Splunk This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Big data firm Splunk is emerging from bumps in its cloud transition, CEO Doug Merritt tells Insider. After first building on Amazon's cloud, it now works with Google and, soon, with Microsoft. Its growth strategy hinges on plans to go after more government deals and win over legacy companies. Born a data analytics company in the world of private data centers in 2003, before the rise of cloud computing, Splunk was one of the first to catch onto the importance of and opportunity in big data.