In Depth

In Depth

• SaaS BI technology comes of age

  SaaS BI and its benefits explained: it can improve scalability and reduce administration costs; it offers capabilities in data warehousing, ETL and analytics; it can be secured. What’s not to like?  Continue Reading

• Airtel’s DLP technology rollout makes data egress a thing of the past

  Airtel’s DLP technology implementation, India’s largest, went live in December 2010. Join us in exploring its inner workings, even as it is poised for bigger things.  Continue Reading

• Midrange SAN vendors boost solid-state and drive options

  With desktop and server virtualisation driving the market, midrange SAN vendors boost solid-state and spinning-disk options to bring enterprise-like performance.  Continue Reading

• Disk backup deduplication vendors boost performance and features

  In a fast-maturing market space, disk-based backup deduplication vendors have boosted performance, upped deduplication efficiency and improved integration with backup software products.  Continue Reading

• SAN monitoring products boosted by virtualisation

  SAN monitoring is more necessary than ever with the demands of server virtualisation. We survey the market, from hardware products to Software as a Service offerings.  Continue Reading

• Forrester: The next wave of virtualisation

  Virtualisation is evolving. IT departments now have a raft of products to deploy within their infrastructure, optimised for virtualisation.  Continue Reading

• Cisco Live Europe 2012 Coverage

  If you didn’t have a chance to make it out to the London ExCeL Centre, for Cisco Live Europe, read our coverage of the conference.  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

• Re-skilling through the Open University to get into IT

  Ian Kelly, a 34-year-old IT specialist, is preparing to take the next step in his career, and turned to the Open University to improve his skills.  Continue Reading

• When X.509 security certificates fail, servers break

  Why are X.509 certificates causing computers to stop dead?  Continue Reading

• In-memory database technology gains ground, but challenges remain

  In-memory database technology improves specific application performance notably. But challenges need to be met before in-memory database becomes the norm.  Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud storage product roundup

  Read this survey of hybrid cloud products that combine access to remote storage with local resources that mitigate cloud issues such as latency.  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

• Forrester: How consumerisation drives innovation

  The “consumerisation of IT is a threat to the status quo and a risk to the security of the firm. Forrester's Ted Schadler. looks at the business benefits.  Continue Reading

• Balance security and productivity in consumerisation policy

  The consumerisation of IT and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programmes have become headline-grabbing issues, but in the rush to be seen to be doing something about it, organisations risk compromising security, warns Rob Bamforth.  Continue Reading

• Essar’s virtual desktop infrastructure strategy for optimal security

  The move to virtual desktop infrastructure at Essar enabled robust security and data protection amidst a liberal BYOD policy. Here’s how Essar deployed VDI.  Continue Reading

• Sway the board: How to build a business case for data management plans

  The more rigorous the business case is for a data management project, the more business value it will deliver. Consultant Andy Hayler outlines the fundamentals.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Top five issues in taking a structured approach to security in the cloud

  Last week, experts discussed the need to focus on the basics of security in the cloud. Here, the security think tank expert panel covers a structured approach to cloud computing security.  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

• Security Think Tank: What is the most important nut for infosec to crack in 2012?

  What is the most important nut for infosec to crack in 2012?  Continue Reading

• Laptop data protection is a mixed bag of bespoke and product add-ons

  Product survey: Laptop data protection products range from those engineered for laptops to those that are bolted on to existing backup applications.  Continue Reading

• The corporatisation of higher education IT

  A generation that has grown up with technology at its fingertips is forcing universities to look at technology in a different way.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Managing security in the cloud

  With cloud computing, as with data breaches, it is a question of “when” not “if”, so what practical steps can information security professionals take to manage security compliance in the cloud?  Continue Reading

• SOA middleware platform gets Tata Motors closer to customers

  Cordys SOA middleware platform enables Tata Motors to better engage with customers through Web services. Here’s how the company implemented SOA middleware.  Continue Reading

• Key account management strategy at Tata Motors gets enhanced IT edge

  Indian auto major Tata Motors’ key account management strategy relies significantly on IT. We examine its key account management portal project in-depth.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Firms can’t or won’t address social networking security risks

  It's a common refrain: Even companies that are aware of social networking security risks don't do anything about them.  Continue Reading

• Alternatives to passwords: Replacing the ubiquitous authenticator

  As the relative security of passwords falters, are they destined for obscurity?  Continue Reading

• 2011's top 10 tips on data centre, cloud and server virtualisation

  A collection of top 10 expert tips on data centres, cloud computing, server virtualisation and VDI for IT professionals to recap the technology highlights and how-tos of 2011.  Continue Reading

• Roundtable: Modern data integration best practices to be more agile

  Our roundtable of experts considers the question of how modern organisations should best think about and approach agile data integration programmes.  Continue Reading

• M&M’s BI project with SAP BW facilitates 360-degree view of the group

  Through SAP BW, Mahindra & Mahindra aims for a common IT platform for all the processes of the BI project. Read on to find out how SAP BW made the difference.  Continue Reading

• WAN optimisation fits the bill for disaster recovery

  WAN optimisation can overcome bandwidth limitations on disaster recovery data transfers by managing application traffic, reworking protocols and using caching technologies.  Continue Reading

• Top five virtualisation case studies of 2011

  Our recap of 2011's most popular case studies shows how other IT users conducted their virtualisation projects and all about their challenges and the efficiencies they achieved.  Continue Reading

• Interview: From Apollo Mission to agility manifesto

  One of the 17 original authors of the agile manifesto was Jim Highsmith who, after a previous tenure at NASA, now works as an executive consultant at ThoughtWorks.  Continue Reading

• The virtual storage appliance: Its evolution and outlook vs the array

  The virtual storage appliance: Where it came from, how it cuts costs with commodity hard drives and prospects for storage in the hypervisor vs the traditional array.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's guide: Outsourcing trends in 2012

  In 2012, smaller outsourcing deals will mean changing suppliers more often, but higher margins for outsourcers.  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery audit, maintenance and continuous improvement

  Drawing up strategies for disaster recovery audit, maintenance and continuous improvement are the key final stages in the development of a disaster recovery programme.  Continue Reading

• Object-based storage allows users to tame ballooning data stores

  Object-based storage boots out hierarchical file systems for a flat-file layout, tames massive files stores and overcomes RAID’s inadequacies.  Continue Reading

• Capita: the story of where UK public sector outsourcing began

  Capita is a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm focusing heavily on the UK public sector market. With annual revenues over £2.7bn, it has become a lynch pin in public sector outsourcing.  Continue Reading

• Data scientists set to move center stage in BI world

  A data scientist is the next go-to person for analytics. But firms will first look to analytics as a service to benefit from skills of data scientists.  Continue Reading

• UKtech50: Meet the 50 most influential people in UK IT

  Computer Weekly has announced the final listing for the second annual UKtech50, the definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT.  Continue Reading

• Flatter, faster, more manageable networks

  As companies rely ever more on IT for enabling their business operations, networks have become the vital plumbing  Continue Reading

• BYOD security: Where does India Inc stand?

  With the proliferation of smart devices, BYOD security is a major concern for enterprises today. Find out how the leaders are coping with BYOD security.  Continue Reading

• What are the outsourcing options for the SME?

  The pace of change of technology can cause the small and medium enterprise (SME) critical issues which outsourcing can only address with carefully researched decisions.  Continue Reading

• Aircel’s SAP business intelligence strategy to transform marketing

  Deployment of SAP business intelligence right at the outset helped Aircel reap multiple benefits from SAP BI at operational as well as analytical levels.  Continue Reading

• The Social Media Awards 2011: Winners and photos

  Computer Weekly's search for the best use of social media in IT is finally over after hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes we now have the winners and the Social Media Champion - Kate Craig-Wood, of cloud computing firm Memset.  Continue Reading

• Case study: Nokia rethinks HR with web portal

  Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has reduced its HR costs by between 20% to 30% after rolling out a web-based HR portal for its 60,000 employees.  Continue Reading

• Information security superheroes: are we overlooking the obvious?

  In these dark days of professional, organised cyber crime and state-sponsored cyber espionage, the world of business is looking for a cyber superhero to save the day. But in the quest for a cyber superhero, business is failing, Lois Lane-like, to ...  Continue Reading

• Interview: Mike Lynch on Autonomy at HP

  Mike Lynch co-founded Autonomy and sold it to HP for £7bn. Now he is HP's executive vice-president, information management.  Continue Reading

• Social Media Awards 2011 - The winners

  Computer Weekly's search for the best use of social media in IT is finally over after hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes.  Continue Reading

• Roundtable: How industry and academia create ideal IT graduates

  In the tough economic climate, can industry work with universities to create IT-literate and business-savvy graduates?  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Cloud security concerns -- talk to your cloud vendor

  Inherent security risks restrict many from adopting cloud -- every CIO has questions in mind about security.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: State of outsourcing 2011

  Research tracking trends in outsourcing contracts during 2011 is showing a distinct shift away from business process outsourcing, towards lower-value, smaller contracts.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: The importance of governance in outsourcing IT services

  While many businesses are continuously developing and refining their outsourcing capabilities, they still struggle to get the business results they desire.  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

• Social media analytics myths busted

  Social media analytics is shrouded in many myths. Let's unravel the truth to help you succeed with your own social media analytics strategy.  Continue Reading

• The security threats of technology ubiquity

  The ubiquity of mobile technology and internet-connected devices present new threats and increase the challenges for IT security managers.  Continue Reading

• CIOs will be fired if they get the cloud wrong, warns HP

  HP cloud guru Pete Karolczak welcomes the end of traditional outsourcing and embraces the disruption of cloud computing.  Continue Reading

• Product roundup: Scale-out NAS meets unstructured data challenge

  Scale-out NAS is the ideal response to the needs of unstructured data. We survey the scale-out NAS market and see how different vendors are implementing the technology.  Continue Reading

• vSphere 5 storage features stake a claim in array territory

  vSphere 5 storage features move into traditional array territory, including LUN controls, array monitoring, NAS commands and even a virtual storage appliance.  Continue Reading

• In-house vs. moving to the cloud: Data centre learning guide

  Moving IT to the cloud can have certain advantages such as scalability and flexibility, but in-house data centres score on security aspects.  Continue Reading

• Case Study: Digitising the British Library

  The British Library has a reputation for innovation, but despite its on-going digitisation project the institution has so far made just 1% of its vast 5 billion page catalogue digital. Kathleen Hall speaks to the organisation about some of the key ...  Continue Reading

• Open source backup software lags in the cloud and VM backup

  The response of open source backup products to server virtualisation and the cloud is uneven. Zmanda offers full VMware and cloud compatibility, but others have yet to catch up.  Continue Reading

• Gartner: 5 trends that will transform the data centre

  The demand for IT as a service, combined with the need to reduce costs, has pushed data centres to the brink of a major transformation.  Continue Reading

• Real-time data gains ground for risk management in beleaguered banking

  Risk management tops the agenda as European financial markets are rocked by debts and default risk. But is real-time data management part of the answer, or just a technology looking for a problem?  Continue Reading

• Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2011 conference coverage

  Read TechTarget’s coverage of Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2011 in both Barcelona and Orlando.  Continue Reading

• UKtech50: Honouring the most influential people in UK IT

  Computer Weekly has announced the final listing for the second annual UKtech50, the definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT - the CIOs, industry executives, public servants and business leaders driving the creation of a high-tech ...  Continue Reading

• UKtech50 2011 - The event

  Computer Weekly has launched the second annual UKtech50, the definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT - the CIOs, industry executives, public servants and business leaders driving the creation of a high-tech economy. Find out all the ...  Continue Reading

• UKtech50 2011: Vote now!

  Voting has begun to find out who is the most influential person in the UK IT community.  Continue Reading

• iPads in the field - Powerlink Queensland

  While iPads tick many of the boxes for mobile computing, Powerlink Queensland engaged in a pilot to see if Apple's tablet wunderkind could cut it in the field  Continue Reading

• Social Media Awards 2011: Best use of social media (public sector) - Nominate now!

  Social Media Awards 2011: IT Best use of social media – public sector - category information.  Continue Reading

• Socialisation, social engineering, and securing the enterprise

  What can and should organisations do to convince and empower IT users to play an active part in protecting data?  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

• CIO interview: Tony Prestedge, COO, Nationwide

  Tony Prestedge took over as COO at Nationwide in 2010, mid-way through a five-year transformation project. He tells Karl Flinders how the company is transforming its business through a £1bn investment in technology, how the IT department changed ...  Continue Reading

• What does the future hold for Microsoft’s business model?

  With the technology industry shifting away from traditional software licensing, what is the future for Microsoft as tech top dog?  Continue Reading

• CIO interview: Martin Davies, head of technology at Bet365

  The success story of £5.4bn-per-year online gambling company Bet365 is nothing to do with luck and everything to do with technology.  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: New College Swindon replaces fixed Ethernet network with Wi-Fi

  New College, Swindon, is planning to replace its fixed Ethernet network with a campus-wide wireless network that will let students access the internet using their own devices.  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

• New forms of direct-attached storage emerge to meet VM I/O demands

  A new dawn for DAS? New forms of direct-attached storage have emerged that aim to meet the needs of virtual servers and their extremely random I/O characteristics.  Continue Reading

• Interview: Shareagift CTO Jonathan Midgley discusses its VMware cloud

  Jonathan Midgley has been an IT entrepreneur since he was 15 years old. The chief technology officer of Shareagift.com sold his first application for £99. Written on the Acorn BBC Micro Model B home computer, the application was designed to help ...  Continue Reading

• Advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing

  Among the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing are that it offers a high degree of scalability, but incidents such as cloud outages make it less reliable.  Continue Reading

• RightNow: Oracle and next-generation CRM

  In his opening keynote presentation at the RightNow Summit 2011 in Newport, Greg Gianforte, RightNow founder and chief executive officer, presented his view of device-aware CRM.  Continue Reading

• Cloud computing security risks guide: How safe is the cloud?

  Although moving IT to the cloud brings advantages such as flexibility and scalability, cloud computing security risks are seen as a major impediment for its wide-scale adoption.  Continue Reading

• How Capex vs. Opex affects data centre outsourcing decisions

  Capex vs.Opex comparison reveals that although cloud services help avoid capital expenses on building own data centres, its Opex model can turn costly if IT pros aren’t cautious.  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

• The consumerisation of IT: it’s a trickle, not a tide, but you still need to be ready

  If media headlines and supplier claims are to be believed, organisations today are faced with an unstoppable tide of many different types of personal device connected to the corporate network  Continue Reading

• Professional advice on sharing data responsibility

  Information is the lifeblood of most organisations. It can take one of many forms, such as physical files, digital files or databases. Furthermore, computer systems allow us to keep data almost indefinitely, and as we generate even more every year, ...  Continue Reading

• The top five SME security challenges

  Best practice in IT security and compliance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is often seen as a "grudge purchase", but SMEs face the same threat as larger organisations - just without their budgets.  Continue Reading

• Social Media Awards 2011: Vote now!

  Computer Weekly's search for the best use of social media in IT is back for its fourth year, in association with IBM, and we want you vote for the best uses of social media in UK IT. Fill out the form below and submit your vote.  Continue Reading

• Social Media Awards 2011 with IBM

  IBM is proud to sponsor the 2011 IT Social Media Awards. The world now spends more than 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites per month. This equates to 22 percent of all time online or one in every 4.5 minutes.  Continue Reading

• Have service assurance tools finally come of age?

  Vendors have long promised that service assurance tools could monitor across IT systems, but they've always fallen short. Are these tools finally growing up?  Continue Reading

• Application - aware networking emerges but has far to go

  Application awareness is emerging on firewalls and WAN optimization devices,but efforts fall short of a network-wide strategy,especially at Layers 2 and 3.  Continue Reading

• Idea Lab: Employees want social networking tools

  Where evolving concepts come together  Continue Reading

• Improved debt collection with BI: An ICICI Bank story

  Debt collection can gain immensely by BI. By powering this, ICICI Bank has effectively turned debt collection into a customer-relations management program.  Continue Reading

• Storage protocols battle it out for the data centre switching crown

  Storage protocols battle it out for the data centre switching crown. The key vendors -- Cisco, Brocade and QLogic -- embrace convergence, but they differ in emphasis over Fibre Channel.  Continue Reading

• CW500: How CIOs are exploiting the cloud

  CIOs from the Guardian, Mitchells & Butlers and Oxfam reveal how they are exploiting cloud computing  Continue Reading

• Ethernet storage: When will FCoE gain traction in data centres?

  Ethernet storage: FCoE has been around for some time, but how do vendors’ implementations differ, and when will the technology gain real traction in data centres?  Continue Reading

• Buyer's guide: Top six tips to improve your organisation's social media CRM strategy

  Although social CRM definitions vary, all share some common distinctions. They all centre on customer-centric interactions through social media. Competitive intelligence (CI) professionals - inherently customer-focused marketers - recognise the ...  Continue Reading

• Five VDI technology bottlenecks faced by implementers

  Though VDI technology offers benefits, bottlenecks may hamper smooth deployment. We talk to VDI implementers to identify common VDI technology bottlenecks.  Continue Reading