In Depth

In Depth

• Gartner: How to turn old datacentres into critical IT assets

  IT infrastructure and operations leaders are increasingly focusing on new ideas and technologies alongside ways to deliver business value  Continue Reading

• How computational storage delivers datacentre benefits

  Computational storage is an emerging field of IT that features compute processing power closely coupled with storage. We look at what it can be used for  Continue Reading

• Revolutionising communication and collaboration for the hybrid world

  As hybrid working looks set to become the norm in the post-Covid world, the lessons learned during lockdown will need to be applied. However, firms will have to overcome the limitations of current communication and collaboration tools  Continue Reading

• Where to run containers? Bare metal vs virtual machines

  We look at the key differences between running containers in virtualised environments and on bare metal servers and focus in on the main trade-offs and decision points  Continue Reading

• How Bureau Veritas migrated 85% of its applications to the AWS cloud

  In six years, France-based services giant BV has migrated 115 applications to the AWS cloud, mostly using in-house expertise. We talk to the company’s IT director  Continue Reading

• Getting ready for the new normal of hybrid working

  Many companies are preparing to return to offices for the first time since the UK’s first lockdown began, but the office environment will look very different to a year ago. With some workers looking forward to returning to the office and others ...  Continue Reading

• Living on the edge: The enterprises working with distributed cloud

  Distributed public cloud services are seen as driving future advances at the network edge but few companies are as yet enjoying full-fledged benefits  Continue Reading

• What digital transformation means for data storage

  We survey the key planks of digital transformation and look at the storage technologies emerging to support it, such as NVMe and QLC flash, hyper-converged infrastructure and cloud storage  Continue Reading

• The National Security and Investment Act: What datacentre operators and investors need to know

  The incoming National Security and Investment Act will give the UK government enhanced powers to pre-screen and intervene on datacentre M&A deals, prompting concerns it could dampen the sector's soaraway growth rates  Continue Reading

• Container-native storage: A definition, and what to ask suppliers

  We look at container-native storage – aka cloud-native storage – what defines it, and its benefits as a way of bringing persistent Kubernetes storage to containerised applications  Continue Reading

• The right tech choices for hybrid workers

  Various studies give a mixed reaction to businesses returning to office work, but what is apparent is that support for remote working will continue  Continue Reading

• Computational storage: What is it? Why now, what for, who from?

  Computational storage is an emerging architecture category, in which compute is put near storage to address I/O bottlenecks resulting from large volumes of data  Continue Reading

• APAC career guide on cloud computing

  Besides having engineering chops and certifications, aspiring cloud professionals should have curiosity and soft skills to succeed in the evolving cloud computing landscape  Continue Reading

• How to support a hybrid workforce

  As the economy opens up, organisations are rethinking the idea of office-based work – and a more flexible approach is on the cards  Continue Reading

• How do I get my users to pay attention to security training?

  As cyber security risks grow daily, businesses must educate staff about these through cyber awareness training. But how can they ensure this is taken seriously by employees?  Continue Reading

• How GCHQ proposes to implement and use ethical AI

  The rise of cyber crime and the escalating threat vectors facing the UK have led GCHQ to invest in automated threat detection and response systems to meet this challenge, as well as liaising with the private sector for the first time  Continue Reading

• Deploying productivity monitoring software ethically

  While software that tracks the activities of staff can be helpful to companies with a remote workforce, managers must consider employees’ concerns and privacy  Continue Reading

• Navigating the sticky issue of monitoring employee productivity

  With employees having shifted en masse to remote working during the pandemic, we explore how enterprises have maintained the productivity of their dispersed workforce  Continue Reading

• Backup failure: Four key areas where backups go wrong

  We look at the key ways that backups can fail – via software issues, hardware problems, trouble in the infrastructure and good old human error – and suggest ways to mitigate them  Continue Reading

• How AI and automation drive better customer service

  Forrester analysts explore the benefits of combining artificial intelligence with automation  Continue Reading

• Five reasons to look at hyper-converged infrastructure

  HCI promises easy setup, purchasing flexibility, low procurement and operation costs, reliability and all in one box – but there are challenges too  Continue Reading

• Customer experience market made leap forward during pandemic

  The discipline of customer experience management made significant advances during the Covid-19 crisis, according to practitioners and advocates  Continue Reading

• A bottom-up and top-down look at intelligent automation

  We look at robotic process automation at a coding level and an organisational level, and see how artificial intelligence fits  Continue Reading

• Cloud archiving: A perfect use case, but beware costs and egress issues

  The advantages of cloud archiving are ease of use and being well-suited to potential latency issues, but IT teams need to be aware of costs and issues around moving data from and between clouds  Continue Reading

• APAC buyer’s guide to HRM software

  In this buyer’s guide, we look at the key considerations when choosing human resource management software to enable workforce resilience, flexibility and agility in the post-pandemic world  Continue Reading

• How the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium sequenced Sars-Cov-2

  Consortium of universities and other institutions has harnessed datasets, analytics and cloud computing to sequence Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in a blisteringly short time  Continue Reading

• Why some jobseekers have turned to cyber crime during the pandemic

  Research shows that many people have been seeking cyber crime-related work on the dark web, but why?  Continue Reading

• Five ways to boost systems utilisation in the datacentre

  Datacentre operators are always looking for ways to cut costs and improve the efficiency of their facilities. Here we ask the experts for their top five tips for reducing the operating costs of running a server farm  Continue Reading

• How robotic process automation is getting smarter as it evolves

  Robotic process automation is evolving, adding artificial intelligence layers that render it more resilient and agile. What are its limitations and prospects?  Continue Reading

• Where now for storage? Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage

  Part II: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models  Continue Reading

• Where now for storage? Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE

  Part I: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models  Continue Reading

• Starting a career in the digital economy

  What is it currently like for young people trying to hit the ground running with digital careers? What do employers want from them, and how has the last year of lockdowns affected their chances at a digital career?  Continue Reading

• Data warehouse storage: Has cloud made on-premise obsolete?

  There once was no alternative to building a data warehouse on-premise, but with cloud providers targeting analytics, building data warehouses on-site is looking obsolete  Continue Reading

• Ecolabels and data sanitisation key to recycling and reusing IT assets

  Ecolabels on hardware and data sanitisation of devices are key to recycling and reusing old IT equipment respectively, helping enterprises avoid unnecessary asset destruction and contributing to increasingly high levels of electronic waste globally  Continue Reading

• Preparing for enterprise-class containerisation

  As more workloads are deployed in containers, IT teams will need to assess how to manage container sprawl, reduce cloud bills and support databases  Continue Reading

• Backup appliances the hot topic for Pas-de-Calais fire brigade

  With requirements for strict, long-duration backup and archiving, French fire brigade set out to replace optical media with a StorageCraft appliance and disaster-proof storage  Continue Reading

• The 3-2-1 backup rule: Has cloud made it obsolete?

  The 3-2-1 backup rule was made for small-scale use in the pre-cloud era when tape still ruled. Is it relevant in the 2020s, or can we repurpose its fundamental principles?  Continue Reading

• How to choose the right email security service for your organisation

  With email security threats growing rapidly, businesses can quickly identify and block these by using a top email security service. Here’s how to select the right provider  Continue Reading

• Anti-money laundering technology must operate in a collaborative ecosystem

  With new technologies making it easier for banks to spot money laundering activity, we look at why the problem persists at scale, finding that ecosystems and collaborative processes need to be built  Continue Reading

• QLC flash storage: What it costs and its best use cases

  QLC flash brings high capacities at costs coming down close to spinning disk. So what are the use cases for QLC solid state, which make best use of its relatively low endurance  Continue Reading

• Containers for a post-pandemic IT architecture

  One of the positive effects of Covid-19 is that it has put IT at the top of the business agenda – and containerisation is part of that strategy  Continue Reading

• India is becoming a hotspot for IoT

  India is set to be a cradle for internet of things deployments thanks to its vibrant economy and its potential to play a bigger role in global manufacturing  Continue Reading

• Ski firm dumps ‘motley’ storage for DataCore software-defined

  Eurogroup cuts power usage by 70% and rackspace from 84U to 7U as it consolidates multiple physical servers and storage protocols onto SANsymphony software-defined storage  Continue Reading

• Does email security need a human solution or a tech solution?

  People spend a lot of time using email systems, but many do not realise that this makes them attractive targets for cyber criminals. With education and technology, businesses can tackle this problem head-on  Continue Reading

• Amazon Go – is now the right time?

  In the beginning of 2021, Amazon launched a physical store in London, but is it the right time to be investing in offline?  Continue Reading

• Interview: Uber driver Yaseen Aslam on his Supreme Court battle and what’s next for gig workers

  Private hire driver and union organiser Yaseen Aslam speaks to Computer Weekly about his legal battle with Uber and what the UK Supreme Court ruling means to workers in the gig economy  Continue Reading

• Top five threats to compliance during the pandemic

  We survey the top five pandemic compliance threats – remote working, Covid tracking, criminal exploits, compliance measures slipping, and heightened enforcement to come  Continue Reading

• NHS datacentre transformation projects continue apace during pandemic

  NHS trusts have continued to invest in their datacentre estates throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but the nature of their upgrade projects continues to evolve  Continue Reading

• With connectivity on the rise, Africa is a hotspot for datacentre investments

  We look at opportunities for datacentre operators in setting up or partnering with local firms in Africa  Continue Reading

• Dealing with the challenge of beg bounties

  The rise of so-called beg bounties is becoming a challenge for security teams, and can be a drain on time and resources. But what is a beg bounty, and how does it differ from a bug bounty?  Continue Reading

• AI projects yield little business value so far

  Artificial intelligence has been red hot in recent years, but it is generating precious little business value so far, although World Remit and Virgin Hyperloop have met with some success  Continue Reading

• Five ways that disaster recovery changes in a pandemic

  Covid-19 has changed IT. Previously, working remotely was a business continuity measure, but now it is the norm. That means disaster recovery has to adapt to new risks and new ways to respond  Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged infrastructure: Why software-defined everything might not work for all datacentres

  Choosing the right converged infrastructure in the first instance can pivot on a trade-off between security and agility requirements  Continue Reading

• Prioritising workloads in a hyper-converged infrastructure migration

  A cost-effective approach to combining virtualisation and unified management probably means deploying it workload by workload, experts suggest  Continue Reading

• Being the brand: Virgin takes SD-WAN to the next level

  Companies are increasingly turning to software-defined wide-area networks to address the needs of remote workforces  Continue Reading

• Covid-19 and the art and science of data visualisation

  The pandemic has seen political leaders and civil servants using data visualisation like never before – but there is more to the art than meets the eye  Continue Reading

• The driving force behind the EU colocation market’s climate-neutral push

  Colocation and hyperscale datacentre providers across Europe are under pressure from governments, regulators and the user community to curb carbon emissions  Continue Reading

• How colocation fits alongside a cloud-native architecture

  IT departments are on a cloud-native roadmap to become more agile, but they are constrained by the risks involved in migrating core systems and data  Continue Reading

• Gaurav Dhillon: Silicon Valley is poised to grow up to seize a more spiritual future

  Gaurav Dhillon, co-founder of Informatica and founder CEO at SnapLogic, comes from a generation of Silicon Valley Indian immigrants who followed a scholarship route and have helped to shape the area’s tech companies. Here he reflects on his career ...  Continue Reading

• Data lake storage: Cloud vs on-premise data lakes

  The data lake is a fundamental concept of data management. But what type of storage do you need to build a data lake on and what are the pros and cons of on-premise vs the cloud?  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Managing software development during lockdown

  The Computer Weekly Developer Network examines the impact of Covid-19 on the software application development community  Continue Reading

• Is it time to ban ransomware insurance payments?

  The former head of the NCSC recently called for a dialogue over whether or not it is time to ban insurers from covering ransomware payments. Is he on the right track?  Continue Reading

• Trends in collaboration technologies

  Making predictions for anything in these Covid-defined times can leave even the most switched on feeling foolish  Continue Reading

• Five key points about unstructured data storage on-prem and cloud

  We look at unstructured data, the myriad forms of data it comprises and the key storage options available, which include NAS and object storage on-prem and in the cloud  Continue Reading

• Three approaches to remote collaboration for home workers

  The coronavirus has led to working from home being the ‘new norm’. We look at how collaboration technologies could work in the long term  Continue Reading

• Five key questions about Kubernetes backup answered

  We look at when to back up containers, what to protect, the main methods of backup for Kubernetes and the main Kubernetes backup products available in the market  Continue Reading

• APAC career guide: How to become a DevOps engineer

  A DevOps career can be highly rewarding, as long as you are open to learning new things and collaborating with team mates to solve problems in software development  Continue Reading

• How long until cloud becomes the preferred environment to run HPC workloads?

  The high-performance computing market is growing, but enterprises that have already made large investments in on-premise HPC will need to weigh up whether a move to the cloud would be worth their while  Continue Reading

• How can healthcare organisations fight increased cyber crime in 2021?

  As the Covid-19 pandemic enters what may be its most dangerous phase, we explore how healthcare organisations can ward off cyber threats while preserving their ability to deliver critical care  Continue Reading

• Five not the only magic number for Three in 2021

  With a new CEO beginning to put into practice its plan, mainly a pivot towards business, mobile operator Three UK has been eyeing up new opportunities in 2021. We see what is on the agenda  Continue Reading

• Five key benefits of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud file storage

  The big three offer cloud file storage that can ease hybrid cloud operations, with consistency between cloud and on-premise as well as greater enterprise application compatibility  Continue Reading

• APAC buyer’s guide to data management

  In this buyer’s guide, we look at the challenges surrounding why enterprises are struggling to deal with data, the use of cloud data management platforms, artificial intelligence, and recommend some best practices  Continue Reading

• Cloud DR from the Big Three: Who’s best at what?

  We look at cloud disaster recovery from AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google to see which is best for provision of turnkey solutions, breadth of portfolio and modular building blocks  Continue Reading

• Data Dynamics aims at single view of unstructured data

  Data volume is ballooning, and storage is becoming more disparate, which makes the need for a single platform to manage storage and compliance a key requirement for organisations  Continue Reading

• Picking the right IAM tools is based on more than today’s needs

  With remote working now normal, it is important to take proactive steps in managing credentials across platforms that can be subject to multiple data protection regulations. IAM services can streamline this process, but care must be taken to ensure ...  Continue Reading

• Datacentre energy efficiency: Is the time now for a big switch-off?

  The clock is ticking on sustainable IT and energy use, and much more can be done to save energy, power and reduce emissions at a datacentre level. So why isn’t it happening?  Continue Reading

• The nation state threat to business

  The SolarWinds hack shows the widespread damage possible from a nation state cyber attack. What is the threat to business and how can it be mitigated?  Continue Reading

• Robin.io aims its Kubernetes storage at databases and big data

  Cloud-native storage runs in Kubernetes and pools storage media to present it to application persistent storage needs, including snapshots and backup on top  Continue Reading

• Five key points about cloud vs in-house disaster recovery

  The cloud is well suited as a disaster recovery failover option. The key questions are about what you should keep on-site and what goes to the cloud. We look at five key points to consider  Continue Reading

• How the pandemic has affected women in the tech sector

  The coronavirus outbreak has created uncertainty across all sectors, but how specifically has it affected women working in the tech industry?  Continue Reading

• Innovation at the shelf edge

  It’s been a challenging year for stores due to Covid-19, but some retailers have found time to innovate at the shelf edge with noteworthy technology deployments  Continue Reading

• How to monitor remote workers humanely

  Monitoring employees who work remotely has taken on a whole extra dimension in the Covid-19 pandemic year of 2020. Financial services firms are among those which suggest ways of doing it humanely and legally  Continue Reading

• Get real: Live streaming analytics important to post-Covid growth, but not without good data

  Live streaming analytics could assume increased importance as a fuel for post-Covid growth, but not without good data  Continue Reading

• Security Long Reads: Cyber insiders reveal what’s to come in 2021

  In this long read, we gather together the thoughts of cyber security insiders from across the industry to get their take on what will happen in 2021  Continue Reading

• Patching: Balancing technical requirements with business considerations

  With an increasing reliance on subscription models alongside the regular patching of software, updates have become an essential part of modern business practices. However, care needs to be taken to ensure the optimum patching process is implemented  Continue Reading

• Extended reality software gets pandemic lift

  Extended reality software is not new, but the Covid-19 public health crisis has seen it take on a new lease of life as organisations face up to virtuality  Continue Reading

• Interview: AWS’s Teresa Carlson talks about new role and cloud adoption during Covid-19

  AWS executive talks about her expanded remit beyond public sector to include other industries, and driving a unified agenda to push cloud and data adoption worldwide  Continue Reading

• Interview: Chris Hayman, AWS UK public sector director, on cloud evolution during Covid-19

  AWS executive discusses the evolution of cloud technology in government, the need for dynamic procurement, skills, and joining the oligarchy of government tech suppliers  Continue Reading

• Learning on the job when working from home

  Learning a new job and inducting hires when working from home has been tricky for employees and employers alike. We look at what workarounds have been adopted that could become the post-pandemic normal  Continue Reading

• Five hyper-converged infrastructure use cases to watch

  We look at workloads ripe for hyper-converged infrastructure deployment. These include virtual servers and desktops, SMEs/remote offices, Kubernetes, and analytics and machine learning  Continue Reading

• A tech reboot of retail

  With 2020 having been the toughest year on record for bricks and mortar retailers, we look at some tech innovations that may be heading for the high street  Continue Reading

• Post-pandemic approaches to IAM for cloud security

  Cloud technology may have saved businesses from catastrophe during the pandemic, but it has also introduced additional challenges around identity and access management. Here’s why IAM policies are crucial in the new normal  Continue Reading

• Serverless: Weighing up the pros and cons for enterprises

  The concept of serverless computing has been gaining traction within enterprises for several years now, but what is it and how do CIOs know if it is the right fit for their applications?  Continue Reading

• Paris post-product studio uses Atempo Miria for live restores

  France-based À La Plage Studio decided on tape as a medium to store its visual production work, with Atempo ADA/Miria as a means to access and restore data to work on  Continue Reading

• ‘Salad as a service’: retailers’ interest in vertical farming grows

  Retailers are waking up to the potential of vertical farming, with technology-enabled agriculture a core part of supply chain bosses’ and food buyers’ plans  Continue Reading

• Digital donations: retailers using technology to offer something back

  Some charities require corporate support like never before, and retailers are finding new ways to use technology to facilitate donations  Continue Reading

• RAID, flash and erasure coding: What works best with solid state?

  We look at RAID and flash to highlight key choices when it comes to drive data protection. What RAID levels work best with solid state and when is erasure coding a good choice?  Continue Reading

• The end is nigh: Are datacentre operators prepared for a potential no-deal Brexit?

  Datacentre operations are resilient and forward-thinking by nature, yet pitfalls and cost impacts are looming large with a potential no-deal Brexit on the horizon  Continue Reading

• Covid-19 crisis has speeded up contact centre digital transformation

  Pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in many business sectors, including contact centres such as those of the University of Huddersfield and UK Power Networks  Continue Reading

• A safe bet: How Covid-19 is fuelling investor interest in the datacentre industry

  With demand for cloud and colocation capacity soaring on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, datacentres are looking like an increasingly attractive bet for the investor community. Computer Weekly finds out why  Continue Reading