Autonomic Computing

Simplifying the IT Infrastructure

Most CEOs would cringe at the idea that IT infrastructure—the way architectures and associated technology resources are organized—will determine the agility with which companies can carry out good strategy. Yet the difficulty and cost of modifying today's rigid IT architectures—dominated by big enterprise applications, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and large application suites, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and many others—can be so high that some companies would rather abandon new strategic initiatives than make a single change to the applications they already have in place.

Businesses need to reduce costs and sprawling networks as well as respond more quickly to changing business ...