We
are at just such a threshold right now in computing. The millions of businesses,
billions of humans that compose them, and trillions of devices that they will
depend upon all require the services of the IT industry to keep them running.
And it's not just a matter of numbers. It's the complexity of these systems and
the way they work together that is creating a shortage of skilled IT workers to
manage all of the systems. It's a problem that is not going away, but will grow
exponentially, just as our dependence on technology has.The solution is to build
computer systems that regulate themselves much in the same way our autonomic nervous
system regulates and protects our bodies. This new model of computing is called
autonomic computing. The good news is that some components of this technology
are already up and running. However, complete autonomic systems do not yet exist.
Autonomic computing calls for a whole new area of study and a whole new way of
conducting business We are at just such a threshold right now in computing. The
millions of businesses, billions of humans that compose them, and trillions of
devices that they will depend upon all require the services of the IT industry
to keep them running. And it's not just a matter of numbers. It's the complexity
of these systems and the way they work together that is creating a shortage of
skilled IT workers to manage all of the systems. It's a problem that is not going
away, but will grow exponentially, just as our dependence on technology has.
The
solution is to build computer systems that regulate themselves much in the same
way our autonomic nervous system regulates and protects our bodies. This new model
of computing is called autonomic computing. The good news is that some components
of this technology are already up and running. However, complete autonomic systems
do not yet exist. Autonomic computing calls for a whole new area of study and
a whole new way of conducting business.
IBM's proposed solution looks at the
problem from the most important perspective: the end user's. How do IT customers
want computing systems to function? They want to interact with them intuitively,
and they want to have to be far less involved in running them. Ideally, they would
like computing systems to pretty much take care of the mundane elements of management
by themselves. The most direct inspiration for this functionality that exists
today is the autonomic function of the human central nervous system. Autonomic
controls use motor neurons to send indirect messages to organs at a sub-conscious
level. These messages regulate temperature, breathing, and heart rate without
conscious thought. The implications for computing are immediately evident; a network
of organized, "smart" computing components that give us what we need,
when we need it, without a conscious mental or even physical effort.
