Data centre
Deciding where and how to build and operate a datacentre is one of the most important decisions your organisation will make. This section covers how to build a solid datacentre infrastructure, including selecting the right location to build your new facility, best practices for designing a new datacentre, and cooling and air flow techniques. Learn about green IT, data management systems, servers and operating systems.
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News
22 Jul 2025
Colt targets crypto traders with low-latency connectivity
Connectivity service aims to give digital asset traders and enterprises deploying AI applications a performance edge by connecting cloud regions faster than native backbones Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2025
Datadog doubles down on APAC, targets faster growth
The observability tools supplier is executing a multi-year growth plan for Asia-Pacific and Japan, focusing on data residency, localisation and AI-driven observability to grow its market share Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2025
CMA told to expedite action against AWS and Microsoft to rebalance UK cloud market
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a summary of the final conclusions it has reached following the completion of its long-running probe into the inner workings of the UK cloud infrastructure services market Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2025
Microsoft reports massive cloud uptick as CMA questions licensing
The company’s latest quarterly results show that the Microsoft cloud is booming. But the CMA is not happy with how it’s winning business Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2025
Datacentre operators ‘faltering’ on collecting sustainability data, Uptime Institute data shows
Datacentre operators are ‘quietly retiring’ their net-zero strategies, as Uptime Institute data shows downturn in the number tracking key server farm sustainability metrics Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2025
Meta prepares for gigawatt datacentres to power ‘superintelligence’
Meta’s latest results show a big jump in datacentre costs as it builds out personal AI capabilities Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2025
UK flights suspended after air traffic control outage
Flights arriving and departing from the UK were disrupted by an outage affecting technical systems at air traffic control body NATS’ Swanwick facility Continue Reading
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Opinion
29 Jul 2025
What comes next for VMware customers?
The VMware subscription changes tip the balance of the supplier/customer relationship towards Broadcom Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2025
Kioxia launches 245TB LC9, the biggest flash drive on the market
Japanese drive maker piles one card on top of another to produce 245.76TB E3.L drive, with lower capacity variants in 2.5in and E3.S formats, and claimed low energy use benefits Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2025
US seeks ‘unquestioned’ AI dominance
US AI action plan sets out aims to expand American dominance in the world of artificial intelligence Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Jul 2025
How do data centers use and manage water?
Data centers use large amounts of water to maintain operations. The heightened concerns of water use and scarcity are pressuring companies to release actual consumption reports. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2025
IBM chief confident AI isn’t eroding other parts of the business
Chairman, president and CEO Arvind Krishna talks of growth and margin expansion as Big Blue expects artificial intelligence to deliver internal savings of $4.5bn this year Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2025
Europe ‘sleepwalking’ into deeper dependency on Microsoft cloud technologies, claims OCC
Research compiled by global economic consultancy reveals deep hold that Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity tools have on public sector organisations in the European Union Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2025
Google chief says cloud spend is paying off
While Google’s public cloud business ramps up thanks to artificial intelligence, agentic search is the new frontier to conquer Continue Reading
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Opinion
23 Jul 2025
Is it time to rethink the OWASP Top 10?
The OWASP Top 10 serves as a key reference point for developers and security professionals, but with a new iteration on the horizon, we need to confront a hard truth: has it lost its effectiveness, or have we failed to implement it meaningfully? Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Jul 2025
Disaster recovery: As-a-service vs on-premise?
It’s easy to backup to the cloud, and we run lots of applications there now, too. So, running DR as-a-service in the cloud makes perfect sense for many. We look at the pros and cons Continue Reading
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News
23 Jul 2025
Subpostmasters shoulder costs of Fujitsu’s Post Office IT outage
Fujitsu datacentre outage hit subpostmaster sales for two hours, leaving subpostmasters to seek compensation Continue Reading
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Blog Post
23 Jul 2025
Datacentre energy demand set to go nuclear
In this guest post, Patrick Smith, field CTO for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Pure Storage, examines the toll that growing AI use is taking on datacentre energy demands, and finds out what can ... Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2025
Colt targets crypto traders with low-latency connectivity
Connectivity service aims to give digital asset traders and enterprises deploying AI applications a performance edge by connecting cloud regions faster than native backbones Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2025
AWS adds vector functionality to S3 object storage
S3 Vectors allows customers to store AI vector data in S3 object storage, a move that potentially allows for much cheaper storage of vectorised data usually held in vector databases Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2025
Hitachi Vantara claims Hitachi iQ the most complete AI stack
Hitachi Vantara says its approach to storage and AI offers the most comprehensive solutions, based on its industrial heritage and RAG-like functionality it claims others don’t have Continue Reading
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Definition
21 Jul 2025
What is the Common Information Model (CIM)?
The Common Information Model (CIM) is a computer industry standard that defines device and application characteristics so system administrators and management programs can control devices and applications from different manufacturers. Continue Reading
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News
18 Jul 2025
CISPE criticised over securing preferential cloud pricing on Microsoft products for members
Microsoft has signed an agreement with cloud trade body CISPE to secure more agreeable pricing on the software giant’s cloud products for its members, much to the chagrin of the wider European cloud community Continue Reading
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News
18 Jul 2025
Is history repeating itself with the government’s push to open public sector cloud deals to SMEs?
The UK government wants to help public sector IT buyers do away with legacy tech and migrate to the cloud, with the help of a soon-to-be-launched procurement marketplace. But haven’t we heard all this before? Continue Reading
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News
17 Jul 2025
UK government plans to ramp up sovereign computer capacity
Isambard-AI and Dawn are two of the supercomputers that mark the beginning of the UK’s goal to deliver 420 Exaflops of computer by 2030 Continue Reading
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News
17 Jul 2025
Fujitsu outage crashes Post Office Horizon system
Japanese IT giant’s time serving the Post Office is due to end next year, but problems persist Continue Reading
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Definition
17 Jul 2025
What is a container image?
A container image is a fixed, static file with executable code to run an isolated process on IT infrastructure. Continue Reading
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News
16 Jul 2025
UK government to invest £1m in building out regional tech clusters
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is leading a push to make the UK tech sector less London-centric Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Jul 2025
Pure Storage profits from all-flash, as-a-service and cloud focus
Storage profile: Pure Storage evolves its all-flash offer across multiple workloads while embracing cloud models in data management, as-a-service and containerisation Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Jul 2025
Data center migration: A best practices guide
Data center migrations can be complex. Follow this best practices guide to better understand the migration process and tools to use that maximize uptime and avoid data loss. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2025
Soaring cloud costs force firms to curtail IT staff hiring and AI efforts, research shows
Research from Akamai Technologies shines a light on how rising cloud costs are affecting business spending in other areas of IT Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2025
Datadog doubles down on APAC, targets faster growth
The observability tools supplier is executing a multi-year growth plan for Asia-Pacific and Japan, focusing on data residency, localisation and AI-driven observability to grow its market share Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Jul 2025
How to plan for a lift-and-shift data center migration
The lift-and-shift approach moves an app and its data from one environment to another. Understanding the pros and cons can help a data center admin decide on proper strategies. Continue Reading
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Podcast
10 Jul 2025
Podcast: HDDs performance metrics and the workloads they excel at
We talk to Toshiba’s Rainer Kaese about spinning disk performance, why HDDs are good at what they do and how hard disk drives still come out top in workloads that suit them Continue Reading
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Opinion
10 Jul 2025
Why proactive asset management is mission-critical for APAC datacentres
The Asia-Pacific region is leading a global datacentre expansion, but surging energy demands and the risk of outages will require datacentre operators to adopt proactive strategies to ensure a resilient and sustainable digital future Continue Reading
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Tip
09 Jul 2025
AI in the data center: Transforming operations and careers
AI is transforming data center jobs by enhancing efficiency, security and management. Strategic AI use enables staff to focus on complex tasks, while automating routine operations. Continue Reading
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News
09 Jul 2025
UK government signs deal with Google Cloud to upskill 100,000 civil servants in AI by 2030
Technology secretary Peter Kyle announces deal with Google Cloud as part of a push to loosen the grip of legacy tech on the UK public sector, while also committing to growing the amount of money government spends with homegrown tech suppliers Continue Reading
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Podcast
09 Jul 2025
Podcast: Container storage challenges and how to overcome them
We talk to Pure Storage about the challenges of increased complexity, ‘technical debt’, skills needs of container deployments and why strategic thinking trumps tactical solutions Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2025
Google slams claims it’s ‘misleading’ the public with its GHG emissions data
Internet search giant Google stands accused of “cherry-picking” data from its environmental sustainability report to portray itself as a “good climate actor”, after campaigners from Kairos Fellowship picked holes in the publication Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Jul 2025
Tariff turmoil: IT procurement and the private sector
In the second of a two-part series, we look at the current tariff turmoil and how private sector customers have at least some flexibility in how to absorb their impacts Continue Reading
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08 Jul 2025
Precision-bred veg from Phytoform Labs: Meet the AI startup looking to boost the UK’s food security
Phytoform Labs is on a mission to shore up the nation’s food supplies using artificial intelligence-backed biotechnology – and the humble tomato Continue Reading
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Definition
07 Jul 2025
What is green networking?
Green networking is the practice of selecting energy-efficient networking technologies and products to minimize resource use whenever possible. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Jul 2025
The pros and cons of geothermal energy use
Data centers continue to strain the grid, stressing the need for alternative energy. Admins should weigh the pros and cons of using geothermal energy as a clean, reliable option. Continue Reading
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Opinion
02 Jul 2025
Technology’s true test - serving people, society, economy, and the planet
The TechUK President's Awards reflect the ambitions that everyone in technology should be striving for - to improve, not simply transform, the world in which we live Continue Reading
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News
02 Jul 2025
Law professor urges CMA to take swift and urgent action over Microsoft cloud licensing
University of Leeds law professor has published an academic paper calling on the UK Competition and Markets Authority not to drag its heels on correcting Microsoft’s controversial cloud licensing habits Continue Reading
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News
02 Jul 2025
DDN targets enterprise-shaped hole in its AI storage offer
Specialist in AI and HPC storage DDN has oriented towards higher performance array products more suited to the enterprise as it aims at $1bn in turnover for 2025 Continue Reading
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News
01 Jul 2025
The road to quantum datacentres goes beyond logical qubits
Industry experts gathered in London to explore the missing pieces needed to deploy quantum computing at scale in datacentres Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Jul 2025
NetApp: Not just NAS filers, and a comprehensive cloud strategy
NetApp market share has slipped, but it has built out storage across file, block and object, plus capex purchasing, Kubernetes storage management and hybrid cloud Continue Reading
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Podcast
01 Jul 2025
Podcast: AIOps in storage management, security and sustainability
Dell’s Stewart Hunwick explains why AIOps – artificial intelligence for IT operations – is key to gaining efficiencies in storage management and sustainability, and discusses reactive and proactive data security Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Jun 2025
Precision-bred veg from Phytoform Labs: Meet the AI startup looking to boost the UK’s food security
Phytoform Labs is on a mission to shore up the nation’s food supplies using artificial intelligence-backed biotechnology – and the humble tomato Continue Reading
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News
30 Jun 2025
Second AI Energy Council meeting looks to forecast future demand
Given Labour’s ambition to use AI to drive economic growth, questions need to be answered on how the nation’s energy grid will cope Continue Reading
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News
30 Jun 2025
How modular design is reshaping India’s datacentre landscape
Modular datacentre infrastructure can help Indian enterprises build faster, greener and more flexible datacentres to cope with the demand for local data storage and growing use of AI and edge computing Continue Reading
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Blog Post
27 Jun 2025
Quantum Computing: A UK moon shot or £670m research indulgence?
Among the questions raised during the inaugural Quantum Datacentre Alliance forum held at Battersea power station in London, was one from a delegate from the government’s Quantum testbed programme, ... Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Jun 2025
8 things to know when switching from Windows to Linux
Switching to Linux from Windows can present new challenges for beginner Linux admins. Here are eight tips to keep in mind when adopting a Linux OS if you've only used Windows. Continue Reading
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News
26 Jun 2025
UK IT infrastructure processes images looking back 20 billion light years
A UK team prepared infrastructure to process images from world’s largest digital camera and provide on-demand access to global science community Continue Reading
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Definition
26 Jun 2025
What is a power distribution unit (PDU)?
A power distribution unit (PDU) is a device for controlling data center electrical power. Continue Reading
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Definition
25 Jun 2025
What is a qubit (quantum bit)?
A qubit, short for quantum bit, is the basic unit of information in quantum computing and the counterpart to the bit, or binary digit, in classical computing. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jun 2025
Interview: Pure Storage on the AI data challenge beyond hardware
We talk to Pure Storage’s vice-president of AI infrastructure about data quality for artificial intelligence and the need for data engineering to ensure the integrity, completeness and appropriateness of data for AI training Continue Reading
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News
23 Jun 2025
Industrial strategy: Takeaways for UK tech innovations
Labour wants to put the UK at the forefront of tech innovation. Its industrial strategy offers a funding boost for tech and lighter-touch regulation Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Jun 2025
Clouded judgement: Resilience, risk and the rise of repatriation
Geopolitics, data sovereignty and rising costs are driving a change in cloud thinking, but it’s slow progress Continue Reading
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Blog Post
18 Jun 2025
Mass migration: Why the public sector’s IT estate needs a modern home
In this guest post, Rob Horne, client engagement manager at the Cabinet Office-backed colocation firm Crown Hosting Data Centres, sets out why it is high time the public sector revamped its ... Continue Reading
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16 Jun 2025
Can regulatory oversight alone unlock cloud competition?
CCS Insight analyst Bola Rotibi looks at UK plans to regulate public cloud Continue Reading
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News
16 Jun 2025
CNCF eyes open source Cuda alternative as AI’s influence grows
Open source leaders highlight breakthroughs in projects like OpenTelemetry and discuss the open source community’s role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence workloads and fostering global collaboration amid geopolitical tensions Continue Reading
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Definition
16 Jun 2025
What are the Uptime Institute's data center tier standards?
Data center tiers are a system created by Uptime Institute LLC to describe the availability of infrastructure resources in a facility. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jun 2025
Qualtrics targets ‘action gap’ with AI copilot
The company’s Assist for CX tool aims to help organisations act on customer feedback, with one Australian airline already using it to slash insight times from months to hours Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2025
AWS touts AI building blocks as key to customer innovation
At the recent AWS Summit in Singapore, company executives and customers showcased how cloud and artificial intelligence are enabling organisations to scale, transform and tackle business challenges Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2025
NHS IT the big winner in Reeves’ Spending Review
The chancellor of the exchequer has significantly upped spending on digital and technology initiatives in the current Spending Review period, with the NHS receiving a 50% tech funding increase Continue Reading
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Tip
11 Jun 2025
Liquid and dry cooling in a water-stressed world
Liquid cooling efficiently manages AI-driven heat in data centers, but water scarcity poses challenges. Water restrictions force data centers to find alternative cooling methods. Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2025
UK government recommits to Edinburgh supercomputer plan with £750m funding pledge
After pulling the plug on plans by the previous government to build a supercomputer in Edinburgh, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology commits £750m to a very similar initiative Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2025
How breaking things builds resilient systems
To prevent and recover from outages in today’s complex, cloud-native world, enterprises must proactively and deliberately inject failure into their systems through chaos engineering practices Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Jun 2025
Tariff turmoil: IT procurement and the public sector
In the first of a two-part series, we look at the current tariff turmoil in public sector IT procurement, the particular challenges faced by public sector procurement, and how the cloud and pay-as-you-go can help Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Jun 2025
IBM reorients storage to cloud, containers and as-a-service
Storage profile: We look at Big Blue’s storage offer, which spans file, block and object, on-premise, in the cloud, and mainframes, while also embracing containers and the cloud Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2025
Cisco reimagines infrastructure for the AI era
Cisco is betting on an AI-driven, agent-based future for infrastructure management with AI Canvas and a raft of network security capabilities at its Cisco Live 2025 conference Continue Reading
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Definition
10 Jun 2025
What is computer room air conditioning (CRAC)? CRAC vs. CRAH unit differences?
A computer room air conditioning (CRAC) unit is a device that monitors and maintains the temperature, air distribution and humidity in a data center, network or server room. Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2025
IBM updates path to fault-tolerant quantum computing
Two academic papers show how the company plans to provide quantum error correction using a technique that can run in real time Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2025
Open source a ‘force multiplier’ for AI innovation
From powerful large language models to the next wave of AI agents, the open-source community is driving innovation and setting the agenda for the entire field, according to leaders at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon China Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2025
Microsoft given until 25 July to respond to UK cloud licensing legal claim
The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has given Microsoft just over a month to prepare a response to a group legal claim over its cloud licensing practices Continue Reading
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10 Jun 2025
HMRC’s hunt for hyperscaler to lead £500m datacentre exit project deemed ‘anti-competitive’
HMRC is seeking a hyperscaler to manage a decade-long migration of its server workloads to the cloud, but the proposed deal is raising eyebrows among UK IT market experts. Caroline Donnelly reports Continue Reading
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News
09 Jun 2025
Starmer opens London Tech Week with £1bn AI boost
Prime Minister unveiled plans to boost UK’s high-performance compute capacity 20-fold, along with funding to bolster skills Continue Reading
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News
09 Jun 2025
Barclays rolls out Microsoft Copilot to 100,000 employees as AI adoption gathers pace
Barclays is doubling down on its adoption of artificial intelligence tools by moving to embrace Microsoft Copilot with a large-scale roll-out of the technology to 100,000 staff Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Jun 2025
Local council devolution: Could it accelerate the pace of local government cloud adoption?
The UK government is on a mission to rationalise the number of local councils through its devolution agenda, which will see authorities gain autonomy over their budgets. We weigh up the impact this could have on cloud adoption in local councils Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Jun 2025
In conflict: Putting Russia’s datacentre market under the microscope
Russia’s war with Ukraine has created a whole host of problems for the growth of the country’s datacentre market Continue Reading
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News
05 Jun 2025
FairPrice taps Google Cloud for AI-powered store
The supermarket chain will leverage generative AI and cloud technologies to enhance customer experience and streamline in-store operations, starting with its upcoming Punggol Digital District outlet Continue Reading
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Definition
03 Jun 2025
What is carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, product or activity. Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2025
HMRC aims to improve customer service with £1.5bn IT investment
The department is on the hunt for customer relationship management system and contact centre as a service suppliers, following criticism of its customer service Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2025
National Grid starts building large-scale substation to support growth of West London datacentres
The National Grid has started work on building a new substation on the outskirts of Greater London to ease pressure on local electricity transmission and distribution networks Continue Reading
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News
02 Jun 2025
Planning permission sought for UK’s largest AI datacentre campus
North Lincolnshire Council has received a planning permission application for another large-scale datacentre development, in support of its bid to become an AI Growth Zone Continue Reading
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Tutorial
30 May 2025
A guide to switch from Windows to Linux
Switching from Windows to Linux can seem like a daunting task. Follow this guide to seamlessly migrate to Linux, from premigration practices to installation. Continue Reading
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Feature
30 May 2025
How cyber security professionals are leveraging AWS tools
It’s now essential for IT security teams to have oversight of cloud computing, and AWS offers a plethora of tools to make managing it easier. Find out how cyber pros are using them in the wild Continue Reading
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Opinion
30 May 2025
What VMware’s licensing crackdown reveals about control and risk
An assessments of the risks VMware customers on perpetual licences now need to consider Continue Reading
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News
30 May 2025
Cloud migration demands contractual safeguards and clear strategy
Cyber security experts urge organisations to define clear objectives, understand shared security models and implement strong data governance when migrating workloads to the cloud Continue Reading
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News
29 May 2025
Nvidia takes $4.5bn hit due to export restrictions
Nvidia warns it could miss out on $50bn market opportunity as China ramps up its AI capabilities Continue Reading
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Feature
28 May 2025
AI and compliance: What are the risks?
We look at the areas of risk in artificial intelligence. Potential exposures abound, and include security and privacy issues, bias, accuracy and complete fabrication of results Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2025
DSIT tells Ofcom to prepare to expand regulatory remit to include datacentres
During a recent audience with the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Ofcom confirmed preparations are underway for it to start regulating the datacentre sector Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2025
VMware and Oracle licensing: Time to consider alternatives
With so much Java code running enterprise IT, we consider the benefits of adapting existing systems to make them more cloud-native Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2025
Infor bets on ‘micro-verticalisation’, sees uptick from SAP customers
Infor’s head honcho in Asia-Pacific and Japan details how the company's deep industry focus and cloud-native business applications are driving growth and attracting customers, including those rethinking their SAP roadmaps Continue Reading
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News
27 May 2025
Government launches search to link UK to European supercomputers
As part of Horizon 2020, the UK recently signed up to an EU initiative to support the expansion of high-performance computing for AI Continue Reading
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Feature
26 May 2025
What are the best practices for securing AWS tech stacks?
An AWS tech stack can aid business growth and facilitate efficient operations, but misconfigurations have become all too common and stall this progress Continue Reading
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Feature
26 May 2025
AI and networking: the two sides of the future infrastructures coin
Industry experts discuss how artificial intelligence is being used to support network management - and the growing requirements on networks to support AI. Continue Reading
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News
26 May 2025
Gartner: VMware users face multi-hypervisor future
With two-thirds of organisations reportedly negative about Broadcom’s VMware licensing changes, Gartner analyst Michael Warrilow advises IT leaders of multi-year migrations and an inevitable shift towards multiple hypervisors Continue Reading
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News
26 May 2025
Gprnt platform to ease sustainability reporting
Singapore businesses can now automatically generate basic sustainability reports free of charge using Gprnt, a platform aimed at simplifying reporting and unlocking green financing Continue Reading
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News
23 May 2025
Data embassies and US embargo halt give Saudi AI hope
Gulf autocracy gets access to powerful AI chips subject to export ban and pursues legal reforms to make foreign computing firms feel comfortable about putting their data there Continue Reading