1. A method for autonomic system management, the method comprising: defining, by a processor, a system performance metric to evaluate a level of performance of an autonomic system based on the allocation of two or more system resources among a plurality of system resource demands by defining a system performance equation; deriving from the system performance metric a plurality of resource-specific expressions by calculating a plurality of partial derivatives of the defined system performance equation, each partial derivative taken with respect to the allocation of one of the system resources and each resource-specific expression expressing a rate of change in the system performance metric attributable to changes in the allocation of only one of the system resources; identifying the resource-specific expression yielding the greatest magnitude of change in the system performance metric at a given allocation of system resources; identifying a system resource associated with the identified resource-specific expression; modifying allocation of the identified associated system resource for at least one system resource demand to provide an increase in the level of performance of the autonomic system; and adjusting allocations of other system resources in accordance with the modified allocation of the identified associated system resource.