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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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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News
18 Aug 2015
Cloud storage service Wuala to close in November
Seagate-owned cloud storage player confirms its closure and gives users three months' notice to remove their data from its servers Continue Reading
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News
18 Aug 2015
IaaS providers pin hopes on spending cut reprieve for G-Cloud 7
G-Cloud suppliers are calling on the government to step up, rather than scale back, investment in the framework as spending cuts loom Continue Reading
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News
17 Aug 2015
Netflix shuts down final datacentre to go all-in on public cloud
Netflix is gearing up for the closure of its final datacentre, as it makes good on its earlier pledge to move more of its IT infrastructure to the public cloud Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Aug 2015
Using SAP Hana as a data warehouse
Enterprises are using SAP Hana for in-memory data marts and SAP Business Warehouse implementations that integrate with other data warehouses Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2015
Hootsuite moves social media management toolkit to IBM Softlayer cloud
Social media management dashboard maker shifts App Directory to IBM cloud Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Aug 2015
Case study: Open University uses Microsoft Azure to create course content clearance hub
The Open University recently scooped the award for Best Cloud Project at the CW European User Awards, and here's why Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2015
Autoglass moves to cloud-based IT infrastructure
Autoglass has signed a 10-year outsourcing deal with US supplier CSC that will see its IT infrastructure move into the cloud Continue Reading
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News
03 Aug 2015
HMRC explains plans for moving tax systems to the cloud
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) reveals more details of its plan to move tax systems into the cloud on its digital blog Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Aug 2015
Digital transformation needs business leaders to develop new skills
A panel of experts discuss the capabilities business leaders and corporate IT need to develop for digital Continue Reading
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E-Zine
28 Jul 2015
Taking a classic brand into the digital age
In this week's Computer Weekly, we find out how Hornby, the iconic model railway company that also owns Scalextric and Airfix, is moving these classic brands into the digital age. With the release of Windows 10, we ask if businesses should upgrade. And our buyer's guide looks at managing software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Jul 2015
SaaS criteria to track for business outcomes
Organisations should evolve their SaaS selection criteria to focus on newer metrics that are better indicators of supplier performance Continue Reading
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News
21 Jul 2015
Salesforce eager to support startup culture sweeping Europe
Salesforce’s head of startup relations shares why it’s partnered with accelerator Startupbootcamp Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2015
The obstacles to software-as-a-service adoption in banking
Security tops the reasons why banks don't use software as a service for banking-specific applications Continue Reading
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News
14 Jul 2015
Anyone still running Windows Server 2003 is now at risk
Businesses still running Windows server 2003 are vulnerable to attack from hackers looking to exploit security holes Continue Reading
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News
14 Jul 2015
Banker’s startup experience feathers the nest for Starling Bank
Starling Bank founder Anne Boden relates how her time with startups outside traditional banking convinced her to build a digital bank from scratch Continue Reading
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E-Zine
13 Jul 2015
The most influential women in UK IT 2015
In this week's Computer Weekly, we reveal our annual list of the 50 most influential women in UK IT – and talk to this year's winner, Citrix vice-president Jacqueline de Rojas. Also, we look at how ARM chips are making inroads into the datacentre as energy awareness becomes a growing corporate IT issue. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Jul 2015
Still running Windows Server 2003? Don’t panic
Many organisations are facing the prospect of running Windows 2003 server unsupported. Where do you go from here? Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2015
Rolls-Royce signs up to supercomputing on-demand from HPC Midlands
Rolls-Royce is the first company to sign up to a supercomputing brokerage scheme, giving it access to £60m worth of high-performance computing Continue Reading
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E-Zine
07 Jul 2015
The IT behind Angry Birds
In this week's Computer Weekly, we talk to the CIO of Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the gaming phenomenon Angry Birds, about how he supports a global business with a five-person IT team. We assess your options for moving off Windows Server 2003 now support is ending. And our buyer's guide looks at log management. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
01 Jul 2015
Sungard follows Apple, Facebook and Microsoft's lead with Irish datacentre plans
Sungard teams up with Digital Realty to create new Irish datacentre Continue Reading
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News
30 Jun 2015
Windows Server 2003 end of support: Five options to choose from
Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 ends in July. Should you upgrade to a newer version of the operating system or choose an alternative? Continue Reading
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News
26 Jun 2015
Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015 winners revealed
The winners have been announced for the Computer Weekly European User Awards 2015. See who made the top spots Continue Reading
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News
25 Jun 2015
John Swainson, president of Dell Software, argues the case for rethinking datacentres
Having previously worked for Silver Lake, CA and IBM, Swainson now heads the company’s software business Continue Reading
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News
23 Jun 2015
Bet365: A company betting on its own technology innovations
While many sites make great use of agile development, run on the cloud and are built on Java and JavaScript, Bet365 is doing IT its own way Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Jun 2015
Inside DevOps: How it really works
DevOps done well can lead to a continuous loop where teams plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate and monitor Continue Reading
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E-Zine
22 Jun 2015
Navigating complex IT
In this week's Computer Weekly, the complexity of legacy IT is a problem for most CIOs, but is it an inevitable consequence of using technology to keep the business simple? IT leaders share their experiences. Windows 10 is out soon – we look at what it means for enterprise IT. And we examine the Open Data Platform for Hadoop. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2015
OnApp helps small public cloud firms take on AWS, Google and Microsoft
The OnApp Federation marketplace will help smaller firms compete more effectively with the public cloud giants, it is claimed Continue Reading
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News
09 Jun 2015
Case study: What the enterprise can learn from Etsy's DevOps strategy
Jon Cowie, operations engineer at online marketplace Etsy, advises enterprises on how to develop a DevOps-friendly business culture Continue Reading
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News
03 Jun 2015
VMware puts network virtualisation to work in McAfee environments
VMware announces an integrated system to automate distribution and enforcement of McAfee’s network security platform using its NSX network virtualisation system Continue Reading
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Feature
29 May 2015
Marseille: Europe’s networking gateway to Africa
The city of Marseille in southern France is fast becoming a hub for datacentre and network operators who want low latency connections to Africa. Continue Reading
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News
26 May 2015
NATS failure down to bug from the 90s and redundant code
A bug present in Nats since 1990s has been identified as the root cause of the five-hour outage of UK air traffic control on 12 December 2014 Continue Reading
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E-Zine
26 May 2015
CW Nordics – May 2015 Edition
Nordic countries top list of digital nations in the EU, outperforming others in the areas of broadband infrastructure, IT skills, web use, business digitisation and tech-based public services. Continue Reading
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News
26 May 2015
EMC plots managed cloud push with $1.2bn deal to acquire Virtustream
Storage giant claims latest purchase will reinforce its hybrid cloud proposition for enterprises Continue Reading
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News
21 May 2015
Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth talks about space, drones and smartphones
Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, strives towards the vision of a converged handheld device Continue Reading
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News
19 May 2015
Google slashes public cloud prices to undercut rivals
Google cuts cost of its public cloud services to pass on hardware savings in line with Moore's Law Continue Reading
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News
19 May 2015
Canonical offers SaaS pricing for on-site VMs and storage
Open source supplier Canonical has introduced software as a service pricing for on-premise storage in a move that could change the way traditional software is licensed Continue Reading
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News
05 May 2015
VCE takes wraps off "hyper-converged" VxRacks to fast-track users to the cloud
EMC-owned converged infrastructure specialist expands portfolio of cloud-enabling platforms Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Apr 2015
Datacentre PUE: Who's keeping score?
With datacentre operators under increased competitive pressure to cut their PUE scores, are their ratings really all they seem? Continue Reading
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News
24 Apr 2015
Amazon first-quarter results value Amazon Web Services at $5bn
Amazon's Q1 results confirm Amazon Web Services – AWS – as its most profitable business, valuing the cloud services provider at $5bn Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2015
Gartner: Enterprises opt for open-source and cloud middleware alternatives
Gartner has reported a bigger focus on subscription-based licensing and open-source platforms in the middleware market Continue Reading
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News
21 Apr 2015
Fife Council approves £100m green datacentre building plans
Development of green datacentre campus designed to help Scottish businesses tap into cloud computing trend Continue Reading
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News
20 Apr 2015
Interview: The software processes behind Hailo's success
In the past, a traditional enterprise application would have been developed as a monolithic piece of software Continue Reading
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Feature
17 Apr 2015
What’s slowing down your network and how to fix it
When using the network feels like wading through molasses, finding the cause can be a difficult process Continue Reading
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News
17 Apr 2015
Equinix opens new Slough datacentre to answer CIO cloud demands
Equinix's UK MD explains why its chosen to increase its datacentre footprint once more in Slough Continue Reading
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News
16 Apr 2015
Solihull Council's datacentre plans slammed by G-Cloud champions
Solihull Council is building a new datacentre with 10-20 years of capacity, much to the chagrin of industry watchers Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Apr 2015
Docker storage 101: How storage works in Docker
Docker nails some of the shortcomings of virtualisation, but what about Docker container storage? Continue Reading
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News
14 Apr 2015
SSE hooks up Manchester datacentres with 10Gbps connectivity
SSE Enterprise Telecoms launches Manchester Lightnow, a high-capacity optical network service connecting a number of datacentre facilities Continue Reading
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News
09 Apr 2015
Strong dollar may shift server upgrades off-premise
The strong US dollar will influence how CIOs spend their 2015 IT budgets. Server price hikes may drive spending to the cloud Continue Reading
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News
08 Apr 2015
Juniper Networks goes after finance market with switch-integrated compute
Juniper launches a compact compute-integrated network switch to boost performance of sensitive applications for financial institutions Continue Reading
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E-Zine
07 Apr 2015
CW Europe - April 2015 Edition
With the datacentre industry a major consumer of non-renewable energy, it continues to come under fire from environmental campaigners and users to clean up its act. In this issue of CW Europe, Computer Weekly datacentre editor Caroline Donnelly investigates energy-efficient Europe and how the technology industry is keeping the continent clean. Continue Reading
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News
27 Mar 2015
Nordics' Glenna research cloud project underway
Researchers in the Nordics will soon enjoy a new cloud infrastructure from which to share systems and resources Continue Reading
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News
25 Mar 2015
Atomic Weapons Establishment to build supercomputer for Trident simulations
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) builds HPC cluster based on SGI ICE XA system to support Trident programme Continue Reading
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News
24 Mar 2015
HP Helion Rack looks to speed up enterprise private cloud adoption
HP wants to take the heavy lifting out of moving to the private cloud by offering enterprises pre-configured and tested infrastructure packages Continue Reading
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News
23 Mar 2015
Microsoft's Nano Server: What to expect from this leaner, meaner Windows Server
With Microsoft reportedly set to announce a stripped-back version of Windows Server, what can IT leaders expect to see? Continue Reading
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Photo Story
23 Mar 2015
IT priorities 2015: How will IT decision makers spend this year's budget?
The 2015 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey has examined the investment plans of IT managers in the UK and Europe in 2015 Continue Reading
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News
19 Mar 2015
Government creates Crown Hosting venture with Ark Data Centres
Cabinet Office signs seven-year joint venture agreement with Ark Data Centres to create Crown Hosting Service Continue Reading
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News
18 Mar 2015
Red Nose Day 2015: How Comic Relief used cloud to bank a record £78m
Comic Relief CTO Zenon Hannick explains how the charity used cloud to process a record number of donations during Red Nose Day 2015 Continue Reading
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News
17 Mar 2015
TNT outsources IT infrastructure to HP cloud
International logistics firm TNT has outsourced its IT infrastructure to Hewlett Packard (HP) in a six-year deal that will see it move to the cloud Continue Reading
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News
16 Mar 2015
Finland leads Europe in cloud service take-up
Europe is catching up with the US for cloud adoption - and the Nordic countries lead the way, with Sweden and Denmark close behind Finland Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Mar 2015
Top five things you need to know about VMware Virtual Volumes
VMware’s Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) promise a revolution in storage for virtual machines, but what are the key things you need to know? Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Mar 2015
Energy-efficient Europe: How the datacentre sector is keeping it clean
With users becoming increasingly savvy about environmental issues, we take a look at how the datacentre sector is responding Continue Reading
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News
04 Mar 2015
Strong future for enterprise IT in Nordic countries
From attracting the world to its ice-cool datacentres to the digitisation of the public sector, there is plenty going on in the Nordic region Continue Reading
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News
23 Feb 2015
Apple invests in European datacentres as EU investigates tax break
Apple is investing €1.7bn in two European datacentres to support iTunes, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri Continue Reading
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News
06 Feb 2015
Symantec continues cloud investment in spite of poor Q3 results
Symantec has reported third quarter 2015 revenue of $1.64bn, a drop of 4% compared with $1.70bn over the same period in 2014 Continue Reading
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News
03 Feb 2015
VMware boosts Hadoop and Hana with vSphere 6
VMware has unveiled vSphere 6, the latest version of its virtualisation platform Continue Reading
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News
28 Jan 2015
Wellcome Trust builds 1,728-core grid for DNA analysis
The Wellcome Trust Centre has deployed a high-performance computing cluster based on Fujitsu servers Continue Reading
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Feature
22 Jan 2015
A closer look at Google Container Engine
In just 12 months, Docker has transformed from a simple open-source container management project into a powerful platform Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2015
IBM revenue declines as company shifts to higher value deals
IBM has reported a 12% decline in profits for the fourth quarter of 2014 following the sale of its System x business to Lenovo Continue Reading
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News
12 Jan 2015
IT fails to get a grip on shadow applications
IT managers are unaware how much shadow IT is used by their business, the Cloud Security Alliance has warned Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Jan 2015
How to make applications resilient on AWS
Cloud services are susceptible to network and other outages. There is no silver bullet to boost the resilience of an AWS-hosted application Continue Reading
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News
07 Jan 2015
Oracle will lose out unless it changes its software licensing
In an open letter, Campaign for Clear Licensing highlights the risk to Oracle’s future earnings due to aggressive licensing Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Jan 2015
Microservices: How to prepare next-generation cloud applications
A microservice architecture promotes developing and deploying applications composed of autonomous, self-contained units Continue Reading
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News
30 Dec 2014
Case study: How VMware’s vCloud meets customer needs
Cloud innovation winner of the Computer Weekly European User Awards for datacentre/storage 2014, VMware, shares its story Continue Reading
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News
19 Dec 2014
Price cuts and posturing in the public cloud war
The price battle among commodity cloud players is set to rage on, but how much impact is it really having for enterprise customers? Continue Reading
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News
18 Dec 2014
CIO interview: Mercedes AMG Petronas IT director on the need for speed in IT
When Matt Harris became IT director for F1 team Mercedes AMG Petronas in 2009, IT costs needed to be slashed Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Dec 2014
The state of mobile back end as a service
Common mobile application services are increasingly being hosted on central back-end servers – but what does that mean for the enterprise? Continue Reading
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News
10 Dec 2014
Hero Group uses vMotion to replace SAN and servers with Nutanix
Baby food, fruit and cereal bar company Hero Group has migrated its Holland operations over to a single virtual platform Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2014
HP is ‘coming back strong’, says CEO Meg Whitman
At the HP Discover event in Barcelona, CEO Meg Whitman addressed the future for customers following HP's split into two businesses Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2014
Ministry of Defence consolidates with green datacentre
The MoD is aiming to reduce its IT carbon footprint with the construction of a new datacentre to replace the existing host site in Bath Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Dec 2014
Networking technologies emerging in the enterprise
We look at the latest networking technologies on offer, and those being adopted in the enterprise Continue Reading
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News
27 Nov 2014
How resilient is the public cloud?
The recent downtime that affected some Azure services following an update illustrates the precarious balance CIOs face in the cloud era Continue Reading
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E-Zine
17 Nov 2014
Cloud providers are coming to Europe
In this week’s Computer Weekly, cloud providers like IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce.com are building datacentres in Europe in response to data protection concerns – we examine how the cloud is moving to Europe. Microsoft is embracing the cloud and mobile and decoupling Office from Windows – we look at the implications for corporate IT. And even PCs are moving into the cloud - we analyse the rise of desktop as a service. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
14 Nov 2014
Amazon unveils Docker-friendly container service and EC2 instance
Amazon has launched its free, Docker-friendly EC2 container management service Continue Reading
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News
14 Nov 2014
Johnson & Johnson turns to AWS for hybrid cloud and borderless datacentre
Johnson & Johnson adopted Amazon Web Services to develop its hybrid IT strategy, its CTO told the AWS re:Invent 2014 conference Continue Reading
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News
13 Nov 2014
AWS launches Aurora cloud-based relational database engine
AWS launches an open-source relational database engine called Aurora at its re:Invent 2014 cloud conference Continue Reading
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News
11 Nov 2014
What to expect from AWS re:Invent 2014
Amazon is all set to unveil new services and features at its AWS re:Invent 2014 Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2014
Interview: The IT powering animated movie-making
Video special effects require similar processing to oil and gas, but lack the budget, says head of technology at Illumination Mac Guff, Bruno Mahe Continue Reading
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News
04 Nov 2014
Google joins enterprise cloud battle with additions to its cloud platform
Google made a raft of announcements at its GCP Live event, including enhancements to its networking stack and storage price drops Continue Reading
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Photo Story
01 Nov 2014
Inside Kashiwa-no-ha: Hitachi Smart City near Tokyo
Hitachi shares what its Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City looks like near Tokyo, Japan. Continue Reading
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News
31 Oct 2014
Ipswich hospital improves healthcare service with Esri data visualisation
Health pilots location-based technology that delivers data visualisation Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2014
UK lags behind US and Australia in DevOps adoption
The UK is significantly behind other markets in terms of DevOps adoption Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2014
British fashion retailer AllSaints picks Google tools for innovation
Fashion brand AllSaints has refreshed its technology strategy with Google technologies to improve collaboration Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2014
Met Office supercomputer to increase weather forecast accuracy
Met Office buys £97m Cray supercomputer to help predict disruptive weather events with a far greater degree of accuracy Continue Reading
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News
27 Oct 2014
Cloud providers rush to build European datacentres over data sovereignty
Cloud providers IBM and Google build datacentres in the EU as enterprises insist on keeping their data in Europe Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2014
BBC takes iPlayer video production to AWS cloud to beat bottleneck and storage woes
Having run Video Factory on AWS for over a year, BBC's Robert Shield explains how he overcame iPlayer bottleneck and availability challenges Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2014
European enterprises can halve colo expenses by moving north, says Gartner
Favourable environmental conditions in Northern Europe mean enterprises can save on their datacentre expenses Continue Reading
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News
22 Oct 2014
EMC buys out Cisco’s stakes in VCE as year-on-year revenue jumps 9%
Storage giant EMC has reported a 9% increase year on year for the third quarter of 2014, thanks to revenue rises across its divisions Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2014
Why Shell, BP and PwC teamed up to launch platform-neutral IT4IT Forum
Lack of IT integration and workload interoperability is pushing enterprises such as Royal Dutch Shell to collaborate with IT providers to develop standards Continue Reading
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News
20 Oct 2014
IBM operating income falls by 18% as it offloads semiconductor unit
IBM reported lower-than-expected earnings for the third quarter of 2014, with revenue down by 4% year-on-year Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Oct 2014
Cloud, frozen pizza model and the immutable infrastructure
The architecture pattern for immutable infrastructure is based on the made-to-order pizza model Continue Reading