Autonomic computing to curb complexity

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

First of all, a reader from Bali e-mailed me last week to ask whether I knew of a software program that could slow down music playback on the computer so that he could follow the notes more easily.

I know that it is possible to change the speed of recorded music or even human speech during playback without affecting the pitch, as it was one of the features found in the first generation of Creative Nomad Jukebox. I have not found a stand- alone utility program that can create the same effect, though. If you happen to know of such a utility, I would certainly appreciate it if you could share the information with me. I will pass it on to this friend in Bali.

Holistic computing: While we in Indonesia are still groping with the idea of regional autonomy, which many now fear will lead to the country's disintegration, in the technologically advanced part of the world people are already talking about autonomic computing, which promises to bring, among other things, the integration of computing resources from geographically dispersed locations with an unprecedented simplicity.

The idea of combining individual computing resources to tackle a common task is not a new thing. Sun's Jini, which works like a confederation of computing resources that can be flexibly utilized at any time when they are connected, has been around for some time. Jini, if you recall, is the brainchild of another genius with the first name Bill-Bill Joy.

There have also been ideas of combining the tremendous computing power of a group of powerful mainframe servers to create a supercomputer. But the human quest for unlimited computing power has not stopped there. IBM has come up with the idea of grid computing. The word "grid" immediately reminds us of the electricity we use at home, which is made available through grids of power lines. The grid computing concept enables us to use computing power and data storage as if they were some kind of utility like electricity, gas and water.

Today, while we are still trying to understand what grid computing is all about, we already hear Big Blue talking about a new concept called "autonomic computing". It was Paul Horn, IBM's Director for Research, who first proposed the concept. The basic tenets of an autonomic computing system are self-healing, self- configuration, self fine-tuning and self-protecting. Needless to say, these capabilities require highly intelligent, complex hardware and especially software, mainly because these self- management operations must continuously take place without human intervention.

Everything happens so naturally, much like our autonomic, central nervous system, which makes our heart beat faster when we are nervous or our pupils narrow when we see a bright light.

Like many of the concepts, self-healing is not really a new concept. Like our skin, which can heal small bruises on its own, a computer system has been equipped with the ability to recover itself from errors. Sun, HP and IBM have separately done a lot of research into this particular area. Self-configuration is the ability to adapt to changes that occur within the system to ensure that an operation is not disrupted. IBM Servers, which are the results of its Project eLiza, have the ability to notify system administrators if certain components inside them show signs that they are about to break down.

Self-optimization refers to the ability of a system to fine- tune itself to achieve the highest level of efficiency given the constantly changing environment and workloads. Then there is also self-protection, which means that a system should be able to defend itself from internal as well as external attacks. These features are, of course, very complicated to implement.

Reducing complexity: It is this very complexity that IBM wishes to address in their concept of autonomic computing. While the world is projected to have one billion Internet users by the end of this decade, there will also be the pervasiveness of access devices. In addition to desktop and notebook PCs, people will carry PDAs and cell phones everywhere they go. At home, their refrigerators, air conditioners, digital TVs and game consoles will all access the Internet at the same time. Cars with an onboard, Internet capable computer are already appearing on the market. All of these give us some idea of the magnitude of complexity that we all have to handle several years down the road.

An IBM study showed that the complexity of systems today requires the same cost for human resources as it does for hardware and software acquisition. In five to six years, if nothing is done to put a brake on the growth of complexity, the cost of IT professionals required to manage IT systems will be twice the cost of the systems themselves. Worse, according to an IBM white paper, in the next decade the world will require 200 million IT professionals -- the entire population of Indonesia -- to support the one billion Internet users and all the businesses that are connected to one another by it.

However, autonomic computing will need to be accepted industrywide before it can have a meaningful impact on our lives. One main reason is that an autonomic computing system must be based on open standards. At the moment, the concept is still being developed at IBM's research lab in Almaden. Whether IBM will succeed in getting the support of mainstream industry remains to be seen. It will not be easy, as the idea of IBM dominating the Internet will frighten everyone.

However, as an Australian friend told me recently, "As far as we the end users are concerned, the simpler the computer is to use and to protect against viruses, the better it is for us."