Whenever a new technology or methodology seems poised to shake up enterprise IT, vendors hustle to spin the phenomenon in their direction.

One such concept has been the self-managing data center, often referred to as "autonomic computing," the term IBM favors. Here, the goal is to design and implement systems that monitor themselves, repair themselves as necessary, protect themselves from external threats and even re-route their own resources to best meet business needs. (That last factor echoes the promise of another red-hot phenomenon, on-demand - or utility - computing.)

Of course, the road to this data-center utopia is not yet smoothly paved. But leading vendors are working hard at filling the potholes and, simultaneously, making their names synonymous with self-managing computing. We look at HP, IBM and Microsoft as they struggle to differentiate themselves and gather mind-share in the self-managing data center.

IBM's autonomic computing

"On-demand computing" is an IBM term that has percolated into general usage, much to the frustration of competitors. The same can be said of "autonomic computing." And savvy marketing is only part of the reason; IBM is unquestionably the industry pioneer in on-demand computing and has maintained from the start that autonomic computing is a fundamental pillar.

Analysts and users agree that Big Blue leads in the race to gain mind-share in this arena. "We've been at it longer and are focused on it more" than competitors, says Alan Ganek, IBM's vice president of autonomic computing.

Mobil Travel Guide, a division of ExxonMobil launched two years ago, chose IBM's On Demand Linux Virtual Services to host and manage e-business applications. The key reason was cost, says Paul Mercurio, Mobil Travel Guide's CIO. On-demand and autonomic computing will save the company 25% to 30% on IT costs in three years, he says.

The guide maintains three development environments: one for application development at its Naples, Fla., headquarters, and testing and development environments on its partition of an IBM-hosted mainframe. Mobil Travel Guide applications begin life in Naples. When they're ready for testing, Mercurio's group, working with one IBM database administrator, moves them onto IBM's systems. "That's where we try to break them," Mercurio says. About once a month, the fully tested functionality is pushed into production.