Speaking to several hundred security analysts in New York, Hurd said HP will continue to deliver tools that help users reduce hands-on labor costs and human error. "Instead of having a lot of humans" running data centers, he said, users will "want a 7-by-24, lights-out environment that is monitored, run and controlled remotely."

Anne Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Technology Solutions Group, was more specific about what IT shops can achieve through virtualization and automation. She said that with these technologies, instead of having one technician for every 20 servers, companies can have one technician for every 200 servers.

Hurd sees a continuing move away from mainframes and toward standards and utility capabilities that allow users to get processing power and storage as they need it. "The trend, I'm here to tell you, isn't going to slow down," he said. While "arbitraging labor" -- or reducing labor costs -- is an advantage, he said, the long-term opportunities for companies will come through IT automation.

Hurd, who took over as CEO in April, also said Tuesday that he will oversee a massive simplification of his company's own IT operations, consolidating more than 85 data centers in 29 countries to just six data centers. HP also plans to create a centralized view of its data by creating one enterprisewide data warehouse. HP now has 762 data marts.

To accomplish the consolidation, HP will spend US$2.8 billion on capital costs in the fiscal year that began last month, compared with just under $2 billion in the prior fiscal year. A major part of that spending will go for new IT infrastructure, real estate and other costs.