SolarWinds launches Avior, agentic AI for enterprise IT ops

SolarWinds is positioning Avior as a response to a specific worry about AI agents in IT: an agent that produces different outcomes from one run to the next is a liability where uptime and security matter. Chief Technology Officer Krishna Sai described the design as grounding "probabilistic models in deterministic execution," with the models deciding what needs doing while a fixed framework of predefined goals and approval controls governs how it gets done. That framework draws on 25 years of SolarWinds experience with how IT environments actually behave, Sai said.

The launch also marks a shift in how SolarWinds packages AI. Its earlier assistants, including an AI Agent that entered tech preview for SolarWinds Observability SaaS in October 2025, work inside individual products and are, in the company's words, "bounded by human attention and prompting." Avior instead runs as its own application on the SolarWinds Platform and reaches third-party systems through the Model Context Protocol, and SolarWinds says nobody has to migrate data to use it across self-hosted and cloud environments.

The timing follows a leadership change. Cullen Childress took over as interim chief executive when Sudhakar Ramakrishna's tenure ended Sept. 30, and Childress, also chief product officer, said "reaction time alone is no longer enough" as environments grow more complex. Avior is available starting today through a guided onboarding program, though SolarWinds did not disclose pricing.