In Depth

In Depth

• Gathering retail intelligence

  Learning their customers’ habits through business intelligence is vital for bricks-and-mortar retailers to stay competitive  Continue Reading

• Static code analysis tools gain traction in India as SDL models mature

  Static analysis tools are gaining popularity with Indian companies as software development models and perspectives mature. Here are some popular choices.  Continue Reading

• HDFC Bank’s ISO 27004-compliant security metrics a boost toward GRC

  An ISO/IEC 27004-compliant metrics program is a rarity in the Indian infosec circuit. Indian BFSI major HDFC Bank’s ISMS has been there, done that  Continue Reading

• Setting up a botnet is easier than you think

  Acquiring, installing, configuring and using a powerful data-stealing banking Trojan toolkit is not as difficult as it sounds  Continue Reading

• Outsourcing IT services: goals and negotiations

  Tactical and strategic negotiations are important to businesses of all sizes, from SMEs to the largest enterprises  Continue Reading

• If the popularity of ICT is on the rise, why are we scrapping the curriculum?

  Recent GCSE results revealed more students are choosing to study ICT, however the government still plans to scrap the curriculum two years ahead of the planned computer science replacement  Continue Reading

• How to make sense of the big data universe

  Analysing big data can be a daunting prospect, so find out what you need, where it is and how to deal with it  Continue Reading

• Predictive sports analytics put in play for Wimbledon, Formula One

  Predictive analytics in sports is proving itself in tennis and car racing. Can it make the leap to team sports, long the preserve of barroom anoraks?  Continue Reading

• Best practice in outsourcing security

  The issues CIOs must consider in balancing security needs and budgetary constraints  Continue Reading

• Men and women disagree on reasons why IT is less attractive to women

  Mortimer Spinks and Computer Weekly survey finds men and women disagree on why IT is a less attractive career choice for females  Continue Reading

• Data virtualisation on rise as ETL alternative for data integration

  The Phone House and Novartis have turned to data virtualisation from Denodo and Composite to gain a single logical view of disparate data sources.  Continue Reading

• High-performance computing drives high-performance F1 cars to success

  Jennifer Scott investigates how Formula 1 team Marussia uses a supercomputer to design and test its cars on a budget  Continue Reading

• How technology is changing BPO

  Karl Flinders discovers how IT has become central to the provision of outsourced business processes  Continue Reading

• iSCSI security: Networking and security options available

  iSCSI security options include physical and virtual IP/Ethernet networking methods as well as built-in storage and switch device security features. Read about them here.  Continue Reading

• 10 GbE: iSCSI bandwidth increase improves protocol’s position against FC

  With a boost to iSCSI bandwidth with 10 Gigabit Ethernet, products that support the protocol offer features to rival Fibre Channel SANs, including scalability and hypervisor integration.  Continue Reading

• VMware backup and the VMware snapshot

  The VMware snapshot is a critical component of VMware backup. In this guide to the basics of VMware backup, we walk you through the key processes and suggest some best practices.  Continue Reading

• CEH certification gains credence in IT security domain

  CEH certification is much sought after in the IT security domain today. Here’s how you can obtain CEH certification and why you should attempt do so.  Continue Reading

• HyperCITY’s retail store management system: Profit with promotions

  HyperCITY services a million customers selling them about 40,000 products. Know how one of India’s largest hypermarket chains accomplishes this.  Continue Reading

• Server SSD guide to form factors and implementations

  Server SSD offers immense gains in IOPS and throughput. We look at how it works, form factors available and its advantages and pitfalls, and we survey key vendors in the market.  Continue Reading

• Cloud backup options: Pure cloud vs hybrid cloud backup

  Cloud backup is increasingly being seen as a flexible and cost-effective option by many organisations, but what are the pros and cons of pure cloud backup and hybrid cloud backup?  Continue Reading

• Essar’s WAN encryption strategy to secure data in motion: In focus

  Indian conglomerate Essar puts WAN encryption in place using Cisco’s GET VPN to protect data flows between remote locations. A closer look.  Continue Reading

• Making money from data: Financial business intelligence at work

  Finance professionals are heavy users of BI and predictive analytics software. Find out how a variety of European finance functionaries are analysing trends, cutting costs and finding new business.  Continue Reading

• HPC storage requirements: Massive IOPS and parallel file systems

  We survey the key vendors in HPC storage, where huge amounts of IOPS, clustering, parallel file systems and custom silicon provide storage for massive number crunching operations.  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

• Bank of India’s 2FA with mutual authentication goes beyond OTPs

  Indian BFSI major Bank of India chose mutual authentication when it required a two factor authentication (2FA) solution. There’s been no looking back.  Continue Reading

• Unified storage goes mainstream

  Unified storage has gone mainstream, with full protocol support from the top five vendors. We survey the options available, including single platforms and NAS gateways.  Continue Reading

• How to make your network green

  Make sure your network and datacentre run efficiently as part of a green networking strategy  Continue Reading

• Virtual machine storage optimisation methods explained

  Virtual machine storage for virtual desktops and servers has to deal with heavy and random I/O patterns. We survey the key methods of optimising storage for virtual machines.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: How to upgrade to IPv6

  IPv6 is an increasingly hot topic in the networking industry. We examine the issues for older hardware support.  Continue Reading

• Arup Chatterjee

  SearchSecurity.in CISO Power List 2012 Profile: Arup Chatterjee, CISO, WNS Global Services.  Continue Reading

• Agnelo D'Souza

  SearchSecurity.in CISO Power List 2012 Profile: Agnelo D‘Souza, CISO, Kotak Mahindra Bank.  Continue Reading

• Sunil Dhaka

  SearchSecurity.in CISO Power List 2012, Profile: Sunil Dhaka, CISO, ICICI Bank.  Continue Reading

• Sameer Ratolikar

  SearchSecurity.in CISO Power List 2012: Profile for Sameer Ratolikar, CISO, Bank of India.  Continue Reading

• Pankaj Agrawal

  SearchSecurity.in CISO Power List 2012 Profile: Pankaj Agrawal, CISO & Head of Technology Governance, Aircel  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: Tips for small companies on IPv6 migration

  There is no rush to switch from IPv4 to IPv6, but there is no harm in being prepared for IPv6. We look at the practical issues for SMEs.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: How to prepare your organisation for IPv6

  The switch to IPv6 – on 6 June – shows just how imminent the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is. Is your organisation ready?  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

• 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

• 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

• Alternatives to passwords: Replacing the ubiquitous authenticator

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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: Vote now!

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Disaster recovery awareness and testing require training, strategic plans

  After you develop DR plans, disaster recovery awareness and testing strategies ensure the plan works and that everyone knows their role within it.  Continue Reading

• Project management process challenges: Lessons from SBI, M&M, & NCDEX

  Project management process is usually riddled with challenges. Use these insights from India’s largest enterprises to effectively manage your projects.  Continue Reading

• Bombay Stock Exchange’s server consolidation journey

  BSE recently consolidated its servers and began its cloud computing journey. Find out more about BSE’s server consolidation initiative in this case study.  Continue Reading

• Self-encrypting drives: SED the best-kept secret in hard drive encryption security

  The SED solves many common data loss problems and is easy to use and manage with minimal impact on system performance – yet relatively few businesses and governments use SEDs.  Continue Reading

• Action against e-waste

  Every day, tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) is sent to Africa from the EU. It is illegal to trade in e-waste and despite this almost all e-waste is dumped in places where no facilities exist for safe recycling with a minority of e-waste being ...  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly Features List

  In this series of articles we will cover why desktop virtualisation is growing in popularity, what type of products are now available, how businesses are deploying VDI and the challenges in getting it working.  Continue Reading

• Encryption techniques and products for hardware-based data storage security

  Encryption techniques can be applied to data on the drive or array, at the host or in the fabric. We survey the key hardware-based methods and products available for data storage security.  Continue Reading

• ATA over Ethernet offers SAN storage on a budget

  ATA over Ethernet offers SAN storage on a budget, at 20% of the cost of Fibre Channel and half that of iSCSI SANs. But, does being a one-vendor protocol mean it’s a non-starter?  Continue Reading

• How the financial services sector uses big data analytics to predict client behaviour

  The financial services sector has gone through unprecedented change in the last few years. Customers are expecting a more personalised service from their banks. Regulators have reacted to the credit crunch with significant changes to regulation with...  Continue Reading

• IT and marketing: working together for business success

  The IT department builds things that scale and last, while marketing wants the next big thing - and needed it yesterday. How can heads of technology work effectively with marketing? Cliff Saran investigates  Continue Reading

• Green IT: How to deliver value to your business

  IT leaders are under pressure to make sure IT investments are made in the right places and realising that sometimes-elusive goal of measuring tangible value from IT.  Continue Reading

• IPv6: The security risks to business

  IT security professionals say the security holes that will open up in many business organisations as the world moves over to internet protocol version six (IPv6) constitute a substantial security concern  Continue Reading

• What is big data and how can it be used to gain competitive advantage?

  Cliff Saran discovers how big data can deliver big business benefits without excessive IT investment  Continue Reading

• How to write a disaster recovery plan and define disaster recovery strategies

  Learn how to develop disaster recovery strategies as well as how to write a disaster recovery plan with these step-by-step instructions  Continue Reading

• How to manage semi-structured data

  Semi-structured data is here to stay, and it offers the potential for business advantage to companies that handle and analyse it well. Mark Whitehorn has advice on how to do that.  Continue Reading

• IT in Europe e-zine: Data Management & BI Edition

  The benefits of effective data management and business intelligence are many; so are the challenges. Get practical information and advice on data management & BI strategies in the IT in Europe ezine.  Continue Reading

• Why more businesses are nearshoring in Eastern Europe

  Low-cost, highly skilled IT labour and a relatively close proximity to the UK is making Eastern Europe an increasingly attractive destination to UK businesses  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

• How to combat advanced persistent threats: APT strategies to protect your organisation

  Simple defence strategies will go a long way to preparing businesses for APTs  Continue Reading

• Top five IT finance and asset management issues

  CIOs and anyone involved in IT procurement should assess the benefits of leasing and alternative financing over making capital purchases for new IT equipment, software and services. Cliff Saran looks at the options.  Continue Reading

• Five types of tape for backup or archive

  There are plenty of tape formats to choose from when you are looking for a backup or archival medium. Here are five of the most common formats to consider.  Continue Reading

• Natural Disaster Recovery Planning from Christchurch Earthquakes

  What do you do when the office is destroyed. We spoke to a number of companies in Christchurch about how they got up and running after the recent earthquakes.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise MLC: How flash vendors are boosting MLC write endurance

  Enterprise MLC: Flash vendors are boosting MLC write endurance to level read/write wear, improve error correction and combat flash’s inherent tendency to write amplification.  Continue Reading

• Case study: Nissan Saves €10 million on LEAF Battery Production

  In 2010 Nissan launched the world’s first mass produced electric car available from a major manufacturer, the LEAF (Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car).  Continue Reading

• Clarion Events Extends the Life of its System i and JD Edwards environment with Magic Software

  Clarion Events is one of the UK's leading exhibition and event organisers. For over 30 years Clarion Events has been creating and developing stimulating and effective exhibitions, conferences and seated events in the UK, EMEA, Asia and America. ...  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery: Risk assessment and business impact analysis

  Disaster recovery: Risk assessment and business impact analysis are key stages in disaster recovery planning, but where do they fit into the DR planning process?  Continue Reading

• Block vs file for Hyper-V and VMware storage: Which is better?

  Is block- or file-based storage better for Hyper-V and VMware virtual server environments? The answer depends on the precise needs of your virtual server environment.  Continue Reading

• The MCITP certification path to career success

  Although not a substitute for proven work-experience, Microsoft’s MCITP certification endorses one’s technical knowledge and could improve job prospects.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: HP's Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) put to the test

  In the world of datacentres and large-scale enterprise networks there has always been some form of perceived trade-off between performance and resilience. Building in resilience is absolutely essential of course, but it has historically affected ...  Continue Reading

• Linux certification in India: A guide

  Linux deployments in data centers are fueling the need for skilled Linux administrators. A look at some Linux certification courses available in India.  Continue Reading

• Backup appliance: Backup software and hardware in one box

  A backup appliance provides the backup app, processing power and disk to give all you need for SMB or branch office backup pre-packaged into one easy-to-manage box.  Continue Reading

• Case study: Examples and Results from the Hotel, Online, Retail, and Consumer Products Industries

  A popular lodging company, with several thousand locations around the world, needed to improve the conversion rate for booking rooms on its own Web site vs. on online travel agency sites. Web-savvy customers, searching for the best deals, were ...  Continue Reading

• Making your PC fleet green

  Planning for your computer fleet to satisfy the increasing need for environmental friendliness isn't as tough as it sounds. Here are five things CIOs can do.  Continue Reading

• SMB storage: What can you outsource to cloud storage and backup services?

  SMB storage: Cloud storage and backup offer many cost-saving advantages to SMBs, but drawbacks too, so what exactly can you outsource to the cloud right now?  Continue Reading

• Case study: Bell Canada rings up big revenues with Infor CRM

  Bell Mobility, a division of Bell Canada Enterprises, implemented an Infor customer relationship management solution, Interaction Advisor, and worked with Infor to transform Bell Mobility’s two call centers - with a combined 550 customer service ...  Continue Reading

• MS-CLIS at IIIT Allahabad: Evaluation of the post grad course in infosec

  With numerous infosec certs to choose from, we look at how the master’s in information security and cyber law (MS-CLIS) at IIIT Allahabad is different  Continue Reading

• Clustered NAS vs traditional NAS solutions

  Clustered NAS offers file visibility across petabytes of storage and is hugely scalable with the ability to increase throughput, IOPS or disk space by adding extra nodes.  Continue Reading

• Object-based storage promises scalability and flexibility for static, unstructured data needs

  Object storage gets rid of traditional file system hierarchies and puts in place a flat access structure that provides a good basis for hugely scalable unstructured data access.  Continue Reading

• The power of ICT and its multiplier effect

  Meet Michael Hedley, National Policy Manager for the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).  Continue Reading

• Secure your SCADA architecture by separating networks

  Many critical national infrastructure systems include supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) functionality. These systems can be viewed as the set of software, computers and networks that provide remote co-ordination of controls systems ...  Continue Reading

• Google adds real-time traffic data to Android map app

  Google has updated its algorithms to support real-time data for its map application for smartphones running on the Android operating system (OS).  Continue Reading

• Remote replication: Comparing data replication methods

  Learn how remote replication fits into a disaster recovery plan, as well as the various data replication methods available, such as host-based, array-based and network-based replication.  Continue Reading

• How virtual machine backup differs from traditional backup

  Virtual machine backup can be accomplished with traditional backup tools but can be better effected with snapshots and dedicated virtual server backup products.  Continue Reading