A distributed computing system contains one or more application nodes. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem that provides autonomic power control for the application nodes, regardless of which vendor manufactured the application nodes. For power controllers not specifically supported by the distributed computing system, a universal power controller responds to power down instructions by causing a targeted application node to execute an idle software image and reports that the application node has been successfully powered down.