Determining location of hardware components in a cloud computing environment based on hardware components self-locating other hardware components

A system, comprising:

• a memory unit for storing a computer program for managing hardware components in a cloud computing environment;
• and
• a processor coupled to said memory unit, wherein said processor, responsive to said computer program, comprises:
• circuitry for receiving location information for said hardware components in a data center of said cloud computing environment from said hardware components, wherein said location information for each of said hardware components comprises both an actual location and a relative location with respect to one or more other hardware components in said data center, wherein each of said hardware components is configured to detect one or more other hardware components within a communication range of said hardware component, wherein each of said hardware components is configured to determine its actual location and a relative location with respect to said one or more detected hardware components;
• circuitry for receiving identification information of hardware components detected by said hardware components from said hardware components, wherein each of said hardware components is configured to identify said one or more detected hardware components based on an identification signal received from said one or more detected hardware components;
• and
• circuitry for balancing a workload across said hardware components in said data center based on said received identification and location information.