Observability for Agentic Operations: All Signal, No Noise | Connected California Lunch & Learn

Welcome to the September session of Connected California, Cisco’s monthly technology series dedicated to modernizing and securing California’s public sector infrastructure. In this episode, Client Executive Yulee Newsome hosts Brad Ishida (Splunk Observability Solutions Architect) for a deep dive into Splunk Observability Cloud and the three distinct pathways state agencies can leverage to implement AI-driven root cause remediation, open telemetry, and agentic workflows. 📌 What You’ll Learn in This Session: End-to-End Application Observability: How to achieve complete visibility from front-end Real User Monitoring (RUM) to distributed back-end Kubernetes tracing. OpenTelemetry Native Instrumentation: Why 90%+ of deployments utilize zero-code, automated instrumentation out of the box. Three Approaches to AI-Assisted Operations: -- In-Product AI Assistant: Out-of-the-box natural language troubleshooting and automated root cause analysis with zero token management. -- Custom AI & Model Context Protocol (MCP): Bringing your own LLMs (Claude, GPT, on-prem Ollama) and developer IDEs (VS Code/Cursor) directly to your observability data. -- Unified Cisco Cloud Control: Global AI Canvas and agentic remediation spanning Splunk, ThousandEyes, Intersight, and Meraki. Live Q&A Deep Dives: Handling sensitive public sector data with OpenTelemetry pipeline masking, multi-environment (UAT vs. Prod) blast-radius prevention, and the latest on LLM guardrails via the Galileo acquisition. ⏱️ Chapters & Timestamps: 00:00 - Welcome & Opening Remarks (Yulee Newsome) 01:41 - Introduction: The Shift to Agentic Root Cause Remediation 03:03 - Splunk Observability Cloud Architecture & Full-Stack Vision 05:15 - Live Demo: APM Service Maps & Distributed Tracing 06:40 - Step 0: OpenTelemetry & Zero-Code Auto-Instrumentation 09:39 - Real User Monitoring (RUM) & Infrastructure Correlation 10:50 - Preview: Agent Observability & the Galileo Integration 13:03 - Path 1: In-Product AI Assistant & Natural Language Troubleshooting 16:16 - Correlating Trace Anomalies, Logs, and Error Codes (401/Code Rollbacks) 18:51 - Path 2: Custom Models & Model Context Protocol (MCP) Integration 23:24 - Demo: Querying Observability Telemetry in VS Code via MCP 27:24 - Audience Q&A: On-Prem LLMs (Ollama) & Model Cost Routing 28:58 - Audience Q&A: Multi-Environment Analysis (UAT vs. Production) 32:11 - Audience Q&A: Data Privacy, Redaction & OpenTelemetry Processors 35:33 - Path 3: The Future of Unified AI with Cisco Cloud Control & Data Fabric 39:45 - Agent Observability, LLM-as-a-Judge & Real-Time Guardrails 42:02 - Teaser for October: Zero Trust for the Hybrid Workforce & Free Tier Wrap-up 🔗 Resources & Next Steps: 🆓 Splunk Observability Cloud Free Tier: Free perpetual access for up to 15 hosts — test out auto-instrumentation in your lab environment! 📅 Next Month's Topic: Zero Trust for the Hybrid Workforce (October 2026). https://registration.socio.events/e/2... 💬 Connect with the Team: For tailored agency architectural reviews or deep-dive workshops, reach out directly to Yulee Newsome (ynewsome@cisco.com) or your Cisco/Splunk account team. #ConnectedCalifornia #Cisco #Splunk #Observability #OpenTelemetry #PublicSector #ArtificialIntelligence #MCP #AgenticAI #CloudOperations