Integration Enables Automation System Center ‘Autonomics’

The concept of autonomic computing is inspired by the human body’s autonomic nervous system, which controls vital functions (such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure) without any conscious intervention.

Similarly, autonomic computing systems continually monitor, learn and tune the unique parameters, interdependencies and normal operating behavior of an enterprise systems environment without the need for human intervention. This is what Microsoft refers to as "the dynamic data center".

Autonomics must use various IT management tools (software), illustrated below. However, many software exist to support Autonomics.  Getting software tools to work coherently is very difficult as they require a high degree of customization and configuration to work in a specific environment. Moreover, with the rapid pace of change, the tools must be updated, reconfigured, and extended to meet the new business requirements while avoiding a decline in the incremental value delivered.

Service Manager Integrates System Center to Enable Autonomics

Microsoft has removed this complexity with the introduction of System Center Service Manager (SCSM). SCSM unifies the different tools and provides a central point from which to orchestrate automation. The beauty is that once SCSM is in place, automation automatically improves productivity. For example, an alert occurs, the issue come into the Service Manager service desk, an Analyst analyses the incident accurately through the Service Manager CMDB, the Analyst then fixes the issue by patching the system through System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), once patched, SCCM updates the CMDB under Service Manager so the Analyst doesn’t need to. Should an incident/problem/change request occur against this asset again in the future, the previous history is easily viewable within the Service Desk. Once an incident "fix" is understood, it can be coded into Opalis to drive an automated fix for further Incidents of the same nature.

Click here to download a white paper on System Center Service Manager (SCSM).