Policy-Based Automation in the Autonomic Data Center

The autonomic data center enables enterprises to respond to pressures of cost, complexity and compliance for the information technology infrastructure that supports their business operations. A data center that uses IT service management to deliver business services offers an environment for incorporating autonomic behavior and capabilities. These autonomic characteristics can address enterprise pressures by achieving a more fully integrated data center that combines self-managing capabilities and leverages knowledge from operational activities to automate and integrate processes, tasks and resources. This paper addresses solutions for one aspect of such an autonomic data center, namely policy-based automation. In this abbreviated paper synopsis, we describe the use of policy and standards to enhance integration and automation.