The AIMS conference is a single-track event integrating normal conference paper sessions, tutorials, keynotes, and a PhD student workshop into a highly interactive event. One of the goals of AIMS is to look beyond borders and to stimulate the exchange of ideas across different communities and among PhD students. Furthermore, AIMS integrates 2 days of courses and labs which offers hands-on learning experiences in network and service management topics and which requires attendees to work in practical on-site courses combined with preceding short tutorial-like teaching sessions.

AIMS 2012 focuses on the theme of managing and monitoring of next-generation networks, network security and services. New paradigms as well as autonomic and fully distributed algorithms, virtualization and monitoring techniques or self-organizing overlays have to be investigated. The design, monitoring, configuration and protection of the next generation of networked systems in an efficient, secure, and autonomic manner are crucial to commercially viable and successful networks and services.