Book recommendation: Autonomic Computing

I’ve just posted a review on Amazon.com of Autonomic Computing by Richard Murch. Yes, I know it’s an IBM Press publication, so dial up your “self-serving bullshit” filters – but not too high. Overall this is a really useful book. While it’s targeted at CIOs and their staffs (folks who have read, and bought into, the Autonomic Computing Manifesto), it’s not afraid to dive the details and point at source code to back up the architectural diagrams. It discusses what’s going on in the research community and what competitors (including Sun) are up to. And I like the way the author models “customer maturity”; the readiness and ability of customers to take up some of the things described in the book. I disagree with some of his numbers, but without this kind of model the temptation to believe one’s own propaganda is irresistible.
There are a few goofs (mobile agents? please, no), as well as some yawning gaps (systems modelling and policy languages). And while it’s reasonable to skip the IBM-heavy business stuff at the front on a first reading, don’t put the book away without going back to it. In particular, don’t skip chapter 2, on the costs of complexity. As I noted in an earlier blog entry, simplicity and staying on topic is key.
Recommended.