Data warehousing

Will the UK become an AI powerhouse?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we analyse the UK government’s new AI strategy and ask if the ambitious plans are achievable. The latest EU regulation affecting cyber security, called DORA, will affect digital resilience plans for many businesses – we examine the implications. We also look at the benefits and technologies behind cloud data lakes. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Top 10 AI and storage stories of 2024

In this 2024 review, we look at the impact of AI on data storage, what’s needed to support AI during training and inference, and storage suppliers’ responses to the rise of AI Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Post Office project taking control of Horizon data from Fujitsu as part of messy split

The Post Office will no longer rely on Fujitsu for Horizon data past and present once cloud migration project is complete, in a major uncoupling of the 30-year relationship Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Snowflake brings AI to data for Australian businesses

At the Sydney leg of the Snowflake World Tour, the company showcased how its platform simplifies data management, reduces costs and drives AI adoption for Australian businesses Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

Data classification: What, why and who provides it

You need to know where your data is, what it is, its governance requirements and relationship to the rest of your data. We look at data classification and how AI can help Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

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

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Hillingdon Council commits £9m to tech revamp in digital strategy

Hillingdon’s three-year digital strategy will see the council fund attempts to modernise its systems and infrastructure, change how residents interact with the local authority and make better use of data Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

M1 ditches 70% of legacy systems in cloud transformation drive

Singapore telco M1 is switching off 70% of its legacy systems by the end of 2024 and leveraging Salesforce to offer more personalised services Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Retailers question using live facial recognition for shoplifting

Retailers praise benefits of retrospective over live facial recognition in dealing with shoplifting, but stress there are ongoing concerns around the ethical, legal and safety implications of using the technology in stores Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Riding the cloud database wave

There is set to be a surge in demand for cloud databases, driven by new use cases and greater decentralised IT spending Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

How Snowflake is tackling AI challenges

Snowflake’s regional leader Sanjay Deshmukh outlines how the company is helping customers to tackle the security, skills and cost challenges of AI implementations Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Databricks bids to marry AI and BI

At its recent Data+AI Summit, data platform provider Databricks introduced a product that might be a harbinger of a new wave of AI-backed Business Intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

AI’s environmental cost could outweigh sustainability benefits

Artificial intelligence can help organisations manage and mitigate their environmental impacts in a number of ways, but the highly polluting nature of the technology could outweigh its other sustainability benefits if not dealt with Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

European data chief prepares bid to get UK to join EU digital single market

Data initiative Gaia-X is trying to plug the UK into a planned digital European single market, as the EU seeks to extend the reach of vast and controversial data laws over global supply chains Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

How Dataiku is supporting ‘everyday AI’

Dataiku president Krish Venkataraman outlines what it takes for enterprises to scale and govern their use of artificial intelligence while making the technology accessible across their business Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Podcast: AI and its impact on data storage

We talk to Shawn Rosemarin, vice-president for R&D at Pure Storage, about the requirements of AI workloads, and what data storage needs to cope with AI Continue Reading

Google Cloud accelerates asteroid discovery for US-based non-profit

Google Cloud opens up about the work it is doing with a US-based planetary science non-profit to help map the solar system Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

data gravity

Data gravity is the ability of a body of data to attract applications, services and other data. Continue Reading

By

• Scott Robinson, New Era Technology
• Ivy Wigmore

CW Innovation Awards: Gleaning data insights with AI

Hong Kong-based Citic Telecom CPC has built a data platform that leverages large language models to generate insights and speed up data retrieval and analysis Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Quickwit claims big advantage in log file search and index

When the logs are the data: Startup Quickwit claims late entrant advantage in log file search and index with bigger datasets and better analytics on reduced infrastructure Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Podcast: What is distributed cloud storage and what are its benefits?

We talk to Enrico Signoretti of Cubbit about how distributed cloud allows customers to control their data in hybrid and multicloud storage and the workloads the company targets Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How Vast Data is simplifying data infrastructure

Vast Data CEO Renen Hallak explains how the company’s unified data platform that combines storage, database and compute capabilities into a single technology stack can improve the efficiency of analytics and artificial intelligence workloads Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

On-premises vs. cloud data warehouses: Pros and cons

Data warehouses increasingly are being deployed in the cloud. But both on-premises and cloud data warehouses have pluses and minuses to consider, as explained here. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Foot

star schema

A star schema is a database organizational structure optimized for use in a data warehouse or business intelligence that uses a single large fact table to store transactional or measured data, and one or more smaller dimensional tables that store attributes about the data. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

How ANZ organisations can address challenges in AI adoption

Pure Storage's global CTO Alex McMullan discusses the data and sustainability challenges in artificial intelligence adoption, which can be addressed by centralising datasets and focusing on data quality and management Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

APAC firms bullish on IT spending

More than half of organisations plan to spend more on key areas such as cyber security, generative AI and cloud in a sign of growing optimism across the region Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

data warehouse as a service (DWaaS)

Data warehouse as a service (DWaaS) is an outsourcing model in which a cloud service provider configures and manages the hardware and software resources a data warehouse requires, and the customer provides the data and pays for the managed service. Continue Reading

By

• Cameron Hashemi-Pour, Former Site Editor
• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

Met Police to scrap and replace ‘racist’ Gangs Violence Matrix

A database used by the Metropolitan Police to identify and track people linked with gang violence is being decommissioned and replaced. The decision follows a long-running controversy over its discriminatory impacts on young black people, but campaigners warn that racial discrimination will persist with new tool Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Expert guide to e-discovery

An expert guide to why your organisation needs an electronic discovery policy and how to go about creating one Continue Reading

By

• Martin Nikel, Thomas Murray

How legal disclosure failures disrupted the Post Office Horizon inquiry

From overly narrow search terms, overzealous deduplication of documents and failed email migrations, poor management of legal discovery has delayed justice for postmasters in the Horizon inquiry   Continue Reading

By

• Martin Nikel, Thomas Murray

fact table

In data warehousing, a fact table is a database table in a dimensional model. The fact table stores quantitative information for analysis. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Top 10 information management stories of 2023

Generative AI was inescapable as the leading theme of the information management stories of 2023 gathered here. But also selected are pieces about data and healthcare, and the inexorable rise of the CDO Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

CDO interview: Andy Moore, chief data officer, Bentley Motors

Data sits at the heart of the luxury car maker’s plans for a future with electric vehicles and a ‘hyper-personalised’ customer experience Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Microsoft Azure Data Lake

Microsoft Azure Data Lake is a highly scalable public cloud service that allows developers, scientists, business professionals and other Microsoft customers to gain insight from large, complex data sets. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati
• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Jaguar TCS Formula E racing team making breakthroughs that will fine-tune electric road vehicles

The Jaguar TCS Formula E racing team is using software and digital simulations to continually improve its electric racing cars, leading to better performing electric vehicles on our roads Continue Reading

By

• Dickon Ross

Scottish biometrics watchdog outlines police cloud concerns

Police Scotland’s response to the biometrics commissioner’s formal information notice ‘did not ameliorate’ his concerns about the sovereignty and security of the sensitive biometric information being uploaded to cloud infrastructure that is subject to intrusive US surveillance laws Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK emphasises EU split by kicking digital trade scheme into long grass

Former Gaia-X CEO talks exclusively to Computer Weekly about UK inertia on cross-border data tech Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

How Confluent is tapping the groundswell in data streaming

Confluent CEO Jay Kreps talks up the misconceptions of Kafka and what the company is doing to help customers better leverage the capabilities of the technology Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Microsoft to offer Oracle cloud database on Azure

Oracle and Microsoft have trumpeted an expansion of their joint activity with the launch of Oracle Database@Azure. Microsoft will be the only other hyperscaler to offer OCI services Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Podcast: ‘Data first’ a key principle of digital transformation

Chris Gorton of Syniti says organisations should put data first during digital transformation projects, and that means getting data quality, access rights and governance right Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

dimension

In data warehousing, a dimension is a collection of reference information that supports a measurable event, such as a customer transaction. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Vast Data Platform aims at storage everywhere for AI/ML workloads

Vast Data to offer storage with data lake and warehouse functionality built in natively, in anticipation of a huge surge in AI/ML workloads and a need for ever-larger data stores Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Chief data officer interview: Neema Raphael, Goldman Sachs

After two decades at Goldman Sachs, Neema Raphael tells Computer Weekly about his tech journey at one of the world’s biggest banks Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Inside Cloudera’s data platform strategy

Cloudera executives outline their business and technology strategy to help enterprises harness generative AI and other capabilities through its work in the open source community and other areas Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

snowflaking (snowflake schema)

In data warehousing, snowflaking is a form of dimensional modeling in which dimensions are stored in multiple related dimension tables. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

conformed dimension

In data warehousing, a conformed dimension is a dimension that has the same meaning to every fact with which it relates. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

dimension table

In data warehousing, a dimension table is a database table that stores attributes describing the facts in a fact table. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Finland’s VTT partners Nokia on data market

Finish state’s involvement in Nokia project will add weight and capital to work on creating a market for data Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Hitachi Vantara: Small part of a big corp and analytics focus

We look at Hitachi Vantara, its storage, its cloud offer, the workloads it targets, and its efforts in containerisation and consumption models of storage purchasing Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Health and care staff have three months to move to latest NHS patient record service

NHS England has told health and care workers they have until the end of September to switch to the latest patient record system Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

BBVA uses AI and analytics services from AWS

BBVA invests in Amazon Web Services cloud platforms to help transform itself into an organisation driven by AI and data Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

data lakehouse

A data lakehouse is a data management architecture that combines the key features and the benefits of a data lake and a data warehouse. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor
• George Lawton

Want to become a data-driven organisation? Start thinking differently about change management

Chatting with a client recently about the importance to a data-driven* organisation of having a good Chief Data Officer, or CDO, we turned to the topic of change management. But halfway through the ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Employee perception may be key to success of UAE’s big data initiative

Study shows the impact employee perception can have on big data projects in the United Arab Emirates Continue Reading

By

• Pat Brans, Pat Brans Associates/Grenoble Ecole de Management

Belgian experts take on data challenges

Having been involved in storage and data management for more than two decades, Belgian experts are positioned to help tackle the challenges brought on by a growing volume of unstructured data Continue Reading

By

• Pat Brans, Pat Brans Associates/Grenoble Ecole de Management

Techno-nationalism explained: What you need to know

Techno-nationalism changes the way providers do business and the way users interact with tech. Continue Reading

By

• Ben Lutkevich, Site Editor

Vast Data’s ‘Act 2’ builds data management layer on QLC flash

Vast Data offers QLC flash bulk storage with a rapid cache I/O layer. Now, it has embarked on offering big data, analytics and application access to highly available data stores Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Liverpool Football Club signs Wasabi in on-premise-to-cloud storage transition

Liverpool Football Club has transitioned from lead-footed on-premise infrastructure to Wasabi cloud storage that’s well-suited to its video production and distribution requirements Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

data warehouse

A data warehouse is a repository of data from an organization's operational systems and other sources that supports analytics applications to help drive business decision-making. Continue Reading

By

• Mary K. Pratt
• Jacqueline Biscobing, Senior Managing Editor, News

Unstructured data and the storage it needs

We look at unstructured and semi-structured data and find increasing amounts of production workloads that have their own storage hardware – file and object – needs, including flash Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Teradata reports strong cloud earnings

Teradata’s cloud-first strategy is starting to pay off, with the company reporting its strongest cloud earnings to date in the fourth quarter last year Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

UK finance firms short of data skills

Financial services companies in the UK lack the data skills they will need to succeed in an increasingly digital world Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CIO interview: Hans van der Waal, director of global IT, Travelex

Travelex has weathered a storm that saw it sink into administration, before emerging to solidify its digital foundations for the future Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CDO interview: Very’s Steve Pimblett on finding UB40

The chief data officer of online retailer Very, Steve Pimblett, explains the place of data cataloguing in its data strategy, both for governance and innovation Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Data lake vs. data warehouse: Key differences explained

Data lakes and data warehouses are both commonly used in enterprises. Here are the main differences between them to help you decide which is best for your data needs. Continue Reading

By

• Bridget Botelho, Editorial Director, News

Top 10 information management stories of 2022

Data for good is a theme of the information management stories of 2022 selected here. From tracking space junk, through medical kits for Ukraine, to professionalising data science to benefit society Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

The differences between a data warehouse vs. data mart

Data marts and data warehouses both play key roles in the BI and analytics process. Here's how they differ and how they can be used to help drive business decisions. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Foot

How Databricks is easing lakehouse adoption

Databricks is making it easier for organisations to adopt a data lakehouse architecture through support for industry-specific file formats, data sharing and streaming processing, among other areas Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

What is a data warehouse analyst?

Data warehouse analysts help organizations manage the repositories of analytics data and use them effectively. Here's a look at the role and its responsibilities. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Evaluating data warehouse deployment options and use cases

There's still a place for data warehouses in data architectures. But first, ask whether your organization needs one and what type of technology platform is the best fit. Continue Reading

By

• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

AWS doubles down on data management

Cloud giant Amazon Web Services declares a bold vision to eliminate the need to extract, transform and load data alongside other efforts to address business problems in domains like cyber security and logistics Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Informatica CEO: ‘We’re the Switzerland of data’

Informatica CEO Amit Walia talks up the company’s role as the ‘Switzerland of data’, helping organisations to manage data across different platforms as it transitions into a cloud-first supplier of data management tools Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

How to get structure from unstructured data

We look at how to gain structure from unstructured data, via AI/ML analytics to create new records, selecting object data via SQL and storing unstructured files in NoSQL formats Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How Globe is driving data analytics with Snowflake

The largest telco in the Philippines has moved its on-premise data warehouse to Snowflake to address scalability challenges and improve customer experience Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Aiven expands in APAC, builds new capabilities

Managed service provider of open source databases and data platforms Aiven grew its business in Asia-Pacific by over 100% over the past year, and is now building new capabilities in data warehouses and other areas Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

When technology lets you sleep easy

Indian mattress supplier Duroflex has taken a leaf out of mattress design in its technology implementation to double its growth in an industry dominated by unorganised players Continue Reading

By

• Pratima Harigunani

Digital Transformation Week Amsterdam: The growing divide between the haves and have-nots

The most successful companies carefully manage how data is taken in and processed – and they use tools to ensure they squeeze the most they can out of every bit of information Continue Reading

By

• Pat Brans, Pat Brans Associates/Grenoble Ecole de Management

Is object storage good for databases?

We look at object storage vs block access SAN storage and ask if object storage can be used for database workloads, or is it just good for bulk storage of analytics datasets? Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How to design a data architecture for business success

To gain business value from data, enterprises need to get their data architecture right – and the right business leadership and culture is critical to that Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Datacentres and energy, top women in tech – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

We discuss the run-in to the announcement of the Most Influential Women in UK Technology 2022 list, the datacentre market and the energy crisis, and the Alliance for Data Science Professionals Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK
• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Unstructured vs semi-structured data: Order from chaos

We look at alternatives to relational databases that have emerged to help bring some structure to unstructured data and gain valuable insight by making it semi-structured Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Growing importance of the data strategist in South Holland

Much has been written about the work of data scientists, but the lesser-known role of data strategist is just as essential – as is being demonstrated in the Netherlands Continue Reading

By

• Pat Brans, Pat Brans Associates/Grenoble Ecole de Management

Bfloat16: What it is and how it impacts storage

Bfloat16 is an emerging way to handle very large numbers, developed by Google for its machine and neural learning and prediction. We look at what it means for IT and storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

SSEN partners with Icebreaker One to break energy data silos

Better access to, and sharing of, energy data will help direct the installation of new electric vehicle charging points, as well as help network operators to better understand the electricity grid’s capacity for the introduction of more renewables Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Data and tech platforms helping finance regulator spot problems earlier

The UK financial services regulator is increasingly using data platforms to proactively regulate the finance sector Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Inside Sompo Asia’s agile approach to data analytics

Regional insurer takes agile approach to democratise access to data analytics by creating virtual databases and visualising the insights through Tableau Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Netherlands’ AMdEX seeks to democratise the internet

Last year, five Dutch organisations launched an initiative to set up the Amsterdam Data Exchange to simplify data sharing and help democratise the internet Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

African health charity integrates digital tools with Cognizant

IT services supplier is working with African health charity to integrate digital tools through a five-month project Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Executive interview: Chris Conradi, chief digital officer, FSN Capital

Chris Conradi is taking his learnings at Google into the private equity industry at Norway’s FSN Capital Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Data leaders need to overcome their fears and unlock their creativity

Author and data management consultant Caroline Carruthers argues that data leaders need to tap into their creativity to make their analytical work pay off Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Carruthers

Gartner Data & Analytics Summit: Unleash innovation on emergence from pandemic

Analysts at the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in London urged D&A leaders to unleash innovation as their organisations emerge from the shadow of the pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Pure to offer on-prem object storage as Snowflake data source

Pure Storage partnership with Snowflake will see the cloud data warehousing platform make use of on-prem FlashBlade fast file and object storage as a source for analytics data Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

SAP ‘optimistic’ about S/4 Hana in APAC

A top SAP executive is confident that more of its customers in Asia-Pacific will adopt S/4 Hana this year, as the company shores up integration of its ERP software with other business applications Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

NexGen Networks deploys Equinix platform to scale business in Europe

Digital infrastructure company teams with fibre optic-based network systems provider to expand capacity in Europe in response to increasing demand for secure, low-latency interconnection Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Government agrees bulk surveillance powers fail to protect journalists and sources

Campaign group Liberty to launch legal appeal that will call for journalists to receive stronger legal protections from state surveillance Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Pure says unstructured data needs storage scale and performance

Podcast: Pure Storage says huge growth of unstructured data and its diversity means storage has to be able to scale with it and offer performance to gain insights Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Competition watchdog contacts Barclays and Lloyds banks over API failures

Barclays and Lloyds banks have failed to meet some of the open banking rules, says competition watchdog Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA