Computer Weekly's CW500 Club attracts the top IT leaders in the UK to talk to their peers about the topical challenges they face. Here, we present the coverage of all 10 of the 2013 CW500 events, including articles and video interviews.
In the first CW500 session of 2013, we took our annual start-of-the-year look forward to the 12 months ahead for IT leaders and the key trends of the coming year to discuss how the challenges may affect their strategic planning process.
Five technology forces that will change businesses forever
CIOs face an unprecedented opportunity to drive innovation in their organisations. But there are huge challenges ahead as organisations face disruptive technologies that threaten to overturn the traditional businesses models.
Skills shortages loom as development comes back in-house
Recruiting new IT talent is become one of the biggest challenges facing chief information officers as companies invest in the next generation of software tools.
Employing shared services and using technology to improve collaboration can bring a host of benefits to organisations, from cutting costs and increasing efficiency through to driving business transformation. But what should you keep in mind when applying such models to your organisation?
Shared services present challenges and opportunities for CIOs
The recession has sparked renewed interest in shared services as organisations look to pool their IT, human resources (HR) and financial departments into dedicated service departments. Local authorities, central government and the private sector see shared services as a way of both reducing costs and standardising their IT infrastructure.
The roll-out of 4G mobile networks gathered pace this year, promising higher speeds and lower latency, opening up new opportunities for mobile working and customer engagement. But what does 4G mean for IT leaders and how can they cut through the hype before taking advantage of fast wireless connections in their IT strategy?
4G to underpin ubiquitous mobile services
Effective use of analytics is a key enabler in turning data into insight. Making more use of data for the benefit of the business is something that is high on every CIO's agenda, but with myriad products, services and technologies for similar offerings, what is good and what is not in the world of big data and analytics?
Forget the fancy graphics: how to make big data work for ordinary people
If there is one thing big data specialist Chris Osborne has learned after five years of working with big data, it is that the public don’t like graphs.
Why Channel 4 is crunching big data
Bob Harris, Channel 4's chief technology officer, charts the broadcaster's technology strategy to use big data to form closer links with viewers.
One of the dilemmas of the modern CIO is the ever-expanding need for data storage. According to research, 2.8 zettabytes of data was created in 2012 and the total amount of data will double every two years between now and 2020, the vast majority coming from unstructured digital information such as graphics and video.
Thinking outside the big storage box
Done well, big data offers businesses the chance to gain a competitive edge by understanding their customers and staying ahead of market trends. But managing and storing huge volumes of data requires careful planning. Data security, meeting the requirements of regulators and ensuring critical data is properly backed up is a major challenge for the CIO.
The growth of cloud computing is changing the way many IT leaders look at IT sourcing. This comes at a time when firms who pursued large, all-encompassing outsourcing deals in the past decade are moving away from such mega-contracts and increasingly looking at multi-sourcing. But with software and hardware services now available on demand, often at commodity prices, through the cloud – what role will outsourcing play?
Cloud versus outsourcing – is it worth outsourcing any more?
All CIOs are in some way working with the cloud. This might be migrating entire IT infrastructures to a virtualised environment, allowing departments to use specific software as a service (SaaS), or simply early stage evaluation.
The impact on the enterprise of internet-connected devices is considerable, as well as the economic value – according to research, the internet of things (IoT) will be a market worth about $14.4tn by 2022. The possibilities of the IoT are broad, from smart cities and automatic exchange of information to energy saving through smart grids. But what does it mean for IT leaders and how should they prepare for the changes that IoT will bring?
The rise of the machines – how devices are taking over the internet
Within a few years, the internet will be dominated by machines and sensors rather than people. By 2020, IT supplier HP estimates there will be close to a trillion sensors sending data over the web.
Internet of things to pose 'huge security and privacy risks'
The emergence of the internet of things will expose businesses and individuals to security risks of unimaginable scale. By 2020, trillions of sensors will be feeding data across the internet, recording everything from people’s movements to what they have just bought.
As corporate IT users increasingly want to use tablets and smartphones for accessing work applications, IT leaders have faced growing demands to support a bring your own device (BYOD) policy. But there are significant issues to be considered, such as governance, security and support, not to mention the HR and cultural implications of providing or subsidising employee-owned devices.
BYOD best practice
It is not a new phenomenon for workers to use their own devices as part of their job, but company schemes to encourage people to use their own devices are a relatively recent development.
One of the main victims of both the global downturn and the rise of the internet, the retail sector has seen its traditional business models challenged over the past few years. Those organisations who did not manage to innovate have perished – and even those who reinvented themselves are facing fierce competition, in a battle where IT plays a key role.
Retailers jostling for position in world’s biggest shop window
Consumers are beginning their shopping journeys online and increasingly finishing them there too. Not many industry sectors have avoided being shaken up by the web, but arguably the most shaken has been retail.
The debate on the role of the IT leader has been discussed to exhaustion over the past decade, but the debate is – almost all the time – looking at what it has become rather than how it will look in future. In this CW500 Club event, we looked at key technology trends, fast-forwarding to 2020 to give a glimpse of what your job, your company and your life will look like in future.
Future Gazing: The Future of IT in 2020
In the past six years, technology has had a dramatic impact on the workplace, and the next six years will only see the influence of technology accelerate.
31 Dec 2013