In Depth

In Depth

Operating systems software

• Chromebooks and G Suite: a good working alternative

  We look at Chromebooks as collaboration clients, both in Google-oriented and mixed-platform environments  Continue Reading

• Why the browser is the computer

  When he was CEO of Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy once said that the network is the computer. Today, users spend most of their time in a browser  Continue Reading

• Inside the distros: A year in Linux development

  Linux will turn 30 in three years. We look at how far the major Linux distributions – or distros – have come over the past year and what they might be able to bring in the future  Continue Reading

• Q&A: Flying the open source flag

  Red Hat’s vice-president and general manager for the ASEAN region, Damien Wong, sheds light on the company’s strategy for tackling a market that is not used to paying for software  Continue Reading

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

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

• Future of the server operating system

  We look at the evolution of the server operating system, and how the next generation is moving into the cloud  Continue Reading

• Linux versus Unix hot patching

  We examine the current state of play in the ongoing competition between the Linux and Unix server operating systems  Continue Reading

• How enterprise software development is changing

  During Computer Weekly’s 50th anniversary event, we held a panel discussion at Skills Matter in London to look into how enterprise software is changing  Continue Reading

• CW@50: How UK home brew gave computing to the masses

  From batch processing to the graphical user interface, from desktop PCs to smartphones, from luggables to wearables, computing has come a long way since Computer Weekly was first published in 1966. We look at some of the personal computers that ...  Continue Reading

• CW@50: From ICL to ITIL

  Standardisation helps industries to grow. Here in the UK, a number of highly influential standards emerged that have become building blocks for the modern computer industry  Continue Reading

• Case study: City & Guilds skills up on Microsoft cloud to unite global workforce

  Vocational training organisation City & Guilds uses Microsoft's collaboration, video conferencing and productivity tools to keep its global workforce connected  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

• What will office desktop computing look like in 2020?

  Over the next five years, IT departments will increasingly support a highly heterogeneous computing environment  Continue Reading

• Time is running out for Windows Server 2003 migration

  Support for Windows Server 2003 will end next year, but careful planning can ease operating system migration  Continue Reading

• Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust secures government backing for £6m IT modernisation programme

  CIO interview: Joanna Smith, CIO. Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust  Continue Reading

• The hidden threats facing your unsupported XP devices

  Exorbitant custom support deal fees may not be the highest costs organisations running Windows XP will face after support ends in April.  Continue Reading

• How to navigate the IT supplier jungle

  Being a CIO is interesting and satisfying, but there is a relentless pressure on them to improve  Continue Reading

• CIO Interview: James Thomas, UCLH

  James Thomas, director of ICT at UCLH, talks about branching out into new mobile devices and embracing MDM and apps  Continue Reading

• Workplace IT services in flux: wherever, whenever, whatever

  Enterprise computing is in upheaval as the emphasis shifts towards automation and user-device provision.  Continue Reading

• Windows XP end of support: What to do next

  CIOs may not wish to carry on running a 12-year-old desktop OS, but thousands of incompatible applications leave many with no choice  Continue Reading

• How to secure Macs in the enterprise

  Apple computers are becoming increasingly used in the enterprise - we look at how to securely introduce Macs in the corporate network  Continue Reading

• Lack of cloud standards holds up enterprise progress

  Problems with management, portability and interoperability are preventing firms realising the benefits of infrastructure on demand.  Continue Reading

• What is driving desktop virtualisation?

  Thin-client computing has been around for years. But until recently, it failed to make progress in the enterprise. But it is now a top priority.  Continue Reading

• Virtual solution to consumerisation

  Archana Venkatraman looks at how the virtual desktop can help businesses with employees using their own devices  Continue Reading

• Blade servers: How to decide on Unix or Linux

  If you’re contemplating Unix or Linux for your blade server, or a migration from one to the other, in this guide you will find everything you need to make up your mind. Useful Unix and Linux command lines also included.  Continue Reading

• The issues organisations must consider in migrating to private cloud

  Companies that attempt to move to cloud without sufficient planning will fare badly and could endanger their data and reputation  Continue Reading

• Interview: Oke Okaro, general manager and global head of mobile at Bloomberg

  Bloomberg's mobile chief talks to Computer Weekly about the challenges of mobile apps development and the prospects for Windows 8.  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

• Buyer's Guide: What next for virtualisation?

  You’d be forgiven for thinking that virtualisation is a done deal, but research shows its uptake is still not moving at the speed many would like.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft: Is computing more trustworthy 10 years on?

  Microsoft is marking the 10th anniversary of its Trustworthy Computing group (TwC), but has any significant progress been made since 15 January 2002 when Microsoft chairman Bill Gates sent an email memo to all employees, identifying trustworthy ...  Continue Reading

• Buyer's guide to IT consumerisation: Rewriting the rulebook

  Desktop computing is no longer about IT providing a set of tools for employees. Consumer technology has advanced, and staff are more tech-savvy.  Continue Reading

• How Avis is bridging the application gap between IE6/XP and Windows 7

  Car rental firm Avis is using UniBrows to support IE6-based applications as it switches operating system. Cliff Saran reports  Continue Reading

• Buyer’s Guide: The top five business reasons to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7

  Those still on Windows XP should have that decision under review, as the rationale for businesses staying with Windows XP – as it faces the end of support, at the expense of a Window 7 upgrade – is now considerably flawed.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: Use virtualisation to run Windows XP applications in Windows 7

  Virtualisation can help keep legacy Windows XP client applications running on Windows 7. Forrester analyst David Johnson looks at best practice.  Continue Reading

• Case study: Law firm uses RES Automation Manager to migrate users to Windows 7

  Law firm Kennedys is using RES Automation Manager to migrate users from Windows XP to Windows 7. The company has over 900 people across the UK and provides specialist legal services for insurance, healthcare, construction, employment, rail, maritime...  Continue Reading

• Tools for migrating XP applications to Windows 7

  Analyst Gartner has identified three tools that IT departments can use to help with the migration from XP to Windows 7: Microsoft's Application Compatibility Toolkit (Act), which is free; App-DNA, which is now owned by Citrix; and ChangeBase, which ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: Co-operative Group cuts costs with desktop virtualisation ahead of office move

  As the Co-operative Group (Co-op) prepares to move into its new head office in September 2012, the firm's IT team is on track to virtualise up to 3,500 desktops and merge some departments to drive cost savings.  Continue Reading

• Case study: How a small business can benefit from SaaS

  Professional beauty products distributor SweetSquared considers using Microsoft Office 365 alongside browser-based SaaS.  Continue Reading

• Review: Microsoft Office 365 versus Google Apps for Business

  With the launch of Microsoft's cloud offering, Office 365, the race for corporate adoption is truly on. Adrian Bridgwater looks at the pros and cons of Office 365 and how its features compare with those of Google Apps to see which provider is best ...  Continue Reading

• Business process improvement case study: Cooperative Financial Services

  Virtualisation and business process optimisation are key to the strategy of The Cooperative Financial Services following its merger with Britannia in 2009.  Continue Reading

• Who is responsible for blocking malvertisments?

  In February the London Stock Exchange (LSE) came under scrutiny when an advertisement carried on its website was blamed for distributing a virus.  Continue Reading

• Video: Google releases Chrome 10 for download

  Google has released version 10 of its Chrome web browser  Continue Reading

• RIM demo Blackberry Playbook secure pairing with its smartphones

  RIM demo Blackberry Playbook secure pairing with its smartphones The latest video from Research in Motion (RIM) shows off Blackberry Playbook features...  Continue Reading

• Video: Cross-platform mobile apps without coding

  Spot Specific is a new company due to unveil a cross-platform mobile developer tool during Mobile World Congress next month  Continue Reading

• Case Study: Co-operative Group migrates to Windows 7 on XenApp using App-DNA

  The Co-operative Group is planning to deploy Windows 7 desktop application virtualisation and hot desking in its new head office to reduce carbon emissions  Continue Reading

• Video: Facebook users hit by survey scam, Sophos warns

  Facebook users are being hit by a survey scam which is spreading virally across the social network, warns security firm Sophos.  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

• What is the future for traditional loyalty card schemes?

  Consumers are now better informed than ever, thanks to the richness of information available on the internet. People can find out all sorts of information on products from social media sites, news groups, blogs and the like, along with online ...  Continue Reading

• Video: Royal engagement search results poisoned, warn security firms

  Some search results related to the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton lead to rogue websites that offer fake anti-virus scans, security firm...  Continue Reading

• Meeting the technology and business challenges of managing mobile workers

  Mobile devices have become a standard part of today's multinational organisations - most companies would struggle to operate without them. According to researcher IDC, 35% of the workforce will be mobile by 2013.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's guide to OpenOffice 3.3: what can it offer to small businesses?

  Released this summer with the final product expected soon, the Openoffice 3.3 beta is giving Microsoft's proprietary suite of 'productivity applications' a good run for its money.  Continue Reading

• Buyer’s guide to mobile computing: Microsoft Windows Phone 7

  Part two of four As Microsoft prepares to launch Windows Phone 7, Jenny Williams asks if Microsoft's new mobile operating system will be good for business  Continue Reading

• Stereoscopic 3D animation: Shrek and How to train your dragon

  Already cutting a fiery swath through the box office, DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon provides an object lesson in just how far stereoscopic 3D animated films have progressed.  Continue Reading

• Adobe Creative Suite 5: an overview

  Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 is vast: 15 core applications covering web design, Flash design and development, print design and publishing, and video production. The previous release was Creative Suite 4 in September 2008. Has Adobe done enough to ...  Continue Reading

• Video: What's new in Adobe Creative Suite 5

  Creative Suite 5 comes with a new application called Flash Catalyst, 64-bit versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop, and hundreds of new or improved features in each application. Acrobat 9.0 is the same version as in CS4.  Continue Reading

• Video: Designing and developing with Flash in CS5

  Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 is vast: 15 core applications covering web design, Flash design and development, print design and publishing, and video production. The previous release was Creative Suite 4 in September 2008. Tim Anderson takes a look at ...  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

• Case Study: EasyJet flies to the cloud to up e-mail security and down costs

  Budget airline EasyJet has achieved a 35% savings over three years by switching to a cloud-based software-as-a-service e-mail security system.  Continue Reading

• Fujitsu75: VME upgrades to cloud computing

  Forty years should be old age for an operating system, but the Virtual Machine Environment (VME) is far from being pensioned off, and Fujitsu is investing to develop it further.  Continue Reading

• Sneaking a smart phone into the enterprise

  Are smart phones connected to the corporate network a good idea?  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide to the connected enterprise: the next decade

  The past decade began with the steady adoption for IP telephony and voice and data convergence. Unified communications appeared a few years later and delivered a framework that supports integrated communications and collaboration applications. This ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: FA uses Sharepoint 2010 for fast-track dispute resolution

  The Football Association, the governing body for English football, is using Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 to test drive a fast-track system for resolving disputes when players face allegations of misconduct on the pitch.  Continue Reading

• How to make the web accessible to everyone

  Despite a range of legislation and best practice advice, cyberspace is still far from equitable for those of us "non-standard" enough to be using adaptive or assistive technology.  Continue Reading

• Case Study: How BG Group made Google work internally

  Natural gas supplier, BG Group, has deployed the Google Search Appliance (GSA) , to help staff find...  Continue Reading

• Case study: Bovis Lend lease uses Nightwatchman to support Carbon Reduction Committment

  Project management and construction company Bovis Lend Lease has deployed software which automatically powers down PCs at night, to help it meet its Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).  Continue Reading

• Technology review of 2009

  Budgets have been tight, spending has been cut, but the IT industry has not stood still while users tightened their purse strings.  Continue Reading

• Constructing an IT policy for Generation Y

  As technology providers and enterprises study Generation Y and its appetite for advanced technology, CIOs would be well advised to evaluate technologies on their merits, rather than trying to second guess what this future generation of employees ...  Continue Reading

• MS Office 2010: what are your options?

  Microsoft Office 2010 is due out in the first half of next year, leading organisations to ask, once again, whether they should stay with the familiar Office suite or opt for an alternative.  Continue Reading

• Windows 7 - A comprehensive guide

  Windows 7 is the latest operating system from Microsoft. Windows 7 follows Vista and Microsoft’s new OS could well be its best yet.  Continue Reading

• What is Google Wave? - Essential Guide

  Google Wave promises to revolutionise how we communicate and work together by incorporporating email, instant messaging (IM), wiki, online documents, file sharing, chat rooms, networking and gadgets. But what is it and what does it mean for you?  Continue Reading

• Download free text to PDF converter: Zilla TXT To PDF Converter

  The Zilla TXT To PDF Converter converts PDFs to Word, RTF, Text, HTML, BMP, JPG, TIF, GIF, PNG and SWF.  Continue Reading

• Download free doubleTwist media converter

  doubleTwist is a new social networking multi-platform media management tool where you can share music and video between your Nintendo DS/DSi, PSP, Blackberry, Palm, iPhone and over 100 other devices.You can even publish a video to YouTube, upload ...  Continue Reading

• Open source software - Essential Guide

  Free and open source software is seeing steady adoption among small to large UK businesses, as they begin to take it to the heart of their organisations for key enterprise applications in a bid to lower IT costs.  Continue Reading

• Point of Sale (POS) software - Essential Guide

  Point of Sale (POS) software, also known as electronic Point of Sale (ePOS), is an essential application for retail or hospitality businesses because it manages checkout operations and is what the customer sees when they make a transaction.  Continue Reading

• The best software for small businesses (SMEs) - Essential Guide

  The best software for small businesses is software designed to help them to run their operations better, cut costs and replace paper processes. The most popular software packages include accounts, office productivity, email and communications, but ...  Continue Reading

• Is the Microsoft public sector deal good value for Britain?

  As the Office of Government Commerce updates its software purchasing deal with Microsoft, we look at the implications and the measures of success  Continue Reading

• Competition: Play our F1 racing game and win a Silverstone driving experience!

  To celebrate the 2009 F1 season ComputerWeekly.com ran a competition to win the chance to drive an F1 car around Silverstone. The competition's now closed but you can still play our F1 racing game for fun.  Continue Reading

• Video: Apple Mac - 25 years of innovation

  It has been 25 years since Apple launched the Mac, with its groundbreaking $1.5m Superbowl ad. It has been through its dark year, and is now looking at a bright future. But how did it get here and where is it going next?  Continue Reading

• Open source: a different approach to developing software

  It seems like a bit of a mystery how open source software ever sees the light of day. The idea of a large number of people working for glory and the greater good rather than recompense seems too idealistic to be true.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Silverlight

  What is it? Microsoft's Silverlight is a .Net-based plug-in for creating rich internet applications (RIAs).  Continue Reading

• Driving business innovation through collaboration

  Collaboration is no longer “nice to have.” In a tightening economic environment, collaboration is becoming a competitive necessity, with technology playing a key role in delivering it.  Continue Reading

• Networks enable innovation

  Innovation is key to survival in any economic downturn, but for many small and medium businesses (SMBs) it is often one of the first casualties.  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

• Hot skills: C#

  What is it? The October 2008 quarterly report by Salary Services Limited (SSL) found that C# and .net were holding their own against a background of...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Java

  What is it? "The number of technologies listed here can appear overwhelming. Keep in mind that you will not need to use them all," says Sun's overview...  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

• Hot skills: Postpath

  What is it? At the end of August Cisco Systems announced it was acquiring PostPath, which provides a Linux-based replacement to Microsoft Exchange.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Microsoft Exchange

  What is it? Long experience has taught Microsoft customers to regard any new release as a beta until the first service pack (SP1) arrives.  Continue Reading

• nGenera offers business project SaaS

  A Texas-based start-up company called nGenera is unlikely to mean much to most UK IT directors. But many will have...  Continue Reading

• Market developments in green IT

  Green IT has been a popular discussion in IT circles this year, and it may once have been a nice-to-have on the...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: GTK+

  What is it? GTK+ is a widely-used cross-platform toolkit for building graphical user interfaces and for rapid application...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Symbian

  What is it? According to figures from industry analyst Canalys , the Symbian ...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: WebKit

  What is it? Anyone seriously interested in developing rich internet applications (RIA) should be paying attention to WebKit, an open source web browser...  Continue Reading

• Facing up to security perils of outbound traffic

  What about the threat from within and, more specifically, the security issues that arise from outbound traffic risks?  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Qt

  What is it? Now owned by Nokia following the takeover of Trolltech earlier this year, Qt...  Continue Reading

• Securing the desktop and still allowing for flexibility

  Few enterprises could bear a $7.2bn loss caused by a "computer genius" avoiding company policies and controls. But for international bank Société Générale,...

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• Challenges of remote desktop management

  Late May and early June was not a fun time for Adobe, or its users. Suddenly, news began hitting the wires that a vulnerability...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Mono

  What is it? Linux may be making rapid inroads into the server market, but development tools haven't kept up. Microsoft development skills are also...  Continue Reading

• Google Apps makes its way into big business

  Earlier this year, Google said that the number of organisations using Google...  Continue Reading

• OpenOffice.org: a viable alternative to Microsoft Office?

  Sun launched the OpenOffice.org project with the aim of creating a community-based, international office suite, able to run on all major platforms and access all functionality and data using open application programming interfaces and XML.  Continue Reading