Today’s news of Hewlett-Packard buying Opsware for $1.6 billion cash shows how a lot of companies will look to automation to cut IT people, regardless of where in the world they work. Opsware helps companies automate tasks in large-scale data centers. Last week, BMC said it’s buying RealOps to give a major lift to its IT process automation tools.

Microsoft for years has sought an end to limits on the number of visas granted to foreign high-tech workers. But the demise of the immigration reform bill appears to have the company taking a different tack: It now wants to park overseas talent in Canada.

The software maker last week disclosed plans to open a development center in Vancouver–about a two-hour drive north from its Redmond, Wash., headquarters. In a frank statement, Microsoft said it will stock the center with “highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.”