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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Opinion
09 Dec 2024
AI and cloud: The perfect pair to scale your business in 2025
On the Sixth Day of AI, we explore how leveraging AI and cloud can enhance business performance and shares tips for successful implementation. Continue Reading
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News
06 Dec 2024
What do the home secretary’s policing reforms mean for the future of the Police Digital Service?
The government is to create a new central body for policing with IT strategy in its proposed purview, but what does this mean for the Home Office-backed Police Digital Service? Continue Reading
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News
11 Dec 2024
Microsoft shares details of plans to reduce water usage of AI datacentres
Microsoft has released details of the latest initiative to minimise the environmental footprint of its datacentres Continue Reading
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News
11 Dec 2024
IaaS firm uses Pure Storage as a service for ‘virtual datacentres’
Espresso Gridpoint moved from largely NetApp to Pure Storage FlashBlade file and object for its ‘virtual datacentres’ business model that offers VMware, Hyper-V and ProxMox VMs Continue Reading
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News
11 Dec 2024
Freshworks rides Asia’s digital wave
The enterprise software firm’s exponential growth in the region is driven by demand for streamlined customer and employee experiences by its mid-market customers Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Dec 2024
Prepare your business for natural disasters with this checklist
Protect your business and employees from a natural disaster with this preparedness checklist. Plan ahead with safety protocols, emergency supplies, and training to minimize risks. Continue Reading
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Opinion
09 Dec 2024
AI and cloud: The perfect pair to scale your business in 2025
On the Sixth Day of AI, we explore how leveraging AI and cloud can enhance business performance and shares tips for successful implementation. Continue Reading
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News
06 Dec 2024
What do the home secretary’s policing reforms mean for the future of the Police Digital Service?
The government is to create a new central body for policing with IT strategy in its proposed purview, but what does this mean for the Home Office-backed Police Digital Service? Continue Reading
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Podcast
06 Dec 2024
Podcast: Storage and AI training, inference, and agentic AI
We talk to Hitachi Vantara CTO for AI Jason Hardy about training, inference and agentic AI, and how competing workloads bring context switching that storage for AI has to handle Continue Reading
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News
04 Dec 2024
Grab deepens AWS partnership to fuel AI ambitions and growth
Southeast Asian super app Grab names AWS as its preferred cloud provider to optimise costs, enhance infrastructure and support its growing AI workloads Continue Reading
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News
04 Dec 2024
AWS on using GenAI to speed up legacy VMware and Microsoft datacentre migrations
At AWS Re:Invent 2024, CEO Matt Garman shared details of how its GenAI technologies are helping enterprises accelerate the pace of Microsoft and VMware datacentre migrations Continue Reading
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News
03 Dec 2024
AWS unveils new generative AI models
The Amazon Nova family of GenAI models boasts faster speeds and lower costs, and caters to needs from text and image generation to video creation and multimodal applications Continue Reading
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News
03 Dec 2024
Microsoft hit with £1bn UK legal claim over ‘anti-competitive’ cloud licensing tactics
A legal claim, valued at more than £1bn, has been filed with the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal regarding Microsoft’s controversial cloud licensing tactics Continue Reading
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News
03 Dec 2024
VMware ‘shock’ spawned lock-in rebellion, says NetApp
NetApp makes predictions for 2025 that include lower tolerance for lock-in due to VMware changes, a shift to DRaaS, AI disillusionment and big spending on energy infrastructure Continue Reading
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03 Dec 2024
Five reasons why – and when – cloud storage is the answer
We look at when cloud storage can be the best choice, with considerations that include performance, scalability and agility, cost, management simplicity, and security and resilience Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2024
AWS doubles down on ASEAN with cloud and AI investments
The cloud giant is fuelling growth in Southeast Asia with new infrastructure, skills development programmes and a focus on generative AI, empowering startups and enterprises alike Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2024
Intel confirms CEO Pat Gelsinger has left the company
Several months after Gelsinger went public with plans for mass lay-offs at Intel, he has departed the company and left the board Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2024
AWS signs multi-year deal with GenAI platform provider to decarbonise its datacentres
Amazon Web Services has signed a multi-year deal with Orbital Materials that will draw on GenAI skills to develop technologies that could decarbonise its datacentres Continue Reading
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News
01 Dec 2024
How SkyLab is democratising hybrid cloud management
SkyLab is challenging the cloud status quo with its orchestration platform, which allows telcos and enterprises to seamlessly manage workloads across multiple cloud providers Continue Reading
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Podcast
29 Nov 2024
Podcast: Areal density, AI design and the 50TB hard drive
We talk to Seagate about hard disk drives, the use of artificial intelligence to design them with higher areal density, more terabytes per platter, and capacities up to 50TB, especially with HAMR recording Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Nov 2024
Cloud data lakes: Where do they fit and what are their benefits?
We look at cloud data lakes, what they are, where they fit in the data management lifecycle, their benefits and the key providers in the hyperscaler clouds Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Nov 2024
Case study: Manchester Airports Group using AWS to revamp its data strategy
Manchester Airports Group is using AWS technology to improve passenger experience through a revamp of its data strategy, as set out by the organisation's chief digital officer, Ryan Cant Continue Reading
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Opinion
27 Nov 2024
In the cloud, effective IAM should align to zero-trust principles
The Security Think Tank considers best practices in identity and access management and how can they be deployed to enable IT departments to combat cyber-attacks, phishing attacks and ransomware Continue Reading
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News
27 Nov 2024
Eurocontrol works with Atos to support public cloud move
Air traffic management organisation Eurocontrol has deployed a multi-region public cloud environment as part of a wider digital transformation of its operations, which is being undertaken with support from Atos Continue Reading
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News
27 Nov 2024
Dutch politicians raise concerns over Big Tech reliance
Dutch political parties have warned about the Netherlands’ growing reliance on US tech giants Continue Reading
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News
26 Nov 2024
Google Cloud research highlights potential for GenAI to transform public sector service delivery
Research commissioned by Google Cloud suggests encouraging the public sector to step up its adoption of generative artificial intelligence technologies could have a transformative impact on the public purse Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Nov 2024
How the rise in AI impacts data centers and the environment
AI's impact on data centers raises environmental concerns as rising energy demands from technologies such as ChatGPT strain resources and challenge sustainability. Continue Reading
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News
25 Nov 2024
Gambling cloud provider bets on Nutanix and cools on VMware
Continent 8 consolidates infrastructure for cloud services and backs Nutanix as it gains influence over product roadmap and cools on VMware amid customer dissatisfaction over licence changes Continue Reading
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News
22 Nov 2024
Qlik expands cloud footprint to India
The data analytics and business intelligence software supplier is bolstering its presence in Asia-Pacific with a cloud region in India Continue Reading
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News
21 Nov 2024
Nokia lands five-year extension on Microsoft Azure datacentre networking deal
Nokia is building on its existing partnership with Microsoft to support the software giant as it seeks to build out its datacentre footprint in response to the growing demand for artificial intelligence Continue Reading
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News
21 Nov 2024
Nvidia CEO talks up AI post-training, test learning and gigawatts
The company’s datacentre business continues to skyrocket as demand for artificial intelligence accelerates Continue Reading
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News
21 Nov 2024
RWE bets on HPE Private Cloud AI for green energy push
Energy firm RWE has selected the HPE Private Cloud AI setup to help it model and glean insights from weather data with greater ease Continue Reading
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Definition
20 Nov 2024
What is a shell script and how does it work?
A shell script is a text file that contains a sequence of commands for a Unix-based operating system (OS). Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2024
Digital Catapult hails shared infrastructure as route to decarbonisation for logistics sector
Digital Catapult has opened up about the success it has seen with using shared digital infrastructure to help the transport-logistics sector work more collaboratively to cut carbon emissions Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2024
Microsoft Ignite: AI capabilities double every six months
If Moore's law promised a doubling of tech every 18 months, the pace is three times quicker with AI developments, says Satya Nadella Continue Reading
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News
19 Nov 2024
AI readiness stalls in APAC
Despite significant investment in AI, only 15% of organisations in Asia-Pacific are ready to deploy the technology today, according to Cisco’s latest regional AI readiness survey Continue Reading
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Feature
19 Nov 2024
Storage technology explained: Ransomware and storage and backup
We look at ransomware attacks, and the importance of good backup practice as well as immutable snapshots, air-gapping, network segmentation, AI anomaly detection and supplier warranties Continue Reading
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News
19 Nov 2024
AMD pushes GPU advantage with HPC top spot
AMD’s El Capitan is the world’s fastest supercomputer and is being used in nuclear weapons safety Continue Reading
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News
19 Nov 2024
Nationwide Building Society backs HPE GreenLake for hybrid cloud push
Nationwide Building Society's digital transformation efforts are continuing apace, with the company enlisting the help of HPE GreenLake to meet its hybrid cloud goals Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Nov 2024
Understand the power usage effectiveness metric
Data center admins must monitor power efficiency through PUE metrics. There are three PUE levels, with PUE 1.0 as the best. However, various conditions can impact the rating. Continue Reading
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News
18 Nov 2024
AWS widening scope of MFA programme after early success
AWS reports strong take-up of multi-factor authentication among customers since making it compulsory for root users earlier this year, and plans to expand the scope of its IAM programme in spring 2025 Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Nov 2024
Storage technology explained: Flash vs HDD
In this guide, we examine the differences between flash storage and HDD, the rise of NVMe and much denser formats such as QLC, and whether or not flash will vanquish HDD in the all-flash datacentre Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2024
IT leaders raise concerns over IT security overspend
How many IT security products does it take to secure a business? Too many, according to some IT decision-makers Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2024
CBRE: Spare datacentre capacity levels to hit all-time low across Europe by end of 2024
Real estate consultancy CBRE has lifted the lid on how growing demand for datacentre capacity, coupled with shortages of land and power in Europe, are having a downbeat impact on vacancy rates Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2024
Schwarz Group partners with Google on EU sovereign cloud
Partnership with Europe’s biggest retailer will offer client-side encryption and ensure data doesn’t leave Germany Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2024
Microsoft UAE power deal at centre of US plan for AI supremacy
Microsoft pens artificial intelligence energy deal with United Arab Emirates oil giant ADNOC Continue Reading
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News
15 Nov 2024
Nvidia powers AI development in Japan and Indonesia
Nvidia is deepening its presence in Japan and Indonesia through partnerships with local cloud providers and tech companies to build sovereign AI infrastructure and local large language models Continue Reading
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Opinion
15 Nov 2024
Preparing for future AI energy disruption
The explosive growth of AI is set to outstrip the capacity of global power grids, threatening to derail deployments. With datacentres facing power shortages and some countries halting construction, organisations must act now to secure their AI future Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Nov 2024
Storage technology explained: What is S3 and what is it good for?
We look at S3, AWS’s object storage protocol that originated in its cloud services and has now spread as near enough a standard and to third-party on-premise deployments Continue Reading
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News
14 Nov 2024
Apple hit by Which? with £3bn legal claim that iCloud service charges are ‘anti-competitive’
UK consumer rights advocate Which? has appointed legal representation, as it sets about challenging Apple on anti-competitive grounds over its treatment of UK iCloud users Continue Reading
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News
13 Nov 2024
Closing in on quantum computing with error mitigation
Current quantum computers are prone to error. IBM’s latest Heron machine uses software and hardware to get better results Continue Reading
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News
13 Nov 2024
Server manufacturers ramp-up edge AI efforts
There has been a spate of developments in the server space, as manufacturers focus on supporting inference workloads at the edge Continue Reading
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News
12 Nov 2024
Gartner warns GenAI demand will lead to datacentre energy shortages
IT market watcher Gartner is warning enterprises that the growing demand for generative AI workloads will have a knock-on impact on energy supply and pricing in future years Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Nov 2024
AWS storage: Key storage options in the Amazon cloud
We survey the key cloud storage options available from AWS, which include S3 object storage and its options, block storage in EBS and a range of file storage choices Continue Reading
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News
11 Nov 2024
Hyperscalers’ net-zero plans hit roadblock
Hyperscalers are looking at nuclear to power their energy-hungry datacentres and meet net-zero targets – but regulations may curb their plans Continue Reading
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News
11 Nov 2024
Fresh concerns over NHS England registries procurement
Clinicians and technologists behind a number of medical devices registries being brought together by NHS England on a new common platform have accused the health service of flouting public sector procurement regulations Continue Reading
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News
11 Nov 2024
NetApp boosts AFF, StorageGrid and E-series hardware with 60TB drives
Bigger drives, new CPUs and controller hardware add to upgrades to NetApp arrays that started in September, while the supplier undergoes transition to data management as a key focus Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Nov 2024
Projections and feasibility of data centers in space
Earth has a limited amount of land, and data centers occupy large amounts of it. Data centers in space would reduce land use and energy costs, while improving processing speeds. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Nov 2024
Solar shift: How data centers can embrace renewable energy
Demand for electricity calls for integration of renewable resources. Solar power provides data centers with energy independence, cost predictability and a sustainable power source. Continue Reading
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News
08 Nov 2024
Inside Grab’s platform strategy
Grab’s group CTO talks up the super app’s platform strategy, architecture and organisational structure behind its growth across diverse Southeast Asian markets Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Nov 2024
Storage explained: Consumption models of storage procurement
We look at consumption models of storage purchasing and how cloud operating models have made them mainstream and supplanted the traditional three-year lift-and-shift datacentre refresh Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2024
Google Cloud MFA enforcement meets with approval
Latest Google Cloud policy to enforce multifactor authentication across its user base is welcomed by security professionals Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2024
Gartner Symposium: Time to get rid of the dead wood
IT architecture complexity is set to increase in a way that means IT departments are juggling multicloud and legacy environments Continue Reading
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Podcast
07 Nov 2024
The future of cloud: A Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast
Gartner’s Philip Dawson discusses the cloud and on-premise complexity facing IT departments Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2024
Research: UK residents demonstrate ‘low-level’ understanding of what datacentres do
Research commissioned by colocation giant CyrusOne reveals there is work to be done by operators when it comes to educating UK residents on the benefits that datacentres being built in their local communities can bring Continue Reading
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Opinion
05 Nov 2024
User-centric security should be core to cloud IAM practice
The Security Think Tank considers best practices in identity and access management and how can they be deployed to enable IT departments to combat cyber-attacks, phishing attacks and ransomware Continue Reading
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News
04 Nov 2024
TechUK calls for government support to help UK datacentre market reach growth potential
UK tech trade body TechUK claims the UK’s datacentre sector could become one of the country’s fastest-growing sectors with more government support Continue Reading
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News
04 Nov 2024
Microsoft trials building ‘wooden’ datacentres in pursuit of 2030 carbon-negative goal
Microsoft has gone public with its plans to build two datacentres in Northern Virginia made partly from wood, in the interests of cutting the amount of carbon generated by its server farm builds Continue Reading
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News
01 Nov 2024
Enterprise demand for GenAI fuels profit and revenue growth at AWS
AWS claims demand for its GenAI offerings is supporting a ‘significant re-acceleration’ of its revenue and profit growth, following the publication of its third-quarter results Continue Reading
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News
31 Oct 2024
Meta no longer prolonging the life of datacentre servers
During the earnings call for the company’s latest quarterly results, CFO Susan Li said Meta would be investing in GPU servers Continue Reading
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Definition
31 Oct 2024
What is an operating system (OS)?
An operating system (OS) is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all the other application programs in a computer. Continue Reading
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News
31 Oct 2024
AI becomes Microsoft’s fastest-growing business
Artificial intelligence has delivered $10bn to Microsoft’s bottom line, but the business is not in cloud GPUs for third-party inference engines Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2024
Scality Ring XP to offer object storage at scale with rapid access
Lightweight S3 API trades storage features for microsecond access. Scality pairs it with all-NVMe flash in Ring XP, aimed at AI use cases for small object data in PB-scale datasets Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2024
Microsoft and Google in war of words following launch of anti-competitive cloud coalition
Microsoft's claims that the newly formed Open Cloud Coalition is not all it seems, and merely a front for Google Cloud to ‘mislead’ competition authorities over the state of the public cloud market, are being challenged Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2024
How Formula One works with AWS to drive data insights
We speak to Formula One's lead cloud architect, Ryan Kirk, and AWS about a partnership that strives to deliver data for greater fan engagement Continue Reading
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News
29 Oct 2024
AI core to Nordic net-zero economy
Artificial intelligence will be core to attempts by Nordic countries to become net-zero economies Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2024
The Open Cloud Coalition makes debut to bolster competition in public cloud
A new coalition has formed, focused on making the public cloud a more transparent and equitable place for enterprise IT buyers Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2024
Western Digital boosts HDD capacity with 32TB shingled drives
An 11th platter gives extra capacity, while shingled (overlapped) writes – best suited to sequential recording use cases – allow for greater density and big gains in thoughput Continue Reading
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News
25 Oct 2024
National quantum computer centre to open at Harwell
The new site will provide open access for industry and academia to 12 quantum computers Continue Reading
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Opinion
25 Oct 2024
How AI is radically changing the datacentre landscape
The rising demand for AI workloads and applications is changing the face of the datacentre market, with operators having to rethink the design and location of their facilities Continue Reading
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News
24 Oct 2024
Nvidia deepens investment in India’s AI ecosystem
Nvidia is expanding its presence in India through new partnerships focused on building AI infrastructure, developing Indian language models and training AI professionals Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2024
Interview: Why Java is the future of cloud applications
The CEO of Azul speaks to Computer Weekly about Java’s performance and its ability to run on different server chips in the datacentre Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Oct 2024
Detect ransomware in storage to act before it spreads
Anomaly detection and immutable copies can be frontline tools against ransomware – we look at the role storage can play against the latest techniques employed by ransomware gangs Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2024
ServiceNow touts Now platform as AI engine for transformation
At the ServiceNow World Forum in Melbourne, company executives touted the transformative power of AI in streamlining workflows, improving user experiences and driving business value Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2024
Oracle and IBM clinch 10-year cross-departmental cloud deal with UK government
Several weeks after it emerged that Oracle and IBM had secured a decade-long cloud deal with the UK government, further details about what the contract covers have materialised Continue Reading
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News
22 Oct 2024
Dell CTO: Enterprise AI poised to take off in 2025
After a period of experimentation, the building blocks are in place for wider enterprise adoption of AI, says Dell Technologies’ global CTO, John Roese Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2024
Labour signs up to five years of Microsoft AI
The UK government has signed a deal with Microsoft to reduce the cost of running public sector services using the supplier’s cloud and artificial intelligence technologies Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2024
Synology takes aim at enterprise customers and flash storage
Best known as an SME and consumer brand, Synology claims multiple enterprise customers especially in backup and storage of infrequently accessed data, but has plans for flash, too Continue Reading
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News
18 Oct 2024
How Philippine Airlines is transforming customer experience
The flag carrier of the Philippines discusses how its digital transformation journey has improved customer experience and streamlined internal processes Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Oct 2024
What are tensor processing units and what is their role in AI?
We look at Google’s TPUs – tensor processing units – and ask what makes them different to CPUs, GPUs and DPUs, as well as how you can take advantage of them in AI processing Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2024
Philippines leaps forward in e-government with cloud-first strategy
A common infrastructure and a ‘once-only’ principle have propelled the Philippines up the UN’s E-Government Development Index, streamlining services and bolstering data sovereignty Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2024
Half of business IT deemed outdated
Combining survey data with its own monitoring service, Kyndryl has estimated that half of the world’s most critical infrastructure is not resilient Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2024
SUSE sees growth in multi-Linux support and containers
SUSE CEO talks up the company’s double-digit growth, fuelled by demand for its multi-Linux support offering, Rancher container platform and focus on artificial intelligence Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2024
Google Cloud Summit: Unifying data, data residency and agent-driven AI
Google Cloud’s London summit underpinned a focus on artificial intelligence with some significant infrastructure updates Continue Reading
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Podcast
16 Oct 2024
F1 real time data: A Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast
We speak to AWS and the lead cloud architect at F1 about the immense data processing and analysis that takes place Continue Reading
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News
15 Oct 2024
Google prepares for nuclear to power AI datacentres
As part of its drive towards sustainable energy and to meet ever-increasing power demands, Google is planning to use small nuclear reactors Continue Reading
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News
15 Oct 2024
UK sees over £6bn boost in datacentre investments
Following moves to classify datacentres as critical national infrastructure, a number of US tech providers have announced new UK investments Continue Reading
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News
15 Oct 2024
Google launches Parallelstore file storage at cloud AI training
Originally driven by Intel’s now-defunct Optane storage class memory, Parallelstore offers massive parallel file storage targeted at artificial intelligence training use cases on Google Cloud Continue Reading
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News
14 Oct 2024
AWS expands datacentre hardware recycling programme to Dublin
The public cloud giant is expanding its reverse logistics programme to Ireland, as part of its ongoing net-zero push Continue Reading
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Opinion
11 Oct 2024
Robust cloud IAM should align to zero-trust principles
The Security Think Tank considers best practices in identity and access management and how can they be deployed to enable IT departments to combat cyber-attacks, phishing attacks and ransomware. Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Oct 2024
Global file systems: A single view of on-premise and cloud data
Global file systems aggregate data into a single hybrid cloud from multiple locations using object storage with access that satisfies traditional application needs, like file locking Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Oct 2024
Azure storage: Key options in Microsoft cloud storage
We survey the key cloud storage options available from Microsoft Azure, which include Files, Blob, Elastic SAN, Managed Disk and NetApp files, for a range of use cases Continue Reading