This week was CriblCon 25—our biggest, boldest gathering yet. If you were there, you already know: this wasn’t just another tech conference, it was a full-on data adventure. If you missed it (or just missed a few things), buckle in—here’s your captain’s log of the highlights.
Watch the CriblCon 25 Keynote On-Demand!
A Federation of data explorers
This year’s CriblCon felt like stepping onto the bridge of a starship, surrounded by pioneers pushing the boundaries of IT and security. With more sessions, more content, and the first-ever Campus Experience, the energy was palpable.
But the real magic of CriblCon? It’s not just about Cribl’s innovations. It’s the partners, customers, and ecosystem working together. Thank you to everyone that joined us this year!
From AI skepticism to AI acceleration
Let’s address the Borg in the room: AI.
A year ago, Cribl resisted the temptation to “AI-wash” like so many others were doing. Back then, the tech wasn’t ready. But the landscape has shifted. Models have grown exponentially, and industry leaders estimate 25–40% of code is now being written by AI agents. And even more importantly, AI is generating massive amounts of data, blowing previous estimates of data growth trends out of the water.
We’ve officially entered a new epoch – just as transformative as the PC, the internet, or the mobile era. AI is changing how we troubleshoot, investigate, and make decisions. And like these previous transformations have affected infrastructure, telemetry infrastructure is facing its biggest stress test yet: AI-fueled data growth. With models and agents firing off queries at warp speed, legacy systems simply can’t keep up—storage costs balloon, pipelines bottleneck, and noisy neighbors hog resources. To thrive in this new era, telemetry infrastructure must evolve into something elastic, federated, and AI-first—capable of scaling, tiering data by design, and delivering instant access without breaking budgets.
And as Clint joked while slipping on a Borg grin: “Resistance is futile. I’ve been assimilated.”
The trouble with (legacy) tribbles
Of course, AI isn’t magic – it needs infrastructure strong enough to handle the load. Legacy telemetry tools weren’t built for today’s scale, let alone tomorrow’s AI-fueled demands.
Consider this: data is growing at a 30% CAGR, but IT budgets? Just 7%. Throw AI into the mix and suddenly, logs and queries multiply tenfold. Old tools can’t keep up. And as we put it on mainstage: “She cannae take much more, Captain!”
The solution? A new kind of data engine built for flexibility, openness, and AI-first outcomes.
Meet the enhanced Cribl Data Engine
We are taking our Data Engine for IT and Security, a platform designed from first principles, to the age of agentic AI. Think of it as a warp core for your data.
Stream – Telemetry pipeline that routes, shapes, and enriches data in motion. Stream added End-to-End Packs for easy migration, a sleek Metrics UX, and new integrations with Zscaler, Palo Alto, SentinelOne, Wiz, and lots more coming soon. We are also making more performance and Packs enhancements for high-impact optimization across the board.
Edge – Fleet-wide data collection at endpoints, now with improved visibility with Kubernetes explorer and disconnected node tracking, and supporting macOS (Preview), Windows 11, and FIPS compliance. On the horizon, there will be massive scale improvements to support 500 fleets and 500,00 nodes, and Outpost, a relay feature for restricted environments, will become Generally Available .
Lake & Lakehouse – Flexible storage, tiered for performance and cost efficiency, optimized for AI workloads. Lake added Direct Access (HTTP and Splunk DDSS for now and many more integrations coming shortly) and BYOS for an easier/faster way to get more data into Lake!
Search – Federated access across destinations, lakes, and clouds. Search added Packs to provide pre-built queries to instantly ask smarter questions of data. Copilot for KQL makes queries easier (and no, you don’t need to learn Klingon Query Language). Notebooks combine AI, queries, code, and context in one collaborative workspace—perfect for investigations and RCA. You can look forward to even more datasets for federated searches, as well as monitoring and altering so even when you’re not investigating, you’ll get the updates you need.
Together, these systems create an infrastructure that’s open, federated, and outcome oriented; exactly what enterprises need to thrive in an AI-first future.
Energize with AI
What happens once your data is in motion? That’s where Cribl AI uncloaks.
Cribl Copilot Editor, launched just months ago, became the fastest-adopted feature in company history. It accelerates pipeline building while keeping humans in the loop. After all, you don’t want to explain to your boss that “the AI felt creative” when data ended up in the wrong galaxy. You can get excited for a massive upgrade with broader schema support coming soon!
On the protection front, Cribl Guard is a shield for sensitive data, with real-time masking for PII, PHI, and more. Over 200 rules ship out of the box, and customizable AI-assisted detection keeps risk in check while staying compliant with GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, and beyond.
Cribl’s AI roadmap is focused on delivering productivity multipliers and future-proofing data operations with a suite of innovative features. Key AI initiatives include a Bring Your Own AI (BYOAI) capability, which allows customers to use their own AI models for enhanced data security and flexibility. Additionally, Cribl is investing in agentic AI workflows, model customization, and infrastructure to support both cloud and on-premises deployments. These features are designed to streamline workflows, automate complex tasks, and provide actionable insights across the entire telemetry lifecycle, helping organizations stay ahead.
Cribl.Cloud: A starship for the next frontier
AI agents are noisy neighbors, firing off queries faster than phasers. To keep costs from exploding like photon torpedoes, you need elastic, tiered, and federated infrastructure: enter Cribl.Cloud.
Key highlights:
Elastic resources to isolate workloads (no noisy neighbors).
FinOps Center to give enterprises visibility into telemetry spend.
Tiered storage to balance speed and cost.
Federated search across regions and datasets.
Cribl Insights (GA soon) delivers real-time visibility into everything happening in your data engine.
And with Cribl-as-Code, managing this dynamic platform is as easy as deploying Terraform. Programmatic control means faster innovation without budgetary black holes.
Final transmission
As the keynote closed, Captain Sharp reminded the crew:
The next frontier of AI-driven telemetry is already here.
Data independence and open architecture aren’t optional, they’re essential.
With the right foundation, you can multiply your productivity tenfold, compress weeks of work into a single day, and turn chaotic data into actionable insights.
AI isn’t here to replace humans, it’s here to augment bad architecture.
So raise your hot Earl Grey tea and ready your warp drives. Because in the world of data, the mission is clear: go boldly, with Cribl at your side. Engage!
