Alan George Ganek

The dawning of the autonomic computing era

This issue of the IBM Systems Journal explores a broad set of ideas and approaches to autonomic computing--some first steps in what we see as a journey to create more self-managing computing systems. Autonomic computing represents a collection and integration of technologies that enable the creation of an information technology computing infrastructure for IBMs agenda for the next era of computing--e-business on demand. This paper presents an overview of IBMs autonomic computing initiative. It examines the genesis of autonomic computing, the industry and marketplace drivers, the fundamental characteristics of autonomic systems, a framework for how systems will evolve to become more self-managing, and the key role for open industry standards needed to support autonomic behavior in heterogeneous system environments. Technologies explored in each of the papers presented in this issue are introduced for the reader.

An overview of IBM service management

Information technology has become a key enabler for businesses in a wide variety of sectors (such as banking and health care) and is increasingly used to deliver their services. For these businesses, service excellence is increasingly a competitive differentiator, as customers need to rapidly adapt to changing conditions in the marketplace and create and deploy new services quickly and efficiently. However, service excellence can only be achieved through effective and efficient service management. IBM Service Management is an initiative to help businesses increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their services over the complete life cycle of service creation, deployment, and operations. IBM is bringing together the capabilities of its hardware, software, and consulting services organizations to help customers design, build, deploy, and manage these business services. IBM is also working closely with business partners and industry standards organizations to make this an industry-wide initiative. In this paper, we describe IBM Service Management and its role in improving all aspects of business services.

Introduction to systems application architecture

Systems Application Architecture is a framework in which applications are developed so that they run consis-tently on major IBM computing systems. This paper presents the motivation and requirements for this framework and describes the main elements of its structure. It also discusses the effect on current processing technologies and on application development.

Enterprise Systems Architecture/370: an architecture for multiple virtual space access and authorization

The Enterprise Systems Architecture/370™ provides a significant step in the IBM System/370 evolution by providing new capabilities for virtual addressing and program linkage across multiple address spaces. This paper reviews the evolution that led to this advance and illuminates the goals, such as eliminating growth constraints and improving security, integrity, reliability, and performance, that have guided it. The major architectural capabilities are discussed, along with the system environments in which they are useful. The rationale for design choices is presented and related to issues of performance, access authorization, and constraints relief.

The response to IT complexity: autonomic computing

Autonomic computing (AC) is an initiative that addresses the challenge of managing information technology (IT). The AC approach is to develop technologies and methodologies that make systems more self-managing and more resilient to changes in configurations, workloads and other factors. By so doing, AC reduce the total cost of ownership of IT systems, enable IT systems to deliver business value more rapidly, and increase the quality of service of IT systems. This work highlights the concepts of AC, the business drivers behind it and how the domains of AC address the challenges in todays IT environments. It describes principles of an overarching unified architecture, common building blocks for autonomic systems, some areas of progress and the challenges ahead.

Turning points in systems architecture

The changes in computer systems and architecture since the inception of the IBM Systems Journal in 1962 are enormous. Technology and innovation have transformed the computer systems landscape from tremendously expensive devices found in locked glass houses in the bowels of large institutions and accessible only to experts, to flexible systems large and small, found almost everywhere, and accessible to many millions of people. Underlying this transformation are system architectures that have provided durable foundations for continued enhancement and enrichment of systems for an ever growing diversity of applications. We have highlighted as turning points some of the key architectural constructs documented in the IBM Systems Journal that have contributed substantially to this evolution.

Challenges in Managing Complexity: Autonomic Computing

Summary form only given. This paper explores the issues faced by enterprises in managing the complexity of information technology as well as progress in emerging autonomic technologies to address them. The paper considers the balance between technology automation and IT processes and human interactions with the management of technology. Recent trends in system management architecture, tools, and standards would be described and promising areas of research highlighted