In Depth

In Depth

IT careers and IT skills

• What steps can we take to finally close the tech skills gap?

  Despite ongoing efforts from government, education providers and industry to close the tech skills gap, not much has changed, so will new initiatives start to close the chasm?  Continue Reading

• APAC career guide on cloud computing

  Besides having engineering chops and certifications, aspiring cloud professionals should have curiosity and soft skills to succeed in the evolving cloud computing landscape  Continue Reading

• How to support a hybrid workforce

  As the economy opens up, organisations are rethinking the idea of office-based work – and a more flexible approach is on the cards  Continue Reading

• How do I get my users to pay attention to security training?

  As cyber security risks grow daily, businesses must educate staff about these through cyber awareness training. But how can they ensure this is taken seriously by employees?  Continue Reading

• Deploying productivity monitoring software ethically

  While software that tracks the activities of staff can be helpful to companies with a remote workforce, managers must consider employees’ concerns and privacy  Continue Reading

• Navigating the sticky issue of monitoring employee productivity

  With employees having shifted en masse to remote working during the pandemic, we explore how enterprises have maintained the productivity of their dispersed workforce  Continue Reading

• How AI and automation drive better customer service

  Forrester analysts explore the benefits of combining artificial intelligence with automation  Continue Reading

• A bottom-up and top-down look at intelligent automation

  We look at robotic process automation at a coding level and an organisational level, and see how artificial intelligence fits  Continue Reading

• Why some jobseekers have turned to cyber crime during the pandemic

  Research shows that many people have been seeking cyber crime-related work on the dark web, but why?  Continue Reading

• Starting a career in the digital economy

  What is it currently like for young people trying to hit the ground running with digital careers? What do employers want from them, and how has the last year of lockdowns affected their chances at a digital career?  Continue Reading

• Ecolabels and data sanitisation key to recycling and reusing IT assets

  Ecolabels on hardware and data sanitisation of devices are key to recycling and reusing old IT equipment respectively, helping enterprises avoid unnecessary asset destruction and contributing to increasingly high levels of electronic waste globally  Continue Reading

• How colocation fits alongside a cloud-native architecture

  IT departments are on a cloud-native roadmap to become more agile, but they are constrained by the risks involved in migrating core systems and data  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Managing software development during lockdown

  The Computer Weekly Developer Network examines the impact of Covid-19 on the software application development community  Continue Reading

• APAC career guide: How to become a DevOps engineer

  A DevOps career can be highly rewarding, as long as you are open to learning new things and collaborating with team mates to solve problems in software development  Continue Reading

• How the pandemic has affected women in the tech sector

  The coronavirus outbreak has created uncertainty across all sectors, but how specifically has it affected women working in the tech industry?  Continue Reading

• Learning on the job when working from home

  Learning a new job and inducting hires when working from home has been tricky for employees and employers alike. We look at what workarounds have been adopted that could become the post-pandemic normal  Continue Reading

• Lush’s 25-year journey to digital excellence

  Retailers are increasingly focused on using technology to better serve customers, but for high street cosmetic brand Lush, tech has always been part of the picture  Continue Reading

• What will increased remote working mean for tech salaries?

  As remote working becomes more popular because of the coronavirus outbreak, people have less need to be near city centres – but what might this mean for tech workers’ salaries?  Continue Reading

• The art of developing happy customers

  AI is playing a growing role in modern software development, but how well can an AI build applications that deliver great customer experience  Continue Reading

• Is the dial shifting for underrepresented groups in the UK’s tech sector?

  George Floyd’s death and the resulting Black Lives Matter movement has raised awareness about the disparity in many areas of society, including the tech sector. Many firms claim to be headed for change, but will this change be sustained into the ...  Continue Reading

• Storage skills in the age of the cloud and convergence

  Storage skills was a discrete area in the IT jobs market, but that’s being eroded by the cloud, hyper-convergence infrastructure, and virtualisation. So, what are the key storage skillsets today?  Continue Reading

• Auditing for algorithmic discrimination

  Despite the abundance of decision-making algorithms with social impacts, many companies are not conducting specific audits for bias and discrimination that can help mitigate their potentially negative consequences  Continue Reading

• Black Lives Matter, but do bots know that?

  The volume of content generated each day necessitates automated moderation to curate everything as it is published, ensuring offensive and objectionable material is blocked. But this only works if systems are adequately configured and reviewed  Continue Reading

• Will the Covid-19 crisis accelerate a shift in tech talent out of London?

  As the coronavirus pandemic has forced firms to work more flexibly, threatening traditional large office spaces in London, will tech talent make a long-term shift away from the capital?  Continue Reading

• Diversity in coding bootcamps

  Coding bootcamp operators must actively engage with issues of access, diversity and inclusion if they want to stop reproducing the same gendered, racialised and class-based outcomes the tech sector keeps promising to address  Continue Reading

• Making the most of coding bootcamps

  Computer Weekly explores how aspiring developers can make the most of coding bootcamps, with a focus on how to avoid being duped by a programme that promises more than it can deliver  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How to cope with the digital skills divide

  Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, employers need tech and digital talent more than ever. But how can organisations recruit and train the skills they need during a lockdown?  Continue Reading

• Designing software to include older people in the digital world

  The Covid-19 coronavirus crisis has accentuated the importance of including older people in the digital world. How can software firms design products to include generations that came to maturity before the internet?  Continue Reading

• Australian firms soldier on amid Covid-19 outbreak

  From the largest financial institutions to small companies, Aussie firms have been dialling up their use of technology tools to keep their businesses humming during the coronavirus pandemic  Continue Reading

• Malaysia’s digital transformation efforts progress

  Malaysian enterprises are taking steps to modernise their infrastructure, but many are still grappling with the lack of niche IT skills in key emerging technologies such as the internet of things  Continue Reading

• Three network technologies driven by cloud-native computing

  Networking technologies are being driven heavily by digitisation and cloud computing. Gartner picks three networking trends to watch  Continue Reading

• How to build the perfect tech team despite talent shortages

  The technology skills gap is growing worldwide, despite digital skills being as important as ever. So how can IT leaders develop the perfect tech team in the current talent environment?  Continue Reading

• From Pixar to GovTech: The inside story of Singapore’s AI whizz

  After nearly a decade at Pixar, GovTech’s Chong Jiayi is leading a team of experts to solve hard problems in robotics and artificial intelligence  Continue Reading

• Whisper it… but could a cyber attack be good for your career?

  All too often it’s the CISO who carries the can for an enterprise security failure, but this might not be a bad thing. There’s lots of evidence to suggest that falling victim to a cyber attack may actually enhance your CV  Continue Reading

• Virtuous circles: Skilling up for an ethical web

  Tim Berners Lee’s Contract for the Web aims to drive the internet in a more ethical, open and human-centred direction. What does this mean for the future of IT skills and governance?  Continue Reading

• Can the UK government’s efforts solve the cyber skills gap?

  There has been an active effort by the UK government to tackle the lack of skills in the cyber security space – but is it enough?  Continue Reading

• What are the key issues facing healthcare CIOs?

  Six healthcare IT leaders give their views on the major challenges for digital transformation across the NHS  Continue Reading

• Reskilling the UK in the face of AI growth

  The government has introduced the National Retraining Scheme alongside funding to tackle the UK’s growing tech skills gap, but will it be enough in the wake of artificial intelligence adoption?  Continue Reading

• Changes in the CI/CD pipeline

  Continuous integration/continuous delivery is responsible for pushing out a set of “isolated changes” to an existing application. We look at how big these changes can be  Continue Reading

• Do non-compete clauses risk stifling cloud innovation?

  Non-compete clauses in tech employment contracts are commonplace – and understandably so – but could they be limiting innovation in the public cloud?  Continue Reading

• Data management strategies are evolving – so must enterprises

  A growing number of data-driven initiatives, alongside heightened demand for security in governance, data management and compliance, has led to the rise of a more holistic approach – integrated risk management  Continue Reading

• What is UK plc doing to address the tech skills gap in the face of Brexit?

  The growing technology skills gap in the UK is widely known, with firms complaining of a lack of skilled workers – but what are they doing fill their empty roles?  Continue Reading

• Interview: Tapping into the invisible talent pool

  As the technology talent gap grows, charity Astriid aims to help organisations connect with people who are chronically ill to meet some of their mutual needs  Continue Reading

• Storage and DevOps: What is required for agile development?

  DevOps brings continuous and agile application. Storage has to fit in and make itself just as responsive to development that does away with the inertia of stifling hierarchies  Continue Reading

• Cutting the cord: Negotiating cloud contracts with problematic customers

  How accountable should cloud firms be for the actions of the customers that use their platforms, and how much thought should they give to aligning themselves with problematic brands before hosting them?  Continue Reading

• From cleaners to architects – lessons learnt by a serial entrepreneur

  After the emotional sale of her first company, Alex Depledge, co-founder of and CEO of Resi, explains the lessons she has learnt and what she will and will not do again  Continue Reading

• Finding a fix for the IT industry's recruitment woes: A datacentre perspective

  The datacentre industry is in the midst of a well-documented skills crisis, caused by a mix of sector-specific challenges and some more generalised ones  Continue Reading

• Retailers engineer new ways to recruit and retain IT talent

  Senior leaders at Holland & Barrett, Feelunique and BrandAlley offer tips on finding and keeping sought-after engineering and developer talent  Continue Reading

• Employee activism: How staff revolts are shaking up the IT recruitment landscape

  As staff at tech giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon continue to speak out about pressing social issues, pressure is growing on firms to better align themselves with their employees on ethics  Continue Reading

• Interview: Rackspace EMEA CTO on why it pays to put people at the heart of IT transformation

  Rackspace EMEA CTO Lee James opens up about how taking a people-first approach to digital transformation raises staff morale and engagement levels while helping the managed cloud provider win new business  Continue Reading

• Rise in business-led IT spend increases risks and opportunities

  Digitally leading businesses benefit from faster time to market, better employee experience and improved finances, but lack of partnership between CIOs and business units can jeopardise progress, says Harvey Nash / KPMG survey  Continue Reading

• Skills, digital and the manufacturing sector

  Manufacturing still accounts for a large amount of the UK economy, and when it comes to the fourth industrial revolution, the UK has aspirations to be a world leader – but does it have the digital know-how to back it up?  Continue Reading

• Regional differences in the UK’s computing curriculum

  Teaching young people about the importance of digital skills is a focus of the education system across the UK, but the delivery of these skills is different across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – who has it right?  Continue Reading

• How to find a much sought-after data scientist

  Every organisation seems to be hunting for a data scientist, but securing the right people with the right skills is a challenge  Continue Reading

• Is it too soon for AI in the education landscape?

  This year saw education secretary Damian Hinds call for more tech in schools to help reduce teacher workload, but are schools ready, and how do we fix the pressing issues faced by UK education?  Continue Reading

• Using simulated disaster management to tackle the security skills gap

  With the increasing need for cyber security professionals, organisations are turning to new ways to address the skills gap facing the security sector  Continue Reading

• Career choices for storage admins as technologies converge

  There is collateral damage in datacentre convergence, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for storage administrators to stick with storage-centric skillsets. Two solutions exist  Continue Reading

• How IT leaders can build great relationships with marketing leaders

  Experts dish out their advice on how to work better together with their marketing peers to deliver a high-quality customer experience  Continue Reading

• The nightmare driving test: How to make sure self-driving cars are safe

  Simulating realistic environments using deep learning to enable self-driving cars to learn the rules of the road will prove more useful than any amount of real-world practice. We find out why, and meet the people doing something about it  Continue Reading

• Ready, headset, go: Retailers racing ahead with VR for staff training

  Has virtual reality found its prime retail user case as a staff training tool? Recent moves from Costa Coffee and Walmart suggest it has  Continue Reading

• Managing digital change: The CIO challenge for 2019

  As technology changes have an increasing impact on organisations, 2019 is the year when CIOs must adapt their teams to better manage digital disruption and business innovation  Continue Reading

• A new era of collaboration for the NHS

  Great Ormond Street Hospital's new research and innovation unit, Drive, marks a significant shift towards greater collaboration between NHS organisations and third-party industry partners  Continue Reading

• University vs Apprenticeship: The education debate

  Traditionally, a degree is the preferred route into the technology industry, but many now believe an apprenticeship may be a more valuable path into the sector  Continue Reading

• Gig for victory: Addressing the stigma of the gig economy

  As companies continue apace with digital transformation, the need for ad hoc tech workers is growing. But traditional contracting is giving way to the looser idea of ‘gigging’ – and not just for low-level roles  Continue Reading

• Fighting fit: The ODI on courting startups to use open data to get the UK moving

  The Open Data Institute is aiming to change the fact that millions of people in the UK are inactive, and is using open data and startups to help engage citizens to exercise.  Continue Reading

• Interview: Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley: 'Scared silly' by Brexit

  Renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Shirley talks robots teaching children, and why Brexit has her “scared silly”  Continue Reading

• Future tech cannot be ‘defined by a particular population’, says CA executive

  As new technologies are developed, companies could take the opportunity to hire more diversely to ensure offerings cater to a wider demographic  Continue Reading

• Spotlight on the Digital Career Institute, Berlin

  Digital Career Institute is teaching refugees and unemployed people to do web development in Germany  Continue Reading

• Is the UK’s computing curriculum too focused on coding?

  The government introduced its computing curriculum in 2014 to give young people the digital skills they need for the future, but is it fit for purpose?  Continue Reading

• DevOps done right: Securing grassroots support for a top-down DevOps enterprise push

  As more and more enterprises rush to join the DevOps movement, practitioners share details of how they secured grassroots support for their senior leadership team's top-down agile adoption mandates  Continue Reading

• Brexit is coming, but is the government technologically ready?

  Brexit requires huge IT and technology changes across government, but as departments seem to be struggling to get to grips with the workload, Computer Weekly looks at how preparations are going  Continue Reading

• UK technology recruitment: Turn on the talent

  The hottest tech skills will always be in short supply and UK businesses increasingly struggle to find competent people to fill digital roles. But do companies’ approach to recruitment need to change?  Continue Reading

• What is digital transformation?

  A guide for executives in the public and private sectors on the myths, realities and best practice of digital transformation, by digital leaders who have been there and done it  Continue Reading

• Inside Red Hat’s open culture

  The open source stalwart’s culture of transparency, openness and collaboration has been instrumental to its success as one of the world’s most successful software companies  Continue Reading

• Assessing the disparate initiatives tackling the UK’s technology skills gap

  As the UK’s skills gap widens, initiatives aim to ensure the population has the skills needed for roles now and in the future, but are these disparate efforts helping or hindering the cause?  Continue Reading

• What are the retail jobs that don’t exist yet?

  As in many industries, technology and new consumer behaviour is changing the shape of retail. But what yet-to-be-created jobs are on the horizon for the sector?  Continue Reading

• Four CIO trends to watch in 2018

  As automation becomes more popular, bringing with it plenty of opportunities, 2018 is all about investing in in-house skills and innovation, with a focus on equality and flexibility  Continue Reading

• Inside DBS Bank’s digital journey

  The Singapore-based bank laid the foundation for its digital strategy a decade ago, starting with an overhaul of its IT systems before going big on cloud computing in later years  Continue Reading

• DevOps in the public sector: Assessing the challenges and the benefits

  Public sector IT leaders trying to transform the way their organisation works using DevOps talk about the challenges they face  Continue Reading

• How Southeast Asia is keeping pace with AI

  Forward-looking organisations in the region are embracing artificial intelligence, but uneven access to connectivity and a lack of skills and understanding of the technology are holding back wider adoption  Continue Reading

• Is the Budget enough to drive post-Brexit success for UK?

  The chancellor has delivered an innovation and technology-laden Budget, but has it eased the tech industry’s fears about Brexit?  Continue Reading

• Brexit uncertainty dominates UK’s digital conversation

  Uncertainty over the impact of Brexit dominated conversations at TechUK’s second annual Supercharging the Digital Economy event. Can technology really lessen the impact?  Continue Reading

• Ethical software development: Ask Uber and Volkswagen

  Following TfL's decision against Uber, we investigate the role of professionalism and ethics in software development  Continue Reading

• Malaysian women making their mark in IT

  There is no limit to what women can achieve in Malaysia’s IT industry, as a small but growing group of prominent women IT leaders in the country has found  Continue Reading

• Breaking the glass ceiling in IT

  The CIO of Malaysia’s Prince Court Medical Centre has broken the glass ceiling for women in technology in a 20-year career that has progressed from selling IT products to setting up her own IT consulting firm  Continue Reading

• From chemistry researcher to IT luminary

  Inspired by the potential of technology to change the world, Chong Yoke Sin went from calculating the strength of molecular bonds to driving one of Singapore’s biggest IT initiatives  Continue Reading

• Can DevOps deliver on digital potential?

  DevOps and agile methodologies are seen as key ingredients of digital initiatives. Computer Weekly looks at the management challenges  Continue Reading

• How AI can aid, not replace, humans in recruitment

  Artificial intelligence is gaining prominence in a number of industries and brings advantages and disadvantages in the field of recruitment  Continue Reading

• The correlation between creativity, diversity and the future tech workforce

  Many believe the UK computing curriculum should put more emphasis on creativity to prepare young people for an automated future  Continue Reading

• How Wales has evolved into a hotspot for cyber security

  Wales may be a small country but, in just a few years, it has become a global hotspot for cyber security innovation  Continue Reading

• Why and how men in the technology industry have helped women progress

  Many have argued gender parity will not happen in the technology industry without help from the top. Since the top is predominantly male, we’ve reached out to some of the men in the industry who are helping to drive tech equality  Continue Reading

• How will automation affect the IT skills gap?

  According to research, automation is putting some job roles at risk, but could it also be the answer to the growing IT skills gap?  Continue Reading

• Locked in by choice: How European governments are handling their Microsoft addiction

  Europe-wide research finds that government departments are deeply dependent on Microsoft software and services, while attempts to migrate to open source are difficult, temporary and sometimes under the radar  Continue Reading

• How SAS is prepping its marketers for the data flood

  A shift in culture and mindset is necessary for marketers to succeed in tapping marketing analytics to stay relevant to the needs of customers  Continue Reading

• BP stresses importance of apprentices to its DevOps and digital transformation plans

  BP explains why IT apprentices are central to the success of its agile and DevOps ambitions, as well as its wider digital transformation programme  Continue Reading

• How will the network manager’s role change in the SDN world?

  We explore how traditional network managers are changing the habits of a lifetime as SDN remakes the enterprise network  Continue Reading

• Successful CIOs in 2017 will be those who look outwards

  CEOs increasingly want IT leaders who can look outside the IT department and improve wider perceptions of the organisation  Continue Reading

• CIOs must become hybrid IT and digital leaders to avoid becoming unfashionable

  It looked for a while that CDOs would replace CIOs, but organisations are realising that what they need is a mix of both roles  Continue Reading

• DevOps done right: Creating a collaborative and supportive business culture

  Cultivating a supportive and collaborative business culture is considered central to getting DevOps to take hold in an organisation. We take a look at what this entails  Continue Reading

• Value chain mapping – making sense of executive strategy

  In this first excerpt from his book on value chain mapping, Simon Wardley explains why business leaders need to understand the importance of maps for corporate strategy  Continue Reading