* An analogy illustrates automation’s worth to the data center

By Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Network World, 10/11/05

Information-technology complexity is often cited as a major concern for IT executives. In response to the challenge of managing increasingly complex data centers, many vendors are talking about “self-healing,” “autonomous” and “adaptive” data centers. Regardless of which marketing term is used, the concept is to design and build data centers that require less management, maintenance and troubleshooting. While a truly autonomous data center is at least a few years away, there are some important design principles that can help us move in the right direction.