In Depth

In Depth

• UK firms spend £1.8bn a year on security

  Spending on security has reached ‘massive’ levels, according to a report from Point Topic.  Continue Reading

• ‘Gung-ho' attitude scuppers public-sector IT projects

  Government IT heads’ ‘gung-ho’ and reckless attitudes to risk is wasting millions of taxpayer money on over-complex, poorly tested systems, according to a think-tank study.  Continue Reading

• RFID set to soar despite high cost

  Hard to quantify return on investment and high implementation costs are hobbling the uptake of RFID, according to market analysts Frost & Sullivan.  Continue Reading

• Financial Engines revs up software security with code-scanning tool

  The investment advisory company uses Fortify's Source Code Analysis code-scanning tool to help catch flaws and enhance its security in-depth approach.  Continue Reading

• PING with Suzanne Hall

  In this exclusive interview with Information Security magazine, Suzanne Hall, AARP director of IT operations and security, examines how security professionals can enable telecommuters and mobile workers while keeping their data secure.  Continue Reading

• More from SearchSecurity September 2006

  This month's round up weighs the pros and cons of security information management systems (SIMs) plus four case studies illustrating the different roadblocks security managers can encounter  Continue Reading

• On privacy laws, every state is one of confusion

  It's getting increasingly difficult for US firms to comply with regulations . David A. Meunier feels that it's time to develop safeguards and processes for this ever-changing regulatory environment.  Continue Reading

• Top 5 free Windows security downloads

  The place where you can find free tools that help you crack passwords, remove troublesome spyware and enhance network security. Check out our five most popular tools and find out what you've been missing.  Continue Reading

• Radiance enhances data transfer system

  Digital logistics management systems firm Radiance Technologies has announced a range of enhancements to its TrueDelivery data transfer system.  Continue Reading

• SAP opens grid research facility in Belfast

  SAP has opened a £1.5m grid research centre at Queen’s University in Belfast.  Continue Reading

• Cisco expands server-aggregation technology

  Cisco Systems has announced new products for its Service Oriented Network Architecture-based datacentre framework.  Continue Reading

• Botnet-finding service targets network providers

  Security firm Trend Micro has announced a new service aimed at identifying botnet activity – networks of compromised machines that can be remotely controlled by an attacker.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: reward individuality, overqualified job seeker, Dell laptops

  Have your say at computerweekly.com  Continue Reading

• How to build a strategic relationship

  Partnering: Change creates challenges for any long-term partnership. For a giant like Unilever or a smaller group like Halfords, communication is the key to winning  Continue Reading

• How grid power pays off for HSBC

  Grid technology has broken out of the scientific and academic communities' labs and entered the enterprise.  Continue Reading

• System shall speak unto system

  Systems control and data governance have become contentious and complicated issues. Could an open source initiative hold the answer?  Continue Reading

• SOA gathers pace in the enterprise

  Although still in the nascent phase of its adoption by corporate IT, take-up of service oriented architecture is becoming more widespread among businesses, according the Computer Weekly CIO Index.  Continue Reading

• Anti-ageism law will have real bite

  Older IT professionals will be protected by new safeguards against age-related discrimination by employers from 1 October.  Continue Reading

• BCSWomen wins Communications in Business award for networking

  The BCSWomen forum has been named Network Professional of the Year in the Communications in Business Awards 2006.  Continue Reading

• How do I move out of the public sector?

  Expert advice for readers' career problems  Continue Reading

• Wolverhampton develops online forums to boost customer feedback

  City council targets consultation savings with web-based system  Continue Reading

• Music firm first with Sharepoint 2007

  Music label Hed Kandi has become the first UK business to use Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007.  Continue Reading

• Marks & Spencer extends item-level RFID trial

  Marks & Spencer has extended its item-level radio frequency identification trial to cover its autumn/winter clothing range.  Continue Reading

• Symantec Dark Vision app monitors underground IRC servers

  New research project keeps tabs on the hacker underground, providing new insight on activities like credit card theft and spamming.  Continue Reading

• NetApp operations chief talks growth

  Tom Georgens, executive vice president and general manager at NetApp -- also rumoured to be in the running as next CEO -- discusses what's driving its growth.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 26 September 2006

  Weekly round up of events at Bodcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• Grid power pays off

  Grid computing is no longer the preserve of scientific number crunchers. From oil exploration, pharmaceuticals and banking to SMEs, it is proving its worth for those needing high performance computing.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft and the EC face off - again

  Microsoft has warned the European Commission to steer clear of requiring the removal of important security features in Europe for its new Windows Vista operating system.  Continue Reading

• No end in sight to phishing, says consortium

  Ignore those surveys that suggest the good guys are winning the battle against phishing. They’re not.  Continue Reading

• British directors on the (data) take, says survey

  Almost a third of British directors are stealing confidential company information, according to a YouGov report.  Continue Reading

• Software reins in USB devices

  Centennial Software has released software that can control the use of portable storage devices on enterprise laptops.  Continue Reading

• Insider breaches get corporate ‘blind eye’

  Most insider-related security breaches go unreported, according to a survey by the Ponemon Institute in the US.  Continue Reading

• Royal Mail sets up online system to support new post pricing structure

  The Royal Mail has implemented an online pricing application to handle the changes it made to its letter and package pricing last month.  Continue Reading

• Unilever boosts its retailer links in global firewall deal

  Unilever is to outsource the management and provision of its global firewall infrastructure to BT Global Services.  Continue Reading

• Choosing a route to agile systems

  With as many as 170 BPM suppliers, choosing the right approach is vital when looking to improve efficiency through process-driven IT  Continue Reading

• Nationwide’s integration challenge

  Nationwide is bracing itself for the systems integration challenge posed by its planned merger with Portman Building Society.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise security: Can you square the circle?

  How do you guarantee end-users the required level of access while making sure that networks and applications are protected by robust security? Arif Mohamed looks at how two organisations have solved the puzzle  Continue Reading

• How do I break into Java programming

  Expert advice for readers' career problems  Continue Reading

• IT and change management central to Wirral customer service overhaul

  Smart projects: Council rolls out CRM, ERP and document management systems  Continue Reading

• Total upgrades accounting system to aid compliance

  Gas and oil company Total E&P UK has completed a major upgrade and extension of its core hydrocarbon accounting system.  Continue Reading

• Insurer boosts network to support apps

  Reinsurance broker Benfield has rolled out Wan acceleration technology to assign bandwidth intelligently to key applications across its principal global offices.  Continue Reading

• Spotlight on business value metrics

  The demands of demonstrating quantifiable business value from IT have placed the spotlight increasingly on metrics – what and how much to measure, and how to use those measurements most effectively.  Continue Reading

• IT4C awards to recognise success of IT volunteers

  IT4Communities, which was set up in 2002 to help IT professionals offer their skills to local charities and community projects, has launched its inaugural awards for IT volunteering.  Continue Reading

• EMC unveils service oriented vision

  Having acquired virtualisation, data management and security tools, EMC is integrating them into its core storage platform to produce a new breed of system  Continue Reading

• Hybrids give sluggish PCs the boot

  Suppliers are combining flash memory with traditional hard discs to create hybrid drives with data transfer rates suitable for high-performance software  Continue Reading

• DPM’s diary: 19 September 2006

  Weekly round up of events at Bodcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• Offshoring offers greater IT flexibility, says Norwich Union

  Norwich Union is outsourcing 500 IT jobs in an effort to build greater flexibility into its IT base to better deal with peaks and troughs in demand, the company has said.  Continue Reading

• 3Tera announces virtualisation vision

  3Tera, an established name in grid and utility computing solutions, has revealed a new vision to enable utility computing for Web applications.  Continue Reading

• University of Tasmania not devilled by server and storage options

  Advanced Linux server and storage solutions are driving chemistry and climate modelling studies within the University of Tasmania (UTAS).  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation drives SOA for Fujitsu SAP service

  Fujitsu Computer Systems has launched FlexFrame for mySAP Business Suite 3.2B, an integrated solution using virtualisation technology that aims to enable companies to run mySAP applications using a true service-oriented architecture (SOA).  Continue Reading

• Server virtualisation ‘causing datacentre complexity crisis’

  At its annual user conference, Opsware has revealed a strategy for managing complex virtual server environments.  Continue Reading

• Series storage array with serial attached SCSI drives first among EqualLogic

  EqualLogic, a provider of enterprise-class iSCSI storage area network (San) solutions, has announced a range of storage arrays featuring high-performance Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives.  Continue Reading

• Putting family first keeps women from the boardroom

  Almost two-thirds of female directors believe that taking a career break to have a family puts them on the wrong side of the boardroom door.  Continue Reading

• Revenue building new prime directive for IT chiefs

  CEOs expect IT’s role to shift from cost cutting to helping revenue growth, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit report.  Continue Reading

• Best-shoring drives call centre growth

  UK firms are replacing domestic call centres with a mix of nearshore and offshore centres in a bid to drive down costs.  Continue Reading

• A third of directors steal from their companies

  A Hummingbird/YouGov survey of 1,385 UK employees shows that theft of company information is a widespread problem, with 29% of directors admitting to stealing confidential information when they left for a new job.  Continue Reading

• IT job numbers rising fast

  The number of IT jobs have almost doubled this year, according to Mandis/Computer People’s quarterly job tracker.  Continue Reading

• Planning for converged networks

  Within the next few years, it is estimated that 75% of phone calls will be made over an IP network.  Continue Reading

• Prioritising desktop patches

  Patching every month -- or sometimes more often -- can be a headache. Try killing the pain with a well-ordered plan. This checklist provides guidelines for prioritising patches.  Continue Reading

• Database analysis system proves a safe bet for rapid return at the Tote

  The Tote, one of the UK's largest bookmakers, is reaping the benefits of a new database analysis tool it ­installed in May.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 12 September 2006

  Weekly round up of events at Bodcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• Bank of Scotland overhaul aims for compliance gains

  The corporate banking division of Bank of Scotland is preparing a major overhaul of its accounts processing systems after bedding in a new datawarehouse.  Continue Reading

• A canny way to end the paper jam

  Making the paperless office a reality has meant a complete rethink of information management at the Scottish Executive, Scotland's devolved government. Helen Beckett reports on the challenges and the benefits  Continue Reading

• Converged networks: The VoIP revolution

  As the amount of voice traffic carried over the internet increases, Arif Mohamed investigates the pros and cons of moving voice and data networks to one converged network  Continue Reading

• Next move: How do I break into management?

  Expert advice for readers' career problems  Continue Reading

• Birmingham sets management plan for project savings of £100m a year

  Birmingham City Council has set out a business transformation methodology to guide its 2,000-plus managers in running a series of IT-led projects that are expected to save £1bn over the next 10 years.  Continue Reading

• Allied targets growth with centralised IT and CRM

  Allied Carpets aims to increase its revenue by as much as £5m a year with a new IT architecture and a Micro­soft customer relationship management system.  Continue Reading

• Who protects the information our critical infrastructure relies on?

  A recent BCS Thought Leadership Debate discussed who owns the UK's critical national information infrastructure and how it is protected.  Continue Reading

• Decision on Microsoft Firewall and other Windows hardening advice

  Windows hardening expert Jonathan Hassell looks at how to disable Microsoft Firewall, set permissions for shared Excel files and how to avoid re-installing Windows XP when moving to a new hard disk.  Continue Reading

• IT director shows value of focus and flexibility when heading for the top

  If you are aiming to climb the career ladder, it helps to have a clear goal, but you will also need a flexible approach along the way.  Continue Reading

• PlateSpin unveils new channel for SME virtualisation

  A common perception regarding virtualisation is that it is only suitable for companies large enough to deploy it. Virtualisation supplier PlateSpin is aiming to shatter this illusion.  Continue Reading

• IBM offers server software support for virtualisation

  Virtualisation software that enables companies to deploy and install software on tens of thousands of laptops, desktop PCs, wireless devices and servers has been launched by IBM.  Continue Reading

• Montecito helps HP brings added Integrity to server line

  As part of a bid to drive down the cost of business critical computing for customers HP has refreshed its entire line of Integrity servers, basing the range on the latest Intel Montecito processors.  Continue Reading

• McDATA makes multi-format upgrade to data backup and recovery

  Data access solutions provider McDATA has unveiled Virtual Tape Library (VTL), a disc-to-disc-to-tape system for backing up both disc and tape media.  Continue Reading

• Mobile love affair costs UK businesses billions

  Firms could save by clamping down on mobile usage  Continue Reading

• 5,000 IT jobs a year moving offshore

  UK tech staff moving to outsourcers  Continue Reading

• CRM returns to IT agenda

  Firms taking more pragmatic approach to CRM  Continue Reading

• IT departments failing mobile workers

  Mobile staff feel 'let down' by support they receive  Continue Reading

• We want more money, say IT pros

  Pay and opportunities problems driving IT workers to seek new horizons  Continue Reading

• Managing converged IP networks: The next challenge

  Enterprises are well-versed managing separate voice and data infrastructures, but they do not have the tools and training necessary to manage SIP-based VoIP and multimedia applications.  Continue Reading

• Storage upstarts are tipping the vendor scales

  The big storage vendors are always trying to steal a piece of each other's pie. But some small tech upstarts might play big parts in determining who comes out on top.  Continue Reading

• Security Blog Log: Word doc scam evades spam filters

  Also this week: A researcher gets a harsh reward after flagging a University of Southern California Web site flaw, and more blogs are keeping an eye on the latest security breaches.  Continue Reading

• SMS phishing is here

  Phishing attacks are no longer limited to email: researchers have uncovered phishing scams using SMS, and mobile experts say enterprises should be wary of these so-called SMiShing scams.  Continue Reading

• Business alignment with a spark

  There are many ways to align IT with the business, but few IT directors have the opportunity to demonstrate this as managing director of their own division.  Continue Reading

• How do I break into business analysis?

  Expert advice for readers' career problems  Continue Reading

• Analysis app helps double new business at Foresters

  Financial services organisation Foresters has doubled its new-business volumes in the past 18 months, after developing customer needs analysis software linked to its point of sale system.  Continue Reading

• DPM's Diary: 5 September 2006

  Monday I got in about 10.30am today, still suffering from "indigestion" derived from last night's repast - that third bottle of claret was definitely tainted - to find Mavis rather flustered.  Continue Reading

• Helly Hansen sets sail with Verizon for global IP network

  Sailing and outdoor clothing group Helly Hansen has signed up Verizon Business to upgrade and provide support for a managed private IP network across offices in 17 countries.  Continue Reading

• Cosworth revs up data for SAP move

  UK racing engine manufacturer Cosworth has started the data cleansing phase of a £2m global SAP roll-out designed to improve business performance and reduce costs by consolidating systems.  Continue Reading

• Protecting wireless networks: Step 3

  Security testing expert Kevin Beaver covers the tools and techniques needed to find and exploit insecure wireless networks.  Continue Reading

• Protecting wireless networks: Step 2

  Security testing expert Kevin Beaver covers the tools and techniques you'll need to find and exploit insecure wireless networks.  Continue Reading

• Wireless network security testing

  Attack your own wireless networks to find vulnerabilities before malicious hackers do.  Continue Reading

• Harness the power of home users

  Multimedia: The next generation of workers are more multimedia savvy than most businesses, and firms need to think about how to use this to their advantage  Continue Reading

• EMA announces key findings from virtualisation report

  Independent IT management research and consulting firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has announced key findings from its recent in-depth study of the IT virtualisation market.  Continue Reading

• Dell quick to deploy new Intel chips in servers

  Intel has unveiled eight new dual-core Xeon 7100 series processors that will see use in servers from companies such as Dell, which has announced that it will deploy the chips in a new product line.  Continue Reading

• Heatwave fuels datacentre conference

  Following the hot summer, IXEurope, one of Europe’s largest independent datacentre operators, is to take active involvement in a conference dedicated to explore such issues.  Continue Reading

• Sun reveals StorageTek service plans

  Sun Microsystems has announced its new strategy resulting from the integration of the StorageTek TekCare support program into its SunSpectrum support portfolio.  Continue Reading

• Disc storage market meeting demands of expanding datacentres

  As the data needs of organisations increases, the disc storage market industry is responding to these needs says market research firm IDC.  Continue Reading

• Compliance crippling cost calculations of IT directors

  Finance firms blow the budget on compliance  Continue Reading

• Half of BPO deals in trouble

  Many firms have unrealistic expectations of what BPO can actually deliver  Continue Reading