Computer Weekly readers' give their views
Strategic importance of IT is still misunderstood
I found the improvements in how IT is seen and valued (Computer
Weekly, 9 May) instantly uplifting; yet reading further, I was
incredibly disheartened by the figures on security and business
continuity.
With 66% of IT staff saying that IT security is not adequately
funded, and a further 33% suggesting that their business continuity
plans are not robust enough, should we not be seriously concerned
that two of the IT department’s most fundamental functions are
being neglected?
With staff denied the funds to ensure that failsafes are in
place to keep the network running, it appears there is still some
way to go before ensuring board-level understanding of the
strategic importance of technology to businesses. The CIO must
spearhead that understanding.
Steve Withers, Radware
Hardware is key to a practical view of Vista
Eric Doyle’s article on Vista’s graphics capability (Computer
Weekly, 16 May) raises an important point regarding the hardware
that will be required to run Vista effectively – especially for
corporate users. Many corporate PCs cannot support Glass – I am an
IT professional and only two of the nine machines on my home
network could run Glass. One of those used to run Glass, but no
longer does so with the latest beta build.
Another important hardware issue is Ram. Although Vista runs
fine on my boxes with 2Gbytes, few corporate deployments I am aware
of are providing more than 256Mbytes in most XP boxes.
Finally, there is the important issue of user training. Vista is
very different in places. IT pros are going to need a lot of
retraining, since many of the base technologies we need are
new.
While Vista brings some great new features, I am not sure how
important Vista is, early on at least, for many corporates.
XP SP2, is pretty stable, well known and relatively easy to
troubleshoot. With many of my customers either planning or part way
through their XP SP2/Office 11 roll-outs, Vista is simply not
relevant in the near future – they can wait for Vista SP2.
Thomas Lee, chief technologist, QA
VoIP security issues must not be ignored
With respect to your article “VoIP ‘not secure enough’ warn bank
chiefs” (Computer Weekly, 2 May), to date, attacks on IP telephony
networks have been scarce. However, as more and more companies
begin to deploy the technology, it is important that people
recognise the risks.
IP telephony systems run on the same hardware and software that
hackers and viruses are currently exploiting, and are subject to
the same security risks as all other internet-based communication,
plus all the existing voice scams, such as redirecting calls to
premium rate numbers.
It is important to ensure that VoIP is covered by an appropriate
security policy, that it is designed, implemented and integrated
properly, and is secure at the application, system and service
layers, to make sure that it does not undermine existing security
measures and weaken the entire infrastructure. To ignore VoIP
security is to leave your company open to attack.
Harry Archer, head of business technology solutions, BT
Global Services
Compliance is catalyst for profitable use of
data
Regarding your article “Cashing in on the value of compliance”
(Computer Weekly, 23 May),
I agree that more businesses should use business intelligence
systems, not only to meet compliance regulations, but also to gain
a competitive edge.
Managing unstructured data has always presented a challenge for
businesses. What is interesting is that it was never a top priority
for board directors until regulatory compliance requirements such
as Sarbanes-Oxley came into force.
Now directors are realising that they need more than just numbers
and statistics to obtain a complete picture of their business.
Being able to view the history of products sold, what people think
of a certain product and what customers think of your business
gives a completely different perspective that ploughing through
figures could never have achieved.
Firms are starting to appreciate that it is far more complex to
manage and interpret unstructured data than it is to store, simply
because it is greater in volume. That said, once companies feel in
control of unstructured data and are confident that they can access
it easily and at any time, they will not only find more out about
their customers, but more about their business too.
Nakis Papadopoulos, IMGroup
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