In Depth

In Depth

• How Ordnance Survey will use 250 years of data to support startups

  Ordnance Survey is embarking on a project to foster startups, applying its vast repository of data to solving emerging challenges around urban spaces and smart cities  Continue Reading

• SaaS criteria to track for business outcomes

  Organisations should evolve their SaaS selection criteria to focus on newer metrics that are better indicators of supplier performance  Continue Reading

• The cost of security for UK business

  The draft Investigatory Powers Bill to increase surveillance is already controversial, but there are growing concerns over the potential economic consequences  Continue Reading

• Combat IT complexity with operational intelligence

  A Quocirca report says that businesses cope better with IT complexity and intensive security when they integrate BI and analytics tools into operational processes  Continue Reading

• All-flash vs hybrid flash for virtual desktop storage

  With massive random I/O and a huge bias towards writes, virtual desktop storage – especially for the more feature-rich VDI 2.0 – requires the speed of all-flash and hybrid flash storage  Continue Reading

• UK datacentre growth trends: Why are users shunning inner-city facilities?

  Research suggests inner cities are falling out of favour with datacentre developers, with cost-sensitive users willing to look further afield for co-location services  Continue Reading

• Business cases emerge from growing pains of Hadoop 1.0

  The hype around the early generation of Hadoop is giving way to the reality of business programmes based on Hadoop 2 and Apache Spark  Continue Reading

• Where next for virtualisation?

  CIOs met to discuss the past, present and future of virtualisation at Computer Weekly's CW500 Club in June 2015  Continue Reading

• Should businesses upgrade to Windows 10?

  Many organisations skipped the PC-unfriendly Windows 8 release. But Windows 10 is far more enterprise-focused  Continue Reading

• Making the most of logs

  Most IT systems produce log files, which IT administrators can use to automate security systems  Continue Reading

• Russian big data technologies evolve with one eye on US open source

  Russian data technicians have, until recently, shunned full-scale use of US-based open-source big data technology; but with one eye on it  Continue Reading

• Metropolis Studios runs music business expansion on FileMaker

  Metropolis Studios has turned to FileMaker 14 to run the functional and creative sides of its business, replacing SAP  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery in Russia: Critical sectors play it safe

  Disaster recovery methods in Russia span tape backup to cloud disaster recovery, but for businesses in the most critical sectors in-house provision is the favoured method  Continue Reading

• Hybrid flash vs all-flash storage: When is some flash not enough?

  When it comes to choosing between hybrid flash and all-flash storage, the question is increasingly not how much flash is enough, but whether you still need any disk at all  Continue Reading

• Better user acceptance testing through log management

  Application log management provides insight into application behaviour, which can be used to build better software and gain a better hold of user acceptance testing  Continue Reading

• Should the strong US dollar prompt European CIOs to shop around for cloud?

  The strengthening dollar is predicted to send IT costs soaring – so what steps can cloud-focused CIOs take to protect their budgets?  Continue Reading

• Still running Windows Server 2003? Don’t panic

  Many organisations are facing the prospect of running Windows 2003 server unsupported. Where do you go from here?  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

• Turning machine data into operational intelligence

  We look at how companies analyse server and security logs to tackle cybercrime and internal fraud, and optimise the user experience  Continue Reading

• Why monitoring tools are key to your company's cloud success

  Mashing up cloud services to create a platform that's right for the company makes investing in monitoring tools a must, says Clive Longbottom  Continue Reading

• Hotels.com turns to cloud and big data to drive up online holiday bookings

  Online hotel booking site explains how the use of public cloud and NoSQL database tech has benefited its business  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

• Genomics England gears up IT for next phase of development

  Genomics England, the government-owned organisation aiming to map 100,000 genomes by 2017, has recruited its first patients. It is also assembling the building blocks of its long-term IT strategy  Continue Reading

• ARM wrestles its way into the datacentre with the help of 64-bit chips

  Intel x86 technology has traditionally ruled the datacentre roost, but could the power consumption benefits of ARM 64-bit systems change all that?  Continue Reading

• Managing your customer’s multi-channel service experience

  Customers expect the same levels of service however they contact you – by phone, in store, on the web or from mobile. How do you deliver the best multi-channel experience?  Continue Reading

• Using data analytics to deliver more personalised customer service

  Personalisation has been the goal for many retailers, but can the emergence of big data analytics be the solution they are looking for?  Continue Reading

• Email overload is killing the UK's economic productivity

  Mounting evidence suggests email is a blight on the UK’s economic productivity – but services outsourcing firm Atos has found a way to stem the tide  Continue Reading

• OpenStack Cinder: Block storage on the open-source cloud platform

  OpenStack Cinder 101: The fundamentals of Cinder, how it is implemented, how to provision it, how it works with third-party storage arrays, its features and more  Continue Reading

• App development companies fight back against digital piracy

  How can digital companies protect their IP against a tidal wave of smartphone boosted piracy? Is digital rights management software effective enough, or is it better to adapt your business model?  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

• How to write supplier contracts for agile software development

  Typical supplier contracts are not suited to agile software projects where there is no requirements specification – so what should IT leaders do?  Continue Reading

• CW500: Tackling complexity in IT

  At a recent Computer Weekly CW500 Club event, CIOs discussed IT complexity and whether it hinders performance or is simply a consequence of complexity in business  Continue Reading

• Security compliance is still a corporate headache

  Ensuring compliance with security and data protection regulations is an eternal burden for IT departments - but it can be made easier  Continue Reading

• Financial applications are on a journey to the cloud

  CFOs in Europe embrace cloud-based financial applications as a result of security and delivery model improvements  Continue Reading

• Dutch Cyber Security Council boosts focus on privacy

  The Dutch Cyber Security Council says privacy will be one of its main focuses in 2015 and going forward  Continue Reading

• Death, taxes and data security audits

  According to Benjamin Franklin, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. In the business world, audits could easily be added to this list  Continue Reading

• NoSQL and NewSQL edge into Belgian railways and Austrian yellow pages

  NoSQL, NewSQL and graph databases are finding uses in mainstream European industry sectors from origins in US dotcoms  Continue Reading

• Local authorities band together to share enterprise software

  Local authorities in London and elsewhere in England are banding together to share enterprise software to cut costs, from the bottom up  Continue Reading

• Anatomy of a cyber attack – the risks facing small businesses

  A small business owner tells the story of how a cyber attacker nearly brought down her firm, and the expert who helped her highlights the lessons learned  Continue Reading

• How to cull old, potentially risky data

  Unused data is a potential security risk, with old spreadsheets, reports and email containing industry secrets and laced with company gossip. If it's no longer useful, it's time to delete it  Continue Reading

• Is customer experience management the new CRM?

  Consumers have far more information today than they have ever had, and this simple fact is a major game changer for anyone who sells anything  Continue Reading

• VMware vs OpenStack: How they handle storage

  The opportunities and challenges presented by the two virtualisation environments when it comes to storage, backup and disaster recovery.  Continue Reading

• OpenStack Manila: File access storage for the open source cloud

  OpenStack Manila is the file level access method in development by the open source cloud platform. What is it, how does it work and when will it be ready?  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

• Five critical actions CIOs should take to improve the customer experience

  Actions include upgrading IT roles, amending measurements, structural changes and a cultural shift from internal to external  Continue Reading

• Polish companies come around on mobile safety

  Polish companies have been the target of many mobile attacks, as Krzysztof Polak investigates  Continue Reading

• Marseille: Europe’s networking gateway to Africa

  The city of Marseille in southern France is fast becoming a hub for datacentre and network operators who want low latency connections to Africa.  Continue Reading

• How to reduce the risk of social engineering attacks

  Implement simple checks to reduce the risk of the main types of social engineering attacks  Continue Reading

• Digital customer experience: Beyond the website

  Organisations are faced with the challenge of delivering their customers with an online experience that goes far beyond just a website  Continue Reading

• Journey to the West: Will Huawei make its services ambitions stick?

  As network hardware supplier Huawei enters the services game, we consider if the West is ready to buy IT services from China  Continue Reading

• CW500: Where next for IT outsourcing?

  IT outsourcing is emotive, but it is hard to find a company today that doesn’t do it in some way.  Continue Reading

• Augmented reality business applications start to get real

  Augmented reality applications have tended to be gimmicky marketing wheezes, but firms are starting to explore their business potential  Continue Reading

• Software-defined networking in Europe: The state of play

  What stage of the evolution of software-defined networking are we really at, and when will the hype turn to reality?  Continue Reading

• Erasure coding vs Raid for disk rebuilds

  Erasure coding as a means of data protection has emerged with object storage and offers an alternative to Raid systems  Continue Reading

• Flash storage in Benelux: Service providers kick-start flash adoption

  Demand for quick response times and non-stop availability has pushed use of flash – particularly hybrid flash – storage in Benelux, a region with a high presence of service providers  Continue Reading

• Europe rallies together to solve digital skills crisis

  There have been several major announcements to develop skills and ensure the IT workforce adds to Europe’s economic value  Continue Reading

• Benchmarking social business and collaboration tools

  A complete social business strategy requires more than publishing social media guidelines for employees. CIOs need to rethink the enterprise as a social ecosystem  Continue Reading

• Belgium gets the market to solve authentication for free

  The Belgian federal public service Fedict is responsible for defining and implementing the federal e-government strategy in Belgium  Continue Reading

• Bring your own collaboration

  Following the rise of BYOD, IT departments face a new challenge in controlling their organisation’s digital assets  Continue Reading

• Why companies need to start developing apps for Apple Watch

  With the Apple Watch now available, companies are falling over themselves to push out apps for the wearable device  Continue Reading

• PCIe SSD product survey 2015: New form factors emerge

  PCIe SSD performance has not increased significantly but new form factors and protocols -- such as NVMe -- have emerged for better connectivity  Continue Reading

• RAC drives customer care to the cloud with NewVoiceMedia and Salesforce

  Automotive services organisations turns to cloud-based telephony and CRM system to improve customer care levels  Continue Reading

• Top tips for remote and mobile workers to improve their cyber security

  Steps remote and mobile workers can take to improve cyber security on mobile devices, using public Wi-Fi and computers, and handling USB devices  Continue Reading

• Are bricks-and-mortar stores the next step for online retail?

  Retailers are rethinking their online strategy, realising that physical shops are again one of their biggest assets  Continue Reading

• Bill Binney, the ‘original’ NSA whistleblower, on Snowden, 9/11 and illegal surveillance

  Always a patriot: Computer Weekly talks to Bill Binney, the senior NSA official who blew the whistle before Edward Snowden  Continue Reading

• Datacentre PUE: Who's keeping score?

  With datacentre operators under increased competitive pressure to cut their PUE scores, are their ratings really all they seem?  Continue Reading

• Apache Spark speeds up big data decision-making

  Spark, the open-source cluster computing framework from Apache, promises to complement Hadoop batch processing  Continue Reading

• Tips and tools for building an effective online presence

  We look at how social media, analytics, cloud and mobile access are important considerations for businesses in all sectors  Continue Reading

• What’s slowing down your network and how to fix it

  When using the network feels like wading through molasses, finding the cause can be a difficult process  Continue Reading

• Benelux: Cloud storage grows as traditional storage alternative

  In Benelux countries cloud storage is increasingly seen as an alternative to traditional storage and backup  Continue Reading

• London-based virtual reality startup in quest for alternative worlds

  Visualise, a nine-strong UK startup, is developing cutting-edge virtual reality simulations  Continue Reading

• Virtual machine backup in Benelux: When to choose specialist software?

  Specialist software has changed the game in virtual machine (VM) backup. Benelux organisations talk about their dedicated VM backup tools  Continue Reading

• General election 2015: The state of broadband and the future of policy

  With the 2015 election less than a month away, broadband stakeholders set out their manifesto and hopes for broadband policy  Continue Reading

• Docker storage 101: How storage works in Docker

  Docker nails some of the shortcomings of virtualisation, but what about Docker container storage?  Continue Reading

• DevOps spreads into mainstream corporate IT

  DevOps will shift from being a niche approach to application development and deployment, and move into the mainstream  Continue Reading

• NHS data security: Lessons to be learned

  The NHS does not always provide a trusted repository for patient data, but some trusts are examples of good practice in action  Continue Reading

• European data protection efforts won’t make corporate life easier

  The European Union’s proposed General Data Protection Regulation will not make life easier for companies  Continue Reading

• How to dance the innovation step with CRM suppliers

  When it comes to outsourcing your company’s technology activities, you need more than just a degree of trust  Continue Reading

• Open Data Platform: the answer to a question no one asked?

  What should enterprise customers make of the Open Data Platform, an initiative by IT suppliers to establish common technologies for Hadoop?  Continue Reading

• The reinvention of Dell: What it must do next to succeed

  Two years after going private, Dell still has some work to do to educate the enterprise about what it has to offer  Continue Reading

• No more excuses - VDI is ready

  Over the years, it’s been easy to make excuses about why virtual desktop infrastructure projects failed or why VDI wasn’t ready for your environment  Continue Reading

• Are privacy laws and regulations strangling Europe’s productivity?

  As Europe moves to new regulations on privacy and data protection, business is concerned that red tape will harm productivity and innovation  Continue Reading

• Broadband is a question of economics and risk, says BT’s Bill Murphy

  Bill Murphy, managing director of next-generation access at BT, speaks about BDUK and BT’s involvement in rural broadband  Continue Reading

• OpenStack storage options are not the only ones available

  OpenStack and its Swift and Cinder object and block storage lead the way, but are not the only options for building open-source cloud platforms  Continue Reading

• Mobile device management (MDM) vs backup

  MDM tackles the challenge of mobile devices flooding the enterprise, but it doesn’t mean you can stop worrying about mobile data protection  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

• Business intelligence gains ground in Italy’s manufacturing industry

  How Italian manufacturers Bticino and Raccorderie Metalliche are using BI to be more efficient and agile  Continue Reading

• Waste and traffic management apps come from internet of things

  For years, the fridge has been the poster boy for the internet of things, but lack of commercial availability raises questions about the future  Continue Reading

• Businesses need to equip staff with the tools to do the job

  Workforces will become frustrated if they do not have the technology they need to deliver what their organisation wants  Continue Reading

• Top five things you need to know about VMware Virtual Volumes

  VMware’s Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) promise a revolution in storage for virtual machines, but what are the key things you need to know?  Continue Reading

• Energy-efficient Europe: How the datacentre sector is keeping it clean

  With users becoming increasingly savvy about environmental issues, we take a look at how the datacentre sector is responding  Continue Reading

• Wi-Fi in the sky: The good, the bad and the ugly

  With in-flight internet options spreading around the world, which services should discerning business travellers try, and which should they avoid?  Continue Reading

• NHS 111 shows how medical diagnosis can be computerised

  Can the logistical and financial pressures on the NHS be eased by software algorithms?  Continue Reading

• How building information modelling is changing the construction industry

  The Cabinet Office says that by 2016, “collaborative 3D building information modelling will be required on all government projects”  Continue Reading

• Five tech trends that will change the mobile world in the next 10 years

  Computer scientist Kevin Curran discusses some of the trends that will shape the future of mobile at Mobile World Congress 2015  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

• Planning key to cloud success

  Successful cloud implementations need careful planning, with flexibility and the timing of the switch important considerations  Continue Reading

• Cloud boosts demand for datacentres in Poland and eastern Europe

  The datacentre market in both central and eastern Europe and Poland has recorded double–digit growth  Continue Reading

• Preparing for mainstream cloud IT

  2015 is set to become the breakthrough year for cloud computing – and now the challenge of making the IT department cloud-ready begins  Continue Reading

• How to secure the SDN infrastructure

  As more enterprises look to deploy software-defined networking, the need for security from the ground up should not be underestimated  Continue Reading