Community Spotlight: A Splunk Expert’s Journey

In the heart of the Splunk Community are members whose passion for problem-solving and generosity with their knowledge make a real difference every single day. This month, we are thrilled to shine a spotlight on one such individual, a familiar and trusted presence on Splunk Answers and Slack channels: the user known as the ITWhisperer or Chris Kaye.

We wanted to learn more about his Splunk journey, his motivation for helping others, and the story behind that unforgettable username.

Ever wondered about the story behind a username? For the ITWhisperer, it started as a running joke. He found that when colleagues were on the verge of giving up on a stubborn technical issue, simply bringing him in seemed to have a magical effect.

"Often when people call upon me for help with a problem that they're almost ready to give up on, while they are explaining or demonstrate it to me, the issue magically 'fixes itself' before I have the chance to solve it," says Chris.

Now working independently in a quasi-retired role, he dedicates much of his time to making that same magic happen for users on Splunk Answers and our community Slack channels.

Chris’s journey with Splunk began in 2018. Tasked with reporting on a new product launch, he started by manually writing scripts to extract statistics from logs, a tedious and time-consuming process. When a colleague introduced him to the Splunk Platform, he was immediately captivated.

He quickly built reports and dashboards that provided the timely statistics his project sponsor needed. But the real "aha!" moment came when he realized Splunk could revolutionize his primary job of monitoring and supporting complex systems. He went from spending his days reading raw logs across multiple screens to building dashboards and alerts that correlated activity automatically, freeing up his time and giving him deeper insight.

He shared a powerful example of how Splunk helped solve a critical business problem. Chris’s company was seeing an increase in failed transactions, failures that directly impacted revenue. Using Splunk, he was able to analyze logs from several disparate systems to track down the source of the failures.

By identifying the root cause, he could recommend specific system and application changes. The result was a significant reduction in failures and a direct, positive impact on the business.

"More successful transactions meant more customers getting what they wanted, in a more timely manner, and more revenue for the company," says Chris.

This solution perfectly illustrates the power of Splunk, leveraging its ability to ingest data from heterogeneous sources, extract key information, and even apply machine learning with the MLTK to detect anomalies.

Today, ITWhisperer is a constant presence in the community. When he’s not answering questions, he’s co-developing the "Boss Of Regular Expressions" (BORE) app, a fan-favorite session at .conf. So, what motivates Chris to dedicate so much time to helping others?

"My main motivation for contributing to the Splunk Community is that I really enjoy solving problems and helping people. Solving problems for other people allows me to use my knowledge and experience, but it also gives me opportunities to learn more myself," says Chris.

This spirit of continuous learning and genuine enjoyment in helping others is what makes him, and so many others like him, the backbone of our community.

When asked what advice he would give to someone just starting out, his answer was clear: understand the data. He emphasizes taking the time to talk to the subject matter experts for the systems generating the data. By understanding what the data represents, you can build meaningful dashboards and alerts that address key pain points.

His final piece of advice? Always start small, seek feedback to ensure you're on the right track, and demonstrate the value of Splunk as quickly as possible.

A huge thank you to Chris for his incredible contributions and for sharing his story with us. Chris is a constant presence on our Community blogs, Splunk Answers, and Slack. If you see him around, be sure to say hello.