Autonomic management

History

The term "autonomic" originates from human sciences e.g. the autonomic nervous system where it refers to a control system responding involuntarily i.e., without consciousness to stimuli coming from its environment. The term "autonomic computing" was widely promoted by IBM as part of the Grand Challenges for the IT industry.

Definition

• Autonomic networking requires self-* properties. According to IBM there are four fundamental aspects of autonomic computing:
  • Self-configuring – systems adapt automatically to dynamically changing environments.
  • Self-healing – systems discover, diagnose, and react to disruptions.
  • Self-optimizing – systems monitor and tune resources automatically.
  • Self-protecting – systems anticipate, detect, identify, and protect themselves from attacks from anywhere.
• Autonomic management: Acting involuntary (on reflex) according to some predefined policies in order to keep the system up and running within its limits.
• Autonomic (in general): (a) acting or occurring involuntarily (reflexes) and (b) relating to, affecting, or controlled by the autonomic nervous system or its effects or activity (http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonomic).

Characteristics

• Autonomic management is sometimes used to refer to the set of management activities that take place in Autonomic Networks or Autonomic Systems.
• It also sometimes refers to all algorithms that automate management and/or control functions of traditional networks in such a way that they become more autonomic

Relation to Autonomous management

Compared to autonomous networks, autonomic networks are less intelligent and require a management interface.

• autonomous: (a) having the right of power of self-government; (b) responding, reacting, or developing independently of the whole (http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonmous).

Projects

• IBM Autonomic Computing, IBM Self-Managing Autonomic Technology, http://www-03.ibm.com/autonomic/
• ANA: Autonomic Network Architecture, http://www.ana-project.org/
• AMISE: Autonomic Management of Ubiquitous Systems for e-Health

Conferences and workshops

• IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing
• MACE 2006, 1st IEEE International Workshop on Modelling Autonomic Communications Environments, http://www.manweek2006.org/mace/
• Autonomic Management of Communication Networks and Services, http://www.tssg.org/autonomic-netman/
• Model-driven Autonomic Management (MAM), Purdue University, http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~ydai/AMSCS/MAM.htm
• Autonomic Management of Mobile Multimedia Services: 9th IFIP / IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia and Mobile Networks and Services, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4267, Springer, 2006
• Autonomic Management of Large Clusters and Their Integration into the Grid, Journal of Grid Computing, Springer, ISSN 1570-7873, 2005

Books

• Yu Cheng et al., A Generic Architecture for Autonomic Service and Network Management, Computer Communications (2006), www.sciencedirect.de, Elsevier

Publications

• The Autonomic Computing Manifesto
• Autonomic Computing Special Issue, IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 42, No 1, 2003.
• Kephart J, Chess D, The Vision of Autonomic Computing, IEEE Computer, Jan 2003, pp 41-50.
• E. Lupu, N. Dulay, M. Sloman, J.Sventek, S. Heeps, S. Strowes, K. Twidle, S.-L. Keoh, A. Schaeffer-Filho. AMUSE: Autonomic Management of Ubiquitous e-Health Systems. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 20(3)-277-296. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cpe.1194
• M. Sloman, E. C. Lupu, Engineering Policy-Based Ubiquitous Systems. The Computer Journal. 2009, DOI 10.1093/comjnl/bxp102.