I submitted several questions to different Splunk teams, hoping to get answers post-conference.

On the downside, I missed the User Group Leader meeting and the Advisory Board session.

My excuse? A brief (but evidently necessary) nap. I planned for a quick 15-minute rest but ended up taking an unplanned trip to Dreamland. With only about 3 hours of sleep per night since last Friday, my body decided it was time for a longer pit stop.

Thankfully, I woke up before dinner thanks to a timely WhatsApp from Oli. After dinner, we headed to Fremont for some evening activities.

All in all, a packed and productive day with a bit of unintended comedy. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

Today was a big day for Splunk! I attended not one, but two keynotes. The first one was for our partners, and the second one was for everyone else. They weren’t identical in content, but the message was pretty similar. And guess what? The CEO of Cisco made an appearance at both keynotes. Talk about making the rounds!

The rest of the day was a blur of booth visits, meeting new folks, and engaging in some pretty fascinating discussions. By evening, we wrapped things up with a delightful dinner with Arrow.

So, what do you take away from a day like this? Lots of blah blah blah, but in the end, the message was positive!

Tomorrow, we finally dive into the technical sessions. Can’t wait!

Today kicked off with CriblCon 2024. The scalability of the fleet (agents) was a hot topic – imagine up to 250k agents! They showcased a live demo of AI support for searches and dashboards. We saw Fast Search, reduced resource consumption of Stream under Windows, new data source integrations, SaaS on Azure (not just AWS anymore), and data lake advancements. And that was just a snippet of what was shown. This startup is developing quickly and expanding. For an outsider, it’s not always 100% clear where Cribl is headed. They’re dancing at many weddings. Too many? Or maybe world domination is just around the corner?

After the keynote, there were more sessions. They were quite interesting.

Later in the afternoon, Lukas arrived. We then headed to the Sphere with Splunk Switzerland and a few Splunk customers. That’s the big dome thing in Vegas. We were in section 208. The seats were great, and the video experience was phenomenal. Definitely worth it if you’re in Vegas.

We wrapped up with a visit to the Delmonico Steakhouse. It was delicious but also sinfully expensive.

After 11 hours and 30 minutes of flying and stepping into the 40°C Las Vegas heat, I finally arrived. The flight was great, courtesy of Edelweiss’s stellar service. The only hiccup? The landing was a bit like hitting a speed bump at full throttle.

First Stop: The Venetian Hotel

Upon arrival, I beelined to the Venetian Hotel, with my room in the Palazzo. Check-in was smooth, except they promised to text me when the room was ready. Spoiler alert: that text never came. After two hours of twiddling my thumbs, I went back to the reception, and voilà, room keys in hand.

Thankfully, Markus got his room in the Venetian immediately, so I could stash my luggage in his room while I sorted things out.

The First Day’s Dilemma: To Sleep or Not to Sleep

The real challenge on the first day is figuring out when to sleep. I left at 10 AM Swiss time and landed at 1 PM Vegas time (a 9-hour difference). Jet lag is real, folks.

First Meal: In-N-Out Burger

To kick things off, I headed straight to In-N-Out Burger for a Double Cheese. Always a winner. Though I have a soft spot for Shake Shack in Vegas too, it’s a bit of a trek from the hotel. Still, I’ll make the pilgrimage.

Evening at The Linq

In the evening, I hit the bar at The Linq and met up with Oli from Cribl and Mika. As always, it was an absolute hoot. We then moved on for some finger food with Florian (Flo), and Jaco.

Nightcap: Gilley’s Saloon, Dance Hall & Bar-B-Que

We capped off the night with a visit to Gilley’s Saloon, Dance Hall & Bar-B-Que for a well-deserved “after-work” beer. By 11 PM, it was time to hit the sack.

No sooner is the Area41 security conference over, it’s already off to Las Vegas for the next conference.

I’m all set for the Splunk conf in Las Vegas, June 11-14. Slippers? Check. Courtesy of my Splunk User Group leader in Zurich.

Can’t wait to reunite with old pals – ex-colleagues, fellow Splunk disciples. Let’s turn data into laughs and memories!

And I still have a lot to sort out. Unfortunately, the seat reservation didn’t work out with Swiss. When I checked in online, there was no sign of my Eco Max (10cm extra legroom) seat. The hotline couldn’t help. My last chance is tomorrow at the check-in counter.

I had hoped to chat with my colleague Mika next to me. The fact that this probably won’t happen bothers me the most. He is coming directly from Finland and is also flying via Zurich to Vegas.