Premier 100 Q&A: HP’s CIO sees ‘lights-out’ data centers

Randy Mott talked about the company’s plans to consolidate 85 data centers into six

By Patrick Thibodeau

March 6, 2006 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co. CIO Randall Mott says HP’s planned IT consolidation will deliver lights out data centers and system administrator-to-server ratios in excess of 1-to-200. In an interview today at the Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, he stressed that HP will be open about its progress and the lessons learned along the way as the company works to reduce the number of data centers from 85 to six. Mott also spelled out some of the approaches he plans to take with the consolidation. Excerpts from the interview follow:

Where are you in terms of accomplishing HP’s plans to consolidate 85 data centers to six? We’re in the process of identifying all the sites [for the data centers]. We have some identified; We have options on real estate or buildings in the case of a number [of them]. By the end of March we will have all six of them identified and announced.

Will they be geographically disbursed around the world? No. Where it’s looking like right now is Houston, Austin and Atlanta.

What is it taking to consolidate HP’s legacy systems and what kinds of platforms are you putting those systems on? It is really across a number of platforms, depending on the application. Some are Windows-based, some are Linux-based, some are HPUX-based. But then another important part is standards within those particular platforms: what’s the standard hardware configuration, software stack, middleware stack, around those applications. There is not a single one, but there are very clear standards in each key space.

You’ve talked about a “lights-out data center.” Are you talking about that in terms of these six data centers? Yes, I am.

Can you explain just what you mean by that? Literally, in order to run the data center inside the data center you only have personnel required for security and not for IT operations. IT operations really end up being something that can happen anywhere in the world.


Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) CIO Randall Mott Image Credit: Asa Mathat

HP wants this to become a customer showcase, so what kind of pressure does that put on you? It’s certainly pressure to talk about things before they are finished. That’s probably the biggest pressure, but on the other side, it actually affords a lot of support and help out of the product and R&D community because they see it as being important.

The typical system administrator-to-server ratio has been described by HP as 1-to-20, but company officials have said 1-to-200 is possible. What kind of ratio will you be running? I don’t want to comment on that, but I think we will exceed 200.

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