[3] Its software helps capture, index and correlate real-time data in a searchable repository, from which it can generate graphs, reports, alerts, dashboards and visualizations.

It is a horizontal technology used for application management, security and compliance, as well as business and web analytics.

[17] In June 2015, Splunk acquired the software company Metafor that uses machine learning technology to analyze data generated from IT infrastructure and applications.

[19] In October 2015, Splunk sealed a "cybersecurity alliance" with U.S. government security contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. to offer combined cyber threat detection and intelligence-analysis technology.

[20] In 2016, Splunk pledged to donate $100 million in software licenses, training, support, education, and volunteerism for nonprofits and schools over a 10-year period.

[24] In September 2017, Splunk acquired SignalSense which developed cloud-based data collection and breach detection software.

[14] On June 11, 2018, Splunk announced its acquisition of VictorOps, a DevOps incident management startup, for US$120 million.

[31] Two weeks later on September 4, 2019, Splunk acquired Omnition—an early-stage startup specializing in distributed tracing—for an undisclosed amount.

[35][36] On March 2, 2022, Splunk named Gary Steele, previously at Proofpoint, as its CEO and the successor to interim chief Graham Smith effective April 2022.

[7] In November 2023, the company announced layoffs affecting 7% or 500 of its employees, following an earlier reduction of 300 staff in the same year.

CEO Gary Steele clarified in a letter to employees, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, that the decision was not related to the Cisco deal.

[39] In April 2024, Splunk won an infringement case against Crible, Inc., a startup competitor, for copying enterprise data analysis software.

[42] At the time, Splunk had 1,100 patents, with clients such as Singapore Airlines, Papa Johns, Heineken, and McLaren.

It uses a lightweight agent to locally collect log messages from files, receives them via TCP or UDP syslog protocol on an open port (not preferred), or calls scripts to collect events from various application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect to applications and devices.

[46] Splunk Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) free community edition, is free for as long as you want, up to 100 actions/day to automate tasks, orchestrate workflows, and reduce incident response times for cloud, on-premises or hybrid deployments.

[54][55] In 2016, Google announced its cloud platform would integrate with Splunk to expand in areas like IT ops, security, and compliance.

[56] The company also announced additional machine learning capabilities for several of its major product offerings, which are installed on top of the platform.

It allows role-based access to create alerts and reports based on data that is relevant for each individual.

Splunk also announced that a capability called Kubernetes Navigator would be available through their product, SignalFx Infrastructure Monitoring.

[80][81] In November 2018, Splunk signed a sponsorship deal with the Trek-Segafredo professional road cycling team; the partnership started in 2019.