Policy-based Autonomic Computing

Policy-based computing is one of many techniques used to implement autonomic computer systems. The business function is expressed in terms of workflow (logic + actions) or behavioural rules to be performed in response to certain situations, which is decoupled from the implementation mechanism. The mechanisms are fixed at design time, but the actual run-time behaviour is decided by the policy. This facilitates contextual awareness as the policy may take account of various environmental inputs from sensors and external software systems. Policy-based mechanisms are also very useful in specifying system behaviour -- such as when specifying Service Level Agreements, and subsequently monitoring whether these agreements have been adhered to. Policy-based configuration is highly versatile and generally applicable across a very wide application space. When compared with other autonomics techniques, policies represent one of the lowest risk and lowest cost solutions; because there is relatively low complexity. This book brings together various aspects of using policies in the context of autonomic computing. It contains papers that report novel contributions to policy-based computing within an autonomics context, along with survey articles that highlight research directions in policy languages, tools and frameworks to support the construction and management of autonomic systems.