Strides In Self-Healing
The guide, geared toward solution providers and other IT professionals, illustrates problem-determination techniques surrounding self-healing networks. It explains how autonomic computing can reduce the costs and complexity of owning and operating an IT infrastructure via the deployment of self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing and self-protecting technologies and processes.
AUTONOMIC COMPUTING PLANS
>> IBM and Cisco working on a set of proposed technologies and standards to create a common language to detect, log and resolve system problems.
>> Standards: IBM and Cisco introduce a Common Base Event (CBE) specification that defines a standard format for event logs. Devices and software use these to keep track of transactions and other activity.
>> Framework: IBM and Cisco make available a proposed Adaptive Services Framework as a guide to getting started on the road to self-healing networks and better problem-determination techniques.
Shortly before launching the guide, San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco and Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM introduced autonomic standards,such as a single data format,that allow disparate systems to share troubleshooting information. Overall, the standards will create a common language to detect, log and resolve system problems.
"Today we rely on people to do very labor-intensive processes that can take weeks just to determine what the problem is, never mind resolving the problem," said Ric Telford, CTO for autonomic computing at IBM. "Self-healing systems can reduce the number of people needed to resolve problems and the man-hours, in turn cutting costs."
Partners applauded IBM and Cisco's recent endeavors. Chris Pyle, president of Boca Raton, Fla.-based IBM partner Champion Solutions Group, said a guide to on-demand and autonomic computing is sorely needed.
"It will be good to have a common language across storage, networking and systems because it allows us to reduce training and communicate in one mind and voice," he said.
As part of the initial announcement, the companies submitted to the OASIS standards body a standard common base event format that strives to improve the way systems are debugged and self-healed, Telford said. It standardizes event formats so that those for storage are the same as those for servers or databases, he said.
"This business is more complex than it needs to be, and [it] needs to be standardized," said Mont Phelps, CEO of IBM partner Netivity Solutions, Waltham, Mass. "Standards are a really good route to taking the complexity out of troubleshooting and resolving problems."