Richard Murch, «Autonomic Computing»

PREFACE The term and technology of autonomic computing is unfamiliar to mostIT people. However, it will become familiar and understood after readingthis book. Today, IT organizations are faced with the growing challengeof supporting the needs of the corporate enterprise with a reducedbudgets and persistent or growing computing demands. For manyenterprises, the challenge is compounded by complex architectures anddistributed computing infrastructures that were developed over the last20 years. This situation has caused system management costs to escalatewhile budgets and corporate spending are shrinking. CIOs and CTOs everywhere are now tasked with reducing the costs ofthe IT organization while continuing to support the ongoing and growingcomputing needs of the enterprise. To succeed, the CIO must find newways to operate the computing infrastructure of the company moreefficiently. Solving this problem requires a new computing model–onethat allows for efficiencies in IT infrastructure and resources. Indeedone such model is now emerging. IBM calls it autonomic computing. Thisis a new methodology for managing enterprise computing environments.Autonomic computing is a new approach that enables software to operateintelligently and dynamically, basing decisions on IT policies andservice requirements. Top hardware vendors, such as IBM, Microsoft,Hewlett Packard and others are looking at how to develop servers,operating systems and system management tools and services thatencompass the fundamental requirements of autonomic computing. WHAT IS AUTONOMIC COMPUTING? The word "autonomic" meansacting or occurring involuntarily. Autonomics is used to describe anaction or response that occurs without conscious control. In physiology,it relates to the activities controlled by the autonomic nervous system(ANS). Autonomic computing is the ability to manage your computingenterprise through hardware and software that automatically anddynamically responds to the requirements of your business. This meansself-healing, self-configuring, self-optimizing, and self-protectinghardware and software that behaves in accordance to defined servicelevels and policies. Just like the autonomic nervous system responds tothe needs of the body, the autonomic computing system responds to theneeds of the business. GOALS OF AUTONOMIC COMPUTING Autonomic computing is a newapproach to computer and systems management. The purpose is to reducethe cost of managing the IT infrastructure, and at the same time,increase service. The goals autonomic computing is to reduce the cost of servicethrough far more automated and efficient use of available resources andcapacity. This includes dynamic resource allocation, self-healinghardware and software, and setting service-level agreements according tobusiness needs. Autonomic computing have four basic value propositionsthat can be stated as business goals: Reduced costs–achieved by better and more efficient resource usage,and by reduced system-management (labor) costs. Improved service levels–achieved by dynamic adjustments or tuning ofIT services. Increased agility–achieved by rapid provisioning of new services orresources and scaling of established services. Less complexity–by self-managing and intelligent decision making inIT operations much of the complexity is managed without humanintervention. There are eight key elements of an autonomic-computing system: Knowledge of itself, in terms of resources and capabilities–Anautonomic system has knowledge of its components, status, capacity andconnections with other systems to govern itself. The ability to configure and reconfigure itself–The autonomicsystem is capable of configuring itself and making dynamic adjustmentsto that configuration as its environment changes. The ability to continuously self-optimize itself–The autonomicsystem monitors its constituent parts and fine-tunes workflow to achieveestablished system goals. Self-healing capabilities–The autonomic system must be able todiscover problems or potential problems and find alternate ways of usingresources or reconfigure the system to keep functioning smoothly. Self-protection capabilities–The autonomic system must be able toprotect itself from various types of internal/external attacks andfailures to maintain overall system security and integrity. The ability to discover knowledge of its environment and context–andto adapt accordingly–The autonomic system must be able to understandhow to best interact with neighboring systems, using available resourcesand adapting to its environment. The ability to function in a heterogeneous computingenvironment–The autonomic system must be able to function in aheterogeneous world–in other words, it cannot be a proprietarysolution. The ability to anticipate and adapt to user needs–The autonomicsystem must be able to meet the goals of the business without involvingthe user for data collection, analysis, and decision-making. The fundamental process is to have autonomic systems that canenforce your computing policies and service-level agreements through theuse of intelligent hardware and software. Maintenance and processingtasks are automated and computing resources are dynamically allocatedfor maximum efficiencies. SUMMARY With the continuos and unrelenting demands for cost reduction andeconomies of scale that are placed on IT organizations today, newmethods for managing the computing enterprise are essential. ITorganizations must operate as efficient service centers or contend withthe choice of being outsourced. Service centers must operate efficientlyand keep costs low to sustain their business. This requires ITorganizations to operate differently–using new methods. Automating work,using intelligent software, and managing the enterprise with a holisticview are essential today. Autonomic solutions are required forcost-efficient operations–and must be based on the policies andservice-level agreements of the enterprise. The major hardware vendorshave initiatives underway to deliver servers, operating systems, andutilities that are self-configuring, self-optimizing, and self-healing.The ISVs must deliver software that not only meets those requirementsbut add additional value. This leads the major hardware vendors tostrive for automatically adjusting servers and dynamically managingworkload. It also forces independent software vendors (ISVs) ofenterprise management tools to develop autonomic solutions that not onlymeet the same requirements, but also take advantage of this importanttechnology. The intent of this book is to provide all readers with andunderstanding of the scope, issues, elements and examples of autonomiccomputing and prepare IT for the benefits that can be achieved.