Checkmk Conference 12: Tackling complexity in hybrid IT operations

Munich, June 16, 2026 – Hybrid IT environments, data silos, and rising alert noise are creating increasing challenges for IT operations teams. How organizations can manage this complexity through greater scalability, automation, and holistic monitoring strategies is the central theme of Checkmk Conference #12, which opened today at Munich’s Paulaner am Nockherberg venue with a record number of nearly 580 attendees on site and around 650 online participants. Over the next three days, attendees will deepen their knowledge of Checkmk, discuss current monitoring trends, and explore new approaches to addressing operational challenges. 

At the heart of the conference program is Checkmk 2.5, released at the end of April. In his opening keynote, CEO Jan Justus outlines the company’s evolution toward a unified observability platform for hybrid IT environments. CPO Martin Hirschvogel and Afrida Mahbub, VP Product Marketing, then present the latest innovations in Checkmk 2.5. Key enhancements include faster troubleshooting through the unified analysis of infrastructure and application data, improved scalability for large cloud, containerized, and hybrid environments, greater automation of core operational processes, and new workflows and dashboard capabilities that simplify usability and enable more flexible visualization of monitoring data.

The first two conference days focus on the operational requirements of modern IT environments. Sessions cover monitoring distributed sites and segmented networks, scaling large Azure deployments across hundreds of subscriptions, and enhanced monitoring of Proxmox and Ceph clusters to identify resource bottlenecks before they impact operations.

The program also includes guidance on hardening monitoring systems in compliance with regulatory requirements, presented by IT security expert Ralf Spenneberg of OpenSource Security, as well as practical insights into the use of artificial intelligence for faster alert analysis. On the second day, the focus shifts to automation, self-healing approaches, synthetic monitoring, and improvements in user experience and platform usability.

The technology sessions are complemented by a broad range of customer presentations. German public broadcaster SWR discusses its transition from infrastructure monitoring to a full-stack monitoring approach that provides end-to-end visibility across legacy applications, modern services, and microservices. IONOS presents how it automated the monitoring of more than 10,000 network components across 29 geo-redundant data centers, leveraging the Checkmk REST API to build a fully automated global monitoring architecture and eliminate manual operational bottlenecks. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) share insights into operating and monitoring a highly connected, business-critical IT environment that supports rail operations.

Additional customer case studies include how a team of just four administrators manages more than 25,000 services across a globally distributed infrastructure at Arkane Studios through extensive automation, the governance of 500,000 monitoring services at DZ Bank, and the operation of critical infrastructure at Munich Airport in compliance with ISO 27001 and KRITIS requirements.

The accompanying Knowledge Fair, held during the first two conference days, provides a dedicated space for direct interaction between users, partners, and the Checkmk team. Topics include application monitoring with OpenTelemetry (OTel), NetFlow, and artificial intelligence.

Beyond the formal agenda, the conference fosters direct exchange among users, partners, and developers through technical sessions, Q&A discussions, and informal networking throughout the event. Feedback from the community on operational challenges helps shape the ongoing development of the Checkmk platform. Attendees also receive an early preview of plans for Checkmk 3.0. The conference concludes on the third day with a series of hands-on workshops.