General Motors is opening what it calls an Information Technology Innovation Center in Warren, Mich., where it will hire up to 1,500 IT pros over the next several years. This is the latest step in GM's IT overhaul under new CIO Randy Mott, in which the automaker is hiring employees to do technology work rather than relying on outsourcers.

The automaker plans to have four of these IT development centers in the U.S. GM last month opened one in Austin, Texas, where it plans to hire up to 500 people. The other locations haven't been announced. Mott said the centers' locations would be chosen based on the quality of talent they'll be able to attract, including their proximity to universities.

GM has relied on outsourcers for about 90% of its IT work, from developing software to operating data centers. Mott, who was named GM CIO in February, intends to reverse that percentage, bringing 90% of the company's IT work in-house and using outsourcers for just 10%. It's a high-risk strategy change that will mean hiring thousands of tech pros and building a new culture of IT innovation and collaboration with the rest of GM. But Mott maintains that IT staffers will better understand the automotive industry and thus come up with more innovative ways to use technology than outsourcers could.

[ Want more on GM's hiring? Read GM CIO: Why We're Hiring Recent College Grads. ]

GM already has a data center in Warren, north of Detroit, that will be the site of one of GM's two global data centers. GM plans to consolidate its more than 20 data centers into two. The new development center is at the same location as the data center. The company says it has jobs available in software development, project management, database management, and business analysis, and that it's recruiting recent college graduates and experienced professionals (Applications at careers.gm.com/itjobs.)

Upgrading isn't the easy decision that Win 7 was. We take a close look at Server 2012, changes to mobility and security, and more in the new Here Comes Windows 8 issue of InformationWeek. Also in this issue: Why you should have the difficult conversations about the value of OS and PC upgrades before discussing Windows 8. (Free registration required.)