03-12-2012, 06:15 PM
AUTONOMIC COMPUTING
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ABSTRACT
Autonomic computing is the technology that is building self-managing IT infrastructures—hardware and software that can configure, heal, optimize, and protect itself. By taking care of many of the increasingly complex management requirements of IT systems, autonomic computing allows human and physical resources to concentrate on actual business issues.
The term autonomic computing derives from the body's autonomic nervous system, controlling functions like heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen levels without a person's conscious awareness or involvement.
The goal is to realize the promise of IT: increasing productivity while minimizing complexity for users. We are pursuing this goal on many technological fronts as we actively develop computing systems capable of running themselves with minimal human intervention.
Complicated tasks associated with the ongoing maintenance and management of computing systems, autonomic computing technology will allow IT workers to focus their talents on complex, big-picture projects that require a higher level of thinking and planning. This is the ultimate benefit of autonomic computing: freeing IT professionals to drive creativity, innovation, and opportunity.
Autonomic systems are being created in this manner to recognize external threats or internal problems and then take measures to automatically prevent or correct those issues before humans even know there is a problem. These systems are also being designed to manage and proactively improve their own performance, all of which frees IT staff to focus their real intelligence on big-picture projects.
Introduction
“Autonomic Computing” is a new vision of computing initiated by IBM. This new paradigm shifts the fundamental definition of the technology age from one of computing, to one defined by data. Access to data from multiple, distributed sources, in addition to traditional centralized storage devices will allow users to transparently access information when and where they need it. At the same time, this new view of computing will necessitate changing the industry's focus on processing speed and storage to one of developing distributed networks that are largely self-managing, self-diagnostic, and transparent to the user.
The term autonomic is derived from human biology. The autonomic nervous system monitors our heartbeat, checks our blood sugar level and keeps our body temperature close to 98.6 °F, without any conscious effort on our part. In much the same way, autonomic computing components anticipate computer system needs and resolve problems —with minimal human intervention. However, there is an important distinction between autonomic activity in the human body and autonomic responses in computer systems. Many of the decisions made by autonomic elements in the body are involuntary, whereas autonomic elements in computer systems make decisions based on tasks you choose to delegate to the technology. In other words, adaptable policy — rather than rigid hard coding determines the types of decisions and actions autonomic elements make in computer systems.
Key Elements of Autonomic Computing
The elements of autonomic computing can be summarized in to 8 key points.
Knows Itself
An autonomic computing system needs to "know itself" - its components must also possess a system identity. Since a "system" can exist at many levels, an autonomic system will need detailed knowledge of its components, current status, ultimate capacity, and all connections to other systems to govern itself. It will need to know the extent of its "owned" resources, those it can borrow or lend, and those that can be shared or should be isolated.
Configure Itself
An autonomic computing system must configure and reconfigure itself under varying (and in the future, even unpredictable) conditions. System configuration or "setup" must occur automatically, as well as dynamic adjustments to that configuration to best handle changing environments
Optimizes Itself
An autonomic computing system never settles for the status quo - it always looks for ways to optimize its workings. It will monitor its constituent parts and fine-tune workflow to achieve predetermined system goals.
Heal Itself
An autonomic computing system must perform something akin to healing - it must be able to recover from routine and extraordinary events that might cause some of its parts to malfunction. It must be able to discover problems or potential problems, then find an alternate way of using resources or reconfiguring the system to keep functioning smoothly.
Protect Itself
A virtual world is no less dangerous than the physical one, so an autonomic computing system must be an expert in self-protection. It must detect, identify and protect itself against various types of attacks to maintain overall system security and integrity
Adapt Itself
An autonomic computing system must know its environment and the context surrounding its activity, and act accordingly. It will find and generate rules for how best to interact with neighboring systems. It will tap available resources, even negotiate the use by other systems of its underutilized elements, changing both itself and its environment in the process -- in a word, adapting.
Open Itself
An autonomic computing system cannot exist in a hermetic environment. While independent in its ability to manage itself, it must function in a heterogeneous world and implement open standards -- in other words, an autonomic computing system cannot, by definition, be a proprietary solution.