In Depth

In Depth

• CW@50: Government IT goes full circle in the space of 50 years

  As Computer Weekly prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary this September, we take a look at how government IT has changed over the years  Continue Reading

• Does Microsoft Azure make sense for developers?

  Microsoft is betting heavily on cloud services for its future. We take a close look at its strategy as a platform for Office 365, Linux and microservices  Continue Reading

• For IBM, the answer is Watson. But what is the question?

  IBM is promoting its Watson natural language processing analytics technology as it tries to move its core business beyond technologies that it pioneered, but which have become commoditised. Will it fly?  Continue Reading

• My first IoT project: A guide for businesses

  We’ve all had a good giggle about having our fridges hacked – but now it’s time to get real. What are the first steps enterprises should take when implementing their first internet of things project?  Continue Reading

• It makes sense to go hyperscale/hyper-converged

  Hyperscale computing and storage are the norm for web giants. Hyper-converged scenarios make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to gain the advantages of combined server/storage nodes  Continue Reading

• Skype for Business: One year on, so what are the results?

  It’s now a year since Microsoft transitioned the Lync unified communications suite into Skype for Business, but has the enterprise embraced or shunned it?  Continue Reading

• Unlocking the disruptive potential of 3D printers

  We look at where 3D printing started, highlights some current innovations and assesses where the technology might be heading next  Continue Reading

• How to build your own IoT with Azure

  Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform has gone well beyond mere virtual machines and orchestrated workflows. It can now also power internet of things applications  Continue Reading

• An overview of cloud customer relationship management

  Businesses are confident about buying customer relationship management (CRM) software as a cloud-based service. Computer Weekly looks at the main players  Continue Reading

• What the EU’s new data protection laws mean for UK industry

  The General Data Protection Regulation, which will come into force on 25 May 2018, could have a big impact on any company in the world that deals with the personal data of EU citizens  Continue Reading

• UK startups seek to lead the world in smart city technologies

  Government trade mission to south-east Asia helps UK startups to target the region’s growing smart city projects  Continue Reading

• How 3D printing will disrupt industry worldwide

  The technology is helping startups model prototypes and inventory suppliers lop millions from supply chain costs  Continue Reading

• CW@50: How networking became the core of IT

  Compared with the network, Computer Weekly is but a sprightly youngster. We take a look back not at just 50, but 200 years of British innovation in communications technology  Continue Reading

• PCIe SSD: Cache vs storage tier

  Adding PCIe flash is a popular way of speeding up application response times, with more rapid I/O guaranteed, but should PCIe SSD be added as cache or as a tier of storage?  Continue Reading

• Graph database technology starts to come of age beyond social media

  Graph databases, based on mathematics known for three centuries, are starting to yield value for businesses beyond Facebook and Twitter  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

• The Bimodal IT backlash: Should IT departments subscribe to the notion of a two-tier workforce?

  Gartner’s Bimodal IT vision has captured the imaginations of some CIOs, but industry watchers have queried how well cultivating a two-tier IT department works in reality  Continue Reading

• Graph databases: Joining the dots

  We explore why the growth of graph databases could be pointing the database market in a new direction  Continue Reading

• CW@50: From bricks to clicks – how technology has changed the shopping experience

  As Computer Weekly prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, we look back at how retail has evolved from the small corner store of the 1960s to the omni-channel world of today  Continue Reading

• Basel banking supervision edict stretches banks’ risk data governance

  What do banks require to meet BCBS 239: Principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting?  Continue Reading

• Fourth-generation flash to rewrite software development

  Flash has outstripped Moore’s Law. If software development caught up, the solid-state datacentre would be a cost-effective reality, bringing a step-change in agility and performance  Continue Reading

• Amazon S3 storage 101: Object storage in the cloud

  Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) has emerged as a de facto standard for accessing data in the cloud. We run the rule over S3, its key attributes and what you need to know to use it with your applications  Continue Reading

• How to tease out patterns in divergent data stacks

  Graph databases – the technology that links relations between datasets – will revolutionise the insights of data analytics  Continue Reading

• CW@50: From local innovations to centralisation – 50 years of healthcare IT

  From broom cupboards doubling as server rooms to teleprinters and green screens, as Computer Weekly prepares to celebrate its 50th birthday, we look back at NHS innovations, pitfalls and attempts to digitise over the past five decades  Continue Reading

• How to yield the benefits of converged infrastructure

  Bringing together the elements of enterprise IT generates a litany of operational and cost-cutting advantages – but care must be taken in balancing risk and in implementation  Continue Reading

• CW@50: Data management – Five decades of prospecting for business value

  Data management and business intelligence have been at the heart of business value creation for decades. Read about how Computer Weekly has tracked their promise and tribulations  Continue Reading

• What datacentre experts must do to stay relevant

  As datacentre operators focus on converged infrastructure to cut costs, IT professionals should keep their CVs aligned to the workplace  Continue Reading

• CW@50: The changing face of the datacentre over the past 50 years

  As Computer Weekly prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, we take a look back at how the design and role of the datacentre has changed over the past five decades  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

• Hyperconvergence: A political and technological revolution

  Tips for IT leaders planning to consolidate their IT components into a single, centrally managed platform  Continue Reading

• Apple Pay struggles in Australia as banks profit from a fee-phobic market

  Despite Australia being iPhone crazy its banks aren’t exactly rushing to enable the payment process  Continue Reading

• CW@50: Storage – From punched cards to flash and the cloud

  Since the launch of Computer Weekly in 1966, we have moved from a world of punched cards and paper tape to one where flash and the cloud have revolutionised data storage  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

• CW@50: Fertile British breeding grounds for information security innovation

  Computer Weekly is marking its 50th anniversary this year with a series of articles celebrating 50 years of British technology innovation. In this article, we look at the evolution of information security threats and some of the British innovation ...  Continue Reading

• Flash storage roundup 2016: Flash technology outliers

  Flash storage doesn’t just come in traditional drive format and PCIe card. There are significant outliers in the market that make use of custom flash modules, flash/Dimm and QLC  Continue Reading

• Hunters: a rare but essential breed of enterprise cyber defenders

  They wait, they watch, they search the outer reaches of networks and the darkest corners of the web, setting traps, crafting tools, collecting evidence and going in pursuit: they are the hunters  Continue Reading

• Why are telcos so readily adopting open standards for NFV?

  Communications services providers are lining up to make their future virtualised networks as open as possible. What’s the attraction?  Continue Reading

• How to manage IT access for external users

  Identity and access management has extended from being solely an internal IT management process to focus on external business engagement too  Continue Reading

• CW@50: From Captain Kirk to 5G – 50 years of mobile

  As Computer Weekly prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first edition in 1966, we look back at 50 years of British innovation and development in mobile networking  Continue Reading

• Juggling a diverse user infrastructure

  CISOs are facing an increasingly fluid workplace and control of modern IT systems needs to reflect this dynamism  Continue Reading

• IAM is the future for managing data security

  Why identity and access management is taking centre stage in companies’ access policies  Continue Reading

• CW@50: The heyday of British computing - how the Brits ruled IT

  We examine how the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s became an age of great innovation for the British computer industry  Continue Reading

• CW@50: 1966 - Computer Weekly goes to bat for the British computer industry

  Launched in 1966 as part of a modernising wave to change British society, Computer Weekly battled for the nation’s industry against the US, and saw IT as an entry ticket to the Common Market  Continue Reading

• PCIe SSD roundup 2016: Some stall while others progress

  The PCIe SSD market is still important, but PCIE flash drive makers are split between those that continue to develop their products and those for whom product evolution has stalled  Continue Reading

• Co-ordinate outsourced services with Siam

  We look at the practical considerations of implementing an effective service integration and management strategy  Continue Reading

• Combine data mining and simulation to maximise process improvement

  Data mining and computer simulation can be used together to better model and improve industrial processes, city development and other complex systems  Continue Reading

• Striving for a balanced mobile world: the Connected Women of MWC

  At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA’s Connected Women initiative began a new drive to connect more women in the developing world. Computer Weekly meets programme director Claire Sibthorpe  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation and the cloud aid disaster recovery in Spain

  As virtualisation and cloud services take hold, Spanish organisations can take advantage of less costly and more flexible responses to the threat of unplanned outages  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation rolls on, but still less than 50% of workloads are virtualised

  Survey finds server virtualisation is top way to upgrade datacentres, while public and private cloud storage gains serious momentum  Continue Reading

• Datacentre heat reuse: Why aren’t more operators doing it?

  With the datacentre industry’s sustainability habits coming under increasingly close scrutiny, we find out why operators are not rushing to reuse their waste heat  Continue Reading

• The business processes behind services management

  We take a look at the essential steps an organisation must take to multi-source or bring in-house IT services  Continue Reading

• DDoS attack threat cannot be ignored

  Criminal activity has become the top motivation for distributed denial of service attacks as the average attack become strong enough to down most businesses – so taking no action is not an option  Continue Reading

• Six tips for letting go as a CIO

  IT leaders share their tips on how to get the most out of internal staff and external partners  Continue Reading

• Don’t leave yourself vulnerable to insider attack

  Recent research has highlighted key weaknesses that leave organisations vulnerable to insider cyber security threats  Continue Reading

• Waves of disruption reshape IT service management landscape

  We look at how technology commoditisation, open source and software as a service are changing the service management software market  Continue Reading

• Three steps towards a hierarchy of needs for smart cities

  Smart cities face challenges around network connectivity, standardisation and data governance, say IoT experts, and these needs must be met for them to flourish  Continue Reading

• IT to the rescue: How technology helps the UK deal with flooding

  Mobile technology, digital mapping and geographical information systems all played a part in ensuring public safety during this winter’s floods in the UK  Continue Reading

• Hybrid flash array roundup 2016: The Big Six

  Will 2015 be remembered as the last big year of hybrid flash storage? The Big Six offer hybrid flash, mostly based on HDD-era designs, and innovation has slowed as all-flash rises  Continue Reading

• Interview: How John Deere uses connectivity to make farms more efficient

  After pioneering the use of automated vehicle technology 15 years ago, farm equipment supplier John Deere is now going further, with its sights set on efficiency and sustainability, says sales VP Christoph Wigger  Continue Reading

• The rise of the robots in financial services

  Robo-advisers are crossing the Atlantic to find a space in UK financial services in the form of IT–dominated startups  Continue Reading

• All-flash storage roundup 2016: The startups

  Computer Weekly surveys the startups and specialists in the all-flash array space and find a market in which advanced storage features are becoming the norm, while suppliers battle down to $1/GB  Continue Reading

• Microservices: Small parts with big advantages

  Microservices go hand in hand with containers and the idea of software portability – but how do they work and why should you care?  Continue Reading

• HR analytics tools promise edge in war for talent

  HR data analytics is said to enhance hiring decisions, improve employee retention, and boost company performance. Fact or fiction?  Continue Reading

• Microsoft’s underwater datacentre: The pros and cons of running subsea facilities

  Underwater datacentres can help providers save on land costs and cooling, but at what cost to the environment?  Continue Reading

• What are containers and microservices?

  Independently deployable bits of code can be used to build agile applications. We look at some of the main players  Continue Reading

• Divide and conquer in software architecture

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

• Five CIO tips for building an IT strategy in the digital age

  CIOs and strategy experts share their experiences of creating an IT strategy that makes the most of the digital revolution  Continue Reading

• All-flash array roundup 2016: The big six

  Computer Weekly surveys an all-flash array market in which the big six in storage have largely settled on strategy, but key new technologies – such as TLC flash and 3D NAND – are emerging  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage appliances: What they are and who provides them

  We look at the cloud storage appliance market – everything from local gateway presentation of the cloud, via hybrid cloud, to the new generation of cloud-resident appliances  Continue Reading

• Getting dirty with open source databases

  With many companies looking at more agile, open source alternatives to proprietary databases, how do you choose which is the best fit for your needs  Continue Reading

• Unaligned I/O: A storage performance killer

  As the stack piles higher – with virtual servers, their virtual disks and guest operating systems – the scope for unaligned or misaligned I/O to affect performance increases  Continue Reading

• What the EU’s cyber security bill means for UK industry

  Coming European legislation on network and information security could have cost and organisational implications for a range of UK companies  Continue Reading

• How software drives safety in aerospace, healthcare, oil and gas

  Safety-focused industries have developed safety-critical software and services from which other sectors can learn  Continue Reading

• Six CIO tips for working with business management colleagues

  IT is no longer a “black box” that sits separate from the functions it supports – six CIOs give their advice on how to win over your business management colleagues  Continue Reading

• Take-up of cloud storage in Europe affected by privacy issues

  The cloud storage narrative has been heavily US-biased, with take-up of cloud in Europe modified by concerns over privacy and responses to Safe Harbour’s nullification  Continue Reading

• Five CIO tips for working with startups

  CIOs share their experiences and advice about how to work with tech startups as part of their technology strategy  Continue Reading

• Take care when reaping rewards of open source

  Moving into the open source world can be a rewarding experience, but some due diligence is required  Continue Reading

• Digitisation connects customers to companies on a new level

  ‘Digital’ provides more ways for people and businesses to connect than ever before, and a transformed role for IT in businesses old and new  Continue Reading

• Modular datacentre helps Belgian IT firm support Dutch and German customers

  Cegeka commissioned a new datacentre when its customer base expanded and decided on a modular approach to get it up and running quickly  Continue Reading

• NAS vs object: Which one for large volumes of unstructured data?

  Both NAS and object storage offer highly scalable file storage for large volumes of unstructured data, but which is right for your environment?  Continue Reading

• Open source - it’s the logical alternative

  It’s round two in the fight between open source and commercial software, and open source is punching well above its weight  Continue Reading

• Thai firm chooses flash storage to speed up supply chain

  Thailand-based SiS Distribution has adopted flash storage technology to improve internal processes and customer services  Continue Reading

• The state of all-flash versus hybrid storage in Australia and New Zealand

  Magnetic disk drives are yesterday’s technology. Soon all servers will be based on all-flash arrays – or will they?  Continue Reading

• English Rugby Football League uses data analytics to boost performance

  Qlik data analytics and visualisation help coaches to hone players’ performance and protect their health and safety  Continue Reading

• Interview: James Bamford on surveillance, Snowden and technology companies

  Investigative journalist and documentary maker James Bamford was among the first to uncover the secrets of the US National Security Agency and its global surveillance  Continue Reading

• Inclusive Technology Prize showcases apps and services for the disabled

  The government’s Inclusive Technology Prize is using innovative IT to address some of the day-to-day challenges faced by disabled people in Britain  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly Buyer's Guide features list 2016

  Here is a schedule of up-and-coming in-depth articles that will cover carefully selected topics to help IT leaders select the right technology for their organisation  Continue Reading

• Top 10 datacentre stories of 2015

  Computer Weekly's top 10 datacentre stories and trend pieces of 2015  Continue Reading

• The secrets of self-service success

  As more organisations explore self-service IT systems, we look at what it takes to use the technology effectively  Continue Reading

• It’s high time support staff relinquished control

  There’s no reversing the widespread BYOD trend, so IT must adopt new ways of delivering applications to employees  Continue Reading

• CW500: How to succeed with enterprise collaboration

  Unlike most IT initiatives, there is more to collaboration than deploying a platform and training. November’s CW500 Club panel assessed the challenges  Continue Reading

• How to deal with the aftermath of a data breach

  Considering that a data breach could happen to any company, at any time, a plan of action is the best tactic  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery planning: Where virtualisation can help

  The disaster recovery planning process is not fundamentally technology-centric, so when can virtualisation make it quicker and easier to restore services after an unplanned outage?  Continue Reading

• The next stage in quantum key distribution

  Authentication schemes based on quantum physics are emerging to address the growing number of ways to compromise data traffic  Continue Reading

• How to free your business and staff with self-service

  Introducing self-service IT can improve efficiency and hand control to the employee – so long as it’s done right  Continue Reading

• UK immigration rules fly in the face of cyber security skills shortage

  Despite the UK’s shortage of cyber security skills, recent changes to immigration rules make it no less difficult to hire skilled workers from outside the European Union  Continue Reading

• How to avoid being caught out by ransomware

  Businesses are still getting caught by ransomware, despite the fact that there are fairly straightforward methods to avoid it  Continue Reading

• Natural language generation progresses from robo-journalism to finance

  While the robots are coming for journalists, might natural language generation also make inroads into financial, legal and medical analysis?  Continue Reading

• Top five things to know about flash and storage tiering

  Automated storage tiering boosts storage efficiency and saves money, but why is tiering different from caching, why is it suited to use with flash and how do suppliers differ?  Continue Reading

• What the Investigatory Powers Bill means for the telecommunications industry

  The draft Investigatory Powers Bill could have major implications for telecommunication companies operating in the UK  Continue Reading