Your Guide to the Observability Track for IT Operations at .conf25

Splunk .conf25 is right around the corner, and the energy is building. Whether you’re coming to sharpen your skills, explore the latest in observability, or simply connect with peers who “get it,” there’s something here for everyone. 250+ sessions. 60+ dedicated to observability. That’s a lot of choice but also a huge opportunity for IT operations pros looking to elevate reliability, minimize toil, and showcase measurable impact.

If you’ve already checked out the Top 5 Reasons to Attend .conf25 in Boston, you know why this event is a must. Now it’s time to turn that excitement into a plan.

Whether you’re an IT operations leader shaping team strategy or an ITOps practitioner managing incidents day to day, this guide cuts through the noise and surfaces key sessions, especially those centered on your ITSI, AppDynamics, and Splunk platform environment.

Pro tip: This guide matches the official ITOps Practitioner learning path, so your custom agenda link is already aligned and ready to go. Just smash the “add to schedule” button on that page, and you’re off!

What’s a Learning Path?

Learning paths help you enhance your skills and explore sessions tailored to your career. Choose a role, follow the curated path to find relevant content and resources, and access the session catalog to plan your perfect schedule. Learn more about learning paths here.

Session Recommendations

The session ID and title for each recommendation are linked directly to the session catalog, which includes:

• Full session descriptions
• Learning objectives
• Product references
• Speaker information

Session Levels Simplified

• Novice: Big-picture foundations and simple workflows
• Intermediate: Practical guidance building on prior exposure
• Advanced: Deep dives for experienced pros ready to go under the hood

Keynotes

• KEY2053 – Welcome Keynote: Official .conf25 kickoff with exciting announcements and the latest Splunk news.
• KEY2054 – Product Keynote: The biggest announcements, boldest roadmaps, and brightest trends for .conf25. Explore platform, security, and observability innovations with Splunk leaders.

Interactive Workshop Sessions

Hands-on labs where you bring your own laptop for guided product use cases and demos.

OBS1528 – AI in Observability (Intermediate) 

• Quickly resolving issues makes the difference between seamless customer experiences and interruptions. You’ll discover how Splunk Observability Cloud—augmented by Agentic AI—can root-cause incidents, see alerts flow into ITSI, and use ITSI’s AI-driven analytics to ensure critical applications stay available, performant, and resilient.
• Why it matters: Learn how to cut through noisy alerts and quickly pinpoint root causes with AI-powered insights.

OBS1365 – Playbook Creation for AIOps and Observability Use Cases with SOAR (Intermediate)

• Build a sample automation playbook for AIOps and observability use cases using SOAR. Learn to integrate ITSI with SOAR, create a sample app, and build a playbook that uses anomaly detection to reduce noise for ITOps teams.
• Why it matters: Discover how to automate incident triage so your team can focus on the problems that truly matter.

Technical Sessions

OBS1539 – Best Practices for Splunk ITSI: Configuration, Administration, and Usage (Novice)

• Learn expert tips for designing KPIs, defining episodes, and applying AI/ML for efficient service monitoring.
• Why it matters: If you’re starting your ITSI journey, this session will help you avoid common pitfalls and set up a scalable, maintainable monitoring framework from day one.

OBS1803 – From Data to Action: Innovating with ITSI Event Analytics (Intermediate)

• See how a large enterprise went from reactive to proactive, cutting alert fatigue and gaining full observability with event correlation.
• Why it matters: Event Analytics can be a game-changer, but success requires the right configuration and operational approach. This session shows you how to get there.

OBS1548 – Maximizing Splunk ROI: Enhancing Service Visibility with Infrastructure, Observability, and Cisco Integrations (Novice)

• Reduce ingestion costs and boost operational efficiency by integrating infrastructure, observability, and Cisco tools.
• Why it matters: Integration isn’t just about connecting systems, it’s about creating actionable insights that reduce costs and improve service health.

OBS1846 – Splunk ITSI’s Latest and Greatest, Plus New AI (Novice)

• Explore new AI features and enhanced capabilities for smarter service monitoring and health analytics.
• Why it matters: If you want to stay ahead, understanding and adopting the latest AI capabilities in ITSI will help you deliver faster, more accurate service insights.

OBS1589 – Troubleshooting Made Easy with AI for Observability (Intermediate)

• Use AI-driven insights across AppDynamics, Observability Cloud, and ITSI to speed up root cause analysis.
• Why it matters: Complex environments demand fast troubleshooting—this session shows you how AI can cut through the noise to find the root cause.

OBS1373 – Unified Network Service Health in Splunk ITSI with Cisco Integrations (Intermediate)

• Integrate ThousandEyes, Catalyst Center, and Meraki into ITSI for unified network and service health views
• Why it matters: Network and service monitoring often live in silos—this session shows you how to unify them for better visibility and faster problem resolution.

Theater Session

Theater sessions are concise 20-minute presentations offering rapid insights and proven strategies.

OBS1590 – Simplified ITSI Onboarding: Get Running Faster with AI Catalyst (Novice)

• Use AI catalysts to speed up ITSI onboarding, alert correlation, and service threshold recommendations.

Don’t Miss the Social Scene

.conf25 blends learning with connection. Here’s where to plug into the energy:

• Welcome Reception – Monday, September 8
• Happy Hour – Tuesday, September 9
• Search Party! – Wednesday, September 10
• Weezer Concert at .conf25 – Wednesday, September 10

Find full details here. 

Next Steps

You’ve got the sessions, the learning path, and the social scene. Now it’s time to make it yours. Use this guide to plan your week, make connections, and bring back ideas that will make a real difference for your team.

Here’s your action plan:

• Register for .conf25
• Start with the learning path: ITOps Practitioner Learning Path
• Explore more sessions: .conf25 Session Catalog (here’s a quick link to all of the Observability Sessions)
• Build in some social time: Don’t miss the Welcome Reception, Happy Hour, or the Weezer concert
• Bring it home: Commit to at least three practical takeaways to share and implement with your team after the event

See you in Boston for .conf25! 

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