A system includes servers, each server including a baseboard management controller (BMC) and operating environments including motherboards and processors. One of the BMCs includes circuitry to determine that the other server is in a standby mode. In a standby mode, the operating environment including the motherboard and processor is powered down and the BMC is powered only through a connection between the BMCs. The first BMC determines that additional resources for execution by the system from the other server are to be activated, and send a wake-up signal to the other BMC. The other BMC includes circuitry configured to receive the wake-up signal, wake the operating environment, and provision the operating environment, without power from the operating environment.