Other conference attendees said the viability of lights-out data centers is dependent on improvements in management software, such as predictive tools that can give users advance warnings of imminent system failures.

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Mott promises an open-door policy on data centers

Patrick Thibodeau

After his keynote speech at the Premier 100 conference, Hewlett-Packard CIO Randall Mott spoke with Computerworld about his makeover plans for HP's IT operations. Mott's strategy includes consolidating HP's data center systems worldwide into three sets of paired facilities that will all be located in the U.S. Excerpts from the interview follow: