'Smart' computers will not only save us time, they will
save us money and offer businesses greater flexibility too, says
Alan Ganek.
Consider
this fact: between a third to a half of a company's total IT budget
is spent preventing or recovering from crashes, according to a
recent study by the University of California. And no wonder. A
system failure at a financial firm or online retail store can run
up millions of dollars in lost business.
And, if
you look at computer outages, about 40% are caused by operator
error. That's not because operators aren't well trained or don't
have the right capabilities. It's because the complexities of
technology are difficult to figure out, and IT managers are under
pressure to make decisions in seconds.
Businesses
can't just roll in processors and storage fast enough to avoid
meltdowns when usage spikes, or fend off viruses and hacker
attacks, or manage the different operating systems that must plug
in and access information: laptops, palmtops, desktops, whatever.
People are good, but they're not that good.
Since no
one is close to writing defect-free software or hardware, what we
need are computers capable of running themselves and with far
greater levels of intelligence built right into the technology
itself.
And by
"intelligence", I'm not talking about computers that can write the
next Ninth Symphony. I'm talking about the same kind of
intelligence we take for granted in our own bodies. We walk up
three flights of stairs and our heart rate increases. It's hot, so
we perspire. It's cold, so we shiver. We don't tell ourselves to
do these things. They just happen. We need something similar for
business.
If systems
and networks could begin to adopt these attributes, managers would
be able to set business goals and computers would, automatically,
set the IT actions needed to deliver them. For example, in a
financial trading environment, a manager might decide that trades
have to be completed in less than a second to realise service and
profitability goals. It would be up to software tools to configure
the computer systems to meet those metrics.
The
implications for this "autonomic" business approach are immediately
evident: A network of organised, "smart" computing components that
give us what we need, when we need it, without a conscious mental
or even physical effort.
Here's an
example. A computer freezes up intermittently, no customer
transactions are being processed for several seconds, losing
thousands of dollars in business and customer confidence and
loyalty. Today, IT support staff might not even find out about the
problem for more than a day. When they do, it takes a couple days
to figure out what is happening.
With an
autonomic system in place - with real-time monitoring and
auto-tuning analysis - the freeze-up is detected the first time it
happens and matched against historical problem data. The settings
are reset automatically, averting any real loss of revenue and
customer loyalty. A report that the administrator reads the next
day shows the action that was taken.
The good
news is work is already being done to make this happen. There are
research projects at labs and universities that include
self-evolving systems that can monitor themselves and adjust to
changes and "cellular" chips capable of recovering from
failure.
The goal
is to increase the amount of automation businesses have. Because
the more that you reduce human error, the more efficient your
business will be - whether you're a financial institution, a
shipping company or an online retailer. The beauty of it is that
all of the complexity gets hidden from the user.
The logic
is compelling: relief from the headaches of technology ownership
and maintenance; an improved balance sheet; and much greater
flexibility in meeting the demands of running a business.
But in the
end, perhaps the greatest benefit would be the freedom it would
unlock. Sure, it will create enormous efficiencies. But the
game-changing impact will be freeing up all companies - whether
just starting out or well established - to experiment, be more
creative, rethink assumptions and stretch the limits of progress as
far as the mind can conjure.
What do you think?
Do you
think today's computer systems are too complex to manage?
Tell us in an e-mail>> CW360.com
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Alan Ganekis vice president of autonomic
computing at IBM Software Group.