HP to Layoff 9,000 Employees as it Streamlines Data Centers
June 8, 2010
CNET reports that HP plans to layoff 9,000 employees as it streamlines its data centers. The human workers will be replaced by improve software and automation.
The company announced Tuesday that it plans to spend the money to invest in a series of commercial data centers that will offer enterprise customers a more integrated platform on which to run their businesses. The initiative will also consolidate HP's data centers, networks, and applications. But as a result of the increased streamlining and automation, HP expects to eliminate around 9,000 jobs, or about 3 percent of its work force, over the next few years. HP has approximately 304,000 employees worldwide, according to a Fast Facts page on its Web site.
An article on BNET says layoffs like the 9,000 at HP are part of the "brutal reality of cloud computing."
Unfortunately, that's the brutal reality of cloud computing. The savings that clients see comes from employees and vendors, as customers in aggregate buy less hardware and software and price competition on the service front races like a wind-swept forest fire.
As I've heard from one IT outsource firm after another, consolidation and utilization are the the future.
Timesays HP's layoffs will be spread out over the next 3 years.