Subscribe to the Data Center Knowledge Newsletter
Get analysis and expert insight on the latest in data center business and technology delivered to your inbox daily.
HP Foresees 'Lights Out' Data Centers
HP CIO Randall Mott believes the company's data centers will soon operate 'lights out' - supervised remotely, with no tech staff on hand.
Rich Miller
March 15, 2006
1 Min Read
.svg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale "DataCenterKnowledge")
Will the data center of the future have no tech staff on site? That's the vision put forth by Hewlett-Packard CIO Randall Mott at an industry conference in California earlier this week. Here's a summary from a ComputerWorld article:
As part of a plan to reduce the number of the company's data centers from about 85 worldwide to just six, Mott is setting out to prove that HP can develop a data center that can be operated entirely remotely. The plan, which Mott detailed at last week's conference, also includes consolidating more than 700 data marts into an enterprise data warehouse.
That's a ton of consolidation, illustrating the impact server consolidation can have on a company's data center footprint. Having noted that, not all attendees were on board with Mott's vision, which is the facilities version of the "neutron bomb" strategy - leave the buildings standing, but wipe out all the employees inside.
Sure, it sounds great from a cost perspective. But there are skeptics, who were also quoted in the ComputerWorld article. "I don't believe in lights-out data centers. I believe in dim lights," said Oliver Schmid, manager of information systems at Alfred Karcher Inc. IT facilities will still need operations workers with versatile talents - "people who know a little bit of everything," he said.
For more on Mott's vision for HP's data center operations, there's a separate Q&A with details.
About the Author
You May Also Like
