Protected: Making Complex Systems Understandable: Splunk’s Akila Balasubramanian on AI-Powered Observability

Akila Balasubramanian is a Principal Software Engineer at Splunk, a Cisco company, with 16 years of experience in distributed systems, AI-powered observability, and digital experience monitoring. She leads complex engineering initiatives that help organizations understand software behavior, investigate problems, and improve the reliability of digital services. Her career combines hands-on architecture, technical leadership, and the delivery of enterprise software. She has been awarded multiple patents and has published several peer-reviewed papers through her independent research, exploring how AI can reason more effectively over complex operational data. An IEEE Senior Member and member of Sigma Xi, Akila also contributes through conference peer review and invited international talks. Her professional focus is translating technical innovation into practical, dependable capabilities that help people solve difficult problems.