Let me start this review of Grid Technology Partners’ executive report, Autonomic Computing 2003: Characteristics of self-managing IT systems, in a somewhat unusual fashion. A major theme of this comprehensive study is the anthropormphising of technology. In what I can only hope does not prove to be a career limiting confession, I want to admit that the word “Anthropormphising” frightens me.

It manages to do in spite of a couple of very relevant degrees and some 10 varied years experience of the IT/business world. I find the suspicion that I don’t fully understand a word whenever I struggle to pronounce it correctly is not limited to holidays abroad. Of course, in my position as Editor of the Utility Computing newsletter, it’s vital that I be able to knowledgably include such emerging terms in everyday conversation. Perhaps on that trivial basis alone, this report would be worth reading. In actual fact, it delivers much more. If you are involved in evaluating the utility computing offerings of both the major vendors and smaller niche players, this is vital reading.

The anthropormphising of IT (or, as any technologist worth their salt will tell you, the ascribing of human features to IT systems), is far more than a mere metaphor. It relates to a structural trend that will impact a great deal of enterprise IT strategy in the next 18 months. At it’s heart is the concept of autonomic computing, an goal that, having been around for some time, is now one that selected enterprises actually seem poised to achieve.

As industry transitions from the ‘information age’ to the ‘knowledge era’ it seems certain that the need for data processing capabilities will continue to spiral upwards. Just last week at the Storage Networking World event in Florida, speakers announced that demands on their data centres had more than doubled each year for the last 4 years.

Managing today’s complex and often disorganised data centres is becoming an increasingly difficult task. As any major IT vendor is only too pleased to tell you, the future does not lie in ever-increasing complexity. Responding to user pleas for simplicity, providers have begun to market autonomic computing solutions that combine hardware and software components.

With an autonomic computing strategy, IT managers can evolve to the stage where the systems they manage are self-sufficient. Whenever an unexpected event occurs – whatever that might be – the system does not require human intervention. Instead, it automatically adjusts and solves the problem itself. The business goal that the system is enabling is seamlessly protected.

Simultaneous benefits include a dramatic fall in management and maintenance costs, together with a jump in the predictability and reliability of the system. Of course, that is a fair summation of the goal for much of IT, hence the report’s description of autonomic computing as IT’s “Grand Challenge.”

To achieve this vision of an information technology system that is able to adjust to whatever varying circumstances are thrown at it, four generic principles are embedded into autonomic computing strategy:

• self-configuration
• self-healing
• self-optimisation
• self-protection

These aims are clearly very ambitious. It is notable is that the vendors who offer autonomic computing solutions today are all marketing very similar benefits. However, their solutions are in hugely varied states of readiness.

It is on this point that the report truly comes into it’s own as a cost-effective tool for executives.

The final section of the report is dedicated to a realistic analysis of the autonomic computing offerings available at present. The solutions offered by the major vendors – particularly IBM, HP and Sun – are analysed, along with the smaller players. Importantly, the report appraises these vendors with the eye of a purchaser, not a visionary.

A surprisingly high number of smaller, niche companies have sprung up in the autonomic computing area in the last year. As is often the case, with some of these smaller companies, what they lack in marketing muscle, they make up for in the advanced functionality of their solutions. Accordingly, some executives are pursuing an IT strategy which knits the offerings of these companies together. In the words of one user, the “majors just aren’t delivering what I need fast enough.”

Of course, there is risk in this approach – but there is also the potential for competitive advantage. This report provides the reader with a thorough and data driven understanding of what an autonomic computing-based system will look like. It is vital reading for anyone who is involved in the strategy and delivery of IT, particularly if they have specific focus on the data centre. If you are evaluating the autonomic or utility computing offerings of both the minor and major vendors, such as HP and IBM, it is a must buy.

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Executive Summary

Section I: CONTEXT & TRENDS

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Productivity Paradox
1.2 Return on Investments
1.3 Multi-Story Bureaucracy
1.4 Information Technology Straightjacket
1.5 Consolidation
1.5.1 Server Consolidation
1.5.2 Application Consolidation
1.5.3 Storage Consolidation
1.5.4 Network Consolidation
1.6 Virtualization
1.7 Outsourcing
1.7.1 Application Service Providers
1.7.2 Turnkey
1.7.3 Utility Computing
1.8 Real Time Enterprise

Section II: TECHNOLOGY

2.0 Introduction
2.1 Anthropomorphizing of Information Technology
2.2 Autonomic Computing: A Definition
2.3 Characteristics of Autonomic Computing Systems
2.3.1 Self Monitoring
2.3.2 Self Optimization
2.3.3 Self Configuration
2.3.4 Self Healing
2.4 Component Technologies
2.4.1 Grid Computing
2.4.2 Web Services
2.4.3 OGSA
2.4.4 Jini and JXTA
2.4.5 Agents
2.5 Adaptivity in Autonomic Systems
2.5.1 Reconfiguration
2.5.2 Fault Tolerance
2.6 Provenance
2.7 Service Levels and Quality of Service
2.8 Emergent Behavior
2.9 Standards
2.10 Autonomic Computing Technology Users
2.11 Impact of Autonomic Computing on Applications

Section III: MARKET

3.0 Autonomic Computing: A Market Perspective
3.1 Market Taxonomy
3.1.1 Embedded and Management Based Taxonomy
3.1.2 AC Characteristics Based Taxonomy
3.2 Business Process Integration
3.3 "Grand" Initiatives
3.3.1 IBM Autonomic Computing
3.3.2 HP Adaptive Computing
3.3.3 Sun N1
3.4 Vendor Analysis
3.4.1 Ejasent
3.4.2 Jareva (Veritas)
3.4.3 Softricity
3.4.4 Racemi
3.4.5 Computer Associates
3.4.6 Others
3.5 Mergers and Acquistion Opportunity
3.6 State of the Market

REFERENCES