In Depth

In Depth

Internet technology

• Green storage: Savings to be made but tricky to achieve

  Storage upgrades can bring energy savings. New hardware, the cloud and as-a-service procurement models all cut costs, but can need careful tweaking to get right  Continue Reading

• IT’s shift to the cloud: Veeam’s data protection report in detail

  With half of servers in the cloud, most backup and nearly all disaster recovery cloud-centric, the shift to the cloud is significant – but container backup is one area that is yet to settle down  Continue Reading

• Top trends in tech, and retail’s early adopters

  Computer Weekly identifies the retail industry’s early adopters of what McKinsey & Co deems the top tech trends  Continue Reading

• Building culture within collaboration to make hybrid work pay

  As hybrid working evolves, some firms are struggling to support non-office-based workers and management is unclear of its new responsibilities. What is being done to address this evolution?  Continue Reading

• Developed for Big Science in Europe, highly accurate time protocols ensure fair trading in finance

  Protocols developed for use at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research are now being used for many other applications, including financial services  Continue Reading

• Freeing the hybrid workforce from quiet constraint

  The rapid shift to hybrid working may be contributing to the trend of 'quiet constraint'. We look at how technology can be applied to really work for a distributed workforce  Continue Reading

• A retail tech tour of the Battersea Power Station development

  We check out the customer-facing digital features on display in the UK’s newest shopping site at Battersea Power Station  Continue Reading

• Top 10 storage and backup customer stories of 2022

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 storage and backup customer stories of 2022  Continue Reading

• From capex to opex: Storage procurement options bloom

  We look at the growing list of possibilities when it comes to paying for storage infrastructure, ranging from upfront purchases with upgrades to pure pay-as-you-go options  Continue Reading

• Extended reality can be empathic reality

  In the metaverse, eliciting empathy might become an important feature for many applications, including gaming and industrial uses, and there is even the potential that applications that focus on emphatic results will create their own market niche  Continue Reading

• XR’s wide range of interface technologies: Achieving total immersiveness

  Visuals are important to create convincing representations of the real world in extended reality, but they are neither inclusive nor do they provide a sufficiently authentic sensation in virtual worlds. Genuine immersiveness will require interfaces ...  Continue Reading

• XR and the real world: Feedback loops and spillovers

  As the metaverse develops, the realism of advanced extended reality applications could allow users to take experiences, interests and strategies with them into the real world – creating spillovers from virtual to real worlds  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage: Key storage specifications

  We look at the key specs in cloud storage, including availability – such as five nines – bandwidth, IOPS and latency, capacity and tiering functionality, egress charges and security  Continue Reading

• The next decade in enterprise backup

  Backup set to adapt to deliver more security, ransomware protection and flash-speed restores, and deal with the complexity of multi-, hybrid cloud and container-based operations  Continue Reading

• Retail’s robotics reboot

  Walmart and Amazon are among the retailers acquiring warehouse robotics firms, during a period of significant innovation in this space  Continue Reading

• Tearing down the barriers to full digital connectivity

  Millions of households rely on good connectivity for work, study or leisure. But how much has fast and consistent broadband connectivity spread across the UK?  Continue Reading

• Putting metaverse concerns into perspective

  All breakthroughs in technology have come with downsides, so what risks and concerns are there with the advent of the metaverse?  Continue Reading

• Cloud bursting: Six key steps in planning and decision-making

  We explore the key stages in a cloud bursting project: assessing the data and workflows, variants in the mechanism, application suitability, having the right resources, and planning and testing  Continue Reading

• XR applications are already changing businesses

  Many still regard the metaverse as a technology looking for an application. Yet company leaders would be surprised to learn how commercially usable augmented and virtual reality applications already are  Continue Reading

• The metaverse’s developing industry structure

  Challenges to create seamlessly working metaverse solutions exist not only on the technology side, but also on the business and partnership side. But the developing commercial landscape has not yet gelled. Small players, startups and even ...  Continue Reading

• Cloud bursting: What is it, what workloads, what technologies?

  We look at cloud bursting, its benefits and how to deploy it, as well as the limitations in terms of suitable workloads, the technologies needed and the skills to make it happen  Continue Reading

• Online marketplace momentum ushers in new era for retailers

  Superdrug is the latest in a growing list of retailers to launch its own online marketplace, joining B&Q, Boots and others in driving a new era for UK retail  Continue Reading

• Morrisons joins the fast-growing retail media movement

  More retailers are becoming publishers as they realise the potential of their online assets, helping to fuel a new fast-growth segment of digital marketing – and Morrisons is no exception  Continue Reading

• Air gaps for backup and how they help against ransomware

  The air gap is a basic of backups and storage. We look at what’s meant by an air gap, the rise of the logical air gap, and its place in the fight against ransomware  Continue Reading

• Hybrid working: Preventing damage to company culture

  The hybrid working model is still a work in progress, and most employers are at an early stage in learning and finding their way towards achieving its benefits  Continue Reading

• How the pandemic accelerated tech adoption in hospitality

  The pandemic led to technology adoption across several sectors, with hospitality being no exception  Continue Reading

• New connectivity options driven by low Earth orbit satellites

  Huge reductions in the cost of building and launching satellites has led to an explosion of interest in space-borne projects and services  Continue Reading

• Cloud bursting: What it is and what it’s good for

  We look at cloud bursting, which allows organisations to meet demand by bursting compute and storage to the cloud  Continue Reading

• Peeking into the metaverse: Taking a look at VR headsets and AR smart glasses

  Extended – augmented and virtual – reality is capturing the imagination of media and investors alike. Use cases abound, and market opportunities proliferate as more and more companies discover applications that might help their operations or serve ...  Continue Reading

• 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

• When network performance is the name of the Games

  Major sporting events are now major IT and networking events. For Aruba, being in charge of networking for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games meant 20 simultaneous major projects - how did it go?  Continue Reading

• Global broadband reaches for the stars to connect the Earth

  Despite fears of recession, especially in major economies, there is one thing that people can’t seem to have enough of: high-speed connectivity  Continue Reading

• Mapping out the rise in checkout-free shopping

  There has been a boom in the number of checkout-free stores globally, but will that growth continue and which retailers are interested?  Continue Reading

• Retailers choose from menu of mobile apps to help reduce food waste

  Supermarkets, convenience stores and coffee shops are among the retailers connecting with mobile apps and tech firms to drive down the wastage of food  Continue Reading

• Pandemic turns e-commerce doubters into believers

  Notable UK retail e-commerce avoiders Primark, B&M and Poundland are now online players. But what are their respective digital approaches?  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• What the EU’s content-filtering rules could mean for UK tech

  EU proposals to clamp down on child sexual abuse material will have a material impact on the UK’s technology sector  Continue Reading

• Retail’s IT talent search intensifies

  Retailers from different sectors are on the hunt to fill similar IT job roles, but are all finding different ways to source the sought-after talent  Continue Reading

• 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

• Four obstacles to hybrid cloud storage – and possible solutions

  We look at obstacles to hybrid cloud storage, such as complexity, a need for object storage, application suitability, and cost, with potential ways to mitigate the problems  Continue Reading

• The state of Australia’s national broadband network

  Australia’s national broadband network promises to improve broadband connectivity across the country but has been plagued by pricing issues. Here’s a look at where it is today and what lies ahead  Continue Reading

• 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

• Interview: LF Energy on using open source to ready energy systems for phasing out fossil fuels

  With the climate crisis putting increasing pressure on countries to decarbonise their economies, the founder of open source championing LF Energy talks about digitising power networks to be ready for renewables  Continue Reading

• Using technology to reinvent stores

  Technology is becoming an important part of the shopping experience at home, in stores and in-between, so how are retailers using technology to advance the store experience?  Continue Reading

• Backup types explained: Full, incremental, differential, synthetic

  We look at backup – on-prem and cloud – and the key variants available, from full backup to synthetic full, via incremental, differential, incremental forever and reverse incremental  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• Five key points on file locking vs object locking

  We look at file vs object storage locking mechanisms, how different forms of storage ensure data consistency, and especially how object storage is tackling the challenge  Continue Reading

• Ship from store: A pandemic retail trend that’s here to stay?

  Shipping online orders from bricks and mortar stores looks set to be a pandemic trend that will stick around to form part of retail’s new normal  Continue Reading

• Retailers get business-critical IT and data management in order

  Decathlon and Toolstation are among the retailers investing in new technology to support business-critical applications and better data management  Continue Reading

• Information in the metaverse is A Tale of Two Cities

  The metaverse will make it easier to access an increasing wealth of information, but it also will make it more difficult to distinguish real from fake, accurate from wrong – and that goes for information as well as the information sources themselves  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Retail’s staff engagement and happiness problem – can tech help?

  Keeping staff engaged, motivated, connected and content is no easy task for retailers, but the industry is exploring new tools and techniques to improve the workplace  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• NRF review: What’s in store for retail tech in 2022?

  What themes will we be seeing in the retail tech space over the next year according to the 2022 National Retail Federation’s Big Show?  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• Dispelling the top five myths of modern infrastructure

  Modern infrastructure is agile, flexible and scalable. It is at the forefront of every CIO’s digital strategy – and it's everywhere. But with the multitude of choices comes complexity  Continue Reading

• A legal minefield called the metaverse

  Will the metaverse create a $1tn revenue market? Who knows? How long will it take to reach this lofty potential? Who can tell? Will people invest across this emerging landscape of speculative riches? You bet  Continue Reading

• Accessible retail: Personalising the UX for disabled consumers

  An online marketplace built with an ‘accessibility-first’ mantra is set to go live in spring 2022 – and it comes amid several new inclusive retailing moves  Continue Reading

• The developing metaverse: Commercial realities of extended realities

  The metaverse is almost certain to become a highly competitive commercial playground, if not battlefield. It will likely not only establish highly profitable markets but also lead to high-profile failures  Continue Reading

• Retailers as tech firms: Next, The Very Group and others see power in the platform

  Gap and Reiss are set to utilise Next’s end-to-end e-commerce service, Total Platform, in 2022, as more retailers carve out a future as part tech company  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage compliance pitfalls: Post-pandemic and post-Brexit

  We look at the key areas of cloud storage compliance that can trip you up, with shared responsibility with cloud providers and data residency among the most important  Continue Reading

• 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

• How to get the most from 5G mobile networking

  Forrester analysts present a guide to help technology organisations optimise the use of 5G in the business  Continue Reading

• Arkwright’s till, Tesco GetGo and retail tech’s non-linear innovation journey

  The checkout-free Tesco GetGo store shows that retail technology has come a long way since the faulty till draws in Open All Hours, but some of today’s innovation goes back to the future  Continue Reading

• 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

• How in-store technology is supporting retail’s sustainability agenda

  Boots, Costa Coffee and the major grocers’ in-store technology focus is switching towards systems supporting sustainability goals  Continue Reading

• 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

• Retail tech community reacts to BNPL regulatory proposals

  Regulation is coming to the buy now, pay later market, but what does it mean for a retail tech community increasingly embracing these solutions?  Continue Reading

• 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

• How Estonia’s country-as-a-service scheme has attracted tens of thousands of foreign entrepreneurs

  Estonia has created a country-as-a-service offering which is attracting entrepreneurs and businesses from across the world  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• New thinking and systems required to tackle online fraud in retail

  Online fraud is a growing problem for retail, but are merchants doing enough to update systems and how should they change their actions to address it?  Continue Reading

• 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

• Briefing: Cloud storage performance metrics

  We look at some of the key storage performance metrics that determine what your applications will get from cloud storage, plus cloud essentials that are beyond simple measurement  Continue Reading

• APAC datacentres gear up for the future

  Datacentre operators in the Asia-Pacific region are dabbling in advanced power and cooling solutions, along with machine learning and edge computing, to keep pace with growing demand for their services  Continue Reading

• 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

• Lakehouse concept aims to merge data lake and data warehouse

  Data lakes are big, amorphous and difficult to access, while data warehouses are costly and aimed at structured data. The data lakehouse aims at analytics in an age of unstructured data  Continue Reading

• Video commerce and livestreaming make waves in retail

  The growth in e-commerce during the pandemic is well documented, but the fragmented retail environment has also helped video commerce and livestreaming rise to prominence  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• How AI and automation drive better customer service

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

• Cloud archiving: A perfect use case, but beware costs and egress issues

  The advantages of cloud archiving are ease of use and being well-suited to potential latency issues, but IT teams need to be aware of costs and issues around moving data from and between clouds  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Amazon Go – is now the right time?

  In the beginning of 2021, Amazon launched a physical store in London, but is it the right time to be investing in offline?  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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