From Network Engineer to Building Agentic AI for Splunk
Since going independent in 2009, Eduard has earned Splunk’s highest certifications and specialized in IT Service Intelligence (ITSI). He has been publishing Splunk apps since 2019. Today he builds and sells Adjutant AI through his own company, ITMIP BV, under the brand The Dutch Data Difference, designed for organizations in government, finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure that cannot allow their data to leave their own environment.
Building Smarter Splunk Apps with AI
Eduard’s journey with Splunk began in 2014 at Rabobank, where he built deep expertise in both Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform. Today, he develops apps that integrate seamlessly with IT Service Intelligence (ITSI), Enterprise Security, and the Machine Learning Toolkit.
Adjutant AI: Agentic AI That Stays Inside Your Environment
Adjutant AI is a native Splunk app that runs entirely inside the customer’s own deployment. No data leaves the environment, the customer chooses the model, and every action an agent takes is governed by existing Splunk roles and recorded as an auditable event. It generates validated searches, dashboards, alerts, and machine learning workflows from natural language, and it can also execute multi-step workflows autonomously, producing results that reviewers can inspect, validate, and reproduce. Building that required designing AI agents that operate entirely within Splunk's native security model, respecting RBAC, audit logging, and customer-selected LLMs.
Built for both security and IT operations teams, Adjutant AI streamlines critical work such as ITSI root cause analysis, service investigations, threat investigations, phishing triage, MITRE ATT&CK analysis, and anomaly detection. Unlike generic AI tools, it validates results against the user’s actual Splunk deployment, so responses are accurate, grounded in real data, and traceable back to the search that produced them.
The inspiration for Adjutant AI came from years of hands-on experience. Eduard recognized that many customer challenges were rooted in data complexity, driving him to build a platform that makes Splunk more approachable while ensuring customers retain full control over their data, models, and governance. It works with the models and toolkits an organization already trusts, including the Splunk AI Toolkit and Cisco’s Deep Time Series Model, rather than tying anyone to a single provider.
Building this as a founder has been both rewarding and demanding. Beyond writing code, Eduard owns the entire product lifecycle, from design and testing to marketing and customer support. His goal remains clear: helping organizations extract more value from Splunk while keeping ownership of their data, their roles, and their model.
Eduard’s Advice for New Splunk App Developers
For developers just starting their journey, Eduard’s advice is simple: Build something you believe in. Splunk Enterprise is a powerful platform with endless opportunities for innovation, and every developer brings a unique perspective that can solve real-world problems.
He recommends taking full advantage of Splunk’s built-in capabilities, such as authentication, role-based access control (RBAC), KVStore, and secure credential storage. In addition, designing with Splunk Cloud compatibility in mind from the start ensures your app reaches the widest possible audience.
Just as importantly, Eduard emphasizes building trust. "Be transparent when data is incomplete, test with real-world datasets, and run AppInspect early and often throughout development," he suggests. His final piece of advice? Don’t be afraid to think creatively. Innovation starts with curiosity and the confidence to turn ideas into reality.
Life Beyond Code: Finding Balance in Nature
When he isn’t developing apps, Eduard finds balance in the great outdoors. Living in a wooded area, he is constantly working on new projects, whether that's gardening, wood carving, painting, or maintaining his property.
He also cares for three Friesian horses, a hands-on responsibility that keeps him busy year-round. For Eduard, working with his hands provides the perfect balance to the digital world, helping him recharge, stay grounded, and return to his development work with a fresh perspective.
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