In Depth

In Depth

• Using public sector open data to benefit local communities

  Tech City’s Flood Hack shows how open data can help communities - an aspect attracting interest in Leeds council and other UK cities.  Continue Reading

• How to make the most of your annual appraisal

  Industry experts share their tips on how to make the dreaded annual appraisal successful and productive  Continue Reading

• Hacktivism: good or evil?

  IT lawyer Dai Davis looks at the rise of hacktivism and its impact on business and international politics  Continue Reading

• Mobile VPNs: Battered but not broken

  With weaknesses exposed in mobile VPNs in recent months, we examine if they are safe for companies to deploy  Continue Reading

• Big data storage in the Benelux

  Organisation in the Benelux countries are turning to big data analytics, but big data storage options can vary significantly between the lab and production environments  Continue Reading

• How open data can mitigate the floods of the future

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

• Is privacy undermining trade in digital services?

  BSA report highlights dangers facing European Union (EU) nations as the European Commission (EC) revises its Data Protection Regulation  Continue Reading

• Converged stacks: What they are and the benefits they bring

  We survey the converged stacks market: Servers, storage and networking in pre-configured product bundles for specific virtualisation and application use cases.  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage options in Scandinavia

  It has never been faster or cheaper to store data in the cloud and Scandinavian businesses have taken up cloud storage with gusto  Continue Reading

• How to select the best hybrid cloud provider for your firm

  A successful shift towards a hybrid cloud corporate environment requires a new approach to trust throughout the organisation.  Continue Reading

• No more email? Why companies are turning to collaboration technology

  Collaboration technologies are helping companies improve their employees' work-life balance  Continue Reading

• Hadoop 2 opens new vistas beyond current UK data management practice

  Hadoop 2 enables a greater range of data-crunching tasks, beyond Hadoop’s previous scope of batch processing, directly within the stack itself  Continue Reading

• Let’s not forget the computing curriculum’s bigger picture: Computational thinking

  Computing curriculum is about computational thinking and problem solving, not just coding/programming say education experts  Continue Reading

• A guide to APM for the network manager

  Has application performance management become a much needed discipline for the network manager? We examine the issues for IT departments  Continue Reading

• Uppsala Ambulance, Dagens Nyheter favour Swedish-born QlikView for BI

  Sweden has played a big part in data visualisation tools. QlikTech, NComVA and Tibco Spotfire have roots there. Uppsala Ambulance and the Dagens Nyheter newspaper are QlikView users  Continue Reading

• Human factors in the datacentre

  Whether to ensure business continuity or maximise returns, everyone from the finance director to the facilities manager needs further datacentre education  Continue Reading

• No IPv6 explosion, but a ticking bomb

  IPv6 could be a ticking security time bomb in Belgium if businesses fail to respond to the fact that adoption is gaining momentum fast  Continue Reading

• Advanced data visualisation tools transcend traditional bean counting

  Advanced data visualisation tools take Muddy Boots and Volvo beyond conventional business intelligence  Continue Reading

• The UK’s problem with power

  Datacentre power buyers say Britain’s deregulated energy market is as complex as trading in derivatives  Continue Reading

• If the Year of Code has got it wrong, how should we teach kids to code?

  Experts share their views on the Year of Code campaign and the best way to teach children to code  Continue Reading

• How NSA spying disclosures influence security strategies

  How have whistleblower Edward Snowden’s exposés affected the ways organisations deal with internal and external security threats?  Continue Reading

• Future job of the senior infrastructure manager

  Hybrid cloud architectures will need IT departments to move from core server skills to managing the capacity to let developers code  Continue Reading

• Flash storage: What it is and where to deploy it

  A guide to the key decisions in flash storage: MLC vs SLC, all-flash vs hybrid, whether to add flash to an existing SAN, flash as a tier vs cache, and more  Continue Reading

• Troubleshooting datacentre management issues

  Gaining better control of the datacentre has to be a high priority to ensure high levels of performance and availability  Continue Reading

• What does 2014 hold for HR technology?

  A look at the key battlegrounds in HR technology in 2014  Continue Reading

• Create a mobile policy employees can trust

  With Gartner predicting a fifth of all enterprise BYOD projects would fail by 2016, we look at how businesses can embrace mobility successfully  Continue Reading

• The future of the tablet computer in the enterprise

  Tablets come in all manner of profiles and on a variety of platforms – but which will shape up as the workplace favourite of the future?  Continue Reading

• CW500: Is the CIO still as important in 2014?

  Computer Weekly's CW500 Club kicked off this year's meetings with a look at the challenges CIOs will face in 2014  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation and cloud ubiquitous in midrange backup software

  Midrange backup software supports virtual environments and the cloud as a target, but like enterprise products support for mobile devices is largely absent  Continue Reading

• Digital reality: When IT meets the business

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

• Do you need tablets in your workplace?

  Consumers have shown a massive appetite for tablets, but IT departments have not presented the same level of eagerness  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

• Enterprise backup embraces VMs and cloud, but lags on mobile

  We survey enterprise backup products and find the top five tightly meshed with hypervisors and integrated with cloud, but lacking mobile device support  Continue Reading

• Storage startup survey: Funding tops $1.2bn in 2013

  IPOs are in the air and storage startups are magnets for investors, with $1.2bn of funding flung at flash arrays, hybrid flash, converged storage, cloud and object storage  Continue Reading

• Why computing curriculum fails to light academics’ flame of inspiration

  Roundtable reveals disappointment over computing curriculum and calls for more focus on importance of informal learning  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

• Big banks' legacy IT systems could kill them

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

• Cloudera CTO: enterprise ‘data hub’ is smartphone to data warehouse SLR

  Amr Awadallah is the chief technology officer and a co-founder at Hadoop distributor Cloudera. Here he briefs Computer Weekly on how the supplier is advocating the concept of an ‘enterprise data hub’  Continue Reading

• Failure to migrate from Windows XP could torpedo your business

  As the end of Windows XP support looms, what are the options available to CIOs using applications that run on nothing else?  Continue Reading

• VDI storage basics and persistent versus non-persistent desktops

  A look at the fundamentals of VDI storage and how to specify storage for likely workloads and persistent versus non-persistent desktops.  Continue Reading

• Get ready for the datacentre storm

  With a wave of innovations rolling ever faster towards the datacentre, analysts say 2014 is the year organisations must plot their course through choppy waters  Continue Reading

• SAP execs predict more innovation as economic outlook improves in 2014

  SAP executives are looking to 2014 as a year to establish the supplier’s innovation agenda of in-memory database technology, cloud and mobile  Continue Reading

• Windows XP support will end this year – are you prepared?

  April 2014 marks the point when Microsoft will finally end technical support for Windows XP. What should you do if you can't migrate by then?  Continue Reading

• Minerals firm Imerys upgrades IFS ERP as economy lifts

  Imerys has 30 different ERP systems around the globe. A plan to move to a single instance of ERP, thrown off course by recession, was achieved in 2012; other business benefits have accrued  Continue Reading

• Top 10 information management stories of 2013

  Top 10 information management stories of 2013. Putting analytics to work emerged as the most popular theme, with Tesco, McLaren, and Telefonica Ireland among those leading the data analytics pack  Continue Reading

• Putting software security in the hands of the buyer

  For far too long, businesses have been at the mercy of software suppliers for ensuring that critical applications are secure  Continue Reading

• Next generation hotspots: The future of Wi-Fi?

  A new solution for connecting to wireless hotspots could change the user experience forever. But as Steve Evans points out, there will need to be more collaboration in the telecoms and networking industries before we start to reap the benefits.  Continue Reading

• Internet of things set to unleash deluge of disruption

  Universal connectivity will yield insights in fields as diverse as aviation and hospitality, but will challenge conventional practices.  Continue Reading

• Realising the benefits of a totally connected world

  The internet of things will transform everyday life, from managing airports’ passenger flow to heating buildings and caring for the elderly.  Continue Reading

• BlackBerry Enterprise Server – Should you stay or should you go?

  John Chen’s recent open letter to BlackBerry customers holds many promises for the future  Continue Reading

• Internet of things will drive forward lifestyle innovations

  Internet-connected devices have been predicted to become popular for many years, but have been held back by many issues  Continue Reading

• The pros and cons of putting Wi-Fi into high street stores

  As the high street fights the tide of online shopping, retailers have adopted the ‘digital store’ model – but there are drawbacks for some  Continue Reading

• SMB 3.0 brings enterprise-class storage to Hyper-V deployments

  SMB 3.0 is Microsoft’s replacement for the “chatty” CIFS file access storage protocol that offers enterprise-class storage to Hyper-V deployments  Continue Reading

• SME cloud - blanket security or security blanket?

  Cloud network and security systems could be the answer for SMEs looking for enterprise-level services on a small-business budget  Continue Reading

• How the datacentre market has evolved in 12 months

  The increasing interest in co-location, hosting and cloud has led to murmurings around the death of in-house datacentres  Continue Reading

• Optimising application performance with flash storage

  At a Computer Weekly roundtable, IT leaders heard how Cancer Research UK achieved a 30% improvement in application performance  Continue Reading

• Optimising performance and security of web-based software

  On-demand applications are often talked about in terms of how suppliers should be adapting the way their software is provisioned to customers.  Continue Reading

• Procter & Gamble uses Teradata cloud analytics for global marketing

  Procter & Gamble has 15,000 websites, but sells almost exclusively through retailers. This makes gathering intelligence on customers tough  Continue Reading

• Future Gazing: The Future of IT in 2020

  The next six years will see the influence of technology accelerate, and that will mean radical changes for the role of the IT department and the CIO  Continue Reading

• Keep your software healthy during Agile development

  Developers have adopted agile methods to keep up with the pace of the market, but how can they ensure code stays in good shape?  Continue Reading

• PCIe SSD flash storage roundup: The few become fewer

  The PCIe flash storage, or server-side flash, market is one dominated by a few in which the big six array makers don’t get a look-in  Continue Reading

• Why agile development races ahead of traditional testing

  Traditional testing practices optimise large, centralised testing but struggle to support the rapid delivery of agile development.  Continue Reading

• How to finance next year's IT programme

  Finance and insurance firms are beginning to tailor products and services specifically targeted at CIOs and IT procurement teams.  Continue Reading

• Financing IT purchases

  There are a number of ways a new IT platform can be acquired but choosing the right method for your business is key.  Continue Reading

• Big data storage: Hadoop storage basics

  Hadoop changes the game for enterprise storage. We look at how Hadoop crunches big data, its key storage requirements and survey the vendors  Continue Reading

• Failure to invest in sentiment analytics could lead to brand damage

  Early adopter companies in retail and investment banking are exploring social media sentiment analytics  Continue Reading

• Tryg and Scottish Widows improve customer response with analytics

  Tryg Insurance uses Portrait, and Scottish Widows Oracle CRM on-demand to better analyse customer behaviour, reduce churn, and increase revenue  Continue Reading

• BAE builds the business into ERP team for Infor implementation

  BAE Systems Military Air and Information is upgrading and unifying seven ERP systems, with a project team mostly from the business  Continue Reading

• Find, keep and grow IT talent

  IT specialists with well-rounded expertise in emerging technologies are vital to any business. How do you get recruitment right?  Continue Reading

• After Prism revelation there is nowhere to hide

  UK business should not ignore revelations about the US Prism internet surveillance programme.  Continue Reading

• Make a high-performance computing and high-availability datacentre

  High performance computing and high availability systems are no longer limited to engineers and scientists. But is your datacentre ready?  Continue Reading

• High street stores embrace digital to entice customers

  Customers are using technology in favour of the high street, but some stores are fighting fire with fire.  Continue Reading

• Closing technology gaps for human resource departments

  A gap is appearing between the promise of cloud-based talent management technologies and the value those technologies deliver.  Continue Reading

• Big storage turns the tide in the hybrid flash array market

  The hybrid flash array market has been all about startups, but has the tide turned with EMC’s re-architecting of its VNX line for flash?  Continue Reading

• The perfect storm comes to talent management

  It is one of the most important areas of business, but talent management has been largely ignored by the IT industry – until now  Continue Reading

• The technology behind Birmingham NEC

  The NEC exhibition centre's IT director reveals how a £40m investment from Birmingham City Council has been spent  Continue Reading

• How Capgemini keeps its Merlin datacentre green and energy-efficient

  Capgemini's Swindon-based Merlin datacentre is one of the most energy-efficient in the world. But what makes it green?  Continue Reading

• Flash caching software market roundup

  Flash storage cuts latency and boosts IOPS, but can’t do the job alone; flash caching software is needed to target the blocks that need it most  Continue Reading

• Collaboration is key in enterprise security puzzle

  Collaboration is key to security, cyber security professionals told attendees of Trend Micro’s customer event in London  Continue Reading

• How to choose a file sync and share tool that fits

  Forrester analysts Rob Koplowitz and Ted Schadler document the experiences of early adopters of file sync and share services.  Continue Reading

• A guide to WebRTC

  Real-time communications standards aim to help more users speak with ease over the internet. Computer Weekly looks at how the systems work  Continue Reading

• Skillpages develops DataStax Cassandra to rank trades with NoSQL

  How do you find a good tree surgeon you can trust because he or she has been recommended by someone in your social circle?  Continue Reading

• Basho CTO Justin Sheehy describes NoSQL movement as ‘Cambrian’

  Justin Sheehy (pictured), CTO at NoSQL database company Basho, describes the NoSQL movement as ‘Cambrian’  Continue Reading

• Cyber insurance: Understanding the legal language

  CROs worried about cyber risk are increasingly turning to cyber insurance to offset risk. But is the cover as black and white as it first seems?  Continue Reading

• Being able to collaborate in the cloud is vital for business

  Cloud-based storage systems offer all employees the chance to work on a ‘live’ document but carry their own security risks.  Continue Reading

• How to make your datacentre BYOD-ready

  BYOD is changing how employees interact with corporate data. Datacentre managers should follow these steps to prepare their infrastructure for BYOD  Continue Reading

• 802.11ac: Inside the heart of state of the art

  Computer Weekly explains the new 802.11ac wireless standard and whether it is ready for businesses to adopt  Continue Reading

• VMworld Europe User Awards 2013 open for entries

  The VMworld Europe User Awards 2013 is now open for entries. Read the criteria and find out how to submit here.  Continue Reading

• Best of VMworld Europe User Awards: Entry Criteria

  All the information you need to know for the VMworld Europe User Awards.  Continue Reading

• VMware and Hyper-V virtual machine disaster recovery

  VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V have a number of features aimed at virtual machine disaster recovery. Computer Weekly surveys some of the key hypervisor features for data protection  Continue Reading

• The IT industry must come clean on software licensing

  Businesses are accused of software piracy if there is a licence shortfall, but software companies are making it difficult for IT departments to comply.  Continue Reading

• Shining a light on The OpenDaylight Project

  Steve Evans looks at the progress so far of the software defined networking (SDN) consortium and its effects on the networking industry  Continue Reading

• Cloud file-sharing for enterprise users

  Cloud file-sharing services have become near-ubiquitous among enterprise users. We survey the risks, benefits and alternatives to Dropbox  Continue Reading

• iSCSI switch selection and configuration

  iSCSI switch selection means looking out for the type of features that matter to iSCSI SAN traffic. We run the rule over the iSCSI switch market to see what’s available  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

• Data discovery tools open up new vistas for healthcare informatics

  The newer generation of BI tools, often called ‘data discovery’ software, is opening up new vistas in healthcare informatics. Orlando Agrippa, QlikView enthusiast and NHS health BI leader proselytises  Continue Reading

• Top 10 Android security tips

  As Android becomes more prevalent in the enterprise, Computer Weekly gives you 10 top tips for keeping your devices secure  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Control over your software assets has become a must

  Despite the rising importance of software asset management, there is a lack of sufficient attention and funding being devoted to it.  Continue Reading

• VPNs: The past, present and future

  We give you a rundown of all you need to know about virtual private networks and how the cloud is changing their future  Continue Reading

• Public sector IT procurement, G-Cloud and the SMEs

  Is the government's intent to widen public sector IT procurement to include SMEs and its G-Cloud diktat improving SME-government engagement?  Continue Reading