AUTONOMIC COMPUTING: ONE ANSWER TO COMPLEXITY Costs are also rising dramatically due to complexity. In the 1990's, approximately 80 percent of the cost of major computer systems revolved around hardware and software acquisitions, according to IBM studies. Now, the human expenses are roughly equal to equipment costs. If nothing changes, the human costs will double that of equipment in the next five to six years. Adding to this complexity is the proliferation of multiple-vendor and technology environments, which require the components of a given solution to be integrated and customized into unique customer business processes. The increased need to distribute data, applications, and system resources across geographic/national and business boundaries further contributes to the complexity of the IT infrastructure. The additional complexity, which continues to grow exponentially, keeps the costs of managing (deploying, tuning, fixing, securing) the IT infrastructure very high. In IBM's view, autonomic computing systems must follow the four principles described in Figure 2.2. They must be self-configuring (able to adapt to changes in the system), self-optimizing (able to improve performance), self-healing (able to recover from mistakes), and self-protecting (able to anticipate and cure intrusions). Systems with self-managing components reduce the cost of owning and operating computer systems. Figure 2.2. The core values of autonomic computing. 
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