News

Database software

January 12, 2010 12 Jan'10
Datacentres need to do more with less, but lack skills

Businesses are running more datacentre applications with fewer staff and less budget.
January 05, 2010 05 Jan'10
Lloyds Banking Group extracts value from data

Lloyds Banking Group is using software to help it make better use of complex data to sell to customers more effectively.
January 05, 2010 05 Jan'10
Thousands sign petition to protect MySQL from Oracle

More than 18,000 people have signed an online petition to protect the future development of open source database MySQL, which is owned by Sun Microsystems....
December 18, 2009 18 Dec'09
Oracle boosts software and services revenue with SAP business

Oracle has increased its software licence and product support revenue by 14% to $3.9bn for the second quarter of 2009, at the expense of SAP.

December 16, 2009 16 Dec'09
Paper better than computers for patient records, say UCL researchers

Paper may be a more efficient medium than computers for delivering essential patient information to doctors, researchers have found.

Researchers at...
December 15, 2009 15 Dec'09
Oracle makes concessions to EC over Sun acquisition

Oracle has made a series of concessions designed to end its stand-off...
December 15, 2009 15 Dec'09
Researchers question benefits of computerised health records

US researchers have questioned the savings to be had from computerising healthcare records, raising doubts over the benefits of the NHS's £12.7bn National...
December 11, 2009 11 Dec'09
Oracle accuses EC of manipulating data to block Sun deal

Oracle has accused European competition authorities of cherry-picking comments from a market survey to support objections to the firm's planned acquisition...
December 09, 2009 09 Dec'09
IBM sees no competition issues with Oracle's Sun takeover

Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems does not raise any significant antitrust issues, according to Oracle rival IBM.

Despite objections...
November 27, 2009 27 Nov'09
For the sake of Java, allow Oracle to buy Sun, says user group

The UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG) has sent a letter to the European Competition Commission in support of Oracle's $7.4bn deal to acquire Sun Microsystems.

November 27, 2009 27 Nov'09
EU and Oracle to meet soon on Sun deal

Oracle is to meet European Union regulators on 10 December in an attempt to win approval of the planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, according to reports.
November 25, 2009 25 Nov'09
UK national ID cards database goes live

The database that underpins the UK's controversial ID card scheme is up and running, according to the government's identity commissioner Joseph Pilling.
November 20, 2009 20 Nov'09
EU delays Sun/Oracle decision

The EU has pushed back its deadline for reviewing the Sun merger after granting a request from Oracle for more time
November 16, 2009 16 Nov'09
ISPs criticise government plans to store all comms data

Internet service providers (ISPs) are unhappy with the government's plans to require them to store records of all e‑mail, social networking and web traffic.

The...
November 13, 2009 13 Nov'09
EU ‘optimistic’ of settlement with Oracle over MySQL

The European Union's competition commissioner is "optimistic" about reaching a settlement with Oracle over its proposed $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
November 10, 2009 10 Nov'09
Oracle to oppose EU objections to Sun acquisition

European regulators have issued an official objection to Oracle's $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems, moving another step closer to blocking the deal.
November 04, 2009 04 Nov'09
Sun and its customers could face more delays to Oracle acquisition

Costly delays to European Commission approval of Oracle's proposed $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems look set to continue.
November 03, 2009 03 Nov'09
MPs condemn C-Nomis criminal database project

MPs have condemned a major IT project for tracking offenders through the criminal justice system as a £513m shambles.
October 29, 2009 29 Oct'09
Oracle thinks global, but what about UK users?

For most US IT companies bent on expansion overseas, the first port of call is typically the UK where at least the locals speak (almost) the same language as they do in San Francisco. That was the case when Oracle first set up shop in the UK in the ...
October 23, 2009 23 Oct'09
Open source developers oppose Oracle's MySQL acquisition

Prominent open source software developers have joined forces with those opposed to Oracle assuming control of MySQL if Oracle's proposed $7.4bn acquisition of Sun Microsystems goes ahead.
October 21, 2009 21 Oct'09
Council supports learning with banking technology

Oxfordshire County Council is securing and managing online access to educational resources for over 100,000 people with technology originally used by...
October 15, 2009 15 Oct'09
Oracle Fusion Apps could save millions in integration, say analysts

Oracle has showcased a new line of software to be released next year as a key part of the enterprise software company's strategy to win business from rival SAP.
October 15, 2009 15 Oct'09
Oracle OpenWorld: next-generation Fusion and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Oracle OpenWorld closed on Wednesday with CEO Larry Ellison lifting the covers of the firm's next-generation Fusion applications, but finding the show...
October 14, 2009 14 Oct'09
Oracle OpenWorld: Customers can benefit from cloud, says Benioff

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff took his cloud computing message to Oracle's customers at OpenWorld yesterday, arguing that there was no reason why there...
October 13, 2009 13 Oct'09
Oracle OpenWorld: Oracle wants to 'sell cars, not bits of cars'

Oracle wants to sell you cars, not bits of cars. That was the theme of a remarkably low-key presentation by Oracle presidents Safra Catz and Charles Phillips...
October 13, 2009 13 Oct'09
John Lewis aims for single view of customers

Retailer John Lewis is integrating its in-store and web order systems to create a single view of customers to help it cross-sell products.

The...
October 13, 2009 13 Oct'09
Oracle adds tools for Java, SOA and Web 2.0

Oracle plans to improve its Java development tools, by providing integrated and pluggable tools for Java, service oriented architecture and Web 2.0 application development.
October 06, 2009 06 Oct'09
ID card officials back away from scandal-hit database

Government plans to store ID card biometrics data on a controversial system used by thousands of public workers might be scrapped.
October 01, 2009 01 Oct'09
Start-ups rival SAP and Oracle with cheap software support

The downturn has opened up opportunities for IT departments to cut the support costs of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
September 28, 2009 28 Sep'09
Government covers up Valuation Office security failures

The government has restricted circulation of an auditor's report into information security failures at the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), the body that assesses property values for tax purposes.
September 25, 2009 25 Sep'09
Green cloud from Microsoft's Dublin datacentre

Microsoft has opened its first datacentre in Europe to deliver cloud services to businesses.
September 24, 2009 24 Sep'09
FBI database holds records on 1.5 billion people

More than 1.5 billion government and private sector records about US citizens and foreigners are stored in an FBI database, declassified documents have...
September 21, 2009 21 Sep'09
E-discovery will slash compliance costs, says Gartner

By the end of 2012, organisations that fully document their search processes in e-discovery will save 25% on their collection processes, according to...
September 17, 2009 17 Sep'09
Oracle blames reseller performance for results

Oracle has blamed falling first quarter sales on the recession, currency shifts and weakness in resellers' performance. The database specialist posted...
September 16, 2009 16 Sep'09
Watchdog slams police DNA database guidelines

A human rights watchdog has slammed the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) for advising chief constables to continue adding DNA profiles of innocent...
September 14, 2009 14 Sep'09
Oracle to unveil Sun-powered database

Oracle will take the wraps off the first product designed with Sun tomorrow, in a move that will indicate just where the merged operation could be heading once the deal gets the go-ahead.
September 10, 2009 10 Sep'09
CIOs focus on analytics to drive business

Business intelligence and analytics are the top priority for CIOs, an IBM study reveals.
September 04, 2009 04 Sep'09
Storage hit by recession as IT projects put on hold

Sales of external controller-based (ECB) disk storage plummeted by almost 16% in the second quarter of 2009 due to the downturn impacting enterprise IT projects,...
August 11, 2009 11 Aug'09
SMEs make decisions based on dodgy data

More than two thirds of mid-sized UK businesses rely on spreadsheets to support decisions, a survey has revealed.
August 04, 2009 04 Aug'09
Council workers sacked for snooping personal details

Nine staff have been sacked from their local authority jobs for snooping on personal records of celebrities and personal acquaintances held on the core database of the government's National Identity Scheme.
July 27, 2009 27 Jul'09
Black Hat: Security expert's verdict on Oracle hacking tools

Black Hat, Las Vegas: Controversy greeted news that Metasploit would release a raft of modules to speed up hacks of Oracle's database management system, but some security experts believe Metasploit is offering nothing new.
July 27, 2009 27 Jul'09
Nokia buys web contacts technology company

Nokia has strengthened its position in the social networking space with the acquisition of Cellity, a Hamburg software company that offers a way to collect and store users' contacts securely in one place.
July 24, 2009 24 Jul'09
Oracle to buy GoldenGate Software

Oracle is to add yet another software company to its growing list of acquisitions. The enterprise software firm has spent more than $30bn...
July 23, 2009 23 Jul'09
Video: Free tool for hacking Oracle databases

Open source security testers will release a free tool that simplifies and automates hacking of Oracle databases at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas next week.
July 15, 2009 15 Jul'09
Businesses face deluge of patches from Microsoft and Oracle

IT security administrators will have to deal with more than 10 security patches from Oracle and nine from Microsoft this week.

Oracle's...
July 10, 2009 10 Jul'09
IBM to build database of UK fingerprints for passport service

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has contracted IBM to build a database to support the Government's switch to biometric passports.

IBM will...
June 15, 2009 15 Jun'09
Air France Airbus crash: its last few minutes?

What is known about the crash of an Air France airbus on 1 June bears similarities with the little-noticed loss much earlier of two computer-controlled passenger jets. Those two crashes raised questions of whether the pilots or systems were really ...
April 30, 2009 30 Apr'09
Teradata reveals solid state storage plans

Datawarehouse and business analytics firm Teradata plans to unveil a data storage management system around the middle of next year that will speed up customers' ability to access large volumes of data at high speed from different types of storage ...
April 16, 2009 16 Apr'09
Oracle database at risk from easy hack, warns database security expert

Oracle users have been urged to update the database patches Oracle issued yesterday as quickly as possible, because the flaw can be easily exploited, a database...
April 07, 2009 07 Apr'09
Police computer system updated to improve data sharing

Investigators using the UK police forces' computer system for processing the large volumes of data related to major investigations can now easily find and...
March 20, 2009 20 Mar'09
Government defends red light warning in ID card reviews

The Identity and Passport Service has defended the "red" traffic light status given to an early Gateway review on the ID Cards scheme.
March 06, 2009 06 Mar'09
Firms waste £2.6m a year looking for data

Large UK companies waste more than £2.6m a year each as staff search fruitlessly for information they need to do their jobs, according to a survey.

The...
March 05, 2009 05 Mar'09
IBM updates Informix database with warehousing feature

IBM has unveiled new database software its says will help companies make decisions more intelligently to maximise sales opportunities while reducing expenses.

With...
February 27, 2009 27 Feb'09
Government plans to keep DNA of innocent

The British government is reportedly...
February 24, 2009 24 Feb'09
Blunkett concerned about government data sharing powers

Former home secretary David Blunkett is to call on the government to make sure new powers that allow sensitive personal data to be shared across Whitehall departments cannot be misused.
February 04, 2009 04 Feb'09
Oracle buys mValent

Oracle is acquiring application configuration management firm mValent to improve its Enterprise Manager which is used to manage applications.
January 21, 2009 21 Jan'09
Police to use Motor Insurance Database to enforce new measures

The government is to give wider access to the Motor Insurance Database to enforcement agencies to clamp down on uninsured drivers.

Road safety minister...
January 14, 2009 14 Jan'09
Irish Life saves £100K+ by offloading Unisys data

Irish Life & Permanent Group (IL&P) has deployed Attachmate Databridge to help the company cut the workload of its existing Unisys platforms...
January 14, 2009 14 Jan'09
Google in targeted marketing rules talks

Online publishers and technology firms are thrashing out proposals to self-regulate behaviourally...
January 08, 2009 08 Jan'09
SAP demands that Oracle releases software profit margins in legal case

SAP is asking a US court to force Oracle to reveal its profit margins on JD Edwards and PeopleSoft software and support contracts.

The SAP call is...
November 06, 2008 06 Nov'08
NHS Blood Transport Service centralises blood databases

The NHS Blood Transplant Service (NHSBT) has completed a project that began in 1994 to create a centralised national blood database. The database...
October 21, 2008 21 Oct'08
Government to spend £10m on Blue Badge parking database

The government is spending £55m over three years in overhauling the Blue Badge parking scheme, including £10m on a data sharing database
October 10, 2008 10 Oct'08
Programs compete in Turing test for Loebner Prize

Six computer programs will try to pass themselves off as humans this Sunday.
September 29, 2008 29 Sep'08
Oracle smells good to Marrionaud

Marionnaud, Europe's largest perfumery and cosmetics retail chain, has changed how it manages its supply chain and reports financial details following the implementation of Oracle Retail merchandising applications.
September 24, 2008 24 Sep'08
Oracle Openworld: AIA Foundation Packs announced

Oracle has released two separate Oracle AIA Foundation Packs for Industries, covering the utilities and insurance sectors. The Foundation Packs deliver...
September 24, 2008 24 Sep'08
Collaboration given a buzz with Oracle Beehive

Oracle has unveiled Oracle Beehive to help organisations secure communications and add collaboration into business processes.
September 10, 2008 10 Sep'08
Government hires ad agency for ID card scheme

The government has hired advertising firm M&C Saatchi to try to sell its controversial national ID card scheme to the public.
September 10, 2008 10 Sep'08
UK supports Cern Big Bang switch on

GridPP, the UK's major contribution to a global computing system, is about to support Cern's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project.
August 21, 2008 21 Aug'08
Guernsey signs Northgate to improve public health

Guernsey has signed Northgate Information Solutions ...
August 12, 2008 12 Aug'08
Visual Studio and .net service available

Microsoft has updated its .net Framework and Visual Studio programming
July 22, 2008 22 Jul'08
Government told to delete DNA records of innocent people

The Ethics Group, a government advisory body, says DNA samples of those not convicted of a crime should be deleted from the police National DNA Database.
July 21, 2008 21 Jul'08
Highways Agency launches programme to improve information

The Highways Agency has launched a programme to improve the way it uses information and data.
July 14, 2008 14 Jul'08
UK businesses shunning real-time data analysis

UK lagging behind in its use of software for real-time data processing and analytics.
July 04, 2008 04 Jul'08
Exchange rate flaw in Oracle price hike exposed

IT departments could cushion the impact of Oracle's recent price hike by taking...
June 13, 2008 13 Jun'08
Davis fights database state with by-election

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis warned of the increasing use of information technology to aid the "slow but ceaseless encroachment of the state into our daily lives" as he quit his parliamentary seat yesterday.
May 23, 2008 23 May'08
Bradford & Bingley deploys Oracle self-service HR platform

Bradford & Bingley has deployed a self-service human resources system from Oracle.
May 22, 2008 22 May'08
Revealed - Government plans to tap phone and internet use

The Home Office is considering radical plans to develop a centralised surveillance system to track in real-time every kind of electronic activity undertaken by citizens.
May 20, 2008 20 May'08
Charnwood Council uses web to increase community safety

Charnwood Borough Council is using a web-enabled system to improve community safety.

The Leicestershire council has taken part in a three-year pilot...
May 14, 2008 14 May'08
Nationwide deploys hosted electronic document management for customer records

Nationwide Building Society has chosen EDM Group's hosted Scan on Demand business system for flexible access to archived customer data.
May 12, 2008 12 May'08
MySpace allows users to put their profiles on other websites

MySpace has launched the Data Availability initiative in partnership with Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket and Twitter.
May 03, 2008 03 May'08
Political pressure on NHS trusts to use immature database

The first NHS trusts to upload medical details to a national database as part of the £12.4bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT) were pressured for political reasons to push ahead quickly despite the immaturity of the technology, an independent report...
May 03, 2008 03 May'08
Connecting for Health faces criticism over national IT programme

Connecting for Health, which runs much of the NHS's £12.4bn National Programme for IT , is expected to come under strong criticism in a report commissioned by the government into the progress of online health records.
May 01, 2008 01 May'08
VocaLink selects IONA to help banks migrate to Sepa systems

VocaLink, a payment processor, has selected IONA's Artix Data Services to support its Euro Payment Service.
May 01, 2008 01 May'08
Tibco unveils first messaging appliance for financial datacentres

Tibco has introduced its first integrated messaging appliance to improve the performance of its datacentre management software for financial traders and other businesses.
April 24, 2008 24 Apr'08
Recession could force UK software firms out of business

The UK computer software market is moving towards recession and one in five companies could disappear, according to analyst Plimsoll.
April 21, 2008 21 Apr'08
Network Rail maps assets to ease roadwork disruption

Network Rail has mapped its assets on the National Street Gazetteer to help cut road work disruption.
April 16, 2008 16 Apr'08
Hammonds uses automated document platform to produce home information packs

Conveyancing firm Hammonds Direct has deployed an automated system for producing home information packs.
April 15, 2008 15 Apr'08
Sybase releases new data management beta

Sybase iAnywhere has released the beta of "Panorama," code-name for the next release of its SQL Anywhere version 11 data management and synchronisation system.
March 28, 2008 28 Mar'08
Document management speeds NHS data entry by 80% in Scotland

NHS Scotland is rolling out document management and imaging software across 22 health boards to reduce manual data entry processes by 80%.
March 27, 2008 27 Mar'08
Oracle customers delay purchase of new software

Oracle has said that corporate customers have delayed investing in new software owing to the turmoil in the financial markets, which led to revenue growth lower than expected, according to a Financial Times report.
March 20, 2008 20 Mar'08
Prisoner database riddled with errors

Prison Service staff are trying to correct errors in a database covering more than 80,000 prisoners after it emerged that thousands of records were wrong,...
March 12, 2008 12 Mar'08
Oracle releases new on-demand CRM platform

Oracle has released Oracle CRM On Demand Release 15, which should boost customers' productivity.
March 11, 2008 11 Mar'08
How to slash data management and integration costs

Analyst Gartner has recommended key cost-cutting tactics in data management and integration to help prepare firms for an economic downturn.
February 29, 2008 29 Feb'08
Investment firm uses software to comply with money-laundering directive

Brewin Dolphin, an independent private client investment firm, has begun using software from Datanomics to support its effort to comply with the third EU Money Laundering Directive.
February 14, 2008 14 Feb'08
British Museum collection goes online

The British Museum is making its entire collection available on the web with one of the world's biggest museum online collection databases.
February 13, 2008 13 Feb'08
Twin Valley Homes improves electronic data compliance with Waterford

Twin Valley Homes has improved its electronic data compliance with the eDiscovery system from Waterford Technologies.
January 28, 2008 28 Jan'08
Government may drop national fingerprint database for national ID card

The UK government's national identity card scheme appears to be in further chaos, after a leaked document shows the government is considering dropping the planned national fingerprint database tied to the cards.
January 24, 2008 24 Jan'08
Law firms expects quick return on enterprise search tool

International law firm Simmons & Simmons expects a quick return on its investment in an enterprise search system to be used by 1,000 lawyers in 21 offices worldwide to access all relevant databases and information resources.
January 23, 2008 23 Jan'08
Firms need data stewards to optimise business initiatives

Organisations must establish data stewardship roles in their organisations to improve business data quality, says analyst Gartner.
January 23, 2008 23 Jan'08
Schools use pupil analysis data to drive up exam results

Schools using analysis of pupil data in their management information systems (MIS) are helping drive up their exam results.