Incorruptible Autonomy: Securing the Future of Agentic Infrastructure

Register: Click here

Date: Thursday, 2 April 2026
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM PDT
Speakers: Ankush Sharma, Kunal Kannav
Location: in-person @Santa Clara University, SCDI Room 1308, Santa Clara, CA 95054
Hybrid meeting: Zoom info will be provided one day before the event.
In-person Cost (pre-order): $15.00 general admission, $10.00 IEEE Members
In-person Cost (at the door): $20.00, no IEEE discount

Abstract:
The technology industry is rapidly crossing a critical threshold. We are moving beyond AI as a passive Copilot (a tool that simply advises engineers) and entering the era of AI as an active Agent. These new agents are capable of autonomously diagnosing issues and executing changes directly within global production environments.
However, granting AI write-access to mission-critical infrastructure introduces a new class of systemic business risk. Without the right safeguards, autonomous systems can make unpredictable decisions or be manipulated, leading to cascading operational failures. The transition to autonomy requires technology leaders to fundamentally rethink their Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and security strategies.
In this session, the speakers bridge the gap between strategic leadership and architectural rigor. Attendees will receive a comprehensive blueprint for safely managing the transition to AI-operated infrastructure, ensuring their systems remain highly intelligent and fundamentally incorruptible.
The Dual-Track Roadmap
This session provides a comprehensive framework to navigate the era of Agentic SRE, divided into two distinct tracks:
Track 1: The Management Imperative (Strategy)
Quantifying the ROI of Autonomy: Learn how to balance the efficiency gains of autonomous systems against operational costs and underlying model risks.
Defining Agentic Oversight: Establish the critical cultural and operational boundaries between decisions that require human approval and tasks that can be safely fully automated.
Track 2: The Security Blueprint (Architecture)
Pioneering the IARA Framework: A high-level overview of the Incorruptible Autonomy Reference Architecture, a 7-pillar security model for safely deploying AI agents.
Architecting Trust: Discover how to grant AI systems temporary, just-in-time permissions to prevent unauthorized access and severely limit the blast radius of any potential errors.

Speakers Bio:
Ankush Sharma | Senior Engineering Manager
Ankush is a Senior Member of IEEE and a recognized thought leader in the SRE space, bringing extensive industry experience from his previous roles at Microsoft, Citrix and Nokia. As the author of Observability and SRE in the Age of AI, he focuses on the strategic integration of artificial intelligence to drive organizational efficiency, scaling, and reliability.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kunal Kannav | Principal Site Reliability Engineer
With over a decade of experience engineering for high-profile firms including Palo Alto Networks, Tesla and Proofpoint, Kunal specializes in the architecture of secure, high-scale distributed systems. He is the primary architect behind the pioneering Incorruptible Autonomy Reference Architecture (IARA).