In Depth

In Depth

• How BT eliminated BI duplication

  At a recent Computer Weekly roundtable, in association with Oracle, IT leaders heard from Mike Blackmore, enterprise architect for BT's Oracle First programme, about how the telecoms giant is transforming its use of BI.  Continue Reading

• Integrating the cloud with the enterprise

  Integrating cloud services with enterprise systems and infrastructure needs IT management to change in order to realise the benefits  Continue Reading

• Case study: iPhone a click away with Quark Publishing System 8

  Arosa Bergbahnen AG offers its customers a wide range of services from winter sport facilities, gastronomy and hotel operations up to sporting events. Eager to make the most of the huge potential of the digital publishing revolution, Arosa ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: ITC Case Study

  The Information Technologists’ Company (ITC) was granted Livery status in 1992, becoming the 100th Livery Company of the City of London and received its Royal Charter in 2010. ITC is based on four key themes: Charity, Education, Industry and ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: Outsourced data hosting enables cost savings for the public sector

  Nacro operates from 180 regional locations across England and Wales. ‘Partnership Working’ is a key component to the work Nacro does, and provides a unique forum for sharing ideas, creativity and resources.  Continue Reading

• Case study: Uptrends.com

  Uptrends.com is the leading provider of online analysis of website activity, Service Level Agreements (SLA), hardware and transactional monitoring. The company helps hundreds of businesses monitor their websites and servers for peak performance. ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: A smart city is a sustainable city

  The City of Edinburgh Council entered into a groundbreaking 15-year strategic partnership with BT in 2001. That Smart City deal demonstrated that it’s possible to deliver better citizen services, improved back office efficiency, and lower costs – ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: Tricks of the trade - How to reduce your IT spend

  2009-10 has seen the largest worldwide economic downturn since the 1930’s, government spending is being severely cut, taxation is being increased and a potential double dip is still a potential outcome for 2011. Under these conditions CIO’s are ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: ICT Support Services

  With the sale of the airport in December 2009, GAL was presented with the challenge of separating all ICT services from the incumbent service provider, sourcing a new set of independent services and transitioning to those services in little more ...  Continue Reading

• Case study: REAL Software Supports Hollywood’s Eden FX to Streamline Special Effects Production

  REAL Software, creator of cross-platform software development tools, today announced that Eden FX, a large special effects studio in Santa Monica, developed an application with REAL Studio to render visual effects animation for The Social Network, ...  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

• Case study: British Red Cross improves command and control and enables interoperability with Airwave

  The British Red Cross is a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis across the country. The organisation enables vulnerable people to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their own communities.  Continue Reading

• InfoSecurity Europe 2011 coverage

  Get the latest news and updates from the 2011 InfoSecurity Europe conference.  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

• Inventing the future of IT

  We take a tour of the school of electronics and computer science at Southampton University.  Continue Reading

• Can data security be pinned down?

  Every organisation knows that information is one of its most valuable assets; increasingly so does anyone looking to exploit that information for their own ends, be they criminals, ex-employees with a grudge or Wikileaks-style whistleblowers - not ...  Continue Reading

• How to get a CIO's or IT manager's job

  A new breed of leaders are using a modern skillset to land jobs as CIOs and IT managers  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

• Case study: UK town secures its network with Fortinet

  A major town of nearly 150,000 people, Blackpool is a well-known UK holiday resort and third largest settlement in North West England, after Manchester and Liverpool.  Continue Reading

• CW Security Think Tank: What’s holding up the cloud?

  CW Security Think Tank: Are security concerns and a lack of adequate risk assessment tools the reason SMEs are not adopting cloud computing, or is the real reason something else that security professionals are also in a good position to address?  Continue Reading

• Ranking the global cyberthreat, IT infrastructure risks

  What's the real threat of global cyberwar, and how vulnerable are IT infrastructures?  Continue Reading

• Uneasy feeling: Risk management for emerging types of security threats

  Calculating risk is never an exact science, particularly when new threat vectors are constantly emerging.  Continue Reading

• Security trends 2011: Making sense of predictions

  While vendors have never been known to underestimate security threats, the job of the information security pro is, nevertheless, getting harder, says UK Bureau Chief Ron Condon.  Continue Reading

• Smartphone risk: Does your corporate smartphone policy stack up?

  Many organisations that allow smartphones to access their networks are woefully under-aware of many of the risks.  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

• Quocirca: Where to buy good IT security

  When should buyers rely on what is provided by infrastructure suppliers and when should they turn to IT specialists?  Continue Reading

• Security in the cloud: Top nine issues in building users' trust

  Information security issues are still holding back the adoption of cloud computing by business. Warwick Ashford reports.  Continue Reading

• Who is responsible for blocking malvertisments?

  In February the London Stock Exchange (LSE) came under scrutiny when an advertisement carried on its website was blamed for distributing a virus.  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

• Video: Lizamoon SQL injection attacks step up fast to hit hundreds of thousands of websites

  A mass injection attack dubbed Lizamoon is spreading rapidly and has infected up to more than 1.5 million URLs.  Continue Reading

• Virtual Data Centre Europe E-zine

  Whether you’re building a new data centre, managing an existing facility, or considering cloud computing/managed services, our Data Centre Europe e-zine addresses IT pros' everyday challenges.  Continue Reading

• iSCSI storage array developments and future trends: 10 GbE, multiprotocol, virtualization support

  iSCSI storage arrays now boast high-end features, with 10 GbE boosting speeds to equal to or better that those of Fibre Channel.  Continue Reading

• The Budget 2011 - Live blogging, news and analysis

  George Osborne’s budget on Wednesday 23 March 2011 is anticipated to focus on ways to stimulate the private sector. Not least because the Chancellor ‘s ‘Budget for Growth’ will need to find some creative ways of filling the employment gap left by ...  Continue Reading

• Where to find security bulletins from the world’s top 10 software companies

  Looking for information on new patches and security alerts from the likes of Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP and HP? We’ve listed and linked to the security information pages from the planet’s top ten software companies to help you find patches you need...  Continue Reading

• Five Australian IT leaders share their experiences

  Learn how five Australian IT leaders, from industry, government and education, tackled projects for their organisations.  Continue Reading

• Case study: Shopping for a more manageable PC fleet

  Online and shop-at-home giant Shop Direct Group owns and operates some of the most familiar and best-loved brands in the UK, including Littlewoods, Very, Woolworths.co.uk, Marshall Ward, Kays and Great Universal. To keep its large customer base ...  Continue Reading

• Making the most of customer relationship management in financial institutes

  In the old days, managing a customer in a bank or an insurance company was pretty easy. Most would have just one or two accounts and would be dealt with face to face, by mail or by telephone. But things have got a little complicated since then. Now ...  Continue Reading

• Midrange data backup solutions surveyed

  Upgrades in 2010 to midrange data backup solutions included data deduplication, unified archiving, enhanced virtualisation support and centralised management.  Continue Reading

• 2010 Storage revenue analysis from IDC and Gartner compared

  The two most prominent analyst firms, Gartner and IDC, have each published their analysis of storage vendor revenue for 2010. Both have EMC on top, IBM second and NetApp gaining fast. But their league tables then diverge.  Continue Reading

• CW Security Think Tank: How to ensure the success of infosecurity projects

  What are the top reasons IT security projects fail, and what are the top reasons they succeed? What should information security professionals do -...  Continue Reading

• Video: Google releases Chrome 10 for download

  Google has released version 10 of its Chrome web browser  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

• Virtualisation security for enterprise servers

  Don't fall prey to virtual server security myths. In this Security School lesson, expert Ben Chai explains how to implement server virtualisation securely.  Continue Reading

• London Stock Exchange completes 15-month system replacement

  Imagine if your doctor told you could not go much longer without a new heart, but also told you it would take 15 months to replace the one you have and you...  Continue Reading

• Rural Victorian health CIO speaks out on the NBN's impact

  Meet Bruce Winzar, CIO of Loddon Mallee Rural Health Alliance and Bendigo Health's Information Services Division, and learn his views on how the NBN will impact the delivery of health services.  Continue Reading

• Childcare centre picks single source for managed print services

  The IT manager of Queensland childcare business Sesame Lane has chosen a new provider for managed print services, and says he felt more comfortable going direct with a single vendor rather than a partner or reseller.  Continue Reading

• Midrange SANs embrace flash, server virtualisation and unified storage

  Technology survey: Midrange SANs embrace enterprise features with flash, server virtualisation and unified storage among product upgrades in the past 12 months.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: Financial systems fit for the future

  Before the recession, many financial services companies gradually moved away from individual application platforms, and fewer firms now have efforts under way than before the crisis.  Continue Reading

• Video: Gartner urges business to integrate social media and CRM

  The integration of social media and CRM technology will give businesses an unprecedented ability to build deep relationships with their customers within a few years, according to analyst Gartner.  Continue Reading

• Profile: Ziad Sukkar, CIO of SIRVA

  In this profile, Ziad Sukkar, CIO of SIRVA, explains why he rates virtualisation as the most important enterprise technology today.  Continue Reading

• Video: Google connects MS Office users outside SharePoint

  Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office is now available, allowing PC users to share Microsoft documents without SharePoint.  Continue Reading

• Video: Highlights from Mobile World Congress 2011

  Windsor Holden, principal analyst at Juniper Research reports on the highlights from Mobile World Congress 2011.  Continue Reading

• Gain a single view of your customer

  Gaining a single customer view is both a regulatory imperative and good for business, at least when joined up with business intelligence. Bloor’s Philip Howard describes the benefits of SCV, especially for financial services, and tells you how to ...  Continue Reading

• Is the UK in danger of squandering its IT talent?

  One of the dangers of the government's Tech City project was illustrated recently with the news that TweetDeck, one of the leading companies in east London's Silicon Roundabout tech cluster, was negotiating its sale to US-based UberMedia for $30m (...  Continue Reading

• Near field comms: How are mobile payments changing traditional banking?

  The e-money wallet is on the brink of becoming a viable technology in the UK. Mobile network operator Everything Everywhere and Barclaycard will roll out the UK's first mobile phone payment systems later this year.  Continue Reading

• Sort your data management to compete in an information economy

  Business environments that demand quick and constant decisions from flatter organisations necessitate more agile data management. Data in and of itself it has little or no value. Moreover, organisations have moved from a database to a document ...  Continue Reading

• BI opens path to business transformation at Logistex

  Storage and materials handling automation company Logistex applied BI to its complex support business. In so doing, it opened a path to wider business transformation.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise backup: Software product upgrades in 2010 surveyed

  Enterprise backup software product upgrades in 2010 included advancements in source data deduplication, unified recovery management, virtual server support and automated agent management.  Continue Reading

• Accenture: Smartphone apps provide ideal model for deterministic software

  Chief information officers should consider the smartphone as their number one target for deploying applications.  Continue Reading

• Do UK IT professionals have the skills to help their companies implement cloud computing securely?

  Majority opinion is that skills are lacking John Colley MD EMEA, (ISC)2 An overwhelming majority of our members participating in the current edition of the (ISC)2 Global Information Security Workforce study have told us that the answer to this ...  Continue Reading

• CIO interview: Colin Rees, IT director, Domino's Pizza

  In his first interview since becoming Domino's Pizza IT director last September, Colin Rees talks to Computer Weekly about the fast-food chain's IT agenda  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

• Private cloud computing: Strategic precautions

  One’s very own private cloud may sound like a good idea. But companies need to consider a few aspects prior to adopting private cloud computing.  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

• Idea lab

  Where evolving network concepts come together.  Continue Reading

• RIM demo Blackberry Playbook secure pairing with its smartphones

  RIM demo Blackberry Playbook secure pairing with its smartphones The latest video from Research in Motion (RIM) shows off Blackberry Playbook features...  Continue Reading

• Forrester Research: Mobile applications will empower enterprise business processes

  Despite the boom in consumer use of mobile technology and the increased availability of mobile sites and tools for customer engagement, internal business use remains limited beyond e-mail and calendars. E-mail has seen virtually ubiquitous ...  Continue Reading

• Video: Top ten business analysis trends for 2011

  In 2011, the business analyst will place primary focus on business architecture. The BA's critical thinking ability and unique skills set combination will be relied on to examine the complex, inner workings of the organisation through an ...  Continue Reading

• Storage resource management (SRM) software in a virtual server environment

  Storage resource management (SRM) software has gained extra impetus in a virtual server environment, with products ranging from vendor tools to services in the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Future technology: A booming off-the-shelf cloud computing market, MTI predicts

  UK integrator shares its five future technology predictions for 2011, including forecasts for data centres, virtualisation and off-the-shelf cloud computing technology  Continue Reading

• A black day for data centre carbon emissions

  Learn why it is important to reduce your data centre’s carbon emissions and how to improve your energy efficiency, according to our data centre expert.  Continue Reading

• EMC VNX launch represents a move toward unified branding as well as unified storage

  EMC VNX launch marks a move toward unified branding as well as unified storage, but does a unified brand really indicate a unified product range?  Continue Reading

• MLC vs SLC: Which flash SSD is right for you?

  Which flash SSD you choose depends on the performance you need and the price you want to pay, but the differences are not as great as you may think  Continue Reading

• Enterprise SSD options

  The enterprise SSD comes in a variety of formats, such as within storage arrays and in servers via PCIe cards. Gartner's Valdis Filks talks about which SSDs go where in the storage stack.  Continue Reading

• Chris Mellor on data storage management

  Chris Mellor provides UK data storage professionals with the insight on data storage management and data management software. Find out his thoughts on solid-state drives, FCoE, virtualisation, data deduplication and more.  Continue Reading

• Third-party cloud management tools do the trick

  Cloud customers are increasingly turning to third-party tools or add-on functions to meet specific cloud-management requirements  Continue Reading

• Video: Cross-platform mobile apps without coding

  Spot Specific is a new company due to unveil a cross-platform mobile developer tool during Mobile World Congress next month  Continue Reading

• Case Study: Co-operative Group migrates to Windows 7 on XenApp using App-DNA

  The Co-operative Group is planning to deploy Windows 7 desktop application virtualisation and hot desking in its new head office to reduce carbon emissions  Continue Reading

• Backup alternatives like replication, CDP and snapshots can banish backup headaches

  Backup alternatives such as replication, CDP and snapshots can banish the pain of the traditional backup window. Find out how they work in this podcast interview with Ian Lock of GlassHouse Technologies (UK).  Continue Reading

• Business Intelligence tools critical to an organization’s survival

  Business Intelligence tools have become so pervasive that an organization with business growth as the motto will have to consider it at some point.  Continue Reading

• Video: Facebook users hit by survey scam, Sophos warns

  Facebook users are being hit by a survey scam which is spreading virally across the social network, warns security firm Sophos.  Continue Reading

• What is Near Field Communication (NFC)?

  Near-field communication (NFC) allows data to be exchanged between devices via short-range, high frequency wireless communication technology by combining the interface of a smartcard and reader into a single device.  Continue Reading

• CES 2011: Embrace IT consumerisation

  Industry gurus are warning that the old ways of doing things cannot continue. The idea of travelling to a place of work, working at least an eight-hour shift using tools that work provides dates back to the industrial age. Productivity was a measure...  Continue Reading

• Trends driving storage vendor consolidation and integrated IT stacks

  The Vblock integrated stack from VMware, Cisco and EMC is pulling other companies in its wake as vendor consolidation continues. We look at the storage supplier scene entering 2011.  Continue Reading

• RAID rebuild pain points and the alternatives

  RAID rebuilds can be a particularly time-consuming and risky part of managing a storage array, but new methods such as wide parity and erasure codes promise relief.  Continue Reading

• Storage in 2011: The best and worst case scenario

  As the year dribbles to its conclusion, SearchStorage ANZ asked leading industry figures to give us their best and worst case scenarios for storage in 2011.  Continue Reading

• WikiLeaks timeline: The story so far

  WikiLeaks was launched back in December 2006 and has caused controversy since it began by publishing lists of BNP members in November 2008 and releasing the Iraq war logs in October 2010. We now find the founder, Julian Assange, under investigation ...  Continue Reading

• IT staff learn their ITIL lines at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts

  Parks & Resorts, the largest division at the Walt Disney Company, is rolling out the IT service management methodology ITIL to help the business give visitors to the Disney resorts the best possible experience.  Continue Reading

• Cloud disaster recovery offers cash saving benefits for the early adopter

  Cloud disaster recovery offers money saving benefits. It is still an early-adopter technology in the UK but is among the most popular cloud services for storage professionals.  Continue Reading

• Key questions to ask a cloud disaster recovery provider

  Cloud disaster recovery offers data protection without the need to invest in in-house infrastructure. This podcast sets out the vital questions you need to ask a cloud DR provider.  Continue Reading

• Post-RAID alternatives address RAID's shortcomings

  Post-RAID alternatives have entered the market while RAID's shortcomings begin to be recognised as disk capacities grow, despite decades of protecting data and boosting performance.  Continue Reading

• How to improve pharmaceutical data management with the TCG TPM

  This article analyses various ways in which the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Platform Module (TPM) could be used to enhance data security for pharmaceutical companies.  Continue Reading

• 6 predictions for the hottest BI trends in 2011

  What does the year 2011 hold for business intelligence (BI)? Here are half a dozen noteworthy developments anticipated.  Continue Reading

• Risk metrics: Measuring the effectiveness of an IT security control

  In this article, based on an MSc thesis by Jonathan Pagett and Siaw-Lynn Ng, learn how to use risk metrics to gauge the effectiveness of IT security controls.  Continue Reading

• Raising the efficacy of a Trusted Platform Module security device

  The Trusted Computing Group has set out to make interactions between computing devices more secure: But how effective is the technology it propagates? In this article, Andrew Lee-Thorp discusses the technology's potential limitations.  Continue Reading

• Threat assessment model: Testing open source software for security

  To mitigate the risks of using open source software, Yoav Aner and Carlos Cid propose a new threat modelling method for testing the security of open source software.  Continue Reading

• CES 2011: Consumer Electronics Show - 6th – 9th January 2011, Las Vegas

  The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011 is back taking place from 6-9 January 2011 in Las Vegas.  Continue Reading

• How to choose a colocation data centre: A UK guide

  A UK guide detailing common mistakes to avoid when deciding which colocation data centre provider to work with.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide to retail: The changing face of eCommerce

  If one thing is clear from the holiday shopping season, it is that the web is already deeply embedded in consumers' lives and will only further entrench.  Continue Reading