Autonomic Computing emerged from IBM in 2001. Its goal is to develop self-adaptive or self-manage computer systems in order to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of computing systems management, and to reduce the barrier that complexity poses to further growth.

Autonomic computing refers to the self-adaptive characteristics of distributed computing resources, adapting to non-deterministic changes in order to hide the systems' complexity to end-users. This kind of autonomic systems make decisions on their own by constantly checking and optimizing their status and by automatically adapting theirselves to changing conditions. 

The term autonomic comes from the autonomic nervous system, which controls many organs and muscles in the human body. Usually, we are unaware of its workings because it functions in an involuntary, reflexive manner but our autonomic nervous system is always working.