News

Business applications

• December 16, 2010 16 Dec'10

  Google provides Chrome deployment tools for IT administrators

  Google has developed controls and tools to help IT administrators configure and deploy its Chrome browser on Windows, Mac and Linux.

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  Can Salesforce.com push enterprise on-premise databases into the cloud?

  Salesforce.com wants enterprises to move data management to the cloud with its database-as-a-service.

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  Five life-changing innovations for the next five years

  IBM predicts five innovations that will change our behaviour over the next five years.

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  £500m framework agreement centralises local government software purchasing

  The government is setting up a framework agreement worth £500m on behalf of local government, in one of the first examples of software for local councils being bought centrally.

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  HP to create 105 new jobs in Ireland

  Hewlett-Packard (HP) is creating 105 new jobs within its global IT organisation based in Galway, Ireland.

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  Atos Origin acquires Siemens division for €850m

  Atos Origin has acquired Siemens IT division for €850m (£720m) to create a company with sales of around €8.7bn and 78,500 employees worldwide.

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  Flash Cloud: Adobe Flash Server from $5 per month on Amazon

  Adobe Flash Media Server is now available on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

• December 15, 2010 15 Dec'10

  Parliament pushes open standards to increase public engagement

  Parliament has adopted a policy to use open technology standards to increase public participation in political debate.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Cornwall council to save £20m with ERP

  Cornwall Council is investing in an Oracle ERP system, which it estimates will save £20m over the next five years.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Transport for London routes real-time data to developers via Microsoft Azure

  Using Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, Transport for London (TfL) has made its real-time tube travel information available to mobile application developers.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Dell tries again at virtualised storage with Compellent acquisition

  Having being outbid by HP on its recent attempt to buy storage virtualisation firm 3Par, Dell has now acquired Compellent Technologies, which also provides virtualised storage.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Deutsche Bank selects TCS core banking system

  Deutsche Bank is replacing multiple legacy systems with a banking platform from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as it updates its global transaction banking.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  IT departments must use agile programming properly to reap the benefits

  IT departments are failing to reap the benefits of agile programming because they are not using it in the way it was intended, it was claimed today.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Gartner: SaaS sales will grow 16.2% to $10.7bn in 2011

  Worldwide software as a service (SaaS) sales will reach $9bn this year, up 15.7% from 2009, according to analyst firm Gartner.

• December 14, 2010 14 Dec'10

  Dell buys virtualised data storage firm Compellent for $960m

  Dell has announced an agreement to acquire virtualised data storage company Compellent for $960m (£605m) to expand its enterprise storage offering.

• December 13, 2010 13 Dec'10

  Localism Bill extends move to open data

  The government has put open data at the heart of its Localism Bill, which outlines plans to give more power to local councils.

• December 13, 2010 13 Dec'10

  Tesco Bank uses Attachmate to provide mainframe access in call centre

  Tesco Bank is using Attachmate's Reflection 2008 to support general insurance calls in its customer service systems.

• December 13, 2010 13 Dec'10

  Amazon outage due to ‘hardware failure’ not hackers

  The outage on Amazon's European sites yesterday was due to a hardware failure, not hackers, the company has said. The UK, Italian, German and Spanish sites went down for about half an hour on Sunday night.

• December 13, 2010 13 Dec'10

  European Commission IT chief tackles open source lobby over €189m contract

  The European Commission (EC) IT chief has taken the open source lobby to task over a €189m (£158m) deal the EC signed last week, its largest ever software deal.

• December 10, 2010 10 Dec'10

  West Wales pilots LTE wireless using digital switchover TV spectrum

  Wireless technology is being piloted in the Preseli Mountains, West Wales, which could overcome the issue of dead spots in broadband coverage in rural areas

• December 10, 2010 10 Dec'10

  Birmingham adopts US gunfire detection technology

  Safer Birmingham Partnership, a joint partnership between West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council, has deployed technology which can detect gun shot fire from up to two kilometres away within a 25-metre radius.

• December 10, 2010 10 Dec'10

  Facebook founder Zuckerberg to give away most of his money

  Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, has pledged to give away most of his wealth.

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  AstraZeneca develops lung cancer resource for iPhone

  AstraZeneca UK has developed an iPhone, iTouch and iPad application which has been designed as an educational resource for UK geneticists, pathologists and medical oncologists.

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  Government departments told to upgrade to Windows 7

  CESG, the Information Assurance (IA) arm of GCHQ, has given the green light to Windows 7 and is encouraging government departments to upgrade to the operating...

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  Financial services slow to use cloud

  The financial services...

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  Nottingham University combats denial of service

  The University of Nottingham has implemented log management and security information and event management (SIEM) to avoid distributed denial of service attacks...

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  Salesforce.com acquires Ruby on Rails firm Heroku for £134m

  Salesforce.com has acquired cloud application platform for Ruby-based applications, Heroku, for $212m (£134m) in a bid to champion the Ruby on Rails framework.

• December 09, 2010 09 Dec'10

  Visa and Mastercard targeted by hackers over Wikileaks row

  Online retailing was disrupted yesterday when Visa and Mastercard were targeted by hackers following the firms' refusal to process Wikileaks...

• December 08, 2010 08 Dec'10

  G20 makes use of secure social networking environment

  For the first time in the history of the G20 world financial leaders and policy makers used secure social networking software to collaborate before, during...

• December 08, 2010 08 Dec'10

  Rural SMEs neglected in broadband plans

  Despite government plans...

• December 08, 2010 08 Dec'10

  Microsoft IE9 browser will help block user profiling

  Microsoft says the IE9 browser due for release early in 2011 will include tools to enable users to control what data is collected about their activities online.

• December 08, 2010 08 Dec'10

  Salesforce.com introduces free Chatter for enterprises

  Enterprise cloud computing firm Salesforce.com has introduced a free version of its Chatter ...

• December 08, 2010 08 Dec'10

  Salesforce.com debuts cloud database in competition with Oracle

  Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing firm, has introduced a database-as-a-service (DbaaS) product, Database.com at its annual conference, Dreamforce, in San Francisco.

• December 08, 2010 08 Dec'10

  Google Chrome OS laptop challenges the traditional PC

  Google has unveiled an internet-based laptop running its Chrome operating system, challenging the traditional model of personal computing.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  €189m European Commission sofware deal "contradicts" EU guidelines

  The European Commission's (EC) largest ever software contract is in "direct contradiction" of EU guidelines, according to campaign group Free Software Foundation...

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  SaaS adoption creates downtime risk, says NCC Group

  Growing adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) to perform mission-critical finance functions is creating risk of costly downtime, says the NCC Group.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Study finds businesses unready for risks from new technology

  Less than a third of global businesses have an IT risk management programme capable of dealing with the risks related to the use of new technologies, a study has revealed.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Gartner predicts expansive - but expensive - future for SharePoint apps

  Business applications on Microsoft's SharePoint could become as popular as the iPhone apps within five years, Gartner predicts.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Standard Life to acquire software supplier Focus Solutions for £42m

  Edinburgh-based financial services group Standard Life is buying a software firm for £42m to help develop its insurance offerings to customers and intermediaries

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Cloud computing will boost UK economy by €30bn a year

  The adoption of cloud computing could give the UK a total economic benefit of about €30bn a year from 2015, according to research. The EMC commissioned...

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Juniper Networks buys security company Altor Networks

  Juniper Networks has acquired virtualisation security technology firm Altor Networks for $95m.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Case study: IoD saves times and resources by consolidating web security

  The Institute of Directors has reduced its security management overheads by consolidating security infrastructure.

• December 07, 2010 07 Dec'10

  Quacquarelli Symonds pays £80,000 for using unlicensed software

  Quacquarelli Symonds Consulting Limited has paid out £80,000 after it was found using unlicensed software, according to the Business Software Alliance.

• December 06, 2010 06 Dec'10

  Cisco and BMC join forces for cloud computing

  Cisco and BMC Software are joining forces to support large-scale, multi-tenant cloud computing infrastructures.

• December 06, 2010 06 Dec'10

  India’s CBI hack shows cyberspace is now a battleground

  A hacking attack on a key investigative agency of the Indian government shows that cyberspace is increasingly becoming a battleground, say security experts.

• December 06, 2010 06 Dec'10

  AOL and Yahoo to merge

  AOL is exploring a merger with Yahoo, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources.

• December 06, 2010 06 Dec'10

  Google and Groupon end talks over £3.9bn acquisition

  Talks between Google and online discount site Groupon over a potential acquisition have ended, according...

• December 05, 2010 05 Dec'10

  Wikileaks: China’s propaganda chief named as Google hack mastermind

  China's propaganda chief was named by US diplomats as the alleged orchestrator of hacker attacks on Google in late 2009, according to cables published by Wikileaks.

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  Chinese hacker arrests highlight importance of IT security

  Chinese authorities have reported arrests of 460 computer hackers so far this year, an 80% increase compared with 2009.

  This is effectively an admission...

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  Government to launch single address database

  The government plans to create a single address list for use across the public sector in a move that could significantly reduce data duplication

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  Business must educate users on security risks of Twitter, warns Symantec

  As Twitter becomes a news source for millions of people, businesses must educate employees about the risks involved in using the service, says IT services firm Symantec.

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  Oracle unveils Sparc 'supercluster' appliance

  Oracle has unveiled the SPARC T3 Supercluster and M5000 server family, which it claims provides a complete infrastructure for running Oracle database RAC environments.

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  Adobe, Google release sandboxed Flash Player for Chrome

  Adobe has worked with Google to extend the Google Chrome sandbox to Adobe Flash Player.

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  Google to rewrite ebook story

  Google is moving into the ebooks market with the long awaited launch of its Google Editions later this month.

  Google Editions was due to be launched...

• December 03, 2010 03 Dec'10

  AVG update crashes 64-bit Windows 7 systems

  The latest software update from security supplier AVG Technologies has caused problems with many users running Microsoft's 64 bit Windows 7 operating system.

• December 02, 2010 02 Dec'10

  Japan approves deal between Google and Yahoo Japan

  The Japanese antitrust watchdog has approved a deal between Google and Yahoo Japan to share Google's search and advertising technology.

• December 02, 2010 02 Dec'10

  SAP claims in-memory HANA is a game changer

  SAP's newly-launched high-performance analytic appliance, HANA, provides "game changing" innovation in speed, scalability and compression, the company claims.

• December 01, 2010 01 Dec'10

  Indian IT outsourcing firms bounce back with multisourced IT supply business

  A comprehensive survey of IT outsourcing contracts has revealed Indian IT service providers are enjoying a comeback as they embed local management teams and move outside their applications comfort zones.

• December 01, 2010 01 Dec'10

  Nearly three-quarters of UK orgs hit by data breaches, study shows

  Data breaches continue to be a major concern around the world, with 71% of UK organisations reporting at least one data breach in the past year, a study...

• December 01, 2010 01 Dec'10

  SAP launches HANA applications and announces first ByDesign resellers

  SAP has announced the availability of its High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) and the first specialised applications that sit on top of the technology.

  HANA,...

• November 30, 2010 30 Nov'10

  Iran confirms Stuxnet hit uranium enrichment centrifuges

  Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has confirmed that the Stuxnet computer worm affected centrifuges in the country's uranium enrichment programme.

• November 30, 2010 30 Nov'10

  EU launches probe into Google’s online search rankings

  The European Union has launched an investigation into Google's business practices.

• November 30, 2010 30 Nov'10

  Wikileaks turns to cloud computing to fend off DDoS attack

  Whistleblowing site Wikileaks turned to cloud computing services to help defend against a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack ...

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  Massive policy changes in data protection hold keys to business opportunity

  This past year, 2010, will be remembered as an important year for data protection, with the highest level of regulatory activity for more than 40 years.

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  Q&A: SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe on SAP strategy

  Jim Hagemann Snabe was appointed co-chief executive at enterprise software maker SAP in February. Computer Weekly quizzed him at the recent UK SAP user group conference

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  CIO interview: Kevin Berry, systems director, Waitrose

  The top man in IT at Waitrose talks about a comprehensive organisational change in the department and the technology agenda for the upcoming months.

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  E-mail hacker fined £20,000

  A hacker who posed as a university graduate to gain access to the e-mails of hundreds of unsuspecting students has been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay more than £20,000 in costs and compensation.

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  Lawyers warn of harmful clauses in cloud contracts

  Companies should be wary of potentially harmful clauses hidden in contracts for cloud services

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  Google-backed O3b brings satellite broadband to developing countries

  Google-backed O3b Networks plans to launch satellite-enabled broadband for developing countries in 2013 after securing $1.2bn funding.

• November 29, 2010 29 Nov'10

  Chinese government hacked Google, claims Wikileaks leaked US diplomatic cables

  The Chinese government hacked into Google's computer systems, a leaked US diplomatic report claims.

• November 26, 2010 26 Nov'10

  EC prioritises cyber threats in European security strategy

  The European Commission has launched the first EU internal security plan

• November 25, 2010 25 Nov'10

  Legal sector moves indicate cloud acceptance

  Law firms are putting their e-mail systems in the cloud to cut costs and ensure they adhere to tough data protection regulations.

• November 25, 2010 25 Nov'10

  Farmers Insurance Exchange signs deal with Symbility Solutions

  Farmers Insurance Exchange (FIE) Has signed a multi-year deal with technology provider Symbility Solutions to use its workflow software tools to manage property claims.

• November 25, 2010 25 Nov'10

  SAP improves customer relations, but still faces price and licensing issues

  New leadership of German enterprise software maker SAP is pursuing a transformation agenda and a more customer-focused strategy in an attempt to rebuild trust.

• November 24, 2010 24 Nov'10

  Daimler picks Siemens as global CAD standard

  German vehicle maker Daimler AG is to standardise computer aided design (CAD) for its worldwide vehicle development on Siemens NX software.

• November 24, 2010 24 Nov'10

  Salesforce.com hires JP Rangaswami

  IT veteran JP Rangaswami has joined the enterprise cloud firm Salesforce.com after a five-year spell at BT

• November 24, 2010 24 Nov'10

  Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian available to download

  Norwegian browser maker Opera Software has released a final version of its free internet browser for smartphones running on Nokia's Symbian operating system.

• November 24, 2010 24 Nov'10

  Fight looms over shared infrastructure for broadband networks

  How to share infrastructure is likely to become the hottest topic in rolling out next generation broadband access (NGA), especially in rural areas, it emerged at the NextGen10 conference in Birmingham this week.

• November 24, 2010 24 Nov'10

  SAP to pay Oracle $1.3bn in damages for copyright infringement

  A US federal court has ordered German enterprise software maker SAP to pay US rival Oracle $1.3bn in damages for copyright infringement.

  The damages...

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  Tesco Bank goes live with core system

  Tesco Bank has gone live with a new Fiserv platform that is underpinning its fixed-rate savings account.

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  Independent software testing standard complete next week

  A software testing standard, which ingrains processes into an organisation throughout software development to pick up bugs before software goes live, will...

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  SAP prioritises security and looks to greater cross-industry collaboration

  Security is a top priority for SAP, particular as business applications become increasingly on-device and mobile, says co-chief executive Jim Hagemann Snabe.

  In...

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  £132m Cornish broadband project will deliver first services by March 2011

  Eight communities in Cornwall will be the first to receive superfast broadband services as part of a £132m EU-backed project to bring high-speed fibre links...

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  SAP sales culture must change, says Forrester

  Business is seeing a change in attitude of SAP's leadership towards customers, but that has yet to filter down to sales forces in many regions, according...

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  Apple releases iOS 4.2 for iPad and iPhone

  Apple has released the latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 4.2, available to download for the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

• November 23, 2010 23 Nov'10

  SAP user groups forge closer ties with leadership

  SAP user groups have made good progress in improving relationships with SAP in the past year, says Alan Bowling, chairman of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group.

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  SAP in 'transformational stage' says co-chief executive

  SAP is in a transformational stage, Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-chief executive of SAP has told the UK & Ireland SAP user group conference taking place in Manchester. The...

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  Facebook is threat to web, warns Tim Berners-Lee

  Net neutrality is a basic value of the internet according to web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, accusing Facebook and Apple of threatening the web's future development.

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  Fallen giant Novell to be acquired by Attachmate for $2.2bn

  Software supplier Novell, once one of the most influential companies in corporate IT, is to be acquired for $2.2bn by Attachmate

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  SAP user group calls for even greater collaboration with SAP

  SAP is doing a better job of listening to and working with users, but more work has to be done in several other areas, says the UK&Ireland SAP User Group.

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  CIF launches code of practice for cloud industry

  The UK Cloud Industry Forum has published a code of practice aimed at promoting the adoption of cloud-based services.

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  Analysis: UK companies fail to plug biggest data leaks – the insider threat

  Most companies know they have information that is vital to their survival and that could damage the company if it fell into the wrong hands, but insider data theft is rife in the UK, a survey has revealed.

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  More than 70% of UK employees admit to data theft

  Theft of data by employees is common in UK companies, a survey has revealed.

  Some 72% of more than 1,000 UK employees polled by security firm Imperva...

• November 22, 2010 22 Nov'10

  Interview: BSkyB’s head of corporate business intelligence on making BI work

  Avi Marco, head of corporate business intelligence at BSkyB, speaks to Cliff Saran about BI more agile.

• November 19, 2010 19 Nov'10

  Google signs commitment to improve data handling

  Google has signed a commitment to improve data handling to ensure breaches like the collection of private Wi-Fi data by its Street View vehicles do not happen again, says information commissioner Christopher Graham.

• November 19, 2010 19 Nov'10

  More than two-thirds of UK companies hit by data breaches in past year

  Some 70% of UK businesses have been hit by at least one data breach in the past year, according to digital forensics company CY4OR.

  Increased exposure...

• November 19, 2010 19 Nov'10

  Adobe Reader X released with enhanced security

  Adobe has released the next-generation version of its Reader software that includes a protected mode to prevent attacks through PDF files.

  The release...

• November 19, 2010 19 Nov'10

  The IT Blog Awards 2010 winners

  Who’s the 2010 blogger of the year? What is the best gadget blog on the web? All these questions will be answered.

• November 19, 2010 19 Nov'10

  Mash-up with Facebook lets MySpace users coordinate accounts

  Myspace has announced integration with Facebook to allow users to log into their Facebook accounts from Myspace.com.

• November 18, 2010 18 Nov'10

  Vaizey 'gives go-ahead for two-tier internet'

  Communications minister Ed Vaizey on Wednesday aligned himself against two key figures in internet history, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and Vint Cerf, by giving...