Open standards driving the development of autonomic technologies "Open standards" are two of the hottest words in all technology circles, especially in today's on demand world in which companies and consumers look to make the most of their infrastructure investments. Whether it's a 50,000-person enterprise that wants to connect employees, customers, and partners or an individual who wants to connect a computer, MP3 player, and digital phone, open standards are increasingly critical factors that influence every person who interacts with technology.
The growing field of autonomic computing is no different. As companies continue to develop computing systems capable of managing themselves with minimal human interaction, open standards are playing a vital role in the creation of advanced, on demand operating environments. Just like the individual who wants his computer and all of his electronic devices to speak to one another fluently, fully autonomic computing systems-those reaching level five on the scale of autonomic maturity (see Figure 1, "Levels of autonomic maturity")-will be based on multiple components that interact seamlessly with each other and with heterogeneous systems external to themselves. Those systems will undoubtedly include products and solutions from a variety of suppliers, which is why standards-based technology becomes so critical. Any autonomic component or system based on proprietary technology will be unable to "speak fluently" with other autonomic components and systems, thereby reducing their effectiveness and ultimately degrading the capabilities of the entire IT infrastructure. IBM and others developing the key autonomic computing technologies are actively promoting and offering these technologies in open standards venues. While IBM has and will continue to offer products with autonomic capabilities, the success of autonomic computing and the degree or maturity that the industry can reach with autonomic computing is directly related to the pervasive deployment of these technologies across the entire IT infrastructure. The only way that this can happen is through industry-wide agreement on, and acceptance of, these technologies. And, it is the standardization of these technologies that will make this possible.
Because autonomic technology spans a wide range of computing fields, there are a variety of existing and emerging standards relevant to autonomic computing, including:
- Distributed Management Taskforce (Common Information Model)
- Internet Engineering Taskforce (Policy - RFC3060, Simple Network Management Protocol - RFC1157)
- Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) - (WS-DM, WS-Policy, WS-Security)
- Java Community Process (JSR3, JSR47, JSR87, JSR168)
- Storage Networking Industry Association SMI-S
- Global Grid Forum (Open-grid Systems Architecture, Open-grid Systems Infrastructure, CMM-WG)
- The Open Group (ARM)
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - (XML, SOAP, Web Services)
The creation of standards that guide the development of autonomic technologies is driven by a variety of methods: Standards bodies
Accredited standards bodies like IEEE, IETF, ISO. De facto standards
Includes standards based on accepted best practices, open source, consortia, trade associations, and company-led technologies such as OASIS, GGF, W3C.
The creation of open standards-and ultimately the acceptance of advanced autonomic technologies-relies upon the cooperation and participation of key stakeholders throughout the computing industry: Industry drivers
Computing industry leaders must be active participants in the development of open standards. To that end, IBM is leading the charge by taking a strong role in a variety of standards organizations. IBM participates in all of the standards bodies essential to autonomic computing and, in many cases, chairs or co-chairs the key workgroups in those bodies. As the world's leading patent producer, every year IBM offers its patented technologies to the industry through these standards bodies, in many cases on royalty free terms. Technology developers
IBM is working with a growing base of Business Partners for autonomic computing to ensure collaboration on standards and technology development. Customers
Companies buying IT products play a key role in the creation of standards, and for good reason: they are the ones who will actually be buying and using autonomic computing systems. As a result, customers have a vested interest in helping ensure that their purchases remain viable investments for years to come as new technology is developed and integrated into existing autonomic environments. Customer participation in standards bodies helps focus the standards development on the needs of the customer. Working together, these groups can drive the development of open standards that guide the creation of fully autonomic computing systems.
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