From NOC to AOC – Agentic Operations You Can Trust
Building on the NYC “From NOC to AOC” concept, this session focuses on operational trust: how to evolve from human-centric operations centers to Agentic Operations Centers (AOCs) where AI agents handle most monitoring and remediation—but humans still own accountability. It ties directly into ONUG’s 2026 focus on agentic operations you can trust, including standard identity, guardrails, and observability.
Key Questions: – What work should be fully handed to agents in 2026 (Tier-1, Tier-2 incidents, routine changes), and what must remain human-centric? – How do you train and certify “agent supervisors” to oversee closed-loop systems without being buried in noise? – How do you design human-in-the-loop patterns that are fast enough for AI-era incidents yet still satisfy governance? – What changes in org design, skills, and incentives are needed for teams to trust automation?
Takeaways: – A target operating model for AOCs, including roles, skills, and escalation patterns. – Examples of closed-loop NetOps/SecOps where agents deliver measurable MTTR and SLO gains.
Jon Pruskowski is the Director of Cloud Networking within Capital One’s Cloud Platforms organization with responsibilities for global enterprise connectivity and security, intent-driven connectivity automation, and software defined networking. He has over 20 years of experience in technology leadership, solution architecture, and network engineering.
Damien Garros is an architect, engineer, and leader with deep infrastructure automation, data management, and networking expertise. Over the last 15 years working at companies like Juniper, Apstra, Roblox, and Network to Code, he’s built a reputation for designing systems that make automation trustworthy by getting the data right first. Damien has architected and contributed to dozens of open-source projects that are now widely used across the industry. Known for his clear thinking and forward-looking vision, he’s also recognized for a leadership style rooted in candor and curiosity. Damien is the co-founder and CEO of OpsMill, creators of Infrahub, the infrastructure data management platform.
Josh Kindiger is President, Chief Operating Officer, and Co-Founder of Grokstream. A seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience, Josh has built and scaled solutions for communication service providers (CSPs), managed service providers (MSPs), and large enterprises operating complex IT and network environments.
At Grokstream, Josh leads global sales and operations while driving the go-to-market execution of the company’s Predictive and Agentic AI platform for IT and Network Operations. Grok’s Cognitive AI architecture continuously learns from operational data and human expertise to compress noise, surface predictive insights, and enable role-based operational agents that help teams move from reactive firefighting to proactive operations.
Josh has built a reputation for developing high-growth companies in competitive markets with a candid, customer-focused leadership style. Today, he is focused on helping organizations solve one of the defining challenges of modern operations—the noise problem—by applying AI to transform how IT and network teams detect, understand, and resolve operational issues.
Prior to founding Grokstream, Josh co-founded and served as Vice President of Sales at Resolve Systems, a pioneer in IT Process Automation. During his more than 16 years there, he managed corporate strategy, sales operations, and customer success, while helping guide multiple investment rounds and strategic divestitures. Throughout his career, Josh has also launched several startups, led companies through successful acquisitions, and held management roles within Fortune 500 organizations.
Josh holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and Finance from the University of North Texas. He lives in Prosper, Texas, with his family and enjoys gardening, movies, and CrossFit.
Dr. Wee is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of DevAI, an early-stage, VC-backed startup building IT intelligence agents for the Enterprise IT industry. Dr. Wee is a technology and business executive who held senior executive positions at Google, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett Packard. Dr. Wee was Vice President of Cross-Product Experiences at Google, where her team contributed to the iOS and Android mobile applications of Google’s products. Prior to this, Dr. Wee had a 10-year career at Cisco Systems where she held numerous executive positions, including Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of Cisco DevNet and Vice President & Chief Technology and Experience Officer of Cisco’s Collaboration Business. Dr. Wee founded and led Cisco’s developer program, DevNet, and created a DevNet Partner Specialization integrated with Cisco’s partner program and DevNet Professional Certifications integrated with Cisco’s Learning and Certification business, which she also led. Previously, Dr. Wee had a 15-year career at Hewlett Packard, where she held a number of technical and leadership roles, including Vice President and General Manager of the HP Experience Software Business, Lab Director of the Mobile and Media Systems Lab at HP Labs, and Research Scientist in HP Labs.
Dr. Wee is an IEEE Fellow for her contributions in multimedia technologies and has received numerous awards, including Technology Review’s Top 100 Young Innovators award in 2002, INCIT’s Technical Excellence award in 2007, ComputerWorld’s Top 40 Innovators under 40 in 2007, Women in Technology’s Hall of Fame award in 2010, the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list in 2012, the Red Dot Design Award in 2015, Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award in 2019, and the YWCA Silicon Valley Tribute to Women Award in 2020.
Dr. Wee received her S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and she serves on the Visiting Committee of the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department.
Michael Burns is a technology and operations executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience in large-scale service provider network operations. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Network Operations at Charter Communications, where he led 24×7 national NOC operations supporting more than 31 million customers across video, voice, mobile, and broadband services. Over his career he has built, transformed and operated national NOC’s and service desks at Cablevision (now Optimum), Comcast (Xfinity) and Charter (Spectrum).
He has extensive experience transforming operational organizations through data-driven decision making, AI/ML automation, and modern observability platforms. At Charter, he led the execution of a next-generation AIOps ecosystem that enabled automated event detection, workflow, correlation, and self-healing capabilities, significantly reducing incident response times and improving network reliability at national scale.
Today, Michael advises service providers with Burns Consulting Services LLC on NOC and OSS transformation, operational modernization, and AI-enabled operational efficiency, helping organizations integrate advanced analytics, automation, and ITIL-based operational workflows to improve service performance and customer experience.
He holds an MBA in Operations Management from Regis University and earned a Master Certificate in IT Service Management from Villanova University.
