In Depth

In Depth

• From IT geek to security rock star

  Those who recognise change, bond with colleagues outside IT and factor physical security into their daily routine can go from IT geek to security rock star, experts say.  Continue Reading

• Web 2.0 tools of the trade

  As Web 2.0 technologies become more popular, IT professionals are answering questions from business units on how it can be used.  Continue Reading

• Measuring Vista's true security muscle will take time

  Researchers are digging through the Windows Vista code right now, and when they find flaws we'll hear about it. But it's the ones we don't hear about that should keep us up at night.  Continue Reading

• SOA and Web services security hinge on XML gateways

  XML security gateways could be the missing piece in most SOA deployments, says Tim Bond, a senior security engineer at webMethods .  Continue Reading

• Power over Ethernet power consumption: The hidden costs

  Power over Ethernet (PoE) has many advantages in a VoIP migration, but some companies overlook the amount of power needed to run PoE for VoIP and the costs and cooling requirements that come with it.  Continue Reading

• Big and small face same SAP hurdles

  The experiences of two manufacturing businesses of vastly different scale demonstrate the value of basic guidelines for implementing SAP ERP  Continue Reading

• Communication narrows IT divide

  The latest Computer Weekly survey of the UK's IT leaders reveals their growing optimism that communication between IT and the business is improving  Continue Reading

• Advantages with quad play services

  Quad play is the new buzz word for an increased range of communications services, initially aimed at the consumer. So what's in it for business?  Continue Reading

• Video clip firm sticks with tape storage

  Received wisdom has it that there is a headling drive to disk-based storage. Wrong, says Thought Equity Motion who is serving up half a petabyte of video clips to its customers using tape drives  Continue Reading

• Will training make up for lack of experience?

  Expert advice for readers' career problems  Continue Reading

• Sponsors sought for IT charity ball

  The organisers of this year's Intellect ICT Charity Ball are looking for four more companies to join Xerox, EDS, Cable & Wireless and Symantec as sponsors of the event, which is supported by Computer Weekly and the Information Technologists Company.  Continue Reading

• ING Direct uses SOA for new service

  Banking group ING Direct is relying on an IT infrastructure based on service oriented architecture for the success of its new mortgage service. Arif Mohamed looks at how cutting complexity and increasing responsiveness have been key to the project  Continue Reading

• Housing Corporation holds back report on troubled IT project

  When Computer Weekly requested results of an inquiry into the Housing Corporation's problematic IT project, it was refused. Why was the report withheld?  Continue Reading

• Managing a corporate network to plan the Olympics

  Case studies: Managing any corporate network is tough enough. Add in factors such as Olympian deadlines and natural disasters if you really enjoy life at the sharp end  Continue Reading

• Mobile data services development trends in 2007

  Darrell Jordan-Smith takes a look at new data services architectures and development tools emerging in 2007 and the ongoing development efforts of the Java Community and others.  Continue Reading

• Defending mobile devices from viruses, spyware and malware

  The nature of threat vectors facing mobile devices, challenges and struggles related to keeping mobile devices secure and strategies  Continue Reading

• The portal to staying in control of compliance

  For Simon Benson, Environmental, Safety & Security Manager, NYK Group Europe Ltd, there are a number of challenges that occupy his working day but there’s one in particular: compliance  Continue Reading

• Downtime 20 March

  The wacky world of IT  Continue Reading

• DPM's Diary 20 March

  By CP Bound  Continue Reading

• Red Wing takes flight with business intelligence

  Fashion manufacturer Red Wing Shoes has become more responsive to emerging business problems after becoming the first user of Lawson's M3 enterprise resource planning system to deploy the supplier's business intelligence application alongside it.  Continue Reading

• Teknor cuts manufacturing costs with ERP order routing

  International manufacturing company Teknor Apex has cut costs on some of its busiest product lines by using order routing functions in its enterprise resource planning software to manufacture orders in the cheapest way possible.  Continue Reading

• Sellafield revises business processes to realise full ERP benefits

  The company that runs three nuclear power plants at Sellafield in West Cumbria is re-engineering its business processes to realise business benefits from an enterprise resource planning system that it implemented two years ago.  Continue Reading

• HMRC keeps books closed on spiralling IT costs

  The cost of HM Revenue and Customs' IT contract with Capgemini has continued to rise, and evidence is needed that the extra money is being well spent  Continue Reading

• HSBC bridges the Windows divide

  HSBC is taking advantage of the recent collaboration agreement between Microsoft and Novell to simplify its global IT infrastructure and to reduce costs  Continue Reading

• Business Focus: IT spend in the telecoms sector

  Telecoms companies call on IT to meet compliance and consumer demands  Continue Reading

• Google boosts security but storage glut continues

  Dennis Fisher sounds off on the latest issues affecting the information security community.  Continue Reading

• Doubts persist about open source IP telephony

  Open source VoIP is slowly making inroads in the enterprise, but many companies aren't quite ready to trust an open voice system.  Continue Reading

• Extract more value from customers with CRM software

  Customer relationship management products can offer businesses benefits to firms of all sizes, but which type of system is best for you?  Continue Reading

• Beat a path through the IT skills jungle

  Can a skills framework add clarity to the challenge of managing the constantly changing skills required for IT roles? Bill Goodwin reports on the experiences of two very different organisations  Continue Reading

• Next move: How do I move on from development?

  Advice on your IT career.  Continue Reading

• CIO Interview: Big changes come from small steps

  "Delivering change is the art of the feasible," says Tania Howarth of Coca-Cola. And that means incremental progress, rather than the big bang approach cio interview "Delivering change is the art of the feasible," says Tania Howarth of Coca-Cola. ...  Continue Reading

• Get on the right mobile OS track

  There is a vast array of operating systems available to run on mobile devices. So how do you choose the one that is best for your business needs?  Continue Reading

• Hampshire Council saves £2m a year by standardising its 8,000 desktops

  Smart projects: Software and support costs fall with centrally administered system  Continue Reading

• LexisNexis fights crime with storage

  The document search company is offering a new data forensics service staffed by former federal agents and powered by commodity NAS.  Continue Reading

• Mobile IT boosts haulier's productivity

  Mobile applications have helped Old Dominion Freight Line, a delivery service, deliver real-time services to customers while boosting driver productivity.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 13 March 2007

  DPM's Diary by CP Bound  Continue Reading

• Downtime: vision of paperless office comes unstuck

  The wacky world of IT  Continue Reading

• The benefit of balance

  With taxpayers' money at stake, public sector project failures and problems are likely to attract the kind of adverse publicity that private ventures often find easier to avoid.  Continue Reading

• ISCSI vs. FC performance: A closer look at storage

  Think that FC is faster than iSCSI? Vice versa? Storage expert Tony Asaro explains why the real answer may surprise you.  Continue Reading

• Hyperion users urged to renegotiate maintenance

  Although Oracle has a policy of providing unlimited support for the products it has acquired, Hyperion users have been urged to keep a close eye on developments following the database firm's £1.7bn takeover of the business intelligence provider.  Continue Reading

• Government to force greater data sharing

  Increasing pressure on ministers has seen the government unveiling sweeping legislation to allow greater data sharing. Will it work? asks David Bicknell  Continue Reading

• Getting better value with graduates

  The good news for graduates is that IT chiefs find that the expense and effort of training them pays off in practical returns. Their creativity is especially valued  Continue Reading

• Best Places to Work in IT Awards 2007 winners

  The Best Places to Work in IT Awards 2007 were celebrated at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square on 2 March. Profiled here are the winners whose effective and innovative employment practices have put their IT departments at the top of the ...  Continue Reading

• Review: Elemental Security Platform

  A tool for monitoring and enforcing system compliance, and providing asset management and asset-centric access controls.  Continue Reading

• Review: DigitalPersona biometric authentication

  Enterprises looking for a biometric single sign-on solution read on.  Continue Reading

• Is RAID outdated?

  I would suggest that perhaps it is time for us to retire RAID in its current form.  Continue Reading

• How to use Vista BitLocker Step 3: Edit the local policy

  Learn how to use BitLocker on a computer without TPM and encrypt your hard drive with this step-by-step guide.  Continue Reading

• Virgin Retail brings online sales in-house

  Virgin Retail has brought the management and integration of its e-commerce platform in-house in an effort to improve its online sales.  Continue Reading

• Let's all agree to go green

  Balancing the growing IT needs of enterprise with the environmental need to reduce carbon emissions is going to be difficult  Continue Reading

• Heinz secures thin client PCs with Sophos

  Food manufacturer Heinz has become one of the first companies to deploy dedicated security hardware from Sophos designed to protect thin client desktop terminals with web browsers.  Continue Reading

• Law firm revamps continuity plans

  International law firm Norton Rose has moved its disaster recovery centre from central London to Uxbridge following London's bomb attacks.  Continue Reading

• Kelly eyes virtual network savings

  Staffing and recruitment company Kelly Services is about to complete the roll-out of a virtual network across its European offices that is expected to save it £2.7m a year, just five months after signing up virtual network operator Vanco in a ...  Continue Reading

• Colossus is star attraction for computing museum

  A working round-screened air traffic control station and a reborn 1980s ICL 2900 workhorse mainframe are among the attractions lined up for the new National Museum of Computing, which is being set up this year.  Continue Reading

• Evaluating the benefits of IT

  Investment in IT can have significant effect on business productivity. So why do IT sceptics still hold sway in many boardrooms? It all boils down to what you measure and why, says the LSE’s Leslie Willcocks, as Julia Vowler reports  Continue Reading

• UK firms losing out on software patents

  Despite EU wranglings, patents are available for inventive computer programs. So why are UK firms allowing US companies to steal a march on them?  Continue Reading

• Get a grip for development success

  Application lifecycle management practices are becoming increasingly important in complex projects by offering improved reporting and process automation  Continue Reading

• Next move: Should I take Cerco or Comptia study route?

  Should I take Cerco or Comptia study route?  Continue Reading

• Online admissions system helps cut uncertainty over school placement

  London's shared service matches more children to school places  Continue Reading

• How to turn compliance into an opportunity to improve processes

  Strategy clinic: Our panel of experts offer advice on IT management  Continue Reading

• Black Hat RFID controversy has bloggers up in arms

  This week in Security Blog Log: Infosec pros slam HID Corp., the firm that tried to quash a Black Hat presentation on flaws in its RFID technology, calling HID the latest champion of security through obscurity.  Continue Reading

• Excerpts from SearchSecurity.com - February 2007

  The security of stored data, how imperative it is that backup tapes be encrypted, the importance of securing backup servers.  Continue Reading

• RFID dispute: Vendors still hostile toward full disclosure

  Many vendors still believe that security by obscurity is still the best policy and make it a priority to silence vulnerability researchers.  Continue Reading

• PING with Mark Odiorne

  Mark Odiorne, CISO at Scottish Re, provides insights on pen testing procedures, prioritising security for senior management and keeping compliant.  Continue Reading

• SAN upgrades demand careful consideration

  A Buying Guide intended to help clarify the principle considerations involved in any SAN upgrade purchase and a set of product specifications that can help readers identify prospective new upgrade products  Continue Reading

• Mobile IM keeps users connected

  Sybase iAnywhere added mobile IM to its suite of tools, creating a real-time mobile alternative to email and SMS.  Continue Reading

• Telephony and business join in unified communications

  Unified communications: Converged voice, data and video infrastructure services that integrate with business applications can help boost enterprise productivity  Continue Reading

• The way to become a top CIO

  It's not just where you are going, but where you are from that counts in building a career at the top of IT. Julia Vowler investigates the sources of effective leadership  Continue Reading

• How to do business in a Second Life

  Can you really look to a virtual world to generate serious profits in real life? Many organisations are aiming not to miss out by building a virtual presence now  Continue Reading

• Follow the money with a City IT job

  While salaries in the financial services outstrip any other sector, a skills shortage and foreign competition mean many positions in the UK remain unfilled  Continue Reading

• Is Vista the last monolithic release?

  The complexity of operating systems has analysts predicting the end of major releases, with a move towards regular, more modular deployments  Continue Reading

• Google's big appeal to small firms

  Enterprise users remain cautious about Google Apps Premier Edition, but small firms may provide the software with valuable returns  Continue Reading

• RFID privacy, security should start with design

  Companies planning to deploy radio frequency identification technology (RFID) must demand that privacy and security issues are addressed early.  Continue Reading

• Retailers rethink online platforms

  Following Christmas' online sales boom, clothing retailers have woken up to the web and are revamping e-commerce systems to seize competitive advantage  Continue Reading

• Salary survey shows demand for web specialists

  Nicholas Enticknap analyses the latest SSL/Computer Weekly salary survey to discover the roles, skills and areas that offer the richest pickings  Continue Reading

• BI tools move into the mainstream

  A widening user base has turned focus onto standardisation  Continue Reading

• What's behind the SOA buzz?

  It is hard to avoid service oriented architecture. SOA is one of those developments that the whole IT industry is talking about.  Continue Reading

• Outsourced VoIP helps devastated company recover

  Outsourced VoIP helped a Berkeley company keep up business as usual after a fire destroyed its offices.  Continue Reading

• Next move: How do I move into management?

  How do I move into management?  Continue Reading

• Benefits of implementing VoIP

  As more users target efficiencies from VoIP, we look at the challenges and benefits two organisations have faced in real-world implementations  Continue Reading

• Penetration tests measure firms’ security

  Penetration testers make it their business to overcome your defences and infiltrate the network. And your security measures may not be as robust as you think  Continue Reading

• Is e-voting a threat to our democracy?

  Pilot systems do not bode well on security issues  Continue Reading

• Top 10 VoIP search terms

  The top ten VoIP search terms and definitions. Keep tabs on the most popular VoIP terms – updated regularly.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 27 February 2007

  Weekly round up of events at Bodcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• How do I overcome pigeonholing?

  Expert advice for readers' career problems  Continue Reading

• Flaws haunt Symantec, IBM, Cisco and IE

  Bug Briefs: Security holes plague Symantec Norton products, IBM DB2; Mozilla Firefox; Trend Micro ServerProtect; Cisco IP phones; Google Desktop; IE and Snort.  Continue Reading

• Microsoft takes a blogosphere beating over Vista UAC

  This week in Security Blog Log: Industry experts take Microsoft to task over a "very severe hole" in the design of Vista's User Account Controls (UAC) feature.  Continue Reading

• How do I overcome anti-contractor bias?

  Expert advice for reader's career problems.  Continue Reading

• Data breach: If customers don't act, data will remain at risk

  To make enterprises take data security seriously, customers must take control of their personally identifiable information and stop handing it out to businesses.  Continue Reading

• What you need for a successful SOA

  Although widely understood that SOA can answer integration problems, it is not so obvious what investment is needed for a strategic deployment  Continue Reading

• Get your enterprise on the grid

  Grid computing is entering the corporate radar, providing enterprises with a low-cost way of optimising resources for greater business efficiency.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Keeping tabs on software licences pays dividends

  Readers' views on the week's news  Continue Reading

• Bank halves development costs with Basel 2 project

  Commerzbank has halved its application development costs by centralising its IT and reducing its dependence on contractors as part of a project to comply with the Basel 2 capital adequacy regulation.  Continue Reading

• Van Heusen boosts sales with BI

  The world’s largest shirt maker, Van Heusen, has seen its sales increase after it used business intelligence software to more accurately forecast the mix of shirts it needs to stock in its stores.  Continue Reading

• Best of breed vs. big security: What's best for SMBs?

  Aggregated security products have been the trend recently, but best-of-breed security tools are making a comeback. How do you know which is the best option for your organization? Expert Mike Rothman gives his thoughts.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 20 February 2007

  Weekly round up of events from Bodcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• Climb, walk, dance or run, charity events are jolly fun

  Last year, IT professionals donated hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash and time to help the disadvantaged in society. In 2007, Computer Weekly will continue its support for a wide range of charitable activities  Continue Reading

• Questions fly as EMC Retrospect fades

  All signs point to the end of life for EMC's Retrospect backup software for small businesses. Sources say the company cannot support an SMB software channel.  Continue Reading

• Inside MSRC: Microsoft explains security bulletins

  Microsoft issued 12 new security bulletins in February. Christopher Budd of the Microsoft Security Response Center provides information about the most important fixes.  Continue Reading

• VoIP quality of service monitoring advice

  How the main worry for firms adopting VoIP is the quality of service, and knowing how to assess that service once it is set up  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Shared services, ID cards, modernisation

  Readers' views on the week's news  Continue Reading