Practical Autonomic Computing

Autonomic computing generally refers to future information processing and networking technologies that are capable of self-awareness for the purposes of self-optimization, self-healing and self-protection. This paper is an overview of the goals, motivations and current status of this technical area, with specific focus on the technical and deployment challenges. Our conclusion is that, while the imperative to develop autonomic computing capabilities is indisputable, the technical and business obstacles are extremely significant. Those obstacles are not being coherently or adequately addressed by the R&D and business communities