HP Tracks Servers With RFID Chips

Hewlett-Packard has developed technology to track servers and other data center equipment with radio frequency ID chips (RFID, and has tested the system at Meijer, a grocery chain with almost 200 stores.

HP's RFID solution was used to track several hundred of the company's servers in its data center, said Cyril Brignone, a project manager for HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif. "We have created the first real-time automatic asset tracking solution for the data center," Brignone told eWEEK. "We were able to track any asset down to the rack where it was located."

HP said the technology isn't ready for commercial use, calling the Meijer installation a "proof of concept" test. HP said it has also been using a similar solution in its own internal supply chain. I could see this technology being really useful during data center migrations and relocations, particularly in a move like that undertaken by Bloglines when it relocated from California to Massachusetts last December.