Introduction

The previous Autonomic computing edge columns addressed many aspects of autonomic computing: adoption in various communities, standards, the self-CHOP concept, and some pretty heavy, forward-looking aspects of the autonomic computing architecture. I thought that, as we begin a new year, this would be a good time for a departure into the lighter side of autonomic computing, and my developerWorks editor agreed, although not without hesitation.

So, this month's column is an attempt at humor, in the form of an interview with Mr. Otto Nomic, purportedly one of the founders of autonomic computing, and ostensibly an internationally recognized expert on the topic. It has been said that at the heart of humor is a kernel of truth, and astute readers who are familiar with autonomic computing technology should be able to find those underlying truths in Mr. Nomic's irreverent responses.

This column undoubtedly takes you right up to the very edge of what developerWorks will publish (and what my management will approve), but a little humor about a serious topic can be refreshing. I hope you enjoy it.

Meet Otto Nomic

This question and answer article features Otto Nomic, a (fictional) purported founder of autonomic computing who ostensibly is an internationally recognized expert on the topic. The autonomic computing edge talked with Nomic about self-managing systems and the past, present, and future of autonomic computing.

The autonomic computing edge: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Otto Nomic: I was born in a small, technologically challenged town. As a young lad growing up in the 1980s, I was acutely aware of the increasing complexity of modern information technology systems. I used to drive my elementary school teachers crazy with my incessant focus on automating IT management tasks. My final report for my fourth-grade English class was the seminal paper, Multiple Proprietary Management Systems Considered Harmful. The grade I received for that paper was an 'F,' and I nearly failed the course.

Fast-forward to today, and I'm now the purported founder of autonomic computing and ostensibly an internationally recognized expert on the topic. My dog's name is "self-CHOP." The neighbors look at me funny when I call him.

Edge: That's...um...really nice. How did you get involved with autonomic computing?

ON: One evening, I had gone to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. The waiter came to my table and asked, "What do you want?" I responded that I wanted the IT industry to overcome the challenges of complexity, I wanted individuals and businesses to be more productive through automation, and I wanted to free system administrators from mundane management activities so that they could focus on higher-value tasks. And most of all, I wanted all this to work in a manner similar to the way the autonomic nervous system works in the human body -- you know, by automatically handling things like digestion, perspiration, and respiration, without requiring conscious thought.

The waiter rolled his eyes and walked away, but it turns out that Dr. Paul Horn, IBM senior vice president for research, was sitting next to me, and he had overheard, and we struck up a conversation.

Edge: What happened next?

ON: Dr. Horn grilled me for information. I explained to him how self-managing systems needed to be self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing and self-protecting [self-CHOP]. I told him that what was needed was an architectural blueprint for autonomic systems, and that it probably ought to include standardized management interfaces and autonomic managers. He took copious notes.

The very next day, Dr. Horn published his groundbreaking paper about Otto Nomic computing, "Autonomic Computing: IBM's Perspective on the State of Information Technology" [see Resources]. He used most of my ideas, but I didn't mind because he gave me credit by labeling the whole concept as "Otto Nomic Computing". Unfortunately, he misspelled my name, and his misspelling, "autonomic," stuck.

...Otto Nomic on the history of autonomic computing...

Edge: Can you tell us more about those early days of autonomic computing?

ON: I could. But first, I need to ask you something. Am I getting paid for this interview?

Edge: We'll see what we can do. Please go on.

ON: Well, thanks to me, IBM took the lead in autonomic computing. Mr. Alan Ganek was appointed as IBM vice president for autonomic computing. For months, he called me constantly for advice. Of course, he ended up publishing his own paper, too [see Resources]. He built an autonomic computing organization at IBM. He hired Dave Bartlett [see Resources] as vice president for marketing and business development, and he hired Ric Telford [see Resources] as vice president for architecture, standards, and technology.

Let me give you a quick synopsis of my recollection of the history of autonomic computing. On his first day as autonomic computing vice president, Alan Ganek arrived at work at 7:53 a.m. He got a cup of coffee (cream, no sugar) and greeted his administrative assistant. From 8:00 - 9:00 he attended a meeting with his staff, and then he...

Edge: (AHEM!) Maybe we should move on to the present.

ON: Well, you don't have to get snippy about it. You're the one who asked the question in the first place.

...On the state of the union...

Edge: So tell us...what is the "state of the union" for autonomic computing?

ON: The state of the union is strong (that's the way you're supposed to start every "state of the union" speech, right?). By the way, feel free to interrupt me with applause as I review the state of the union for autonomic computing.

Thanks to me, the folks at IBM have made great progress. They've published three editions of An Architectural Blueprint for Autonomic Computing, [see Resources] which explains all the geek stuff -- MAPE loops, autonomic managers, touchpoints, standards and even words such as "effector interactions" and "manageability capability!" You can applaud now if you'd like.

IBM has dozens of products with hundreds of autonomic capabilities [see Resources].

And it's not just an IBM thing. Dozens of companies have adopted autonomic computing technologies and quite a few companies are working with IBM to develop and promote standards for autonomic computing. There's plenty of academic research going on with autonomic computing [see Resources] and some universities are even adding autonomic computing to their curriculum (I expect to get a lot of calls to teach those courses, by the way, so I'm sure you'll understand if I have to answer my cell phone during this interview).

So, I would say that for autonomic computing, the state of the union is way cool. And if you would like to applaud now, that would be just fine.

Edge: And this is all thanks to Paul Horn, Alan Ganek and their teams at IBM?

ON: Apparently you haven't been paying attention. Yours truly, Otto Nomic, gets all the credit. This might be a good time to revisit the topic of how much I'm getting paid for this interview.

...On the future of autonomic computing

Edge: Uh...right...let's move on to what's ahead. What do you see in the future for autonomic computing?

ON: As autonomic computing continues to become a mainstream computer science discipline, I expect that more and more companies, large and small, will begin to realize the benefits of autonomic computing by implementing IT service management processes using technology that's built on standards that will enable those management processes to be automated.

As that rollout continues, we'll see more effective and efficient business systems built on autonomic computing standards, enabling the discipline-specific management "silos" to be integrated, which will increase productivity and decrease costs as processes such as incident management, problem management, change management, and others are increasingly automated.

I also expect that we will see more autonomic computing research, conferences and publications, and don't take this the wrong way, but they won't be just on IBM's developerWorks. And as I said earlier, I expect we'll see autonomic computing courses at leading universities...and the ones that get in on the ground floor might be lucky enough to have me as a guest lecturer.

(Cell phone rings) That's probably someone wanting me to teach a course on autonomic computing. (On telephone): Hello, Otto Nomic speaking, yes, I am available to teach or consult on autonomic computing...oh, it's you, dear...yes, I can pick up milk on the way home. (hangs up phone)

Most important of all, though, is that, in the future, I definitely see myself being interviewed on IBM developerWorks. And when that happens, I'll expect to be paid for that.

Conclusion

In his own inimitable way, Otto Nomic points out where autonomic computing has been, where we are today, and where we may be going with this important facet of information technology that is aimed at enabling systems to manage themselves.

Led by IBM, but embraced by many parties in the IT industry, autonomic computing has gained much momentum in the past few years and is increasingly being advanced, standardized, and adopted in business and academia.

We can debate how much of the credit should be given to Mr. Otto Nomic, but the resulting benefits are available to anyone who chooses to take advantage of them.

And the fact remains that Otto Nomic scammed an interview on developerWorks and he hopes to get paid for it.

The next installment of The autonomic computing edge will return to the normal state of affairs, discussing one of the latest technical advances in autonomic computing: tooling that enables the autonomic computing architectural blueprint to be realized in real working code.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to IBM executives Dr. Paul Horn, Alan Ganek, Dave Bartlett, and Ric Telford, who allowed their names to be used without changes in this article, in spite of their recollections of events that differed somewhat from Otto Nomic's.

Resources

Learn

• In Dr. Paul Horn's groundbreaking paper, find out more about IBM's autonomic computing initiative.
  
  
• In "The Dawning of the Autonomic Computing Era" (developerWorks, 2002), Alan Ganek and Tom Corbi describe some of the earlier autonomic computing developments.
  
  
• "Ric Telford on the state of autonomic computing today" (developerWorks, December 2004), is a real interview about autonomic computing with a real person.
  
  
• The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC-05) has information about one of the leading autonomic computing conferences.
  
  
• More (real) experts describe autonomic computing from their vantage points inside the IBM Autonomic Computing development group.
  
  
• The other informative and equally entertaining Autonomic computing edge columns offer closeups on several autonomic computing topics, ranging from architectural concepts to broader ideas, such as autonomic computing maturity within an enterprise.
  
  
• In "Automating problem determination: A first step toward self-healing computing systems" (developerWorks, October 2003), Ric Telford and others describe the self-healing aspect of autonomic computing.
  
  
• Find out more about the autonomic computing architecture in the IBM Autonomic Computing Architectural Blueprint.
  
  
• Check out Autonomic Computing Products and Services to learn about autonomic computing capabilities in IBM products.
  
  
• Dr. Peter Stone's article, "Improve Performance with Self-Configuring Distributed Systems" (developerWorks, December 2005), is one example of academic research in autonomic computing.
  
  

Get products and technologies

• Build your next development project IBM trial software, available for download directly from developerWorks.
  
  

Discuss

• Check out Dave Bartlett's developerWorks blog to learn more about autonomic computing happenings.
  
  

About the author

Brent A. Miller is a member of IBM's Autonomic Computing Architecture team, where he serves as the lead architect for self-healing. He has worked for IBM for 21 years, with assignments including printer development, mobile clients, mobile software and pervasive computing.

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• Meet Otto Nomic
• ...Otto Nomic on the history of autonomic computing...
• ...On the state of the union...
• ...On the future of autonomic computing
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments