In Depth

In Depth

• Data breaches: the legal aftermath

  After a deluge of data breaches, the UK government is considering ways to provide the public with better shelter, through strengthening data protection law and punishment.  Continue Reading

• Trusted client computing cuts out the operating system to ensure security

  Lloyds TSB recently informed some of its on-line banking customers that their home computers had been infected with a virus which stole passwords. The...  Continue Reading

• Best Places to Work in IT 2008: the winners

  The Best Places to Work in IT Awards 2008 were celebrated at the Intercontinental Hotel, Park Lane on 22 February. Here we profile the winners, whose effective and innovative employment practices have put their IT departments at the top of the list.  Continue Reading

• APIs lead the way to better interoperability

  What do government intelligence spooks and YouTube have in common? Not much, on the face of it, except that they have both bought into the same fundamental principle of what we have come to call Web 2.0: web-based application programming interfaces ...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Python

  According to the Tiobe Community Index - based on hits on major search engines - Python is now the seventh most popular language, well behind Java, C, Visual Basic, PHP and C++, but catching up rapidly with Perl. By Tiobe's measure, Python had the ...  Continue Reading

• Can Web 2.0 cope with second class security?

  Web 2.0 promises a banquet of tasty features, rich experience and sizzling socialising. But will the dash to gorge bring its own problems?  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: MySQL

  Sun's agreement to purchase MySQL AB will consolidate commercial use of the open source originated database, although MySQL was already doing pretty well on its own.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008: an expert view

  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the long-awaited update to Microsoft’s Windows Server family of products.  Continue Reading

• Cern leads the way in database innovation

  In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for an information management system to his boss,...  Continue Reading

• Picture story: how undersea internet cables are repaired

  The recent sub-sea cable breakages have highlighted the world of undersea fibre-optic cables and their importance in the communications between businesses, financial districts and consumers around the world.  Continue Reading

• Single security strategy unites physical and logical assets

  Company security is an absolute. Whether it's data or the physical IT infrastructure, if there is a single weak link the company is not secure, writes Fran Howarth, principal analyst, Quocirca.  Continue Reading

• Selling Web 2.0 projects to the business

  A new form of obsessive compulsive disorder is afflicting the workplace. You may have noticed that some employees begin to twitch and jitter if they have not checked Facebook in the past 10 minutes. But although the social networking craze has ...  Continue Reading

• Enforce wireless security with good sense and good technology

  Your CEO is sitting in the cafe before your next meeting using instant messenger to talk to his vice-president of marketing while sending an e-mail to the financial director asking about next month's results. The guy in the corner sipping his coffee...  Continue Reading

• Optimising small business networks

  Much has been said about network optimisation recently. The expected onslaught of new wave applications - so called at least - such as VoIP, IPTV and the rest, means that we do have to optimise and re-architect our networks if this stuff is actually...  Continue Reading

• Interview: Ralph Szygenda, group vice-president and CIO at General Motors

  Over the past 10 years Ralph Szygenda, global vice-president and global chief information officer at General Motors, has used IT to drive £6bn in savings at the motor manufacturer.  Continue Reading

• Photo story: Heathrow Terminal 3 RFID trial

  Pictures of the RFID trial at Heathrow's Terminal 3. Terminal 3 will spend £150,000 trialling Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for six months to see if it reduces the number of misread bags over existing barcode methods.  Continue Reading

• Game: Debug your system with Infosecurity Europe

  Coffee break? Play Debug, a great free online game from Infosecurity Europe, and get that virus out of your system.  Continue Reading

• Hollow core fibre could shine a light on faster broadband

  The University of Bath is experimenting with a new type of material that could increase data transfer speeds and reduce part of the cost of installing broadband networks.  Continue Reading

• Serious games help develop business skills

  The British Computer Society has highlighted the growing role that "serious games" can play in developing skills for business.  Continue Reading

• Career path: joining the board

  IT staff are often promoted because they are the most technically-competent people available, but when they reach board level, they can struggle.  Continue Reading

• Web 2.0: What does it constitute?

  Four years on from the first serious attempt to define it, there is no firm consensus about what constitutes Web 2.0. Within the past few months, it has been described by senior industry commentators as "a major trend that is building steadily" and ...  Continue Reading

• CEO-CIO summit

  What CEOs really want from CIOs – the issues facing CEOs today; what the CEO wants from IT; and defining the roles in today’s boardroom.  Continue Reading

• SOA transfusion to heal hospital

  Giving patients the best possible care is never easy when details of their symptoms, diagnoses and treatment lie scattered across a myriad of diverse paper-based documents and disconnected applications that cannot 'talk' to each other.  Continue Reading

• Yahoo Mail LadyBoy commercial

  It's everyone's nightmare, I think the title says it all.  Continue Reading

• Apple Mac 1984 commerial

  Apple launches the Mac with a $1.5m commercial aired during the Superbowl.  Continue Reading

• 1978 Atari games Commercial

  Did you think the Wii was realistic? Well Atari were well ahead of their time with this commercial.  Continue Reading

• Dell (RED) commercial

  Do you need lots of attention? And a policeman to slap your bum? Well buy a Dell.  Continue Reading

• Early 90s Microsoft commercial

  Is Vista baffling your secretary? Well maybe you should downgrade to Windows 3.1 because apparently it was really easy to use.  Continue Reading

• First ever Nintendo commercial

  This was the beginning of Nintendo. You really got value for money back then!  Continue Reading

• Steve Ballmer sells Windows like a madman

  Aired in the US, Steve Ballmer makes his point with subtlety.  Continue Reading

• Japanese Windows commercial

  Words can't describe this commercial. Mainly because I don't speak Japanese, still very visual.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Visual Studio 2008

  A guide to Visual Studio 2008  Continue Reading

• CIO profile: Claire Hamon

  "Where I derive job satisfaction is being able to make a positive difference. For me, it's important to legitimise emotion and bring in personality in order to help people understand the value of emotional intelligence alongside IQ and business ...  Continue Reading

• Learn all about LUNs

  A LUN is the unique address for a SCSI device or a virtual hard disk partition in a RAID configuration. This handbook tells how to manage and partition LUNs.  Continue Reading

• CIO spotlight: Lynn Broadbent

  "Some people want more money and a faster car, but what I love is a challenge. I need to be challenged and I can't really sit still, but that's probably one of the reasons that I've got to the top," says Lynn Broadbent, group technology director at ...  Continue Reading

• The changing role of the CIO in the business

  Although the notion of the hybrid or dual-role CIO has been around for at least a decade, the creation of such positions is only now starting to become a...  Continue Reading

• Politics, persuasion and the path to the top IT post

  Somebody once joked that you can tell an extrovert in the IT department because, "when he talks to you, he looks at your shoes instead of his own".  Continue Reading

• Beyond Moore's Law: the growing challenges of computer design

  Progress in computer technology over the past four decades has been spectacular, driven by Moore's Law which, though initially an observation, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and a boardroom planning tool.  Continue Reading

• Assessing automation for conquering the 'compliance Hydra'

  The pressure to demonstrate compliance with multiple standards is increasing, with some organisations now subject to three or more regulatory mandates - each with its own mission, scope and control statements - creating a highly complex, ...  Continue Reading

• Careers: staying on the technical track

  Many people get into IT because they like solving problems and, let us be honest, tinkering with technology. But as their career progresses, they can find themselves shifted into project or operations management, where they seem to spend most of ...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: MVC

  The open source community has contributed a number of MVC (Model/View/Controller)-based web application frameworks for Java.  Continue Reading

• Why IBM prefers pick ‘n’ mix to ERP

  IBM has never seen the need for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product. IBM says its strategy is about integration, rather than top level applications. So why is IBM buying up so many software companies?  Continue Reading

• SQL Server database provides police performance data to Home Office

  For a number of years, the Home Office's Police & Crimes Standards Directorate (PCSD) has been compiling and publishing a range of data on the performance of the nation's police forces.  Continue Reading

• Carmen study unites computer science with neuroscience

  The University of Newcastle is one of 20 research teams working on a project to bring together neuroscience and computer science.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Ruby on Rails 2.0

  Rails is not the only framework for Ruby, and Ruby is not the only language which uses Rails. Rails has also been ported to Javascript by a team at Google (Rhino on Rails), to PHP (Akelos) and most recently, by the BBC, to Perl (Perl on Rails).  Continue Reading

• Blog-City uses open source MySQL

  Like many organisations, Blog-City relies heavily on its database for its daily business. But interestingly, Blog-City has chosen to underpin its business with the free and open source database MySQL, which is entirely community supported.  Continue Reading

• Legal firms wake up to the benefits of enterprise search

  Legal firms are facing up to an explosion in the number of electronic documents related to case work in the past 10 years.  Continue Reading

• Nisa Today’s wholesale consortium consolidates with ERP system

  Nisa Today's is a distribution and services consortium comprised of over 670 retailers and 330 wholesalers, operating some 5,000 stores. Working mostly in grocery, the company aims to negotiate the cost of products and provide an efficient supply ...  Continue Reading

• How SAP became the world’s third largest independent software supplier

  "We are nowhere near best-in-class, but we are making progress," says Steve Rogers, UK managing director of SAP to an audience of his customers at the German applications firm's annual user gathering at the end of last year. It's not the kind of ...  Continue Reading

• Sharing information makes it to the public sector in the South West

  Councils and NHS trusts in the South West of England are the first to share information, but contract problems have already made their project a year late.  Continue Reading

• Oracle repositions itself as a business systems provider

  A key plank of Oracle's strategy for growth over the next few years is to reposition itself as a strategic partner rather than simply remain a technology supplier in key enterprise accounts.  Continue Reading

• Fingerprint recognition in the fight against football hooliganism

  To combat football hooliganism in the Netherlands, the football clubs of Ajax, Feyenoord and Vitesse trialled fingerprint recognition at entry points to stadia  Continue Reading

• Machine-to-machine technology takes off

  Although the market for machine-to-machine (M2M) technology is still in its early days, it has real potential for mass adoption with possible applications limited only by the imagination.  Continue Reading

• Tayside fire brigade deploys unified communications platform

  An ongoing project to update Tayside Fire and Rescue’s Microsoft Exchange environment presented the perfect opportunity for the organisation to look at its legacy telecommunications infrastructure. It found the unified communications components of ...  Continue Reading

• Next move: Should I move from software support into testing?

  Should I move from software support into testing?  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: PHP joins the mainstream

  PHP is broadening its appeal.  Continue Reading

• How technology can help the aged

  A pioneering approach to programming is helping to develop software that could be used to save the lives of pensioners living alone.  Continue Reading

• Offshore your way out of the credit crunch

  The much-hyped credit crunch and general economic uncertainty of recent times has had an impact at every level of every type of business, and IT is no exception. Even at the best of times IT is cost sensitive, and when the bottom-line of the ...  Continue Reading

• The race to replace IT's baby boomer generation

  At first glance, it's hard to see why the retirement of New Jersey teacher Kathleen Casey-Kirschling last October should be of interest to the IT profession,...  Continue Reading

• Mind the gap: how Tube Lines information director John Connolly sells IT to the board

  Interview: John Connolly, Tube Lines information director, discusses his role as the bridge between IT and the board  Continue Reading

• Why IT must do more to appeal to women

  Over the next few years, the progressive retirement of the baby-boom generation means that IT departments will...  Continue Reading

• Ubiquitous enterprise mobility has arrived

  Have you noticed how often the word "convergence" has cropped up in IT conversations throughout this decade?  Continue Reading

• Next Move: How do I go from sales support to a career in IT?

  I have been working in sales support for an IT company for two years and have a personal interest and natural capability with technology. I understand and sell all aspects of IT (hardware and software, from mice to servers) for all manufacturers.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Practical Perl still a popular way of getting things done

  Shipped with HP-UX, supported by AIX and included by Sun in its Solaris-based alternative to the Linux Lamp stack, Perl is a scripting language favoured by systems administrators as a "glue" language.  Continue Reading

• Future network trends: wireless Wan will regroup

  Until recently, a prediction that WiMax would gain traction in 2008 would have seemed pretty likely. But then, Sprint Nextel pulled its deal with US-based company Clearwire, which would have seen a country-wide network of towers supporting the ...  Continue Reading

• Power politics and the IT project

  Who calls the shots when it comes to starting new IT projects in your organisation?  Continue Reading

• How to manage a globalised IT workforce

  The profusion of software development skills in India, the Far East and eastern Europe has resulted in a dearth of IT professionals capable of managing remote and culturally diverse IT suppliers and partners.  Continue Reading

• CIO interview: Richard Cross

  When Carlton Communications merged with Granada to form ITV three years ago, Richard Cross faced the greatest challenge of his career. At the time, he was chief technology officer (CTO) at Carlton. There was also an IT director at Granada. But the ...  Continue Reading

• How to win funds for systems development

  No-one goes into IT just to maintain and tweak old applications. The main attraction is always in creating new systems, preferably using the latest technology. Systems development not only makes life a lot more interesting, but when it comes to ...  Continue Reading

• Wake up to the benefits of global governance

  In a research note on IT management and globalisation, analyst firm Gartner defines governance as, "The organisational style and process for making decisions about business technology and resources." A busy IT manager might think Gartner is being ...  Continue Reading

• Improve usability with assistive technology

  IT products designed for disabled people use cutting edge technology and make a real difference to the end-user. John Lamb takes a look at the assistive technology market  Continue Reading

• South Tyneside Trust cuts costs with business intelligence

  South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust is using business intelligence software to cut costs, reduce hospital waiting lists, and combat its data duplication problems.  Continue Reading

• Next move: The wheels are coming off my MCSE

  The question: I thought you might be able to give me some pointers to help improve my stagnating IT career. I have been working in IT for about 14 years now,...  Continue Reading

• Business intelligence rejuvenates cancer research

  When child cancer charities Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood and Sargent Cancer Care merged in 2005, the new organisation, called CLIC...  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 8 January 2008

  Catch up with the events from Bogcaster Council  Continue Reading

• Tube Lines gets smart to monitor escalator wear

  The in-house escalator maintenance team at Tube Lines has developed a novel escalator "smart step" to help the company understand wear and tear on escalators.  Continue Reading

• HMRC data breach highlights need for data compliance

  The data breach at HMRC, which placed 25 million people at risk of identity theft, has brought information governance back to the fore. Early indications suggest that risk management procedural failures and human error were to blame.  Continue Reading

• Israel takes a lead on information security

  Israel has a booming economy. Westernisation is sweeping the country, and its advances in research and development are taking the global market by storm.  Continue Reading

• Find the right IT investment strategy

  It has never been more important to make the right IT investment decisions, but what are the fundamentals? Global spending on IT is estimated at more than £1m per year, and there is little doubt that much of this spending under-delivers. At the same...  Continue Reading

• Business Intelligence: an expert view

  Latest news, analysis, and case studies from Computer Weekly and the web suitable for those implementing or running a business intelligence system.  Continue Reading

• Finance directors see value of business intelligence

  Finance departments are driving the adoption of business intelligence software, using it to increase the accuracy of their forecasting and develop business strategy  Continue Reading

• Calculating the cost of failed software projects

  The need to adopt a consistent approach to software development and implementation cannot be underestimated. Vague specifications, insufficient planning and poor project management are common causes of software failure  Continue Reading

• IT managers must learn to cope with consumer innovation

  As the mobile market continues to move from a technology to a services focus, IT directors will have to tread a fine line between managing an influx of difficult-to-manage consumer-based devices without stifling innovation.  Continue Reading

• Lessons from a technology start-up

  Fund management software start-up Sutherlands Edinburgh meets the challenges of finding backers, getting the right staff and being open to user feedback  Continue Reading

• Business intelligence rises up the IT agenda

  The need to rationalise and standardise multitudinous business intelligence tools is rising up the IT agenda as organisations struggle to obtain a single version of the truth from their information and contain costs.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: AIX 6.1

  Thinking of working with IBM's Unix operating system? Get the facts here.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: PostgreSQL offers opportunities in many languages

  What is it? PostgreSQL is an open source object-relational database management package. It is one of the pillars of Sun Microsystems' alternative to...  Continue Reading

• How to get customer satisfaction with an outsourced IT helpdesk

  Discover how to manage outsourced helpdesk problems to improve customer satisfaction levels  Continue Reading

• BCS IT Industry Awards 2007: In-depth

  This special Computer Weekly report features the winners and medallists at the BCS IT Industry Awards 2007.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Java coders get best of both worlds with open source Glassfish and SJSAS

  Skills for IT professionals  Continue Reading

• XML publishing: primed for business

  Enterprises are expanding their understanding and use of component-based publishing processes., writes Rita Knox, research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner.  Continue Reading

• Working overseas: what IT professionals need to know

  Finding a position in a different country can bring personal and professional benefits, but navigating the potential pitfalls requires forward planning  Continue Reading

• Business backing is vital to realise green IT savings

  Although IT directors may be getting sick of all the noise around green IT, it is clear that the hype is way ahead of the reality for most ­organisations.  Continue Reading

• SAP User Conference: Warburtons SAP systems secures better deals on supplies

  The UK's largest independent bakery, Warburtons, has implemented a mobile SAP purchase order approval application to improve productivity and speed up decision making.  Continue Reading

• A look back at Leo

  For John Simmons, comptroller of what was once Britain's largest catering company, J Lyons & Co, there was only one option available to take advantage of the huge benefits offered by electronic calculating machines: Lyons must build its own. It was ...  Continue Reading

• Survive the wait for faster Ethernet

  Many network managers will be eagerly awaiting the 100 Gigabit Ethernet standard, but how can you cope up to 2010, and what difference will it make?  Continue Reading

• Napier University adopts coursework fingerprint scheme

  Napier University in Edinburgh is using biometrics to revolutionise the way that undergraduate and postgraduate students submit coursework within its School of Computing.  Continue Reading

• Next Move

  Career advice for IT professionals  Continue Reading

• HSBC: developing a different way

  How HSBC streamlined its application development by dismantling the silos that had developed across the business and focusing on specific skill sets  Continue Reading

• BA on course for Terminal 5 roll-out

  Interview: Paul Coby, CIO at British Airways, reveals how he is guiding the airline on a course of IT transformation, and how he has cut IT costs by 45% in the process  Continue Reading