NEW YORK - Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest information-technology company, plans to lay off about 9,000 employees as it tries to cut costs in its back-office computing centers and deepens its use of software, rather than people, to do some of the work that those hubs require.
The changes to these data centers, which are clusters of computers that run websites and process information for HP's corporate customers, will be made over about three years, the company said Tuesday. The layoffs amount to about 3 percent of HP's global workforce, which had 304,000 employees as of October, the most recent figure available.
HP said it will take $1 billion in accounting charges, part of which will be used for severance to the laid-off workers. But it also said it plans to replace two-thirds of the jobs elsewhere in the company, by hiring 6,000 people to boost its global sales and delivery staff.
Like most companies that offer such services, HP has data centers around the world. The company has more than 100 centers that it operates for its customers and plans to cut that number roughly in half, but it did not specify the locations.
HP's drive for better productivity and automation in data centers -- and the fact that most of the jobs could be replaced -- reflect healthy demand for computing services overall and the rewards waiting for providers that can automate as much as possible.
Over the past decade computer services companies such as IBM Corp. and HP have been hiring workers in lower-cost areas such as India and Eastern Europe. Now HP says it is betting that the next phase of cost-cutting will come from a sharper focus on how technology is used rather than on geography.
Although HP would not specify the automation it expects to deploy, much of the work inside data centers can be handled by sophisticated software rather than humans.
"We think the next five to 10 years is going to be about who can best use technology to automate the delivery of services," said Ann Livermore, executive vice president for HP Enterprise Business, during a conference call with analysts.
