IBM to open autonomic computing center

Priya Padmanabhan

BANGALORE: IBM, which has done some pioneering work in the field of autonomic computing, is planning to open a center focusing on this technology, here.

Big Blue already has one other dedicated autonomic computing development facility in Imoto in Japan. Speaking to CyberMedia News, Ric Telford, VP, autonomic computing, IBM Worldwide, said that the center would initially house 35 engineers. The center would be part of IBM Software Labs but would work closely with IBM Research Labs in Bangalore and Delhi.

Autonomic computing technology revolves around self-managing systems that can be programmed to reconfigure and optimize themselves. Explaining the technology, Telford said, “It is an analogy to the autonomic nervous system in the human body where processes like breathing and heart rate take place such that you don’t consciously think of them. It is an effort to do this for IT systems.”

IBM started this initiative in 2002 and today around 500 unique autonomic features are incorporated across 75 products brought out by the company. The team in India will work on some base autonomic computing technologies. Telford also hopes to forge relationships with the various academic organizations in India that can contribute to the technology.

“The end goal of this technology is to come up with an autonomic data center that can take care of the mundane IT tasks of data center administrators such as backing up of systems, log analysis and setting configurations so that they can focus on using IT to meet their business needs,” Telford added.

He feels currently the company is around 3-5 years away from the goal of setting up an autonomic data center.

© CyberMedia News