Opinion

Opinion

Database software

• Excel is the hammer for too many businesses’ nails

  Excel is a fine piece of software, but as Public Health England found out, its ubiquity and ease of use does not make it the ideal tool for every job that involves data  Continue Reading

• Facebook’s high-stakes privacy gamble goes to Dublin court

  A high-wire gamble with billions in compensation at stake for European internet users – part of a complex case between Facebook and the Irish information commissioner – hides challenge to the unlawfulness of US state internet surveillance  Continue Reading

• The high price of not understanding how automation works with existing software licences

  Businesses must check their software licences before they introduce robotic process automation or they risk breaking the rules  Continue Reading

• A Good American: a personal take on mass surveillance

  Director Friedrich Moser draws some conclusions on mass surveillance from his groundbreaking documentary on the work of NSA whistleblower, Bill Binney  Continue Reading

• It’s not too late to turn the tide on Investigatory Powers Bill

  The government has set David Anderson QC an almost impossible task in his review of the sweeping bulk powers proposed in the Investigatory Powers Bill – but it is not too late to make a difference  Continue Reading

• A day in the life of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal

  Britain's most secretive court combined the surreal with the deadly serious, as it debated the legality of bulk data collection by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ  Continue Reading

• Blockchain and the CIO: a new model for IT

  The most important emerging technology for the enterprise – and therefore the CIO – is not big data, the social web, artificial intelligence, robotics or the cloud – it’s blockchain  Continue Reading

• Graph databases: What are the benefits for CIOs?

  With enterprise interest in graph databases on the rise, Clive Longbottom explains why some businesses are favouring them over relational setups  Continue Reading

• Why it pays to get messy with big data

  Big data does not have to be perfect to give useful insights. The ability to make messy data usable quickly could become business critical  Continue Reading

• Democratise internet of things data analytics with virtualisation

  Accenture Labs authors contend that data virtualisation can unlock business value from the IoT  Continue Reading

• Why the IT dinosaurs should be planning for extinction

  The planned merger of two dinosaurs of the hardware world, Dell and EMC, offers a useful insight into how to manage corporate extinction  Continue Reading

• Driving digital productivity in the UK

  There is a need for British businesses to improve their adoption of digital technologies  Continue Reading

• Sale, spin-off or stay put? What should EMC do next?

  With reports suggesting some major changes may be afoot at EMC, Clive Longbottom looks at the reasons why  Continue Reading

• Apply data governance to maximise data insights

  How IT can apply data governance to help the business trust analytics insights and gain the most value from big data  Continue Reading

• Patent trolls must not be allowed to encroach on Europe

  So-called patent trolls may soon come under attack in the US as part of government-backed efforts against abusive intellectual property litigation  Continue Reading

• Time for DevOps to get out of the weeds

  Software and service providers face a battle to deliver new products, features and capabilities faster than ever  Continue Reading

• Big data put to work in digital transformation strategies

  Accenture’s Mike Sutcliff and Narendra Mulani argue that the fuel energising the digital transformation of business is big data  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Why small steps in big data count

  Don’t get bogged down and fearful that big data means big steps – get started and learn as you go  Continue Reading

• Buyer beware: second-hand user licences mired in uncertainty

  Despite a recent European Court of Justice ruling on the sale of used software, second user licensing remains a contentious subject  Continue Reading

• User acceptance testing needs real training, not just a short course

  In spite of its importance, user acceptance testing (UAT) is often chaotic, problematic and ineffective  Continue Reading

• Whiteboard it – the power of graph databases

  Graph databases map relationships between entities in a network. They won’t replace conventional relational databases, but for harnessing the value of interconnectedness they mark a breakthrough  Continue Reading

• The future of application development

  As cloud adoption continues to increase , most organisations are making important decisions in executing their cloud strategies  Continue Reading

• Where is your Data Migration DMZ?

  Johny Morris, author of Practical Data Migration, looks at how changes to procurement practices have created a trap for the unwary to fall into  Continue Reading

• In an age of subscription services, ERP is dead

  It’s hard to believe now but there was a time when ERP was hot  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Configuration is key to virtual security

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Virtual security more than just technology

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Security in the virtual world still not 100%

  How should information security professionals get started with securing virtual environments?  Continue Reading

• Leveraging the benefits of ‘Big Data’

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• Three key considerations to deliver benefits from big data

  There is a real commercial advantage to be gained from big data and organisations need to make sure they have the right elements in place to seize that advantage.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Is big data just big hype?

  If the deluge of headlines and vendor marketing materials is anything to go by, big data is the next big thing. So how much is there really to all this big data talk?  Continue Reading

• The problem with Open Data

  Although clearly a good thing in theory, Open Data risks increasing the digital divide and social inequality unless approached right.  Continue Reading

• Three trends that will shape the master data management market

  Master data management (MDM), has become a crucial discipline. Three key trends will shape this market's growth and evolution, and each trend has its complexities.  Continue Reading

• Rising to the information management challenge

  In a world of increasingly devolved decision making, few would disagree that it’s important to make the right information available to the right people at the right time.  Continue Reading

• Bridging the information gap

  The pace at which modern business tends to move has resulted in a situation where centralised decision-making struggles to keep up.  Continue Reading

• Let the taxman pay your software development costs

  On the back of government consultation, tax relief for companies involved in development activity is set to become even more generous and software development companies should ensure that they are taking advantage of this valuable relief, writes ...  Continue Reading

• Software engineering, but not as we know it

  With the further developments of the Chartered Information Technology Professional status, or CITP, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, encourages us to reconsider our understanding of our profession, writes Jon G Hall.  Continue Reading

• Why data analytics must change

  Wanted: people with the ability to see the relationships in big data, says Stephen Brobst, CTO of Teradata  Continue Reading

• How to avoid getting caught out by Oracle Unlimited Licence Agreements

  Oracle is one of the most popular databases for business-critical applications among large enterprises, and this popularity is growing.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: DB 9.5

  IBM's DB2 is a relational database management system (RDBMS), widely used in enterprises.  Continue Reading

• Question time over NHS data

  To lose one datacentre may be regarded as a misfortune to lose both looks like carelessness.  Continue Reading

• Dealing with the data explosion

  We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.  Continue Reading

• Make sense of corporate data complexities through master data management systems

  The emerging field of master data management deals with the issue of how to handle data that needs to be shared between different computer systems.  Continue Reading

• Tactics for winning the information battle

  Synchronisation of corporate data across disparate systems is vital to give the business the intelligence it needs to compete,...  Continue Reading

• Beware upgrading enterprise software: total cost can be many times the licence fee

  As Oracle and SAP vie for unsettled PeopleSoft users, what does the future hold? asks Bruce Richardson  Continue Reading

• Strategy clinic: How can I make users supply quality data?

  The IT team has been criticised over our customer relationship management software. But the real problem is the quality of the...  Continue Reading

• Automate to eliminate drudgery

  Invest in data entry software and free up employees' time  Continue Reading

• Beware proprietary data formats

  To let someone encrypt your data and not give you the key is silly, but you do it every day  Continue Reading

• Sourcing data from way back

  The Alexa Internet archive stops big, powerful companies from trying to bury events  Continue Reading

• Lotus has smart way to merge data

  Lotus is next week expected to lift the lid on a new generation of software which analysts say could revolutionise the way firms...  Continue Reading