| With the continuos and unrelenting demands for cost reduction and economies of scale that are placed on IT organizations today, new methods for managing the computing enterprise are essential. IT organizations must operate as efficient service centers or contend with the choice of being outsourced. Service centers must operate efficiently and keep costs low to sustain their business. This requires IT organizations to operate differently—using new methods. Automating work, using intelligent software, and managing the enterprise with a holistic view are essential today. Autonomic solutions are required for cost-efficient operations—and must be based on the policies and service-level agreements of the enterprise. The major hardware vendors have initiatives underway to deliver servers, operating systems, and utilities that are self-configuring, self-optimizing, and self-healing. The ISVs must deliver software that not only meets those requirements but add additional value. This leads the major hardware vendors to strive for automatically adjusting servers and dynamically managing workload. It also forces independent software vendors (ISVs) of enterprise management tools to develop autonomic solutions that not only meet the same requirements, but also take advantage of this important technology. The intent of this book is to provide all readers with and understanding of the scope, issues, elements and examples of autonomic computing and prepare IT for the benefits that can be achieved. —Richard Murch Columbus, OH |