Opinion

Opinion

• Computer Weekly bloggers face up to 2008

  At the end of 2007, we asked Computer Weekly's band of bloggers to prognosticate for 2008.  Continue Reading

• The possibilities of an XML-based information delivery framework on the desktop

  JustSystems has released xfy Technology, possibly the first XML-based information delivery framework on the desktop. David Norfolk looks at what this software is capable of.  Continue Reading

• IT staff fear cost of sub-prime lending on jobs market

  The losses from lending to "sub-prime" borrowers who were a poor credit risk are racking up. UBS has declared losses of around £6.5bn, Citigroup £5.5bn and Morgan Stanley almost £5bn. UK high-street banks are not exempt: Barclays has written off ...  Continue Reading

• Data privacy must become a corporate priority

  Breaching data privacy can cause substantial financial loss The data breach at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which placed 25 million people at risk...  Continue Reading

• Effective integration does not require the latest technology

  Whether it is SOA, BPM, or EDI, solving integration challenges is more about rigorous business management than the latest technology.  Continue Reading

• Security zone: the trouble with testing anti-malware

  Testing products that detect malware are important to the integrity of anti-virus products, but there are several problems that need to be overcome  Continue Reading

• Become a political animal to succeed as a CIO

  If you are an IT manager, it is probable that you are a highly intelligent person with significant cognitive (left brain) capabilities. This will have been your passport into the IT profession. However, there is another set of capabilities that will...  Continue Reading

• The construction industry is waking up to the Benefits of IT

  In general, the construction industry has been reluctant to embrace the benefits of IT. However, builders are now beginning to be dragged into the 21st century by the need to collaborate more closely with their more IT-savvy colleagues, the ...  Continue Reading

• Next move: moving beyond project management

  The question: how do I move beyond project management?  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: DB 9.5

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

• The role of computer literacy in skills pinch

  For the past 20 years or more, the UK has had skills shortages. In every sector there are complaints about everything from basic literacy and numeracy, to specific sector skills.  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 18 December 2007

  Catch up with the events from Bogcaster City Council  Continue Reading

• Wired or wireless for the enterprise? (Part 2)

  In the second part of our "wired or wireless for the enterprise?" discussion, Steve Broadhead, director of Broadband Testing Labs, speaks to three wireless experts about where the technology is heading.  Continue Reading

• Preparing for PoE Plus and Energy Efficient Ethernet

  Power over Ethernet has been around for some time, but the standard is evolving and this could have implications for designing corporate networks, writes Carrie Higbie, president of the Blade Systems Alliance.  Continue Reading

• Companies Act 2006 will bring IT closer to business

  The Companies Act 2006, which comes into force in October 2009, is reminiscent of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US. Sarbanes-Oxley has impinged mightily on the working lives of British IT professionals working for companies listed in the US, so...  Continue Reading

• Your shout: readers share their views

  Missing CDs, HSBC's fraud initiative, Abbey's system problems, social engineering  Continue Reading

• We must beware the offshoring skills wave

  For some years, CEOs have sought to divest the parts of their business that have become commoditised, and therefore of limited competitive advantage, writes David Roberts, chief executive of the Corporate IT Forum.  Continue Reading

• How to nurture innovation in your business

  "Entrepreneurship within the world's largest businesses is just as important as that displayed by enterprising start-ups," says Peter Grigg, principal policy adviser at the Make Your Mark campaign, which aims to create an enterprise culture among ...  Continue Reading

• Broadband: Wired or wireless for the enterprise?

  Broadband: Weighing up the benefits of alternative broadband infrastructures Wired or wireless for the enterprise?  Continue Reading

• DPM's Diary: 27 November 2007

  Catch up with events from Bogcaster Council  Continue Reading

• Know who you are dealing with when outsourcing

  What makes some outsourcing arrangements successful, while others fail at the first hurdle? To identify the reasons behind outsourcing success and, conversely, failure, sourcing consultancy Quantum Plus and law firm Bird & Bird surveyed people ...  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 20 November

  Catch up with the events from Bogcaster Council  Continue Reading

• Profile your IT department's DNA

  IT is the most negative corporate department regarding the way the company is run and its characteristics. But why is the IT department so pessimistic?  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 13 November 2007

  Catch up with the events from Bogcaster Council  Continue Reading

• Your shout: skills, Mifid, shared services, IT processes

  Your shout: readers have their say  Continue Reading

• How to take your IT systems global

  Global IT can result in cost and efficiency savings  Continue Reading

• Secure a top-level role with soft skills

  Robina Chatham of Cranfield School of Management shares her experience of using people skills and networking to ensure projects run smoothly and to increase your value to the business.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Mifid, the UK's education system, IT estate measurement, political representation of IT

  Mifid, the UK's education system, IT estate measurement, political representation of IT, NHS data sharing  Continue Reading

• Getting IT back on political agenda

  Twenty five years ago IT was seen as the "meta-technology" of the future and punched well above its weight politically. Today, society is critically dependent on online systems, but the political influence of the IT community is negligible.  Continue Reading

• Downtime: police cut music at source with sting operation

  Downtime: the lighter side of IT  Continue Reading

• Downtime: Drunken photos really are worth their weight in gold

  Downtime: the lighter side of IT  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly blogs

  ComputerWeekly.com’s authoritative blogs cover some of the key issues facing IT decision maker’s today, from security to risk management and the challenges posed by project management.  Continue Reading

• DPM's Diary 23 October 2007

  The reverberations from last week's Asslic conference continue  Continue Reading

• Hot skills : Rise of Ajax drives demand for Javascript developers

  Scripting language enables rich internet applications  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 16 October 2007

  Monday: I Aawoke uncertain as to where I was. Indeed, it was a good few minutes before I was sure who I was. There are...  Continue Reading

• Your shout: encryption, Northern Rock's website, C# skills shortage

  Readers share their views on encryption, Northern Rock's website, C# skills shortage  Continue Reading

• Application virtualisation: the next big thing?

  Just when you thought there could not possibly be yet another conference on virtualisation, more flyers arrive through the electronic letterbox.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Vista apps delay, virtualised apps, asset management, security spending

  Vista apps delay, virtualised apps, asset management, security spending  Continue Reading

• Cauldron of opportunity

  Technology innovation at the London Stock Exchange distils and magnifies the business-meets-IT issues and opportunities that exercise all IT professionals.  Continue Reading

• Tips for IT project success: beware technology obsession

  As systems professionals, we are often greatly enthused by new or emergent technologies, tools or techniques. We also have a natural inclination to reach for the technology button when confronted with a major process challenge. Understandably so, as...  Continue Reading

• Secure IT is critical to the modern law firm

  Law firms make massive use of technology - anyone still under the quill-pen illusion should prepare themselves to be disillusioned.  Continue Reading

• Remember lessons of 9/11

  The phrase "September 11" will always fail to do justice to its referent. In the months that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center, many a jaded IT journalist found themselves automatically deleting press releases that included the phrase ...  Continue Reading

• Sharing from the bottom up

  Government IT projects are prone to overreach themselves, inspired, as they often are, by a faith in technology for technology's sake.  Continue Reading

• US iPhone hacker eyes a more cerebral challenge

  Hacking the brain should be simple for George Hotz (aka geohot), the 17-year-old student who first unlocked Apple's iPhone, making it usable on GSM networks other than AT&T's.  Continue Reading

• Wife severs husband’s ties to the internet

  Internet addiction remains a controversial topic. There is little agreement on the nature of the problem and even less agreement on how it should be treated.  Continue Reading

• Safe money placed on US victory in war against flu

  US banks are planning to simulate a flu pandemic to see how financial services are affected by widespread staff absences. It will be interesting to hear how things turn out.  Continue Reading

• Big Blue faces legal battle as server takes a tumble

  IBM is being sued for the cost of a £700,000 server that was written off after being dropped by a forklift truck. US contractor TR Systems is suing IBM, claiming that poor packaging caused the severe damage to the server, which occurred in transit ...  Continue Reading

• Time, the great concealer

  The general media has a limited appetite for the disclosure of "historic" information. Computer Weekly has been registering evidence that the UK government is becoming evermore skilful in playing on that lassitude and laziness.  Continue Reading

• Reveal the elephant: seven wonders of IT

  Do not let project failures obscure IT's successes  Continue Reading

• Big ideas for global gains

  Discussion of globalisation in the IT press seldom rises above the level of the merits and demerits of outsourcing. There is a tendency to isolate particular elements of globalisation, without relating them to each other to produce a coherent ...  Continue Reading

• Comment: high salaries, high stakes for government CIOs

  That three central government CIOs earn more than the prime minister tempts one to choose between the sins of envy and pride. Let's plump for pride.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Britain must nurture its IT entrepreneurs

  First Tuesday founder Julie Meyer argues that it is a great time to be an entrepreneur working with technology, with the internet offering a ready-made, fast-track gateway to an unrivalled user base.  Continue Reading

• IT projects won't succeed if we all keep doing the same old thing

  We have all read the headlines about failed IT projects which appear to be endemic in all industry sectors from financial services to telecoms, but why do we keep reading about these problems? The simple reason is we are not getting the basics right...  Continue Reading

• Learn from mistakes made in US security

  Think the US does IT security best? Think again  Continue Reading

• Your shout: readers share their views on the National Audit Office, start-ups and outsourcing

  Readers share their views on IT issues  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 24 July 2007

  Weekly round-up of events at Bogcaster Council...  Continue Reading

• Your shout: NHS IT, the value trap, NPfIT

  Readers discuss working in IT for the NHS, CIOs stuck in the value trap and the NPFIT in the light of recent terror attacks  Continue Reading

• Invitation to innovate

  Amid the moans about skills shortages, and a general raging against the dying of the light in the UK IT community, it is heartening to know that the heartbeat of technology innovation is still strong.  Continue Reading

• NHS IT: an open letter to Gordon Brown

  Senior IT industry figure Robin Guenier sets out some simple steps that the incoming prime minister could take to transform the £12.4bn National Programme for IT in the NHS and make a real difference to clinical care  Continue Reading

• Better to be safe than sorry with security

  CIOs must take action now to avoid problems later  Continue Reading

• Time for NHS to take stock

  With the announcement of Richard Granger's departure, there is a danger that the NHS's £12.4bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will sink into oblivion  Continue Reading

• DPM's diary: 19 June 2007

  Weekly round up of events at Bogcaster Council...  Continue Reading

• Downtime: Nasa, Tim Berners-Lee, botnets

  A lighter take on Nasa's IT difficulties, Tim Berners-Lee's Order of Merit, and the FBI's advice regarding botnets  Continue Reading

• PCI: a lesson worth sharing

  Large UK retailers, such as John Lewis and Tesco, have shown a relaxed, in control, strategic approach to meeting the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.  Continue Reading

• There is more to business success than technology

  We regularly hear that "there is no such thing as an IT project, only business initiatives." But we do not need to look far to find business initiatives being managed as IT projects.  Continue Reading

• No, minister

  We are a self-effacing crew at Computer Weekly. It is, therefore, with some colour flushing our cheeks that we rise to stammer out a rebuttal of a remark made by the minister of state for public health, Caroline Flint, about one of our number.  Continue Reading

• Secrecy and abuse of trust

  Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, said of the Freedom of Information Act, "The more there is a culture of openness, the better decision-making will be." He promised a "change in way we are governed" because "real, informed accountability improves ...  Continue Reading

• Security begins with the reception desk

  A security policy is no help if nobody is listening  Continue Reading

• Don't ignore Wi-Fi worries

  The concerns raised by the BBC TV Panorama report on the possible dangers of Wi-Fi in schools is just the latest manifestation of society's simultaneous enthusiasm for and fear of new technology.  Continue Reading

• Brown must cut red tape

  UK businesses face an ever-growing mountain of legislation. Although the more ludicrous moves - such as the spy in your rubbish bin - are understandably ridiculed in the national press, much of this is well-intended.  Continue Reading

• Action is the deal on Naked Leader's blog

  The Deal is the latest blog to launch on ComputerWeekly.com - and one with a twist. David Taylor, author of The Naked Leader, said, "My blog won't be about discussion and debate, but about action."  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly's campaign for NHS openness awarded

  Computer Weekly has won the publishing world's "Oscar" for campaigning journalism in recognition of our fight for an independent and published review of the NHS's £12.4bn National Programme for IT.  Continue Reading

• Your shout: SLAs must focus on business, data protection, agile methods could boost NHS IT scheme

  Computer Weekly's readers give their views on the weeks news  Continue Reading

• Plan now for a power grab

  Much has been said about businesses becoming more energy efficient to tackle climate change, but energy demands could become a deal breaker in the datacentre for much more immediate reasons.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: The perilous path to project management

  Taking a specialist's ability on trust can be costly  Continue Reading

• Web conferencing: How will it affect the relationship between Cisco and Microsoft

  Cisco's entrance into the web conferencing market, with its acquisition of WebEx, could spell the end of a beautiful friendship.  Continue Reading

• Business and education must unite to tackle IT skills shortage

  A lack of graduates and A-level IT entrants threatens business.  Continue Reading

• Report exposes stark reality of NHS IT

  Alan Shackman, an expert in NHS IT and contributor to the Public Accounts Committee report on the National Programme, gives his take on the way forward for the scheme  Continue Reading

• Information security: Who can you trust?

  There is no single answer to internet authentication, and businesses must employ different internal systems to meet requirements  Continue Reading

• Government must step up open source adoption

  Public sector called to action  Continue Reading

• We must utilise the younger generation

  Give young people a chance to prove their worth  Continue Reading

• Criticism and opportunity for NHS IT

  Five years into the NHS's National Programme for IT a Public Accounts Committee report has depicted the scheme as a failure.  Continue Reading

• The human factor is key to good security

  Forget about attacks through your firewall. What about the guy who phones up the IT helpdesk, pretends to be a senior manager and gains access to your information that way? This is social engineering - exploiting human vulnerabilities rather than ...  Continue Reading

• Newer is not always better

  It is good to see older systems still going strong in spite of all the efforts of IT suppliers to encourage users to upgrade to the latest version.  Continue Reading

• We must turn 'nerd' into badge of honour

  Why would any young person not wearing an anorak seek a career in IT? Traditionally the defining reasons for young people embarking on any career have been three-fold: their excitement with the subject, their academic inclination or ability, and the...  Continue Reading

• The best ways to renegotiate your outsourcing deal

  If you have an outsourcing contract, the chances are that at some stage you will need to consider some form of renegotiation. Up to three-quarters of all outsourcing deals are renegotiated at some point, and this figure is rising.  Continue Reading

• A clear case for operating system harmony

  There was scepticism last year when arch-rivals Microsoft and Novell signed an alliance which would see Microsoft sell and support Linux systems.  Continue Reading

• High price of failing to tighten IT security

  Security policies are useless if not backed by action, says Kenneth Mullen  Continue Reading

• Your shout: Serious videoconferencing, IT nexus of business change

  Computer Weekly readers have their say  Continue Reading

• Integration is key to effective VoIP

  A "quick fix" view of VoIP implementation can lead to problems relating to quality, compliance and complexity. Even for small firms a strategic approach is vital  Continue Reading

• Legacy IT support in the takeover age

  Oracle has been out shopping again and is to buy business intelligence software firm Hyperion for £1.7bn.  Continue Reading

• A relationship that's in need of improving

  IT knowledge has to be matched with people skills, says Shirley Redpath  Continue Reading

• Productivity - why can't the UK keep up?

  We must look to US methods to make most of IT  Continue Reading

• IT systems evolve, but the challenges remain

  The hurdles faced by PC pioneers in delivering affordable, usable and manageable computers are still very much at the heart of modern IT  Continue Reading

• What's stopping CIOs from getting the top jobs?

  Neil Pullen, managing director of interim management and executive search firm Freestone, talks about the ambitious new mood of today’s CIOs  Continue Reading

• Videoconferencing is a technology to watch

  Business communications can benefit from video  Continue Reading

• Embrace the new era of IT

  The past 40 years have witnessed a steady transformation in the way computers are used and who has ultimate control over IT.  Continue Reading

• Making a case for VoIP

  End-user education and acceptance is the key to realising the full business benefits of converged voice and data networks  Continue Reading

• How IT can bridge the gap with business

  Aligning business and IT is a four-stage process  Continue Reading

• Time to put security first

  With each new generation of software, it seems that designers introduce yet more challenges for IT security - usually in the name of "usability" or "productivity".  Continue Reading