Opinion

Opinion

• Social media: the tiger the senior Civil Servant must ride

  The exclusive thoughts of Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom, permanent Secretary at Large and Her Majesty’s Government’s Data Sharing Czar.  Continue Reading

• Vendor consolidation, with help from cloud, shapes the storage market

  Vendor consolidation is shaping the storage industry, with large storage vendors dominating. Find out how cloud technology is likely to speed this concentration.  Continue Reading

• Providing work experience to close the skills gap - give IT to those who want IT

  Many IT employers still complain of a lack of suitable recruits on the job market. What role could work experience play in closing the IT skills gap?  Continue Reading

• Universities behind the automation curve

  Universities and Colleges have spent millions on technology over the past 10 years and yet they are still handling their day-to-day operations manually or semi-manually.  Continue Reading

• Women in Technology: Learning the rules of a boys' game

  Maria Ingold, CTO of FilmFlex Movies, shares her experience of working in the male-dominated technology industry  Continue Reading

• UK must invest in skills to ensure future IT innovation

  Young people may learn how to use PowerPoint at school, but they lack the innovative ICT skills businesses really need  Continue Reading

• How to prepare for proposed EU data protection regulation

  The proposed EU data protection framework is under scrutiny and debate, but there are practical steps that companies could usefully be considering now.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How to prepare for EU data protection rules (part 7)

  The changes to the EU data protection laws are intended to simplify what has become a quagmire of differing standards derived from existing legislation  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How to prepare for EU data protection rules (part 6)

  With the new EU Directives for Data Protection knocking on the door of organisations, it is time to wake up and prepare for the data privacy law changes  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

• Security Think Tank: How to prepare for EU data protection rules (part 5)

  There is consensus among members of The Corporate IT Forum that while proposed changes to data protection regulation might lead to greater consistency in the handling of personal data across the EU, ratification without any amendment could add ...  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

• Security Think Tank: How should UK business prepare for EU data protection rules? (part 4)

  There are eight main areas of the proposed EU data protection framework organisations should note, according to global IT security association ISACA  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

• Security Think Tank: How to prepare for EU data protection rules (part 3)

  If your CIO has little board input or budget responsibilities, now is the time to make these changes – to empower the CIO with budget responsibility and board influence  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How to prepare for EU data protection rules (part 2)

  Proposed changes to the existing EU Data Protection Directive aim to unify the existing legislation of each EU Member State, theoretically making it easier for businesses to transfer data throughout the EU and beyond  Continue Reading

• Registering improvements in IT service management

  If you stay where you are then in effect you will be going backwards - so it is for IT service provision.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Adopting cloud services with confidence

  Cloud-based services are highly attractive to many organisations. But what are the emerging issues you need to know about?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How should UK businesses prepare for EU data protection rules?

  The European General Data Protection Regulation represents the most significant change to data protection in the UK and EU since 1995. The ISF, working with its members, has identified the top five actions to take  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

• Identity management: helping to stay one step ahead of cyber criminals

  The increase in high-profile cyber attacks has shown that basic security perimeters have been breached. Identity management is part of the solution.  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

• Incident non-disclosure amounts to hiding facts from shareholders

  It’s time Indian regulators recognize security incidents as a business risk, and make it mandatory for organizations to disclose risks and incidents.  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

• Mobile devices: balancing security and morale

  In today's ever-evolving world of new gadgets, devices and connected technologies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep a cap on the new risks that arise on a daily basis, writes Clint Merritt, CISSP, senior information security analyst for...  Continue Reading

• Social media and IT support - which side is your bread buttered?

  While IT underpins the social media revolution, IT managers are only scratching the surface when it comes to using these tools to improve IT service and support.  Continue Reading

• How big storage vendors can win the server-side flash wars

  With Fusion-io up against EMC’s Project Lightning, it’s becoming clear how the big array vendors can win the server-side flash wars in the battle to speed storage I/O.  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

• How to be headhunted

  The best candidate for a job might be happy in their current role and not actively on the job market - but still the target for a headhunter.  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

• Security Think Tank: Challenges and opportunities of smartphone security policy (part 8)

  The use of smartphones in the workplace brings many benefits to organisations, but also risks. Increasingly, users want to experience the functionality available to them in their private lives in their professional lives, and certainly businesses ...  Continue Reading

• The top seven mistakes IT executives make

  Global IT spending is forecast to increase slightly this year. But will IT executives spend the money effectively?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: What are the challenges/opportunities of smartphone security policy? (part 7)

  Smartphones have become wide spread in both the consumer and business realms. More importantly, employees expect they can hold just one device for their everyday use thus the boundary between personal and business usage is diminishing. The companies...  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Challenges and opportunities of smartphone security policy (part 6)

  The main rising challenge for many businesses is that of bring your own device (BYOD) and the related issues, the key issue (as always) being that of the data. And in particular, how the ownership of the data on the device is agreed, or at least ...  Continue Reading

• Reach out to children to secure tomorrow's workplace

  Organisations should be working with current knowledge of how behaviour is changing in the workplace  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Challenges and opportunities of smartphone security policy (part 5)

  There are security challenges throughout the whole smartphone lifecycle, from device creation and marketing, through purchase, implementation and operation, to the eventual recycling or destruction of the device.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Challenges and opportunities of smartphone security policy (part 4)

  In many ways, smartphones can be more secure operating platforms than PCs, but there is one major policy issue that needs to be dealt with first, writes John Pescatore, vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Challenges and opportunities of smartphone security policy (part 3)

  The smartphone – and tablet – revolution offers organisations new ways of performing their work and realising tangible benefits. They offer new paths to gain business and competitive advantage by creating new customer services and experiences, and ...  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

• Security Think Tank: What are the challenges/opportunities of smartphone security policy? (part 2)

  The main challenge of the smartphone is keeping it and its contents safe, writes Peter Wenham, committee member of the BCS Security Forum strategic panel and director of information assurance consultancy Trusted Management.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Challenges and opportunities of smartphone security policy

  Employees using their personal smartphones for work present added pressures to keep the network secure.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Security and collaboration – we're In this together

  2011 saw a shift in targets and attack vectors. Smaller targets with fewer defences, and more external sources earmark the reported breaches last year  Continue Reading

• Why consumer habits are changing retail IT strategies

  Graham Benson, CIO of online clothing business M&M direct, discusses the reason why consumer habits must change retail IT strategies.  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

• IT industry must play its part in improving IT in schools

  IT in schools has been in the news recently with the UK government announcing the withdrawing of the GCSE ICT curriculum and the debate around the Royal Society report focusing on the lack of computer science teachers.  Continue Reading

• What computers can't do

  Sorry to rain on your parade, but computers can't transform education any more than social media can depose dictators.  Continue Reading

• Innovation's dirty little secret

  Innovation has a dirty little secret. It is unspoken, so swept under the carpet that most executives are unaware of it: breakthroughs don't really pay.  Continue Reading

• M-commerce: Why CIOs need to manage the risk

  CIOs will need to manage four key risks if they want their businesses to benefit from the growth in mobile commerce.  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

• itSMF UK: Back to reality in 2012

  Wherever you stand on the optimist/pessimist scale, the beginning of a new year is always an opportunity to look ahead.  Continue Reading

• Five ways to improve your IT project management

  Project management and the IT industry go together like jam and toast. But not all project management is good project management.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Cloud, mobility, social among top infosec challeges for 2012, says ISACA

  What is the most important nut for infosec to crack in the coming year and why? Global IT security association ISACA gives its views.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: 2012 must bring security for the internet of things, says BCS

  The reality is that no IT security issue ever gets solved for all time - it is a race without end between attackers and defenders, says the BCS.  Continue Reading

• Network prediction: Has the networking industry changed in a decade?

  Network architect and Ethereal Mind blogger Greg Ferro reflects on how little has changed over ten years in his latest network prediction for the UK. Network security risks remain problematic  Continue Reading

• Mobile security among top priorities for 2012

  Solving security issues relating to the use of mobile technologies will be among the most pressing priorities for businesses in 2012.  Continue Reading

• Security skills gap to become crucial in 2012, says (ISC)2

  The emerging threat in the developing cybersecurity skills gap is an issue (ISC)2 has highlighted throughout 2011, and 2012 will be the year when industry really begins to feel it, particularly in London with the Olympic Games coming to town.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Supply chain security should be top goal in 2012, says ISF

  The most important thing to achieve in information security in 2012 is supply chain security, writes Adrian Davis, principal research analyst at in Information Security Forum (ISF).  Continue Reading

• Supporting user-centric computing

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

• Recession could spell the triumph of the cloud service provider

  Recessions provide the strongest possible impulse to cut costs. Will this mean the death of the in-house IT department and the triumph of the cloud service provider?  Continue Reading

• International collaboration key for infosecurity in 2012

  Outgoing year 2011 has been turbulent and eventful for information security, with a number of high-profile security incidents and an increase in cybercrime, and there is no indication that 2012 is going to be any different.  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

• Businesses face tough EC data protection laws

  If leaks are to be believed, a proposed European Commission law will require countries to adopt stringent new data protection measures.  Continue Reading

• Shared storage model faces challenges from virtual servers

  Virtual servers are exerting pressure to change on the storage ecosystem, challenging even the fundamental model of shared storage.  Continue Reading

• Making industrialisation work

  Industrialisation represents a relentless drive to discover how an activity is optimally done, then doing it in exactly the same way every time.  Continue Reading

• Need ideas for improvement? Ask your customers

  Continual service improvement is a key tenet of IT service management and a fundamental part of the ITIL service lifecycle.  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

• Time for small companies to get secure

  Computer Weekly recently hosted two executive roundtable dinner debates, in association with Dell SecureWorks, to discuss IT security challenges with IT directors from SMEs.  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

• How to stay on top of IT training and development

  In an increasingly competitive world, IT professionals need to keep their knowledge and skills up to date while organisations seek to retain their top talent.  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

• TLC flash could relegate spinning disk to the background

  Solid-state drives are currently blocked in their quest for dominance by cost and wear limits, but could TLC flash overcome such challenges and deal a blow to spinning disk?  Continue Reading

• A lifetime in technology

  Tom Wills-Sandford, deputy director general of Intellect, the trade body for the technology industry, retires at the end of 2011 after 49 years in the industry. Computer Weekly invited him to look back on his career and what has changed.  Continue Reading

• The real risk of cyber attack on unsecured networks

  New revelations of the cyber threat to government and business identify the risk of attack even when stopping for a cup of coffee.  Continue Reading

• Why trust is a big deal for UK companies

  The Technology Strategy Board is working with businesses across the ICT sector to ensure they are developing secure information assurance products.  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2011: IT definitely matters - a thank you

  On Friday 7 October, more than 800 people from the IT and business communities slept out across the UK to raise vital funds for Action for Children.  Continue Reading

• Poor corporate data quality strategy impedes business progress

  Data quality at today’s corporations is perennially poor, according to MDM expert Andy Hayler. And yet only a minority of corporates have DQ technologies.  Continue Reading

• Establishing the profession of IT service management

  Are you a service management professional? Or an IT professional specialising in service management? Either way the number of people who consider IT service management (ITSM) a true profession has grown exponentially over the last few years.  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2011: The generous generation

  Technology is turning young people to donate to charity in new ways - helping the IT industry's annual Byte Night fundraising event.  Continue Reading

• ITIL 2011: it’s how you use it that counts

  ITIL, the UK government-owned guidance on IT service management best practice, has been widely adopted across the IT industry since it first appeared, but what has its latest update achieved?  Continue Reading

• Top skills for IT managers - Part 6: Change management

  Mergers, acquisitions, redundancies and other organisational changes often create anxiety and uncertainty because such business changes affect every level of an organisation.  Continue Reading

• What identity management strategies should enterprises deploy for cloud environments?

  The identity management strategies enterprises should be deploying to ensure they meet the security challenges of an increasingly connected and cloud-based business environment.  Continue Reading

• Online monitoring: An undemocratic move for Internet control

  Infosec expert Dinesh Bareja speaks about the Indian government’s directive to Telco’s to monitor Internet traffic in the country.  Continue Reading

• The SME security challenge

  Over the years, research findings have consistently demonstrated widespread exposure to risk when it comes to data protection and security among smaller businesses, writes Dale Vile, managing director of Freeform Dynamics.  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Measuring security maturity in the supply chain

  Experts provide valuable advice on how organisations can measure the security maturity in their supply chains and apply the results to improve their overall security posture.  Continue Reading

• Business-critical projects ensure strong IT recruitment despite economic fears

  There has been a distinct split between organisations favouring caution and avoiding permanent recruitment, while others have continued to implement strategic and operational plans intended to support organisations' future success.  Continue Reading

• Round table: Data management and the cloud

  Our round table of experts considers the question of what are the benefits and drawbacks of deploying database systems in the cloud.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Utilising a dedicated network test team to enhance security and reduce vulnerability

  In recent times we have witnessed multiple successful attacks on the network and infrastructure at various large organisations, writes Mugdha Raje, member of the Ethernet Testing and Certification group at AT&T Labs.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Evolution of incident response

  During the internet's infancy, threats generally targeted a large, random audience. "Script kiddies" and "crackers" were the main culprits and their motivation stemmed from boredom to their need for recognition among their peers, writes Christopher ...  Continue Reading

• Does it make sense to spend more on government IT than on Wales?

  How would you describe an organisation losing £164bn every year on £585bn revenue with a net position already £1.2tn in debt? If this were a private company, the polite answer would be "no longer trading". But this is the state of affairs faced by ...  Continue Reading

• Court ruling on self-employed contracts could make IT managers liable for tax bill

  Many IT workers who should be considered "employed" are working on a self-employed basis and, in the light of a Supreme Court ruling, this could unexpectedly land IT managers with tax and National Insurance bills.  Continue Reading

• Video: The psychologist spam king – social engineering evolves

  Sometimes, there are random pieces of information we never forget. Important information, such as birthdays, or even validation that you turned off the oven or locked the front door, can be replaced by an IP address used years earlier or a funny ...  Continue Reading

• Proposed Digital Copyright Exchange IP database could ease software licensing

  As part of its review into the suitability of IP laws for the market, the government is considering providing access to a digital marketplace where users can search for and purchase licences to use copyright. The Digital Copyright Exchange (DCE) is ...  Continue Reading

• 3G review: Is next-generation mobile broadband ready for business?

  Mobile broadband has undergone a makeover of late. Developments in technology, increased competition and falling prices mean it is getting easier to work on the road using a mobile dongle. The question still remains, however, should more businesses ...  Continue Reading

• ICANN's expansion of domain names suffixes: the benefits and disadvantages to businesses

  ICANN is to allow limitless variations of domain suffixes, and, organisations can apply for gTLDs containing almost any word in any script or language". Are custom gTLDs set to dramatically change the internet landscape?  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

• The importance of mutual understanding: A faster track to business alignment and satisfied users

  The benefits of a service-centric approach to IT tend to come back to IT in numerous ways - users are happier, the business functions more effectively, and in return IT tends to receive both more funding and freedom to develop, writes Andrew Buss, ...  Continue Reading

• Top skills for IT managers - Part 5: Coaching and mentoring

  It is no secret that people tend to absorb only 10% of their knowledge from formal training, 20% from working with role models and 70% from on-the-job experiences. In other words, people learn best by observing a master at work, then applying those ...  Continue Reading