Autonomous Infrastructure: The Operating Model AI Is Forcing on All of Us – Main Stage Keynote
Frontier AI models have broken the industry’s release cadence. What used to arrive quarterly now lands monthly — sometimes weekly — as AI systems surface vulnerabilities and generate fixes faster than any enterprise change process was ever designed to absorb. Most organizations are responding by working harder inside a model built for a slower world: longer maintenance windows, bigger patch backlogs, more risk accepted by exception. That path ends in a train wreck.
There is another path, and it is not new — it is simply new to infrastructure. The software world solved this years ago with CI/CD pipelines, continuous testing, and a disciplined SDLC; the cloud providers solved it at scale. In this keynote, Tom Gillis lays out what that operating model looks like when applied to infrastructure: treating infrastructure as code, bringing test-driven discipline and automated validation to the network, and moving from human-gated change windows toward continuous, verified deployment. He takes on the hard questions it raises — what gets automated and what still needs a human, how you build confidence in changes no one personally reviewed, what tooling enterprises actually need from their vendors to make this real, and how the enterprise-provider relationship has to change when both sides are operating at machine speed.
Why this session matters: The gap between how fast software now changes and how fast enterprises can safely deploy it is the defining operational problem of the AI era. The organizations that redesign their operating model will pull away from those still trying to patch their way out. This is the blueprint for that redesign.
Tom Gillis is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infrastructure & Security, at Cisco. A respected industry leader with strong executive management skills and in-depth knowledge of the challenges surrounding secure integrated networking, Tom is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to build secure infrastructure and extend it to the campus and branch. These efforts enable customers to reduce risks, streamline management, and adapt more effectively to modern threats. He previously led Cisco’s Security Business Group (SBG).
Prior to Cisco, Tom was the SVP/GM of the Network and Advanced Security Business Group at VMware, where he led the endpoint, networking, load balancing and network security businesses. He was also the CEO/co-founder of Bracket Computing which was acquired by VMware.
Before Bracket Computing, Tom was the GM of the Security Technology Group at Cisco where he led the company’s businesses for security management, appliances, applications, and endpoint services. Tom was also part of the founding team at IronPort Systems and served as senior vice president of marketing when the company was acquired by Cisco. Under his guidance, IronPort grew an average of 100 percent year-on-year for seven years. During his tenure, IronPort rose to become the leading provider of antispam, antivirus, and antimalware appliances for organizations ranging from small businesses to Global 2000.
Tom has also worked at iBEAM Broadcasting, Silicon Graphics, and Boston Consulting Group in various technical and leadership roles. He is also a noted advisor to startups and venture capital companies and is a member of several boards of directors.
Tom holds an M.B.A. degree from Harvard University, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an M.S.E.E. degree from Northwestern University and a B.S.E.E. from Tufts University.
