In Depth

In Depth

Integration software and middleware

• 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

• Why post-pandemic reskilling must focus on mainframes

  A major contributing factor to UK-wide skills shortages is the significant number of people who have left the workforce since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic  Continue Reading

• 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

• Finland brings cryostats and other cool things to quantum computing

  Not only is Finland the clear leader in refrigeration technology for quantum computers, but it also leads in fundamental research into the underlying quantum information theory  Continue Reading

• The emerging role of software in business development

  Business leaders generally recognise the importance of software as a business enabler – but some see technology driving business growth  Continue Reading

• Making the enterprise composable

  We speak to industry experts about how to develop composable IT that can quickly adapt to business change  Continue Reading

• How digital operations drive ERP modernisation

  When it comes to modernising enterprise resource planning, IT decision-makers have a multitude of options. We look at what to consider when planning a modernisation project  Continue Reading

• Why data and the pandemic are ripping up paper processes

  We explore how the Covid-19 pandemic has forced businesses to rip out traditional paper processes and replace them with end-to-end digitisation  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

• Baking adaptability into the supply chain

  The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the importance of data and automation in supporting an agile supply chain.  Continue Reading

• Five pillars of public sector IT

  Finding better ways for people to collaborate and share information digitally is the challenge government needs to embrace. We look at ways in which this can be achieved  Continue Reading

• Changing realities of digital transformation in the public sector

  Digitisation of citizen service delivery and government operations has accelerated during the coronavirus outbreak, despite legacy constraints  Continue Reading

• Public sector IT: The road to digital

  Progress to digital transformation is patchy in the public sector, but some CIOs are embracing the strategy  Continue Reading

• How to overcome application modernisation barriers

  Most businesses are not lucky enough to be able to build a new cloud native architecture. We look at how to take legacy applications forward  Continue Reading

• Applications: Combining the old with the new

  We look at how organisations can integrate legacy applications with newer digital platforms  Continue Reading

• What are the drivers for application modernisation?

  Application modernisation is not something that just happens, nor is it just driven by digitisation and cloud-first strategies  Continue Reading

• Deliver quality software at speed with CI/CD

  Continuous integration and delivery promises a remarkable acceleration in software development, but some basics need to be in place to ensure success  Continue Reading

• Is Azure ready to go cloud-native?

  We look at the suitability of Microsoft’s Azure platform for deploying cloud-native applications  Continue Reading

• Adapting to the rise of the holistic application

  A containerised, componentised and compartmentalised approach to software presents CIOs with the challenge of managing a more complex environment  Continue Reading

• IPsoft’s digital worker is part of a shift in human productivity

  IPsoft used its annual user summit to allow customers to update themselves on the career of its cognitive digital agent Amelia  Continue Reading

• Is DevOps the best approach to software development?

  A DevOps model builds on an agile approach to software development, but a different approach to tooling is needed  Continue Reading

• How SAP’s digital access licence influences your ERP strategy

  Following the high-profile legal cases against brewers Diageo and Anheuser-Busch InBev, SAP has brought some clarity over indirect access to its core ERP system  Continue Reading

• Build IoT apps the easy way

  CIOs may find themselves spoilt for choice when assessing digital platforms for IoT. We look at the options  Continue Reading

• Seeking services with a clear digital focus

  We take a look at the pros and cons of using mid-sized nearshore IT service providers to support digital transformation  Continue Reading

• How innovation in cycling helps Trek-Segafredo create a competitive edge

  Cycling team is using technology from design to the track to improve its business and sporting competitiveness  Continue Reading

• How going cloud native can increase app agility

  We look at how cloud-native applications can deliver far more dynamic support to meet an organisation’s needs  Continue Reading

• Integration is key to Office 365’s progress

  We look at how Microsoft Office 365 works and how far it has gone towards becoming a platform for integrating other tools  Continue Reading

• How the Met Office is handling a deluge of data

  ‘Lazy’ open source tools are helping the UK weather forecasting service open up unprecedented volumes of data to all  Continue Reading

• Five ways to cut the risk of Salesforce

  Best practices for IT professionals seeking to implement Salesforce’s product portfolio  Continue Reading

• How composable applications can improve software development

  We speak to experts in the field of software development about the pros and cons of componentising application software  Continue Reading

• Can you work around SAP indirect access software licensing?

  The SAP legal case against Diageo highlights the seemingly arbitrary rules governing software licensing  Continue Reading

• Secure IoT before it kills us

  Experts say more must be done to mitigate the potentially catastrophic threats presented by connected devices  Continue Reading

• Digital transformation needs mainframe DevOps

  As organisations become more digital, CIOs must consider how best to tap into data held in mainframes  Continue Reading

• [email protected]: Spreadsheets and ERP – 50 years of software coding business

  Business software has been a rich field for IT professionals over the past five decades, and we are on the cusp of a new era of customers rolling their own for competitive advantage  Continue Reading

• Singapore’s Jurong Health Services: Transforming healthcare through data technologies

  Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) is being recognised for its high standards of data use  Continue Reading

• Divide and conquer in software architecture

  Applications built out of independently deployable modules are the future of flexible solution development  Continue Reading

• CW500: Are you human or are you machine?

  As more things become internet-connected, systems designed to authenticate people now need to deal with machine-to-machine authentication  Continue Reading

• The API economy – or the API Tower of Babel?

  Application programming interfaces promise to open up back-office systems to the business and third parties. We assess the impact  Continue Reading

• Overcoming the business and technology barriers to DevOps adoption

  What steps should the enterprise take in adopting this approach to software development and delivery  Continue Reading

• Inside DevOps: How it really works

  DevOps done well can lead to a continuous loop where teams plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate and monitor  Continue Reading

• Why the CIO should loosen the grip on enterprise IT

  CIOs need to decentralise IT systems and provide the business with access through APIs  Continue Reading

• Is it time to jump off the Windows bandwagon?

  The growth of user power has forced organisations to re-think IT strategies as employees demand mobility, collaboration and the latest technology  Continue Reading

• Cloud and the need for microservices

  Cloud holds the promise to change the way IT supports the business by using hybrid private/public cloud services  Continue Reading

• Microservices: How to prepare next-generation cloud applications

  A microservice architecture promotes developing and deploying applications composed of autonomous, self-contained units  Continue Reading

• Transport for London builds customer profiles using RFID data analytics

  Transport for London (TfL) uses cashless payment cards and RFID tags to create detailed customer profiles  Continue Reading

• Firms must incorporate agile into their strategic planning

  Firms must achieve greater levels of transparency to create a strong link between strategic planning and execution  Continue Reading

• Q&A: MarkLogic CEO Gary Bloom talks strategy

  Gary Bloom, CEO of NoSQL database supplier MarkLogic, talks to Computer Weekly about strategy  Continue Reading

• What ingredients go into the successful app store?

  An enterprise app store should provide the controlled availability of apps for employees.We look at what is available for organisations to use  Continue Reading

• Co-ordinating IT to align with business processes

  Traditionally, when a business wanted to automate a process, it would turn to the IT department, which would work on a formal specification  Continue Reading

• The new world of automation

  Business process automation addresses the pace of change in the market by removing human entities wherever possible.  Continue Reading

• Standard Life blazes savings trail with Oracle Fusion

  Standard Life has generated £8m in cash savings on a £12m investment in Oracle Fusion applications but wider market take-up has been slow, says Forrester  Continue Reading

• How open data can mitigate the floods of the future

  Live, open government data – collated on third-party platforms – can change peoples’ lives profoundly in a wide variety of ways.  Continue Reading

• Digital reality: When IT meets the business

  The implications of companies going digital is that technology becomes a core competency to drive the business forward. How will IT adapt?  Continue Reading

• Big banks' legacy IT systems could kill them

  A banking T-Rex is dying and nimble competitors will pick at its carcass. Is it too late for the retail bank giants to overhaul their IT and survive?  Continue Reading

• Best practices in software asset management for a flexible, resilient IT

  Managing software assets is vital in order to maintain a highly flexible and up-to-date IT platform and more importantly remain compliant  Continue Reading

• APIs can be strategic tools to unlock business value

  Accenture’s Technology Vision asserts that every business is a digital business, and digital business ecosystems are powered by application programming interfaces  Continue Reading

• GE uses big data to power machine services business

  GE, one of the UK's largest manufacturers, is using big data analytics with data generated from machine sensors to predict maintenance needs  Continue Reading

• The limitations of traditional SaaS integration approaches

  Time and budget constraints are forcing many organisations to rethink their integration strategy and find a well-aligned solution  Continue Reading

• How to integrate SaaS with your local business systems

  As software as a service matures, CIOs need to look at how well cloud-based products integrate with existing on-premise systems  Continue Reading

• Amazon: Gold standard of the cloud?

  Amazon Web Services is the benchmark for cloud in the enterprise but can it handle the challenge of federated cloud services?  Continue Reading

• Fruit and veg distributor keeps food fresh with Infor’s M3 ERP

  Catering supplier Reynolds is enjoying the fruits of an Infor ERP system that cuts down on food waste and streamlines operations  Continue Reading

• Build consensus on MDM programme goals to boost chances of success

  Advice on how to build political consensus for successful MDM initiatives, distilled from Jim Mortleman's fieldwork for SearchDataManagement.co.UK. Common advice uncommonly gathered.  Continue Reading

• Business focus vital for effective master data management strategy

  To be successful, a master data management programme must be designed from the outset with business objectives foremost in mind. Get advice on how to build a business-trained MDM strategy.  Continue Reading

• Big Data: Utilities rise to the smart meter challenge

  The mass of information from smart meters is leading utility suppliers to reconsider how they use their data  Continue Reading

• Weighing up the options for software testing

  We examine the reasons why software testing is increasingly being outsourced  Continue Reading

• Data virtualisation on rise as ETL alternative for data integration

  The Phone House and Novartis have turned to data virtualisation from Denodo and Composite to gain a single logical view of disparate data sources.  Continue Reading

• How technology is changing BPO

  Karl Flinders discovers how IT has become central to the provision of outsourced business processes  Continue Reading

• 'Big data' MDM processes key to finding business value in new info

  Big data MDM projects encounter a green field in the form of social media. And all big data is enterprise data, by definition. Business leaders will look to IT to derive serious business value.  Continue Reading

• What IT leaders say about big data

  IT leaders met at a recent Computer Weekly roundtable event, in association with Oracle, to discuss the possibilities and challenges of big data.  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly / TechTarget IT priorities survey 2012

  Learn which IT priorities are at the top of UK IT managers lists for 2012. Coverage from across our network includes cloud, budget cuts, networking, security, disaster recovery and more.  Continue Reading

• Review: VMware PXE Manager

  Learn how to set up VMware PXE Manager and its additional features. Our VMware expert discuses his favourite ‘Fling’: Massimiliano Daneri’s PXE Manager.  Continue Reading

• CES 2011: Embrace IT consumerisation

  Industry gurus are warning that the old ways of doing things cannot continue. The idea of travelling to a place of work, working at least an eight-hour shift using tools that work provides dates back to the industrial age. Productivity was a measure...  Continue Reading

• Case Study: Globe Telecom - Gaining marketing agility with smart promotions

  Globe Telecom needed to reach a new level of agility in the creation and management of promotional service offerings.  Continue Reading

• Five approaches to cloud storage

  Cloud computing may be the hot topic of the moment, but what about the services that are available today? Steve Gold did his homework and discovered a world of options that are available...  Continue Reading

• SMI-S storage standard breaks supplier lock-in

  There is work to be done, but the Storage Management Initiative - Specification (SMI-S) standard promises best-of-breed storage systems, easily provisioned by informed users.  Continue Reading

• Computer security for small businesses – Essential Guide

  Computer security for small businesses can be multi-layered, using desktop security products such as antivirus, antispam and firewalls, and network intrusion detection, and hardware technologies such as security tokens, disk encryption and biometric...  Continue Reading

• Integration: Choosing a systems integrator

  The systems integrator market has evolved, developing its specialist know-how to meet the changing needs of IT departments and organisations as they operate with tighter IT budgets.  Continue Reading

• IT at biology’s frontiers

  In less than 10 years IT has gone from being a valuable tool for life sciences to being at the heart of some of the most important research projects ever undertaken.  Continue Reading

• Features list: April 2009 - Cloud computing

  Cloud computing changes the economics of piloting and running new IT projects, given that 80% of IT budgets are spent on maintaining existing IT systems. How can you best make use of cloud services in 2009?  Continue Reading

• Wessex Water boosts customer satisfaction with new software

  Wessex Water is aiming for a 99.7% satisfaction rating from its customers following its implementation of a software-based scheduling system for its 700+ field technicians.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Promoting accountability through ISO/IEC 27001 & 27002 (formerly ISO/IEC 17799)

  As organisations go, there are those that welcome internationally recognised standards with open arms, and those that shy away citing cost or even applicability....

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• Gain control of network access

  How can you be certain that staff and external business partners are given the correct access to your company's IT system? How do you ensure they are only able to access the information they require, and that when they no longer need access or cease...  Continue Reading

• Oracle buys its way into middleware market

  Other companies may have been acquisitive, but Oracle has been the most aggressive of all in recent years, with its PeopleSoft and Siebel acquisitions, and...

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• Systems management: what Novell's Zenworks has to offer

  Novell's Zenworks is its suite of automated...  Continue Reading

• Microsoft System Center 2007 vies for chunk of service management market

  Microsoft System Center 2007 (System Center as it was) is a foundation suite of management products designed for companies with investments in Microsoft products. This is a pretty large constituency.  Continue Reading

• IBM's Tivoli has broad business appeal

  The IBM Tivoli suite of products is a pretty broad church. The range of functions it can manage varies from monitoring and discovery of assets to...  Continue Reading

• FastScale thinks thin to manage virtual server images

  It's difficult to read anything these days on what's happening in the world of ITC without tripping on a virtual this and a virtual that. Indeed, Quocirca...  Continue Reading

• Storage in the clouds

  The IT industry has had a love/hate relationship with the cloud. At the turn of the decade, businesses embraced it. Application service providers (ASPs)...  Continue Reading

• XAM: a guide to standardising archives

  How much money has your organisation invested in storage systems and processes over the last decade? Chances are you have spent many millions of pounds storing...  Continue Reading

• Competition: The email that got away - tell us your story to win a MacBook Air or Asus Eee PC 901

  Enter our competition in association with Mimecast to win a Macbook Air or Asus Eee PC 901 by telling us about 'the email that got away'.  Continue Reading

• Storage Expo preview: Get to the bottom of storage efficiency

  It is easy to be glib about such things as storage efficiency.  Continue Reading

• IBM’s Rational Software Analyser ups the game for coding error prevention

  IBM has developed a tool to reduce errors in programming. Its Rational Software...  Continue Reading

• Supercomputers help Exeter reach for the stars

  Are we alone in the universe? Could life exist on other planets? Questions like these have inspired countless science fiction stories, but at the University of Exeter's Astrophysics department, these queries are at the forefront of research. The ...  Continue Reading

• How to select a storage capacity planning tool

  To select a storage management and capacity planning tool, first calculate how much storage is available and how much of your total storage capacity is actually being used.  Continue Reading

• Backup virtual servers with traditional techniques and specialised tools

  As more "logical" servers are consolidated onto fewer "physical" computer systems, it's important to protect each virtual machine's data against failure or loss. Virtual server backups are the key to this protection.  Continue Reading

• Storage session downloads: executive track

  Our "executive track" sessions give you an idea of where your storage should be and ideas on where it's headed. Sessions also key on ways to integrate new technologies, processes and ideas without going over budget.  Continue Reading

• Backup reporting expands to add capacity planning

  Aptare adds capacity planning for primary data storage to its product line, joining Symantec in recent attempts to broaden the appeal of reporting software.  Continue Reading

• Disk-based backup overview

  Implementing a backup scheme that is fast, safe and cost-effective remains a serious challenge for storage administrators. Here's how to do it  Continue Reading