In Depth
In Depth
IT strategy
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Unstructured vs semi-structured data: Order from chaos
We look at alternatives to relational databases that have emerged to help bring some structure to unstructured data and gain valuable insight by making it semi-structured Continue Reading
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Cloud storage TCO: Key pitfalls and how to avoid them
Cloud’s flexibility is part of the attraction, but it can also lead to costs that spiral. We look at key elements in cloud TCO and how to intelligently make use of the cloud Continue Reading
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Bfloat16: What it is and how it impacts storage
Bfloat16 is an emerging way to handle very large numbers, developed by Google for its machine and neural learning and prediction. We look at what it means for IT and storage Continue Reading
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Data classification: What it is and why you need it
To be compliant, to ensure data is optimally protected, that it is available, that it can be analysed and that it is stored most cost-effectively – these are reasons why data classification is vital to organisations Continue Reading
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Unstructured data storage – on-prem vs cloud vs hybrid
We look at storage for unstructured data on-premise, in the cloud and across multiple locations. There are advantages to a hybrid approach, but there can be hidden costs, too Continue Reading
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Ransomware and backup: Overcoming the challenges
Ransomware attacks that exfiltrate data don’t nullify the value of backups to restore from, but the challenges – such as not restoring corrupted data – require careful planning Continue Reading
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File, block and object: Storage fundamentals in the cloud era
We look at the three basic ways that storage accesses data – via file, block and object – as well as the ways in which the rise of the cloud and distributed systems have brought changes to them Continue Reading
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Backup maintenance: Five key points to consider
Effective backups need to ensure all data is protected, and to track media and software changes. We look at five key things to consider Continue Reading
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The cyber security impact of Operation Russia by Anonymous
The campaign against the Russian government by Anonymous surprised many with the depth and scale of the cyber attacks. What can we learn from this online war? Continue Reading
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Global file systems: Hybrid cloud and follow-the-sun access
We look at global distributed file systems that put enterprise data under a single file access namespace so that enterprises and branch offices can get to data from anywhere Continue Reading
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Data gravity: What is it and how to manage it
Data gravity can attract increasing amounts of data, and brings with it onerous management overheads. We look at how to mitigate data gravity in datacentre and cloud Continue Reading
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Cloud-to-cloud backup: When native cloud protection is not enough
There is a certain amount of protection built into cloud services, but it has its limits and full data protection requires that cloud data is secured with cloud-to-cloud backup Continue Reading
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Attack of the clones: the rise of identity theft on social media
The proliferation of social media has resulted in the rise of identity theft on these platforms, with accounts copied for fraudulent or malicious purposes. What can be done to mitigate it? Continue Reading
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The limits and risks of backup as ransomware protection
Backups can provide a sound means of recovery from ransomware infection, but they are not 100% certain to foil attackers. We look at the limits and risks of depending on backups Continue Reading
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How to retain cyber talent in the Great Resignation
The cyber security industry is experiencing alarming rates of resignations, leaving organisations vulnerable to cyber attacks. How can we better retain cyber talent? Continue Reading
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Disaster recovery is an essential service for EDF with Phenix-IT
EDF has built disaster recovery tracking, planning and testing software on a six-month upgrade cycle based on governance, risk and compliance functionality in Mega’s Hopex platform Continue Reading
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Next generation of collaboration and communication services
Future comms systems may look and feel rather different from what exists today – we look at the journey for communications services Continue Reading
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Electric vehicle transition comes with uneven costs
Governments, car makers and tech companies are promoting electric vehicles, but are they considering the uneven social and environmental costs from extracting the critical minerals needed to make batteries? Continue Reading
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Snapshots vs backup: Use both for optimum RPOs
We look at snapshots and backup, the key difference, their pros and cons and how best to use the two approaches in an integrated data protection strategy for optimal RPO Continue Reading
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Positive benefits in the new experience economy
While creating a positive employee experience (EX) has been on the agenda of companies for years, the concept – and that of the experience economy in general – has come of age in the Covid-defined working arena Continue Reading
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Enterprises shore up supply chain resilience with data
Using data to gain better visibility over their supply chains and forge closer connections between disparate links is helping organisations respond to disruptions faster Continue Reading
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Storage requirements for AI, ML and analytics in 2022
We look at what is needed for artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the pros and cons of block, file and object storage to store and access very large amounts of often unstructured data Continue Reading
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Snapshots best practice: Five key things you need to know
We look at snapshots best practice, including the way they work, why they are not the same as backups, how to avoid heavy processing overheads and key user permissions tweaks Continue Reading
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Boots accelerates its digital accessibility journey
Boots is working with website accessibility software provider Recite Me to make its website more user-friendly and improve the customer experience Continue Reading
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Recruitment risks: Avoiding the dangers of fraudulent candidates
Tech companies are seeing an increase in fraudulent job applications, with associated impacts on risk and cyber security. So how can organisations protect themselves from fraudulent applicants while ensuring they recruit the best talent? Continue Reading
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Cloud ERP: Rise of the industry cloud
There is a new variable in the build or buy debate, and it’s all about the way cloud-based services connect internal and external business processes Continue Reading
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Storage suppliers put Kubernetes platforms centre stage
How to orchestrate the orchestrator? Storage suppliers’ Kubernetes management platforms aim to meet storage and data protection challenge in containerised application environments Continue Reading
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How can I avoid an exodus of cyber talent linked to stress and burnout?
Cyber security professionals have played a crucial role during the pandemic, yet many feel like their employers aren’t providing adequate mental health support and have considered quitting their jobs as a result. What can employers do to help them? Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Maintenance and continuous improvement
In the final article in this four-part guide to disaster recovery planning, we look at how and when to update, maintain, audit, review and continually improve the DR plan Continue Reading
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Software firm saves storage array costs with Nutanix hyper-converged
Banking SaaS provider Vialink needed more IOPS when its NetApp arrays slowed up, but Nutanix hyper-converged proved a better package than Pure Storage and Dell EMC, too Continue Reading
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Cloud storage cost challenges and how to tackle them
We look at cloud capacity procurement pitfalls, forecasting challenges, the danger of over-buying, supplier lock-in, deciphering billing and resizing capacity when projects finish Continue Reading
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Define RPO and RTO tiers for storage and data protection strategy
We look at RPO and RTO in defining data protection and disaster recovery strategies and how to specify tiers that reflect the importance of different systems in your organisation Continue Reading
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Storage and 5G: Big impacts likely as wide-area topologies evolve
Enterprise 5G will boost the need for storage generally. It will also push capacity needs closer to the edge and create new locations for processing and storage Continue Reading
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It takes a village: Protecting kids online is everyone’s responsibility
The rapid uptake of smartphones among children has contributed to the increasing number of cases of cyber bullying and online grooming. Is this an educational issue or a cultural problem, and can modern enterprise help? Continue Reading
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Evolving a data integration strategy
Linking IT systems together is never going away, but the approach CIOs adopt is key to ensuring relevant data feeds the decision-making process Continue Reading
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Posix vs object storage: How much longer for Posix?
We look at Posix compliance in storage and why it is being challenged by object storage and the need to scale much further than Posix-oriented storage was ever intended to Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Staff training, incident and media management
In the third in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we set out the key components of DR staff awareness and training programmes, as well as incident management and dealing with the media Continue Reading
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Four emerging data integration trends to assess
To accelerate their performance in data integration, companies are evaluating and adopting a range of contributing technologies Continue Reading
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What neurodivergent people really think of working in cyber security
Many firms are filling cyber security skills gaps by hiring neurodivergent talent – but more support is needed for neurodivergent cyber security professionals, writes autistic tech journalist Nicholas Fearn Continue Reading
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Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust advances digital-first strategy
Trust is making progress with its 10-year plan, centred around an electronic patient records system Continue Reading
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Refrigeration firm freezes legacy backup for one Cohesity cluster
France-based Clauger had reached limits of capacity and complexity with multi-supplier legacy backup, so moved to one Cohesity cluster and gained restores that took mere minutes Continue Reading
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Navigating PIPL: European businesses plot their next steps into China
How does China’s strict new Personal Information Protection Law impact European businesses? Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Setting strategy and developing plans
In the second in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we look at how to formulate a DR strategy and develop detailed DR plans for your organisation, while taking cloud services into account Continue Reading
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EDSFF brings built-for-NVMe connectivity to the datacentre
Aimed at enterprise use cases, EDSFF offers incredible flash density in shared storage and hyperscale deployments, but storage products that use it are still thin on the ground Continue Reading
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Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Assessing risk and business impact
In the first in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we provide a step-by-step guide to building firm foundations for the disaster recovery plan, with risk assessment and business impact analysis Continue Reading
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Is the IT sector beset by fear-mongering?
The arms race between hackers and security teams has led to a plethora of new technologies, but it can be hard to differentiate between sensible cyber purchases and those that are promoted by exaggerating risk Continue Reading
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Scale-up vs scale-out: Horizontal vs vertical scaling for storage
We look at the differences between scale-up and scale-out in storage – or horizontal vs vertical scaling – and the key ways it can be carried out on-prem and in the cloud Continue Reading
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Edge storage: Four key points
Edge storage is driven by rapidly emerging edge computing and data gathering use cases. We look at why it makes sense to store data at the edge and the key challenges involved Continue Reading
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How advanced comms can gain an edge in the post-pandemic world
Advanced communications not only connects the real world to the digital world, but also enables a hybrid and more environmentally friendly world of work Continue Reading
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Cloud repatriation: Five reasons to repatriate data from cloud
We look at key drivers of cloud repatriation, including cost, compliance, issues around latency and data gravity, reversing poorly planned moves to the cloud, and supplier failure Continue Reading
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Social value not yet fully embedded in procurement practices
Social value procurement rules are designed to diversify the public sector’s supplier base while providing society with wider collective benefits, but are yet to be fully introduced Continue Reading
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APAC expert guide to cloud migration
In this expert guide on cloud migration in Asia-Pacific, we highlight the key considerations and strategies that enterprises can take when moving their workloads to public cloud Continue Reading
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What Norwegians are learning as they pioneer autonomous ships
Norway is leading the world in developing autonomous ship technology – and the world should pay attention to its latest developments Continue Reading
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Digital surveillance of remote workers may increase enterprise risk
From productivity tools to security threats, we explore how digital surveillance is forcing remote workers towards shadow IT Continue Reading
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How to manage endpoint security in a hybrid work environment
The future of the workplace is clearly hybrid, but this has untold implications around endpoint security. How can businesses overcome these? Continue Reading
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Immutable snapshots aim to neutralise ransomware
Snapshots – usually immutable anyway – get functionality to stop ransomware intruders moving or deleting snapshots, so customers know they have clean copies of data to restore from Continue Reading
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Online Safety Bill puts user protection onus on platform providers
The Online Safety Bill will place new duties and responsibilities on online platforms accessible from the UK, but as it currently stands, it contains several grey areas Continue Reading
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Five ways the hyper-converged infrastructure market is changing
We look at changes in the hyper-converged infrastructure market as suppliers go cool, go soft, disaggregate HCI nodes, provide as-a-service options and look to containers Continue Reading
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Back on the office network: What are the risks for mobile users?
Many people are returning to offices and bringing their mobile devices with them. What are the cyber security implications of this? Continue Reading
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Hybrid cloud: Five key questions in 2021
We look at key need-to-knows about hybrid cloud in 2021, including how it is defined, key use cases, the main pitfalls and where it’s heading Continue Reading
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Developing an integrated customer and employee experience strategy
We explore what customer experience and employee experience have in common – and the benefits of combining them Continue Reading
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A post-pandemic recipe for developing customer experience
Covid-19 has led to many people reassessing their priorities so customer experience needs to adapt to meet new expectations Continue Reading
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NVMe-over-fabrics: Five need-to-knows
We look at five need-to-knows about NVMe-over-fabrics, such as its implementations – RDMA, Fibre Channel and TCP – use cases, hardware and operating system support Continue Reading
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Ultimate questions require ultimate understanding in the quantum era
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Deep Thought calculates the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything as ‘42’. But what of quantum computing? Continue Reading
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Five things you need to know about cloud file services
We look at cloud file services, which provide a file system-like architecture that gives users access to file data wherever they are, just as if it were a local NAS filer Continue Reading
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Five key questions to ask about storage-as-a-service and consumption models
We look at important questions to ask providers of consumption-based storage procurement services, such as base costs and burst, usage measurement and upgrade paths Continue Reading
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Cloud disaster recovery: The devil is in the detail
We look at cloud disaster recovery and the potential complexities that can result from partial outages and restores as well as challenges around re-configuring network and security Continue Reading
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Boots leading drive for ‘professionalisation of IT’ in retail
Boots becomes member of the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, as CIO Rich Corbridge accelerates drive for the ‘professionalisation of IT’ Continue Reading
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Modern ERP breaks the chains
Modern ERP systems mean user organisations need no longer be stuck with hefty upgrades at times convenient to suppliers Continue Reading
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Disaster recovery for SMEs: Five key areas to consider
We look at key disaster recovery considerations for SMEs, including why backup is not enough, how to create a disaster recovery plan, best-practice DR testing and DR as a service Continue Reading
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Storage-as-a-service: Consumption models from the big six
We look at the big six storage makers’ consumption model offers, which allow customers to pay for on-prem hardware and cloud storage capacity on a pay-per-use basis, within limits Continue Reading
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Windows 11: A first look at the first preview
Microsoft recently unveiled its plans for the next version of the Windows operating system. We give it a test drive Continue Reading
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Tech and new experiences tackling trouble at t’mall
UK shopping centres are under pressure, but new concepts, tech-infused spaces, and fresh approaches to consumer engagement are revitalising the sector Continue Reading
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How the pandemic changed backup
The Covid-19 pandemic forced big changes in how people work – we look at impacts on backup, including increased reliance on the cloud, plus security and compliance vulnerabilities and ransomware Continue Reading
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What the Telecommunications (Security) Bill means for UK industry
The Telecommunications (Security) Bill is intended to reinforce the security of the UK telecommunications infrastructure, but what are the implications for industry? Continue Reading
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Where to run containers? Bare metal vs virtual machines
We look at the key differences between running containers in virtualised environments and on bare metal servers and focus in on the main trade-offs and decision points Continue Reading
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How Bureau Veritas migrated 85% of its applications to the AWS cloud
In six years, France-based services giant BV has migrated 115 applications to the AWS cloud, mostly using in-house expertise. We talk to the company’s IT director Continue Reading
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What digital transformation means for data storage
We survey the key planks of digital transformation and look at the storage technologies emerging to support it, such as NVMe and QLC flash, hyper-converged infrastructure and cloud storage Continue Reading
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The National Security and Investment Act: What datacentre operators and investors need to know
The incoming National Security and Investment Act will give the UK government enhanced powers to pre-screen and intervene on datacentre M&A deals, prompting concerns it could dampen the sector's soaraway growth rates Continue Reading
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Container-native storage: A definition, and what to ask suppliers
We look at container-native storage – aka cloud-native storage – what defines it, and its benefits as a way of bringing persistent Kubernetes storage to containerised applications Continue Reading
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The right tech choices for hybrid workers
Various studies give a mixed reaction to businesses returning to office work, but what is apparent is that support for remote working will continue Continue Reading
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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
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How AI and automation drive better customer service
Forrester analysts explore the benefits of combining artificial intelligence with automation Continue Reading
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Five reasons to look at hyper-converged infrastructure
HCI promises easy setup, purchasing flexibility, low procurement and operation costs, reliability and all in one box – but there are challenges too Continue Reading
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Where now for storage? Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage
Part II: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading
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Where now for storage? Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE
Part I: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading
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Data warehouse storage: Has cloud made on-premise obsolete?
There once was no alternative to building a data warehouse on-premise, but with cloud providers targeting analytics, building data warehouses on-site is looking obsolete Continue Reading
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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
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Backup appliances the hot topic for Pas-de-Calais fire brigade
With requirements for strict, long-duration backup and archiving, French fire brigade set out to replace optical media with a StorageCraft appliance and disaster-proof storage Continue Reading
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The 3-2-1 backup rule: Has cloud made it obsolete?
The 3-2-1 backup rule was made for small-scale use in the pre-cloud era when tape still ruled. Is it relevant in the 2020s, or can we repurpose its fundamental principles? Continue Reading
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How to choose the right email security service for your organisation
With email security threats growing rapidly, businesses can quickly identify and block these by using a top email security service. Here’s how to select the right provider Continue Reading
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Anti-money laundering technology must operate in a collaborative ecosystem
With new technologies making it easier for banks to spot money laundering activity, we look at why the problem persists at scale, finding that ecosystems and collaborative processes need to be built Continue Reading
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Ski firm dumps ‘motley’ storage for DataCore software-defined
Eurogroup cuts power usage by 70% and rackspace from 84U to 7U as it consolidates multiple physical servers and storage protocols onto SANsymphony software-defined storage Continue Reading
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Does email security need a human solution or a tech solution?
People spend a lot of time using email systems, but many do not realise that this makes them attractive targets for cyber criminals. With education and technology, businesses can tackle this problem head-on Continue Reading
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With connectivity on the rise, Africa is a hotspot for datacentre investments
We look at opportunities for datacentre operators in setting up or partnering with local firms in Africa Continue Reading
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Five ways that disaster recovery changes in a pandemic
Covid-19 has changed IT. Previously, working remotely was a business continuity measure, but now it is the norm. That means disaster recovery has to adapt to new risks and new ways to respond Continue Reading
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Data lake storage: Cloud vs on-premise data lakes
The data lake is a fundamental concept of data management. But what type of storage do you need to build a data lake on and what are the pros and cons of on-premise vs the cloud? Continue Reading
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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
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Five key points about unstructured data storage on-prem and cloud
We look at unstructured data, the myriad forms of data it comprises and the key storage options available, which include NAS and object storage on-prem and in the cloud Continue Reading
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Three approaches to remote collaboration for home workers
The coronavirus has led to working from home being the ‘new norm’. We look at how collaboration technologies could work in the long term Continue Reading