Autonomic Computing: is a self-managing computing model named after, and patterned on, the human body’s autonomic nervous system. An autonomic computing system would control the functioning of computer applications and systems without input from the user, in the same way that the autonomic nervous system regulates body systems without conscious input from the individual. The goal of autonomic computing is to create systems that run themselves, capable of high-level functioning while keeping the system’s complexity invisible to the user.

Autonomic computing is one of the building blocks of pervasive computing, an anticipated future computing model in which tiny – even invisible – computers will be all around us, communicating through increasingly interconnected networks. 

Our frameworks and platforms enable Autonomic Computing through features like Self-Configure, Self-Heal, Self-Optimize and Self-Protect the system. The benefits include reduction in operations and maintenance costs, Total Cost of Ownership and improvement in the overall security posture and operational resilience of systems. The system will

  • Know itself in terms of what resources it has access to, what its capabilities and limitations are and how and why it is connected to other systems
  • Be able to automatically configure and reconfigure itself depending on the changing computing environment
  • Be able to optimize its performance to ensure the most efficient computing process
  • Be able to work around encountered problems by either repairing itself or routing functions away from the trouble
  • Detect, identify and protect itself against various types of attacks to maintain overall system security and integrity
  • Adapt to its environment as it changes, interacting with neighboring systems and establishing communication protocols
  • Rely on open standards and anticipate the demand on its resources while staying transparent to users

Every autonomic system should be able to exhibit a minimum set of properties to achieve its purpose:

  1. Automatic: This essentially means being able to self-control its internal functions and operations. As such, an autonomic system must be self-contained and able to start-up and operate without any manual intervention or external help. Again, the knowledge required to bootstrap the system (Know-how) must be inherent to the system.

  2. Adaptive: An autonomic system must be able to change its operation (i.e., its configuration, state and functions). This will allow the system to cope with temporal and spatial changes in its operational context either long term (environment customization/optimization) or short term (exceptional conditions such as malicious attacks, faults, etc.).

  3. Aware: An autonomic system must be able to monitor (sense) its operational context as well as its internal state in order to be able to assess if its current operation serves its purpose. Awareness will control adaptation of its operational behavior in response to context or state changes.