Autonomic computing provides technologies, standards, and best practices to support and enable the process environments of the IBM® Tivoli® IT Unified Process and IBM Service Management offerings. These deliverables support management areas dealing with common system administration, installation and maintenance of system software and composite applications, and management and remediation of system events.

Autonomic computing is about shifting the burden of managing systems from people to technologies. When the self-managing autonomic technologies and self-management capabilities delivered by IBM and other vendors can collaborate, the elements of a complex IT system can work together and manage themselves based on a shared view of system-wide policy and objectives.

Self-managing IT systems use intelligent control loop implementations to monitor, analyze, plan, and execute the spectrum of management functions, while leveraging knowledge of the environment collected during its operation. These control loops can be embedded in resource run-time environments or delivered in management tools.

Businesses—small, medium and large—want and need to reduce their IT costs, simplify the management of complex IT resources, realize a faster return on their IT investments, and ensure the highest possible levels of system availability, performance, security and asset utilization. Autonomic computing addresses these issues—not just through new technology but also through a fundamental, evolutionary shift in the way that IT systems are managed. Moreover, autonomic computing will free IT staffs from detailed mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on managing business processes. True autonomic computing will be accomplished through a combination of process changes, skills evolution, new technologies, architecture, and open industry standards.

Read these articles for more details about autonomic computing:

• The Need for Autonomic Computing
• The Structure of an Autonomic IT System
• Autonomic Computing Maturity Levels and Their Value
• Autonomic Computing Standards

The IBM Tivoli Open Process Automation Library contains product extensions for Autonomic Computing to help speed your time to value. To view these extensions, visit IBM Tivoli Open Process Automation Library - Autonomic Computing.

Also, more information about autonomic computing can be found on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/autonomic, or from your IBM sales representative.