Viable Computer Systems: A Cybernetic Approach to Autonomic Computing

Autonomic Computing has the potential to deliver self-managing systems, based upon the principles of the human autonomic nervous system. Since its inception, significant advancement has been made in realising the objectives of the genre; however, scope for progression still exists. The authors present innovative research, applying a cybernetic approach to the development of Autonomic Computing systems. The basis of this research is a settheory oriented, atomically-derived, emergent model. This reflects first-stage, functional, decomposition of Beer's recursive Viable System Model (VSM). Although the scope of the existing VSM is that of human organizations, our research has provided a context-shift towards the field of Autonomic computing. The model provides integrated management of all elements promoting each sub-system as an autonomous whole within a closed meta-boundary. By endorsing autonomy versus governance, our research presents a formalism that can be used to represent selfaware systems, seeking inherent learning and control through communicative system-environment interplay.