Splunk Enterprise Brings End-to-End Observability to Data-Rich Environments

Business leaders know that data is one of an organization’s most valuable assets. Appropriately managed, data yields critical insights that boost revenue, enhance decision-making and improve user experiences. But those outcomes are possible only when organizations can see and understand the data in their environments. Very often, they lack that holistic observability.

This leaves organizations unable to answer some of the most important questions they face:

• What can we do with our data? 
• How do we provide metrics? 
• If we uncover problems related to the data, how do we remediate them? 
• How do we build in automation? 
• How can we make our data self-sufficient, so it initiates self-healing while our IT staff tackles other tasks?

Bridging siloes and harnessing data from diverse sources can be significant challenges. The Splunk Enterprise platform solves these problems by gathering data from varied sources such as endpoints, servers, networks, production facilities that generate machine data and geographically dispersed locations — any data source in the environment. The solution is an end-to-end platform, based on-premises or in the cloud, that lets organizations ingest and index all their data within a consolidated dashboard.

Splunk helps people make sense of the data in their environments, regardless of where it originates. Once the data makes sense, it becomes usable in many powerful ways.

Cybersecurity isn’t the only reason to focus on data observability, but it’s one of the most compelling. When CDW helps organizations secure their data, we often find that they do not know what data they have. They don’t know where it resides or who has access to it. And, because they don’t understand existing patterns, they don’t necessarily recognize anomalies that could indicate security concerns. 

As Splunk Enterprise establishes metrics and patterns, it detects abnormal activity — for instance, suspicious behavior on an employee’s smartphone — and sends out alerts. In addition, the platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to refine its picture of the environment continuously. This enables IT staff to adapt on the fly, with up-to-date insights.

Splunk Enterprise plays well with various security solutions, including firewalls and endpoint security tools. Within the platform, Splunk’s security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) capability adds a layer of automation and efficiency. For many IT teams, the ability to orchestrate workflows and automate tasks is a force multiplier. They gain better insights more quickly, with less effort.

In addition to strengthening security, well-managed data empowers organizations to increase revenue, capitalize on new opportunities and improve employee and customer experiences.

For example, a restaurant chain can use Splunk Enterprise to optimize people, processes and products during a seasonal spike in customer traffic. By analyzing data flowing into a mobile app, the business can see and respond to a constant flow of real-time information about inventory, orders, deliveries and other vital metrics. Without that visibility, the business would have to muscle through the spike and analyze outcomes later, after the dust settles. 

Data is a valuable business asset, but it’s so much more. Data can be a safeguard against cybersecurity threats. It can be the competitive differentiator that allows one company to soar while another flounders. It can be the secret ingredient in DevOps efforts that deliver optimal user experiences. Splunk Enterprise brings all those insights into a single solution so that organizations can respond to what’s happening today and plan ahead for tomorrow.

Story by Joe Haarman, who has 14yrs of experience in channel technology sales, is a former CDW sales and current Splunk National Partner Manager for CDW.