Intent-based System Design and Operation

TL;DR

This paper proposes using high-level intent as an abstraction to automate the design, operation, and evolution of cloud systems, aiming to reduce manual effort and enable autonomous system management.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of intent-based system design, outlining its key components and providing a roadmap for achieving holistic automation in cloud systems.

Findings

Defines intent as a high-level abstraction for system requirements

Outlines a vision and roadmap for intent-based automation

Highlights potential for reducing manual system management effort

Abstract

Cloud systems are the backbone of today's computing industry. Yet, these systems remain complicated to design, build, operate, and improve. All these tasks require significant manual effort by both developers and operators of these systems. To reduce this manual burden, in this paper we set forth a vision for achieving holistic automation, intent-based system design and operation. We propose intent as a new abstraction within the context of system design and operation. Intent encodes the functional and operational requirements of the system at a high-level, which can be used to automate design, implementation, operation, and evolution of systems. We detail our vision of intent-based system design, highlight its four key components, and provide a roadmap for the community to enable autonomous systems.