EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION


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EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION

One of the last things a CIO needs is to be told that the latest technology is an IT revolution. Delivering system-wide autonomic computing environments should never be considered in this context. The implementation of autonomic computing is an evolutionary process that requires planning and support with additional processes. The path to full autonomic computing should be carefully planned and implemented. The road map to autonomic computing is achieved through five levels.

Basic level : This is the starting point for all IT environments. Each infrastructure element is managed independently by IT professionals who set it up, monitor it and eventually replace it.
Managed level : Systems management technologies can be used to collect information from disparate systems into fewer consoles, reducing the time it takes for the administrator to collect and synthesize information as the IT environment becomes more complex.
Predictive level : New technologies are introduced to provide correlation among several infrastructure elements. These elements can begin to recognize patterns, predict optimal configurations, and provide advice on what course of action the administrator should take.
Adaptive level : As these technologies improve and people become more comfortable with the advice and predictive power of these systems, we can progress to the adaptive level, where the systems themselves can automatically take the right actions based on the information that is available to them and the knowledge of what is happening in the system.
Autonomic level : The IT infrastructure operation is governed by business policies and objectives. Users interact with the autonomic technology to monitor the business processes, alter the objectives, or both.

Table 10.1 outlines the five levels of implementation.

Table 10.1. The Five Levels of Autonomic Computing Implementation (The purpose is to move from manual Level 1 to automatic Level 5.)

Basic Level 1	Managed Level 2	Predictive Level 3	Adaptive Level 4	Autnonomic Level 5
Multiple sources of system-generated data	Consolidation of data through management tools	System monitors , correlates, and recommends action	System monitors, correlates, and takes action	Integrated components dynamically managed by business rules and policies
Requires extensive , highly skilled staff	IT staff analyzes and takes actions	IT staff approves and initiates actions	IT staff manages performance against service-level agreements	IT staff focuses on enabling business needs
	Great system awareness	Reduced dependency on deep skills	IT agility and resilience with minimal human interaction	Business policy drives IT management
	Improved productivity	Fast and better decision making		Busness agility and resiliency


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AUTONOMIC ASSESSMENT

The first step in identifying if autonomic computing is suitable will be to complete an enterprise-wide assessment. The results of this assessment will be used to define the most cost-effective , appropriate autonomic implementation plan to meet corporate goals.

The assessment is performed to measure the potential for introducing autonomic products and services in a corporation and to determine if the corporation is ready to embark on implementation of autonomic capability. It will also define where to focus necessary resources and efforts to gain the maximum benefit. The emphasis is on a business viewpoint, looking at the reasons why autonomic products are needed and how a reduction policy will be crafted and simplicity will be introduced. The expected business value to be gained from complexity reduction or elimination can also be calculated. The result of the overall complexity assessment can be used as the basis for defining corporate complexity goals, complexity reduction adoption strategies, the domains in which to practice simplicity instead of complexity, and the complexity reduction program implementation plan.

Goals

The goal is to perform an autonomic assessment to successfully introduce the technology into a corporation. The purposes are to:

Evaluate a corporation's current complexity strategy and the implementation of that strategy in current software projects and various systems groups.
Use the results of the assessment to determine a corporation''s needs for autonomic products, the elements of a complexity program to achieve those goals, and the domains in which to focus complexity reduction efforts—for example IT architectures and infrastructure.
Recommend actions to take to implement its complexity reduction strategy with autonomic technology.

Instituting the practice of complexity reduction across a corporation is a large, complex task in itself, especially if the ultimate goal is to practice complexity reduction above the project level—that is, across teams , across product lines, and across software groups and organizations. Success requires careful planning, cooperation, and good management practices. To ensure success, a corporation needs to determine how ready, willing, and able it is to practice complexity-reduction driven development approaches and what actions it needs to take to prepare itself to accomplish its complexity objectives and goals.

The assessment will investigate both technical and management/organizational complexity issues. On technical side, some important issues include:

Identifying and defining core business objects and other kinds of components .
Defining guidelines and standards for business units.
Defining the organizational structure and classification scheme.

On the management/organizational side, issues include:

Defining personnel support for core business objects/components.
Establishing complexity training programs.
Establishing the complexity measurement infrastructure (i.e., defining complexity metrics and measurements, corporate complexity policy, complexity incentives).
Mapping autonomic products and services to business units.
Defining an implementation plan (first in outline, then in detail).
Defining resources, roles, and responsibilities for the autonomic implementation team.
A final road map to success.

Autonomic Assessment Tool

To help corporations understand their current autonomic computing capabilities and map key focus areas to enhance these capabilities as described above, IBM has created the autonomic assessment software tool. This tool measures the level of autonomic function against each of six functional areas within any IT environment.

It analyses against the standard five levels of autonomic maturity—Basic, Managed, Predictive, Adaptive, and Autonomic—to the following key functional areas:

Security management — The activity of establishing identities and managing security or key business resources.
User and resource provisioning — The process of changing (adding, moving, or modifying) resources or configurations in all IT environments to enable or enhance the delivery of IT services and to allow users to access or consume these services.
Performance and capacity management — The activity of managing and maintaining the performance of systems to meet adequate and acceptable levels of business objectives.
Solution deployment — The activity of planning, testing, and deploying new IT solutions, including all the infrastructure elements needed to support them.
Availability — The activity of establishing and ensuring consistent and readily available access to business resources.
Problem management — The process of identifying, analyzing, and resolving issues that impact IT service delivery.

The tool guides users through an interactive question-and-answer dialogue within each of the above areas to determine the exact nature of the IT environment and then give recommendations on autonomic suitability.

The assessment tool provides an evaluation of the corporation. A number of graphs and diagrams are presented that analyze the environment to assist IT management in planning for autonomic implementation. The purpose is to provide an aggregate view of the level of automation currently in place and provide IT management with guidelines to develop higher levels of automation by implementing autonomic technologies.

Example reports include:

Automation Profile

In this example, shown in Figure 10.2, the automation profile is divided into availability, performance and capacity management, security management, solutions deployment, and user administration.

Figure 10.2. Automation profile.

graphics/10fig02.jpg

Automation Capabilities Profile

The automation capabilities profile, shown in Figure 10.3, gives an assessment of the process, technology, and skills readiness.

Figure 10.3. Automation capabilities profile.

Provisioning Profile

In this provisioning profile example, Figure 10.4, the server and OS, and the identification, storage, application, and network capabilities are analyzed .