AVIRTEC is a professional services and product development firm focused on  Autonomic Management Services.  A true alternative to the existing Management Frameworks and Platform vendors’ methodology in that it isn’t focused on replacement, but instead, on automated enhancement and utilization of existing information systems and their services.

Network Computing, Internet Appliances, Embedded Systems and Information appliances are being deployed at exponential rates. Network failures, whether due to misconfiguration of components, product fatigue or hacker influence will certainly continue to grow in complexity and number.  The more complex the networked systems and their services, the more difficult to identify the cause of problems that might be triggered by hardware/software failures, organized attacks, performance degradations caused by dynamic behavior of network traffic and loads, etc.  The more reactionary the cure, the greater the potential for downtime.  Sometimes that will mean lost revenue dollars, at other times that can mean significant expense increases or catastrophic results/impacts.

The AVIRTEC solutions provide alternative designs and management techniques that are based on strategies used by biological systems to deal with complexity, heterogeneity and uncertainty. AVIRTEC approach is based on autonomic computing. An autonomic computing system is the system that has the capabilities of being self-configuring, self-healing, self-protecting and, self-optimizing. AVIRTEC will develop and demonstrate an autonomic control and management tools  that support autonomic configuration. These tools provide users and system administrators with all the services required to specify the appropriate control and management schemes in order to maintain any quality of service requirement or application attribute/functionality (e.g., performance, fault, security, etc.).

AVIRTEC has successfully implemented a proof-of-concept prototype system, AUTONOMIA, which can support the self-deployment function and self-configuration of any networked system or application. We are planning to extend the capabilities of the prototype to support self-healing, self-protection and self-optimization services.

Several significant problems prevent full exploitation of current and emerging information technology and services:

1. Unpredictable performance, reliability and security associated with introduction and delivery of new information services
2. Application instability and excessive downtime due to unpredictable recovery times
3. Unsecure computing systems and services due to the exponential growth in number and the complexity of network and computer attacks
4. Shortage of Information Technology (IT) expertise and automated operations support
5. Rapidly escalating labor costs for Systems Managers, Administrators and support personnel.

There are numerous vendors in the Network and Systems Management (NSM) application space.  Vendors have entered this $19.4 Billion market’s rapid growth to a $38 Billion market due to the demand for products to assist in proactive discovery, and hopefully avoidance of, network faults and attacks.  However, demand can’t be met due to a number of deficiencies with existing NMS vendors’ products.  Most products focus on niche areas as opposed to the customers’ complete environment.  The best products approximate a view of the entire environment on a static basis.  None appear ready to provide a holistic Services Management view and control of the whole communication, computing and application services. AVIRTEC’s addresses those products’ deficiencies to provide self-management services that provide a dynamic, real-time monitoring and analysis of networks, computers and applications and provide proactive integrated control and management services.