In Depth

In Depth

• IT leaders start to question cloud interoperability

  As security issues around cloud-based systems begin to be addressed, concerns around how to make applications talk to each other have begun to move to the front of CIOs' minds, according to research.  Continue Reading

• The end of the physical server is nigh

  After virtualising non-critical business data, the next step away from physical servers is tackling greater risks to produce higher rewards, according to our expert.  Continue Reading

• WAN optimization and disaster recovery

  WAN optimization offers a perfect fit with disaster recovery by squeezing more bandwidth from links between primary and secondary data centres.  Continue Reading

• Analyzing cloud computing's past and future

  The credit crunch, broadband penetration and the maturation of Web-based services have all contributed to cloud's increased adoption levels. But where will the cloud go from here?  Continue Reading

• IT is now a boardroom issue, says Fujitsu’s Gilbert

  In the kind of deals we are talking about here, the chief executive is heavily involved in the procurement, and expects to see and hear how it will contribute to his plan or strategy. Especially if it's linked to a merger or a disaggregation, IT is ...  Continue Reading

• Improving business resilience and continuity planning through virtualisation

  An IT service provider explains why well-planned best practices and the increased efficiencies of virtualisation technologies make it so easy to plan ahead for a disaster.  Continue Reading

• The Daily Data Centre repository for August

  August's editions include an enterprise stamp of approval for Citrix's XenDesktop, UK energy policy driving away data centres and Dell's new HPC release.  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation management: Quick win, quick fall if you fail to plan ahead

  For some companies, going too fast from the testing phase of virtualisation to live production could be dangerous, according to an IT service provider.  Continue Reading

• Case Study: How to lower IT support for non-core systems

  IT departments often spend a significant amount of time looking after non-core IT equipment. Is there a better way? Jenny Williams investigates how to reduce the time spent on maintaining meeting-room technology.  Continue Reading

• Essential CIO guide for turning to consultancy

  A career in consulting may seem attractive to IT leaders who have been made redundant or are looking for a new challenge, but there are many factors to consider before taking the plunge.  Continue Reading

• RAID rebuilds: How do RAID rebuilds work and which is fastest?

  RAID rebuilds: How do RAID rebuilds work, how can RAID rebuilds be made quicker and what is the fastest RAID-level rebuild time?  Continue Reading

• Cloud conference hears how to boost business and cut costs

  In an era of rapidly constricting budgets, innovation can be a dirty - and expensive - word  Continue Reading

• The cloud: The private sector IT leader’s view

  Paul Forester, IT director at fashion retailer Monsoon Accessorize, is interested in the cloud as the business is expanding globally  Continue Reading

• The cloud: the public sector IT leader’s view

  Paul McDonald, IS strategist at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, does not think the cloud is being over-hyped  Continue Reading

• The cloud: the academic's view

  Andrew Tuson, Master of Information Leadership course director at City University London, said the cloud can help organisations that need to respond rapidly  Continue Reading

• Case Study: EasyJet flies to the cloud to up e-mail security and down costs

  Budget airline EasyJet has achieved a 35% savings over three years by switching to a cloud-based software-as-a-service e-mail security system.  Continue Reading

• Email archiving services: How they work and how to select a service

  Email archiving services offload key chores for storage admins; but before you go that route, find out about the types of services available, costs and other factors to consider in the selection process.  Continue Reading

• Video: RIM shows off more of Blackberry 6 user interface

  Research in Motion has posted a YouTube video which provides more details of the up and coming Blackberry 6, software release due out later this summer.  Continue Reading

• Video: Nasa joins Microsoft for 3D Mars video

  Microsoft has developed an online three dimensional map of Mars.  Continue Reading

• Fujitsu75: VME upgrades to cloud computing

  Forty years should be old age for an operating system, but the Virtual Machine Environment (VME) is far from being pensioned off, and Fujitsu is investing to develop it further.  Continue Reading

• Fujitsu: Innovation is a constant for 75 years

  Very few computer companies can trace their history back 75 years, as Fujitsu can. And few indeed can show off a legacy that includes the development of some of the key technologies on which computing depends.  Continue Reading

• Fujitsu innovation tackles intractable IT problems

  Computing history is littered with the corpses of solutions overtaken by technology.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide to the Connected Enterprise

  Collaboration is changing.Time to rethink unified comms.  Continue Reading

• Sneaking a smart phone into the enterprise

  Are smart phones connected to the corporate network a good idea?  Continue Reading

• AT&T Williams connects engineers to race with telepresence and real time network

  For the past six years Chris Taylor has been IT manager for the AT&T Williams Formula One team.  Continue Reading

• A guide to social networking in the enterprise

  Social computing is a social structure in which technology puts power in communities, not institutions.  Continue Reading

• Tape vs disk backup: Pros and cons of tape backup and disk-based backup

  Tape is an established backup target, but disk prices are falling. Factors to consider when switching from tape to disk-based backup are performance and the overall DR strategy.  Continue Reading

• How IT departments can prove their value in the wake of increased regulation

  Find out how the Carbon Reduction Commitment can enable an IT department to turn government legislation into cost savings.  Continue Reading

• SSD breathes new life into old PCs

  Solid state discs (SSDs) are set to become the preferred way to achieve high performance and high availability storage in the datacentre and, increasingly, on the desktop.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide to the connected enterprise: the next decade

  The past decade began with the steady adoption for IP telephony and voice and data convergence. Unified communications appeared a few years later and delivered a framework that supports integrated communications and collaboration applications. This ...  Continue Reading

• CIO Interview: Paul Coby, British Airways, on IT with tight budgets and mergers

  The airline has reinvented its approach to IT investment and is looking at innovative technology to support its future plans, which include the imminent technology merger with Spanish carrier Iberia.  Continue Reading

• Interview with Jeff Russakow from Yahoo!

  In the same week that Google revealed plans to launch a system that will allow publishers to charge for content, executive business channel MeetTheBoss.tv sat down with Yahoo's Jeff Russakow, executive vice-president of customer advocacy, to discuss...  Continue Reading

• Desktop virtualization: Storage requirements planning

  Desktop virtualization is gaining traction among users. Learn the benefits of desktop virtualization, and how to implement and deploy desktop virtualization.  Continue Reading

• CIOs help build new IT capability maturity model

  For two long years CIOs have largely succeeded in squeezing cost out of their IT departments. Now, as the economy starts its fitful resurgence, they find themselves pressed to justify their value to the business, and to enable the business to ...  Continue Reading

• CIO interview: BAA checks in IT transformation

  When IT veteran Philip Langsdale joined BAA as chief information officer with a brief of creating a technology strategy to support a £4.8bn capital investment plan, he knew he was not in for a smooth ride.  Continue Reading

• Will you lose profit through the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme?

  Discover these practical steps on how to make the most of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, according to a data centre management consultancy.  Continue Reading

• Green storage technologies let data centres enable energy-efficient storage

  Learn what is driving green storage initiatives, as well as why technologies like server virtualization, spin down and MAID can bring greater energy efficiency to your data centre.  Continue Reading

• Data storage technology brings data center power consumption benefits

  As data center power consumption rises, some IT shops find unexpected benefits in more efficient data storage technology. Find out how two firms saved money on power.  Continue Reading

• The real value of virtualisation

  Discover how to fully realise the benefits and cost savings of virtualisation, including the importance of maximising energy efficiency and meeting IT project deadlines.  Continue Reading

• VoIP test drive

  The asymmetric nature of the ubiquitous ADSL broadband technology means that uplink speeds are very limited, causing problems when trying to combine multiple voice calls with concurrent data activity.  Continue Reading

• Making a return on IT security investment

  Computer Weekly invited some of the UK's top information security leaders to a roundtable debate, in association with Oracle, to discuss how to deliver business value in information security.  Continue Reading

• Interview: Top CEOs are too old to tweet, says Forrester Research CEO

  None of the CEOs of the world's biggest firms use social media, according to George Colony, CEO at Forrester Research, who has spent the past few months speaking to the world's top 100 chief executives to find out how much they use social media.  Continue Reading

• Can information security deliver business value?

  Information security remains a perennial priority for IT leaders.  Continue Reading

• Backup software products evolve as backup process grows in complexity

  Backup software products are evolving to meet user needs stemming from ever-increasing data stores, and greater complexity in virtualised server environments.  Continue Reading

• Data backup software products: What features are most important?

  When purchasing data backup software products you need to consider your company's needs, support from backup product vendors and if you need a backup reporting add-on.  Continue Reading

• Data backup software: A guide to new data backup features

  Data backup software doesn't just do backup anymore. Now features include data deduplication, continuous data protection, data protection management and synthetic backups.  Continue Reading

• Case study: FA uses Sharepoint 2010 for fast-track dispute resolution

  The Football Association, the governing body for English football, is using Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 to test drive a fast-track system for resolving disputes when players face allegations of misconduct on the pitch.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide to cloud computing: realities

  Salesforce.com's recent announcement of its VMforce platform for deploying Java applications is the latest in a long line of announcements from a wide range of IT suppliers of such on-demand (or cloud-based) offerings. IT departments may be confused...  Continue Reading

• PCIe SSD: What it is and how you can use it

  PCIe SSD is a new way of adding the speed of a solid-state drive (SSD) to server and storage devices. What are its benefits, drawbacks and adoption rate?  Continue Reading

• How to outsource your data centre and reduce emissions

  If you outsource your data centre and you're confused about how that impacts the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, here are the requirements you need to know.  Continue Reading

• Why the Carbon Reduction Commitment is bad for data centres

  The Carbon Reduction Commitment will not significantly reduce our carbon emissions, and it will also threaten to stifle growth and innovation in a sector vital for our economic and environmental health, according to this managed hosting provider.  Continue Reading

• Legal compliance: Preparing for an e-discovery request

  Does your company have a legal compliance issue? We tell you how to prepare for an e-discovery request involving physical data and electronically stored information.  Continue Reading

• How to make the web accessible to everyone

  Despite a range of legislation and best practice advice, cyberspace is still far from equitable for those of us "non-standard" enough to be using adaptive or assistive technology.  Continue Reading

• Infrastructure as a Service: Not just for the IT director

  All businesses will switch from on-site data centres and colocation to Infrastructure as a Service within the next two years, according to this expert. Find out why.  Continue Reading

• CIO interview: Network Rail on track for IT transformation

  As major cuts in government spending were unveiled this week, Network Rail chief information officer Susan Cooklin faces a tough challenge to deliver the IT supporting a £35bn plan to revamp Britain's railways.  Continue Reading

• Buyer's Guide: Case study on using infrastructure in the cloud

  Bluhalo, a digital marketing agency that creates and operates websites for the likes of Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur, replaced 100 physical servers with nine virtual ones, running on a private cloud network.  Continue Reading

• How to work with the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

  With fewer resources and tighter budgets, here's how to do more for less alongside the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide to cloud computing

  Of all the types of cloud service, the cloud application market is the most mature. Salesforce.com, for instance, has more than 54,000 subscribers, making it the most successful cloud application provider with its pay per use customer relationship ...  Continue Reading

• CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: How to be on track with I/O virtualisation

  The launch of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme means that companies are liable for their carbon output. How should data centres respond? I/O virtualisation is one solution.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide: Cloud computing and the benefits of elasticity

  Corby Borough Council deploys cloud infrastructure for local government services  Continue Reading

• Buyers Guide: Infrastructure as a cloud best practices

  It seems as if every CIO comes back from a conference cocktail party demanding IT "move to the cloud". While this can mean many things, including using software-as-a-service, managed hosting, or application service providers, the demand often ...  Continue Reading

• CW500 Interview: Betfair IT goes global

  In his first 16 months as chief technology officer (CTO) at gambling firm Betfair, Tony McAlister has led deep organisational change within IT accompanied by a strong focus on international expansion as the company gears up for football's World Cup.  Continue Reading

• Think Tank: Are firms succeeding in converging operational risk management?

  To what extent are UK organisations succeeding in bringing together enterprise risk management, security, business continuity and regulatory compliance to set better priorities?  Continue Reading

• Did social media change the 2010 General Election?

  The General Election this month was meant to be the first of the social media age, with connected voters using their online influence to sway the result. But with “old media” televised debates dominating the campaign, did social media really come ...  Continue Reading

• Interview: The man driving Skype's strategy

  Christopher Dean, chief strategy officer at web telephony firm Skype, discusses his career and offers tips for building a winning strategy  Continue Reading

• Office 2010: Who needs an upgrade?

  Microsoft Office dominates the business world, but the company still faces tough competition when releasing a new version. What does Office 2010 offer to help it stand out from the crowd?  Continue Reading

• Case study: Fulham FC kicks off IT transformation

  Oldest football club in London starts drive to implement series of technology initiatives after revamping infrastructure.  Continue Reading

• What it takes to reach the top in IT

  Ambitious IT professionals who want to build a successful career must take on board a key truth about the world in which information technology now operates.  Continue Reading

• How to build a successful career in IT

  In an extract from his new book How to Build a Successful Career in IT, Peter Bartram talks to 15 senior IT professionals about how they reached the pinnacle of the career ladder  Continue Reading

• 8 Gbps Fibre Channel promises bandwidth and data storage port boost

  8 Gbps Fibre Channel promises to double bandwidth and boost the number of hosts connected to the SAN fabric, but will it put increased strain on data centre power and cooling?  Continue Reading

• Data migration projects: Avoid data migration errors with automation, orphaned storage remediation

  Learn the top three things users should do when planning a data migration project, what data migration tools you should have, describe some of the most common data migration errors, and describe some storage environment challenges when migrating ...  Continue Reading

• How to choose the right cloud: Five quick tips

  Here are five key tips to help enterprises establish their strategic approach to cloud computing models.  Continue Reading

• Managing IT in 60 seconds: Nick Folkes, MD responsible for global IT, MSCI Barra

  Nick Folkes is a managing director with responsibility for global IT at MSCI Barra, a provider of risk management and portfolio analysis tools to fund managers for managing equity, fixed-income and multi-asset class portfolios. He took up his role ...  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide to ERP: Midlands Co-op case study

  Midlands Co-op, the UK's second largest independent co-operative, is this year due to complete a three-phase ERP project that began in 2007, covering 160 retail stores.  Continue Reading

• Buyers Guide to ERP: Agile ERP

  Michael Pincher looks at the new breed of software offering agile enterprise resource planning solutions.  Continue Reading

• What IT leaders want from the new government

  We invited a group of IT leaders to debate what they would like to see from the new government, whatever form it takes. They identified five key themes they would like to see in a manifesto for IT.  Continue Reading

• Buyers Guide to ERP: the mid-tier market

  Forrester has been following the evolution of ERP from a vertical lens for some time. Forrester analyst Paul Hamerman examines the state of enterprise resource planning  Continue Reading

• Director-class SAN switch benefits: Scalability and reliability for SAN fabrics

  Benefits of using a director-class SAN switch in SAN fabrics is improved scalability and reliability, as well as advanced features such as security and application support.  Continue Reading

• Buyers Guide to ERP: Alternatives to SAP and Oracle ERP suites

  For smaller businesses, choosing an enterprise resource planning system is a double-edged sword. The products aimed at large multinational companies provide immense flexibility, but can be too complex. Cliff Saran looks at the alternatives  Continue Reading

• Financial services sector faces continued information security challenges

  The financial services sector faces some sobering information security challenges. Find out what the state of security is in the financial services sector, as well as what banks are doing to combat information security threats.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise flash drives spell doom for tier 1 storage

  Enterprise flash drive capacities are set to increase dramatically. Will single level cell and multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash dominate Fibre Channel hard drives?  Continue Reading

• BT Adastral moves to lean software development

  The growing size and complexity of IT systems has pushed the UK's largest telecommunication company into adopting lean, agile software development techniques...  Continue Reading

• Tiered storage matches storage performance to media costs

  Tiered storage matches the cost of storage media to the value of the data and how frequently it is accessed. Automated tiered storage requires data to be categorised according to specific requirements and business policies.  Continue Reading

• Case Study: How BG Group made Google work internally

  Natural gas supplier, BG Group, has deployed the Google Search Appliance (GSA) , to help staff find...  Continue Reading

• O2 cuts churn with BI-based value deals

  O2, now the leading mobile network operator in Ireland, is using business...  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly Election Watch 2010

  Find out all the latest news, opinions and blog posts on the 6 May 2010 general election in our special election area.  Continue Reading

• 2010 FIFA World Cup™ ticket competition Terms and Conditions

  2010 FIFA World Cup™ ticket competition Terms and Conditions  Continue Reading

• Cloud computing security affecting G-Cloud adoption

  The managing director of service provider Pentura discusses the security issues associated with cloud computing in the public sector and how they are affecting adoption of the Government Cloud.  Continue Reading

• Wrench in the System: How to reorganise IT projects

  When significant numbers of workers have trouble using a business system, and familiarity breeds only frustration, resentment, and hostility, the common assumption is that more training is needed…  Continue Reading

• Interview: Phil Smith, chief executive, Cisco UK

  With Lord Carter's Digital Britain report and the Digital Economy Bill, attention has been focused once again on how to take the UK into a 21st century digital world. Phil Smith, chief executive for UK and Ireland at Cisco, has detected signs of ...  Continue Reading

• MAID 2.0 systems, disk spin down can help users achieve green storagereen storage

  Learn the benefits, limitations and best use cases for MAID 2.0 technology and disk spin down. Discover how to achieve green storage goals by leveraging disk spin down and MAID.  Continue Reading

• Will auditors allow your data to reside in the cloud?

  Do you fear the auditor more or the attacker? A lot of companies fear the auditor more. If you hold data internally, you can show the auditor your controls, but the cloud makes such demonstrations more difficult.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide: The intrusion prevention market

  Gartner analysts Greg Young and John Pescatore examine where intrusion prevention systems are heading  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide: network security at Patelco Credit Union

  Patelco Credit Union has been refining its intrusion protection and network access control capabilities to avoid its cash machine network getting infected again.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide to network security

  For years network security has been seen as central to preventing the undesirable outside world gaining access to corporate networks.  Continue Reading

• Buyers guide: A business case for network security

  UK-based IT security managers may find the ICO's newly granted powers to impose penalties of up to £500,000 for Data Protection Act breaches boosts the value proposition.  Continue Reading

• SAN implementation: Key steps in SAN deployment

  A SAN implementation has a number of key steps. Learn about SAN deployment, SAN fabrics, how to size a SAN, how data will be backed up on a SAN, and questions surrounding SAN growth.  Continue Reading

• Enter our Hardware Hoarders competition and win!

  The search is on for the oldest IT equipment! Computer Weekly has teamed up with ShP Limited, the IT recycling service, to find retro computers, printers, binders and scanners. We've been asking our readers to show off the IT hardware they're ...  Continue Reading

• Digital Economy Bill - Special report

  The Digital Economy Bill is the culmination of the Government’s plans to drive the UK’s creative and digital sectors to boost economic growth and jobs in the digital economy.  Continue Reading

• Solvency II: What CIOs need to know

  Solvency II, the EU directive that updates capital adequacy rules for the European insurance industry, is about to move to centre stage. We look at what IT departments of insurance companies in the UK must do  Continue Reading