Introduction

In this chapter, we shall explore several separate, but still important subjects and topics related to autonomic computing, the first of which is small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and their potential for applications using autonomic computing. Generally, SMBs do not have dedicated resources to manage their IT operations, but the very necessary computing systems are vital to growth and profits. So, here we can see a substantial opportunity for autonomic computing to provide many of the self-management benefits we have been discussing in the book.

The next topic is personal computing and the market for self-managing autonomic software. Personal computer (PC) owners and users are a substantial market, and again, the need for self-managing self-healing software products is significant.

In the last topic, we touch on the usefulness of software agents. Using agents in autonomic computing is important. They can be used to fetch and search for resources, roaming over private systems, corporate enterprises, or the Internet to meet the requirements of the on demand world.