IT heavyweight HP said Tuesday it will eliminate 9,000 data center-related jobs over the next several years as a result of restructuring, data center consolidation and automation of much of data center functionality. The company expects the move to free up about $1bn in capital, whose re-investment will bring between $500m and $700m.

The move is a culmination of the process of integrating EDS, the enterprise professional services company HP bought in 2008. Automation and consolidation of management platforms for delivery of the enterprise services is part of the restructuring program.

SVP and GM of HP Enterprise Services Tom Iannotti said, "Over the past 20 months, we focused on integrating ES and improving profitability. Now that the integration is largely complete, we have identified significant opportunities to grow and scale the business."

This continues massive data center consolidation HP has been undertaking for several years. The company said in April that its previous three-year data center consolidation program, completed in 2008, resulted in shrinking the number of internal facilities from 85 to six.