Opinion

Opinion

Enterprise software

• Government open standards proposal fails the 'so what?' test

  The consultation on open standards in government IT is generating a lot of discussion, much of which misses an important point: so what?  Continue Reading

• Open standards are about the business model, not the technology

  Software companies, abuzz with lobbyists and patent lawyers over government open standards, are similar to the record industry 10 years ago.  Continue Reading

• How to get IT right in mergers and acquisitions

  Charlie Mayes offers advice on IT-business integration as mergers and acquisitions begin to take off.  Continue Reading

• An insider's view on the government open standards consultation

  Andy Hopkirk chaired the first public meeting of the government's open standards consultation. He gives his report on the debate.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How can business achieve compliance and security? (Part 1)

  What can businesses do to make regulatory compliance a priority without losing focus on security basics?  Continue Reading

• Collaborating on IT best practices

  It makes business sense for similar organisations to speak to each other and take a more collaborative approach when it comes to their use of IT.  Continue Reading

• Can Raspberry Pi transform the sorry state of IT education?

  Is the $25 Raspberry Pi – a basic computer on a single printed circuit board - capable of transforming the sorry state of IT education in our schools?  Continue Reading

• UK courts show the way on piracy

  The UK courts are taking the right approach to online piracy, says John Moffat, senior attorney at Avidity IP  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

• A place for cloud-based office productivity tools

  Recent research by Freeform Dynamics suggests that a cloud-only approach to office productivity is worth considering.  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Agile development

  Application development leaders are looking to adopt agile computing methods, says a Forrester survey of more than 200 IT executives.  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

• Forrester: Big data – start small, but scale quickly

  At extreme scale, traditional data management and business intelligence become impractical and companies do not get what they demand — more insight to drive greater business performance.  Continue Reading

• Why government needs open source

  The tough economic climate has forced a radical rethink on public sector IT procurement, with decision-makers now on the lookout for more efficient, cost-effective solutions.  Continue Reading

• Seven enablers of effective disaster recovery for SMEs

  This article considers the current status of disaster recover (DR) in small and mid-size businesses (SMEs) and highlights a few simple steps every organisation can take to ensure it is better able to address such challenges.  Continue Reading

• Top 10 project management trends for 2012

  Collaboration is a common theme throughout many of the 2012 top 10 trends for project management, according to a panel of experts.  Continue Reading

• Supporting user-centric computing

  User virtualisation can make life easier for IT departments and users alike.  Continue Reading

• Top tips for avoiding fraud on the internet

  The Serious Organised Crime Agency estimates that online fraud costs internet users £3.5bn per year. Follow these 12 tips on how it can be avoided.  Continue Reading

• Forrester: It's time to take agile to the next level

  Agile development has become very popular, with more than a third of developers citing agile as their primary methodology.  Continue Reading

• A touch of SaaS: Feeling the benefits for mobility

  As internet connections get faster and devices get smaller and more portable, we have seen a sea-change in the definition of a “mobile” workforce.  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

• Is time running out for internet domains?

  The world’s political leaders are taking an unusually intent interest in the technical system of Internet domains’ naming and numbering (the DNS).  Continue Reading

• The fog of software licensing: dissatisfaction reigns - even in clouds

  There are some things in life that you just have to get on with, and in IT one of those is the management and administration of software licences, writes Tony Lock, programme director at Freeform Dynamics.  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

• Back to the future with government ID plans

  The government's new identity scheme promises to put citizens at the centre of online public services, says Centre for Technology Policy Research director Jerry Fishenden.  Continue Reading

• ITSM and social media: maintaining best practice and adding business value

  Following mainstream adoption at the turn of the millennium, ITIL has set the pace for best practice in IT service management (ITSM), writes Patrick Bolger. By providing a practical framework for delivering and supporting IT services, ITIL has ...  Continue Reading

• Can in-memory computing answer the big questions about Big Data?

  Like it or not, the amount of information an organisation will deal with only ever increases, writes Alan Bowling, chairman of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group. This has led to the concept of "Big Data", whereby organisations will increasingly rely ...  Continue Reading

• Rationalising software licencing in the virtual age

  During any consolidation project, software licensing arrangements must be given careful thought. Andrew Buss of Freeform Dynamics discusses the legal and commercial considerations.  Continue Reading

• Unglamorus batch processing is 'the new sexy' for financial services IT

  Sebastien Quoirin, general manager at ORSYP, on why unglamorous batch processing is "the new sexy" for financial services IT  Continue Reading

• Security zone: Extending compliance to the cloud

  Most security and compliance mandates were simply not designed with cloud environments in mind – an unfortunate state of affairs as a huge amount of our data is about to go "cloudwards".  Continue Reading

• How technology can make or break a carve-out

  Technology has long been a critical element of M&A transactions. Handled correctly, it can be a key driver of value, enabling business processes to operate more efficiently, but done incorrectly, it can have devastating consequences  Continue Reading

• 10 steps to get Internet Explorer 9 going

  As more and more companies migrate to Windows 7, the uptake of Internet Explorer 8 and now Internet Explorer 9 is booming - and it needs just as much careful attention. In fact, if you don't have plans in place for IE8 or IE9, it will hold up your ...  Continue Reading

• New assurance standard required for cloud confidence

  One of the perceived inhibitors in the uptake of cloud computing, particularly...  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

• Review: WikiLeaks - Inside Julian Assange's war on secrecy

  The one enduring thing Wikileaks has taught us is that the internet works, if you know what you are doing.  Continue Reading

• Don’t let techno-babble cloud your judgement

  Robert Morgan believes businesses must fully understand what cloud computing actually is and what it means to them as 2011 inevitable brings with it a new wave of cloud hype in the outsourcing sector.  Continue Reading

• Saving money through software asset management

  In the midst of global financial uncertainty, it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to effectively manage and account for their software to help to optimise IT expenditure. A common misconception is that managing software assets is...  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: More effort needed to manage third party connections

  We are increasingly aware that every day new hazards appear on the internet as the software and systems we use continue to develop vulnerabilities at alarming rates. At the same time, businesses crave the new functionality and features found in the ...  Continue Reading

• Youngsters driving the cloud to tipping point, says Rangaswami

  Cloud has reached tipping point in enterprise and the younger generation of employees are driving it. JP Rangaswami, chief scientist at Salesforce.com, talks...  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Plugging the gaps in the government's broadband strategy

  The government has outlined its vision for Britain's superfast broadband service. Chris Conder, who has first-hand experience of community networks, has...  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

• Security Zone: Cloud computing puts the spotlight on security architecture

  Security is still regularly cited as a blocker to the adoption of cloud services, or other shared services, or anything being delivered "as a service". Assurance...  Continue Reading

• Freedom of action: preventing paralysis from risk

  In today's competitive markets, businesses must work increasingly hard to ensure they eliminate incidents of risk that impact company reputation and market...  Continue Reading

• Will a UK technology hub really rival Silicon Valley?

  Earlier this month, prime minister David Cameron set out the government's ambitious plans to create a technology hub to rival Silicon Valley in London's...  Continue Reading

• Clearer visibility of product roadmaps improves IT planning

  Today's organisations are operating at a time when IT budgets are tight and careful planning is essential. At the same time there is an ever-increasing demand on IT to support the business. While many IT departments would like to be more strategic ...  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

• How to fine tune your ERP system and maximise value

  Large organisations have invested a lot in enterprise resource planning software. Although the value of these applications is unquestionable, many still fail to maximise their full functionality.  Continue Reading

• IT Headaches for Continental and United Airlines

  The merger of United and Continental Airlines - soon to be known as United Airlines - will give the new company control of around seven per cent of routes worldwide and a fifth of all US flights.  Continue Reading

• Federated SOA – seven steps to success

  Organisations embarking on large-scale, company-wide service-oriented architecture initiatives should consider a federated approach to minimise costs and risks, while balancing flexibility at a local and organisation level,  Continue Reading

• BI: How to make intelligent use of data

  BI: How to make intelligent use of data Over the past few years the number of businesses implementing business intelligence (BI) projects has grown....  Continue Reading

• Living with Windows 7, six months on

  Six months ago Microsoft began shipping Windows 7. Greg Lambert, chief technical architect at app compatibility specialist Changebase AOK, has worked with some of the world's biggest enterprises supporting their Windows 7 migrations and examines the...  Continue Reading

• How SMEs can use social networking to get their message across

  In today's business environment, the ability to be available online for your users 24/7 is increasingly seen as a given. As a result, companies of all sizes...  Continue Reading

• Finding space and time for continuous data protection

  Finding space and time for continuous data protection Modern day businesses, large and small, now have an insatiable appetite for digital information,...  Continue Reading

• Take control with software asset management

  For most, software asset management (SAM) starts with the aim of establishing an organisation's software licence compliance status  Continue Reading

• Try before you BI: budgeting and reducing costs on business intelligence

  It is good business practice to keep tight control of spending and to minimise costs, but traditional business intelligence (BI) systems make it very hard to follow this rule.  Continue Reading

• E-mail management: keeping the business bloodlines flowing

  IT departments ignoring the growth of e-mail data are putting business continuity at risk, warns Richard Ellis, manager UK & Ireland, Iron Mountain Digital.  Continue Reading

• How to achieve ERP success: part 2 - the software

  How to achieve ERP success  Continue Reading

• Google Chrome OS: A threat to Windows 7?

  Google OS has been warmly embraced by the anti-Microsoft crowd, but Davey Winder is less than blown over by the announcement.  Continue Reading

• A wise Oracle follows the Sun

  As negotiations over the Oracle/Sun merger continue, let's examine what they might have in store for businesses and IT managers with respect to software development  Continue Reading

• Online back-up or cloud recovery?

  Backing up files and data online has been around for quite a while, but it has never really taken off in a big way for business customers. Now new solutions...

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• How to upgrade storage on the cheap

  Increased demands from the business, and in some cases from regulators, are driving an unprecedented rate of storage growth through a need to store more...

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• Microsoft Security Essentials raises baseline security in Windows 7

  The launch of Microsoft Security Essentials should be commended, writes Thorsten Holz, an IEEE member and researcher at the Technical University of Vienna.  Continue Reading

• Desktop OS upgrade options greater than ever

  Windows 7 finally delivers what Vista should have done three years ago. Application issues have all been greatly improved with Windows 7, it works well...

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• Security Zone: How to apply master data management

  Centralised, correct data helps a company operate efficiently. The challenge to consistently present one version of the company's data becomes apparent as businesses increasingly use IT systems to enable their operations and achieve their missions  Continue Reading

• Will Cloud Computing lead to several own goals?

  The new Premiership football season is well under way and every manager is hoping his star talent and ‘squad strength’ will see his team through the late autumn sun to the dark cloudy evenings of winter.  Continue Reading

• Interview: How Firefox won its market share

  Chris Hoffmann, Director of Engineering and Special Projects at the Mozilla Foundation, speaks to Cliff Saran about winning the hearts and minds of internet users and developers.  Continue Reading

• Mixed messages as Microsoft Office comes to the web

  The on-premise walls are crumbling. Microsoft's Office Web Apps are now in public technical preview - though currently for US customers only - which means that users can now create, edit and view Office documents using only a web browser.  Continue Reading

• Five benefits of virtualisation

  Difficult economic times are a challenge for everyone, writes Hamish Macarthur, founder of Macarthur Stroud International. IT managers must keep service levels high while reducing costs, get more out of the same or fewer resources and take on ...  Continue Reading

• A guide to storage decommissioning

  Organisations should be in a position to decommission their older storage equipment  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Engineering values in IT could mean error-free software

  A report published by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) on 31 July raises important issues for everyone who works in the UK computer industry or who relies on its products or services.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Google Chrome OS: the web's the thing

  Google's timing is immaculate. Just when Microsoft is trying to get us excited again about Windows and Office, it announces its own operating system, called Google Chrome OS, initially targeting netbooks and to be released in the second half of 2010.  Continue Reading

• Google Chrome OS: We love the cloud

  Google is building a cloud-based empire for enterprise IT. Chrome OS is its latest effort to launch into the cloud and offer a viable alternative to Microsoft's dominance down on the desktop.  Continue Reading

• Seven ways to reduce SAP licensing fees

  Given today's recession, companies are taking a harder look at their ongoing costs. IT executives are being challenged to innovate within current budget...

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• Opinion: Could the Air France crash have been related to on-board computer systems?

  In the aftermath of the Air France Airbus 330 airliner crash in to the Atlantic, questions are once again being raised about the safety of flying by onboard computer systems.  Continue Reading

• Making the cloud real

  Despite the hype and the surveys that show client disinterest in cloud computing, it has the potential to deliver a significant part of the future of...

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• Are we blind to the dangers lurking in the cloud?

  The cloud - the combination of Software as a Service (SaaS) and the increasing use made by business of the public (web-based) IT infrastructure out there - is being heralded as the key way organisations can reduce investment in running their own ...  Continue Reading

• Oracle's Sun acquisition secures the future of Java, says UKOUG

  Oracle to secure the future of Java Why has Oracle bought Sun? I doubt it was for its hardware manufacturing capability. Oracle has an ecosystem too...  Continue Reading

• Stop data storage from putting a spanner in IT integration

  Santander's acquisition of Alliance & Leicester, the nationalisation of Northern Rock - some of our major financial institutions are being merged, acquired or nationalised at a rate none of us would have predicted…  Continue Reading

• How to implement an SOA governance strategy

  A key factor for successfully introducing and operating a service oriented architecture (SOA) is governance of the architecture's components, such as services and processes…  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Defining moments in web history

  Glyn Moody was Computer Weekly’s first web columnist. Here he recounts the key events in the webs 20 year history.  Continue Reading

• £1bn for single customer view could be money well spent for banks

  News that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is demanding that banks spend £1bn upgrading their IT systems  Continue Reading

• Bring IT to account for its actions

  As enterprise application software is used more and more to automate complex business processes, organisations expose themselves to a new set of risks that are introduced by having their mission-critical operations reliant upon IT and, more ...  Continue Reading

• Diminishing Cobol skills – there is an alternative

  It was recently reported that the government of California was having trouble implementing spending cuts because of a lack of skilled Cobol programmers. The state wanted to cut wages, but its payroll system is written in Cobol and the lack of Cobol ...  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Measurement is a missing management skill

  By Greg Todd Organisations want to leverage analytics as a way to move ahead with less cost.  Continue Reading

• Businesses should not be afraid of social networking

  Many businesses have already realised the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and wikis and are now looking to strengthen their communications...

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• Defining cloud computing

  Four key behaviours indicate whether an infrastructure can be defined as cloud computing

  Defining cloud computing

  Cloud computing is a deployment...

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• Universities must adopt Web 2.0

  Web 2.0 university systems are helping to change the way education is delivered, writes Steven Hipwell is an IT Officer at Birmingham City University. Universities...

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• EIM: the changing face of BI

  Information lies at the heart of good decision-making and organisations have turned business intelligence (BI) tools to do so. BI is evolving though  Continue Reading

• Making the most of SMB opportunities

  Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the UK have increased their spending...  Continue Reading

• Email blunders, messaging mishaps and more: Your stories...

  Many people have fallen foul of the ‘email quarantine trap’, or have mistakenly sent the wrong email to the wrong person. Well, we asked for your stories - and you certainly had plenty of blunders to share!  Continue Reading

• Microsoft licensing programme promises bigger software discounts

  Microsoft is launching a new enterprise...  Continue Reading

• Focus on the quality of software projects

  Businesses are spending more money on software development as the complexity of applications increases.  Continue Reading

• Macs and Malware

  Everybody but the anti-virus industry "knows" that there aren't any Mac viruses, so what, if anything, does an IT team need to do about Apple Macintosh security?...

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• Programming and development blogs: ComputerWeekly.com IT Blog Awards 08

  Help us to identify the best IT blogs in the UK by voting for your favourite in the Programming and Technical category.  Continue Reading

• Web 2.0 and business blogs: ComputerWeekly.com IT Blog Awards 08

  Help us to identify the best IT blogs in the UK by voting for your favourite in the Web 2.0 and Business category.  Continue Reading

• What has Bill Gates ever done for us? Readers have their say

  Gates opened up the market to easy-to-use software

  Stephen Boulten, head of IT, Leek United Building Society

  Bill Gates and Microsoft produced...

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• Bill Gates: looking back on the road ahead

  At the end of June, Bill Gates will finally stop doing the job he loves in order to concentrate on his philanthropic foundation. It is the end of an era that started with Microsoft Basic in 1975, continued with MS DOS in 1981, and exploded after ...  Continue Reading

• ComputerWeekly.com IT blog awards 08

  Computer Weekly has launched a search for the best UK IT blogs, with its first ever IT blog awards.  Continue Reading