Database software
With the volumes of digital data used by businesses growing at exponential rates, having the right information management and database software becomes key to corporate decision-making. While established products such as Oracle, DB2 and Informix remain widely used, open source alternatives such as MySQL and Ingres offer potential alternatives for IT managers. We examine the issues around choosing the right products and strategies for your organisation.
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News
07 Oct 2025
Nato chooses Oracle to secure battlefield communications
Nato has chosen Oracle and Druid to secure private 5G networks for cyber defence, war gaming and research, using Oracle Cloud and edge technology Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2025
Alibaba Cloud targets full-stack AI dominance
The Chinese cloud giant has unveiled the Qwen3-Max model, a suite of agent development tools and cloud infrastructure upgrades to position itself as a one-stop shop for AI development and deployment Continue Reading
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News
21 Apr 2016
GCHQ told analysts to assume surveillance 'bulk data' is legal
Documents obtained by charity Privacy International reveal insights into GCHQ’s collection of sensitive bulk data, as lawyers question the impact of surveillance on legal privilege, fair trials and protection of whistleblowers Continue Reading
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News
15 Apr 2016
Capgemini to build 100-strong team of blockchain specialists
The IT services firm is building a team of 100 blockchain experts as banks start to consider the technology as the future of financial services Continue Reading
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News
30 Mar 2016
Centrica deploys large scale Hortonworks cluster to boost business
Utility company Centrica is looking at how to grow the business by harvesting data lakes Continue Reading
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News
21 Mar 2016
Britain to pay billions for monster internet surveillance network
New questions raised about Britain’s snoopers’ charter after Denmark abandons its own UK-style surveillance programme for a second time Continue Reading
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News
16 Mar 2016
Oracle Q3 2016: cloud revenue grows, US currency strength takes toll
SaaS and PaaS combined contributed $583m in third quarter, up 57% in US dollar terms, while IaaS was down 2% in dollars to $152m Continue Reading
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News
22 Feb 2016
Dutch water wants to move beyond dipping its toes into big data pool
Dutch water company Brabant Water wants to use data to improve the service it provides to customers, as well as identify problems on its distribution network Continue Reading
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E-Zine
18 Feb 2016
CW Europe: February 2016
In Europe cloud is restricted and hybrid setups make use of local compute and storage. Continue Reading
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News
12 Feb 2016
CIO interview: Ismo Platan, SSAB
Retiring CIO of Swedish steel company tells Computer Weekly about the progress made in merging two Nordic steel firms and looks at the biggest hurdles that lie ahead Continue Reading
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News
11 Dec 2015
Case study: Airbus sets out challenges of changing IT supplier
Aircraft manufacturer sets out what it learned from switching IT provider after 12 years of working together Continue Reading
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News
10 Dec 2015
Three tips to help reduce Oracle licensing costs
London councils are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year with Oracle. Controlling these costs is the first step in taming Oracle licensing Continue Reading
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News
02 Nov 2015
CIO interview: Torben Høeg Bonde, Vestas
The CIO at Danish wind turbine company Vestas is playing a key role in turning the company into a software supplier Continue Reading
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News
26 Oct 2015
Oracle OpenWorld 2015: Larry Ellison vaunts Oracle’s cloud services over rivals
Larry Ellison promoted his company’s cloud services and berated rivals in his opening keynote at Oracle OpenWorld 2015 Continue Reading
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E-Zine
26 Oct 2015
Blockchain sparks change in banking industry
In this week's Computer Weekly, we find out why blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin, is making waves in the banking sector. EasyJet tells us why digital is increasingly important for airlines. And we look at the forces driving digital disruption and why some sectors are changing faster than others. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2015
MySQL 5.7 aims at deeper convergence with Oracle tech and NoSQL
MySQL 5.7 has been released with next-generation hardware in mind, offering greater interoperability with Oracle and NoSQL database technologies Continue Reading
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News
19 Oct 2015
BT Openreach division expands services deal with Infosys to improve support for engineers
BT Openreach is using a software platform from Infosys that draws data from several sources to improve support for its engineers and customers Continue Reading
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News
19 Oct 2015
Opera chooses Workday over Oracle as it moves HR to cloud
Browser company Opera opts for slick internal IT as it competes with Apple and Google for skilled technologists Continue Reading
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News
16 Oct 2015
CIO interview: Martin Thell, Scandic Hotels
The CIO of major Nordic hotel chain Scandic Hotels wants to learn more about customers through technology, without being overbearing Continue Reading
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News
15 Oct 2015
Why blockchain heralds a rethink of the entire banking industry
Blockchain, the distributed ledger technology behind bitcoin, is both a threat and an opportunity for financial services – and the banks are taking it very seriously Continue Reading
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News
13 Oct 2015
RBS to pilot product based on blockchain technology in 2016
Royal Bank of Scotland is among the early adopters of distributed ledger technology that could shake up the banking industry Continue Reading
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News
05 Oct 2015
Workday seeks growth, not profit, as it expands in Europe
Cloud services company Workday is setting its sights on growth as it expands from cloud HR, to finance, learning and analytics Continue Reading
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News
02 Oct 2015
Keeping up with Cassandra, the NoSQL database
What does Call of Duty, the Hive smart thermostats, Social Weather and the William Hill bookie app all have in common? They are all powered by the Apache Cassandra NoSQL database Continue Reading
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News
21 Sep 2015
Health chief 'should be held to account' for whistleblow errors
Former nurse and clincial commissioner Bernie Rochford claims unfair dismissal after blowing the whistle on IT problems which put patient care at risk Continue Reading
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News
15 Sep 2015
NHS trust denies bullying and intimidation of IT whistleblower
Managers were already aware of whistleblower's concerns about the accuracy of NHS Southwark's data, tribunal hears Continue Reading
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News
10 Sep 2015
Cloudian boosts object storage HyperStore compliance features
Distributed object storage software maker Cloudian upgrades HyperStore with added granularity of data protection features that can help meet compliance requirements Continue Reading
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Feature
14 Aug 2015
Types of NoSQL databases and key criteria for choosing them
In a book excerpt, consultant Dan Sullivan offers insights into how to select the right type of NoSQL database for the right application in your organization. Continue Reading
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Feature
07 Aug 2015
SAP HANA in-memory DBMS overview
SAP HANA is an in-memory DBMS and application platform designed to handle high transaction rates and complex queries using one data copy. Continue Reading
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Feature
31 Jul 2015
Redis open source DBMS overview
The Redis open source DBMS provides a highly scalable data store that can be shared by multiple processes, applications or servers. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Jul 2015
MySQL open source RDBMS overview
Developers, database administrators and DevOps teams use MySQL open source RDBMS to more easily operate next-generation applications in the cloud. Continue Reading
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News
23 Jul 2015
Software project will save Ford tens of millions a year in car repair bills
Car maker Ford is rolling out sophisticated warranty software to 12,000 dealers worldwide in a project that is expected to bring rapid financial returns Continue Reading
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News
21 Jul 2015
Mainframe fails to save IBM from 13th declining quarter
IBM's second-quarter revenue was down 13% year-on-year to $20.8bn, but IBM said the decline is only 1%, adjusting for the sale of its x86 server business and the impact of the strong dollar Continue Reading
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News
20 Jul 2015
Comparethemarket uses Cloudera to gain single view of customer data
Price comparison site Comparethemarket has turned to Cloudera’s Hadoop distribution to get a better view of customer data from different channels. Doug Cutting, the father of Hadoop, explains Continue Reading
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News
30 Jun 2015
Top suppliers as UK software and services market approaches £50bn
The top five software and IT services firms in the UK are Capita, HP, IBM, Capgemini and Accenture, according to the latest figures from TechMarketView Continue Reading
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News
19 Jun 2015
Google eyes Tesco’s customer analytics arm Dunnhumby
Google is reported to have joined the scramble to buy Dunnhumby, the customer analytics unit behind Tesco’s Clubcard Continue Reading
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News
18 Jun 2015
The diagram that scares the next generation of banking IT professionals
The next generation of IT professionals in the banking sector will face the same legacy headache as their predecessors Continue Reading
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News
17 Jun 2015
Royal Bank of Scotland goes back to 1970s values with big data
RBS, once the world's largest bank, is using analytics technology to go back to the era of personal customer service Continue Reading
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E-Zine
01 Jun 2015
Google’s big data vision
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine Google’s 11-year big data journey from MapReduce to Cloud Bigtable, the internet giant’s latest NoSQL database service. We look at the role of mobile technology in helping to join up health and social care in the UK. And John Lewis IT director Paul Coby talks about the IT challenges of creating an omni-channel retailer. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
12 May 2015
Former nurse’s career blighted after blowing whistle on IT problems
Southwark's continuing care database included names of patients who had been dead for several years, a tribunal is told Continue Reading
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News
05 May 2015
Sapphire 2015: McDermott declares SAP natively digital
SAP CEO Bill McDermott declares the company “digital” at Sapphire 2015 and made “empathy” the watchword of his keynote Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Apr 2015
Bill Binney, the ‘original’ NSA whistleblower, on Snowden, 9/11 and illegal surveillance
Always a patriot: Computer Weekly talks to Bill Binney, the senior NSA official who blew the whistle before Edward Snowden Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Apr 2015
Apache Spark speeds up big data decision-making
Spark, the open-source cluster computing framework from Apache, promises to complement Hadoop batch processing Continue Reading
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News
19 Mar 2015
Holland & Barrett outsources data handling to ITC Infotech
IT services firm ITC Infotech manages customer data for health food business to help it glean business value from the information Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Mar 2015
How building information modelling is changing the construction industry
The Cabinet Office says that by 2016, “collaborative 3D building information modelling will be required on all government projects” Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2015
Case study: Hedge fund AHL Man Group uses MongoDB to feed quants with data
Hedge fund AHL Man Group replaces disparate relational databases with a single data platform built on NoSQL database MongoDB Continue Reading
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News
20 Jan 2015
SAP’s Cohen on 2014 results: Europe strong north and south
SAP’s Emea president Franck Cohen optimistic about the supplier’s growth prospects in southern and northern Europe 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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News
12 Dec 2014
Care.data faces more delays over concerns about patients
The NHS’s Care.data scheme may face more delays due to concerns over lack of publicity and clarity of the proposed programme 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
11 Nov 2014
Qantas puts Oracle ERP in the cloud with Tata Consultancy Services
Airline Qantas signs IT outsourcing services firm TCS to upgrade its Oracle ERP platform and move it into the cloud Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2014
Police forces use private cloud to access Holmes database
Police forces across the UK will access the Holmes major investigation system via a private cloud service Continue Reading
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News
04 Nov 2014
Airbus interview: research, innovation and the future of aviation
IT plays a substantial role in creating the aircraft of the future, with research and innovation at the core of the Airbus business strategy 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
27 Oct 2014
Met Police trials analytics to fight gang crime
The Metropolitan Police is experimenting with analytics software to help predict which criminals are likely to re-offend Continue Reading
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News
27 Oct 2014
CIO interview: David Johnstone of Martin Currie Investment Management
The head of solutions management at the asset management firm discusses IT projects and the changing role of IT leaders Continue Reading
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News
27 Oct 2014
Hitachi Data Systems ploughs ahead with social innovation plans
Hitachi Innovation Forum expects 16,000 delegates to share user cases on how technology is making society safer Continue Reading
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E-Zine
03 Oct 2014
CW Europe - October 2014 Edition
BYOD policies: What’s allowed and what’s banned? As IT departments still try to come to terms with the notion of BYOD, CW Europe takes a look at what policies are being implemented to keep security under control. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Sep 2014
Q&A: MarkLogic CEO Gary Bloom talks strategy
Gary Bloom, CEO of NoSQL database supplier MarkLogic, talks to Computer Weekly about strategy Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2014
Morgan Motor Company swaps Sage for integrated IFS
Morgan Motor Company is replacing its Sage 500 accounting system with IFS Applications Continue Reading
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News
29 Aug 2014
Tesco to reduce IT spend in a bid to cut costs
Supermarket giant Tesco has announced that it will be cutting costs from its IT budget to save money Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2014
Home Office pours £3.8m into shared service for biometric cards
The Home Office has awarded a £3.8m contract to Thales for a service to support the production of Biometric Residence Permit cards Continue Reading
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News
08 Aug 2014
Government breaks grip of IT oligopoly
Figures for public sector software and IT services investments reveal a dwindling share for IT giants, but can the oligopoly be removed? Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2014
Oracle in-memory option creates licensing pain and audit risk
A former Oracle employee has highlighted a major issue in the way the new Oracle Database 12c Release 12.1.0.2 is licensed Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2014
NAO reveals Home Office spent £347m on failed ICW programme
The Home Office spent £347m closing its Immigration Case Work programme, which was supposed to replace legacy databases Continue Reading
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Feature
24 Jun 2014
Unilever puts SAP at the captain’s table
Consumer goods company Unilever works hand in glove with SAP in “speeding up its growth”, according to senior executives at the two firms Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2014
Centrica's datacentre move to HP still not complete after three and a half years
Centrica is yet to transfer its entire datacentre operations to HP despite signing a contract with the supplier in 2010 Continue Reading
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Photo Story
16 Jun 2014
What’s new in SQL Server 2014
We give Microsoft’s latest release of SQL Server a test drive to find out if the new features really make the effort of upgrading worthwhile Continue Reading
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E-Zine
16 Jun 2014
The Met Office turns to open source
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out why the Met Office turned to an open source database to replace Oracle at the UK weather forecasting service. We take an in-depth look at Microsoft’s SQL Server 2014 release. And we analyse the revolutionary potential of cloud computing. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
12 Jun 2014
HSBC makes executives responsible for application consolidation
In the next few weeks, senior executives at HSBC globally will have KPIs to reduce the number of applications they run Continue Reading
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Feature
28 May 2014
In-memory databases - what they do and the storage they need
In-memory databases offer high performance data processing, but how do you protect data in volatile DRAM and what kind of storage is needed for longer term retention? Continue Reading
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News
23 May 2014
Business Objects use increases among SAP users, but Hana uptake low
More UK and Ireland SAP customers are using Business Objects now than even two years ago, but only 15% are using Hana Continue Reading
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News
19 May 2014
SAP certifies core business apps to run on Microsoft Azure
From June, users of SAP Business Suite software, Business All-In-One solution, SAP Mobile Platform, SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and Hana platform will be able to run them on Azure Continue Reading
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News
01 May 2014
Co-operative Bank report reveals challenge of legacy IT replacement
A report into the £1.5bn losses at Co-operative Bank reveals numerous failures in a project to replace core banking systems Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
Optimising the data warehouse
Analysts Clive Longbottom and Rob Bamforth discuss approaches to optimising data warehouses for big data. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
The mid-market conundrum
Analysts Bob Tarzey and Bob Brown look at how mid market organisations can achieve 'best in class' IT applications with limited resources. Continue Reading
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News
31 Mar 2014
Ministry of Justice to invest up to £375m in court and tribunal technology reform
The Ministry of Justice has announced a five-year programme to update and replace technology used in courts and tribunals across the UK Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Mar 2014
Seven secrets of SQL Server Management Studio
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the principal interface for working with Microsoft SQL Server. However, many subtleties of this powerful tool evade even the most seasoned professionals Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Mar 2014
Using NoSQL databases to gain competitive advantage
NoSQL is attracting growing interest from businesses - we examine three case studies: Amadeus, i2O and Temetra Continue Reading
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News
20 Mar 2014
Application support and maintenance costs increase 29%
The cost of supporting and maintaining applications is increasing every year for Global 2000 companies in the US and UK, according to a study of 300 CIOs Continue Reading
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News
19 Mar 2014
Oracle finally sees revenue growth from hardware business
Oracle has finally seen a boost from its server business, with hardware sales up 8% in its latest financial results Continue Reading
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News
04 Mar 2014
Airport IT Trends Survey
Airports are spending a larger slice of their revenues on technology as they look to improve the passenger experience, this major study from SITA reveals. Continue Reading
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Feature
27 Feb 2014
Hadoop 2 opens new vistas beyond current UK data management practice
Hadoop 2 enables a greater range of data-crunching tasks, beyond Hadoop’s previous scope of batch processing, directly within the stack itself Continue Reading
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News
27 Feb 2014
RBS to tidy up systems mess
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) outlines plans to cut costs and improve customer services, slashing the number of IT systems in the process Continue Reading
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News
19 Feb 2014
NHS England puts patient database on hold
NHS England is to delay by six months the roll-out of its controversial Care.data scheme for sharing patient records through a central database Continue Reading
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News
18 Feb 2014
HP knew of Autonomy hardware sales tactics
New evidence suggests HP was aware of Autonomy’s accounting practices months before publicly condemning the company Continue Reading
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Photo Story
17 Feb 2014
UK IT spending will outpace rest of Europe in 2014
Computer Weekly research reveals the IT spending priorities for UK and European organisations in 2014. Continue Reading
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News
14 Feb 2014
HR Technology Key Trends 2014
HR Directors and leading IT suppliers give their take on the HR technology trends for 2014 in this analysis from HR Zone. Continue Reading
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News
07 Feb 2014
Met Police releases ‘Total Technology’ IT strategy
The Metropolitan Police Service has released a three to four-year plan on how to transform the use of technology in the organisation Continue Reading
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News
04 Feb 2014
Satya Nadella replaces Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO
Microsoft has named Satya Nadella as CEO almost six months after former incumbent Steve Ballmer announced his retirement Continue Reading
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News
28 Jan 2014
BBC failed to get "sufficient grip” over failed DMI project, says NAO
The National Audit Office has slammed the BBC over its failed Digital Media Initiative (DMI), project saying the broadcaster was “too optimistic” and the BBC executive “did not have sufficient grip of the programme" Continue Reading
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News
27 Jan 2014
Teradata launches analytics product as SAP BW replacement
Teradata has released an analytics product for SAP ERP, as a full-blown alternative to SAP BW Continue Reading
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News
22 Jan 2014
HB Fuller sticks with HR in the cloud
Cloud based HR system gives adhesives maker the ability to manage its global workforce Continue Reading
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E-Zine
20 Jan 2014
The IT risks facing Universal Credit
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the ongoing IT risks facing the UK government’s highest-profile IT project – the troubled Universal Credit programme to reform the UK’s welfare system. We talk to IT leaders to find out their spending priorities for 2014 and how their IT budgets are shaping up. The digital chief at BBC Worldwide talks about managing technology innovation. And we find out about the latest best practice in improving datacentre performance. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Jan 2014
Big banks' legacy IT systems could kill them
A banking T-Rex is dying and nimble competitors will pick at its carcass. Is it too late for the retail bank giants to overhaul their IT and survive? Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Jan 2014
Minerals firm Imerys upgrades IFS ERP as economy lifts
Imerys has 30 different ERP systems around the globe. A plan to move to a single instance of ERP, thrown off course by recession, was achieved in 2012; other business benefits have accrued Continue Reading
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Photo Story
23 Dec 2013
IT at the WWF Living Planet Centre
WWF’s Living Planet Centre is one of the greenest buildings in the UK and aims to demonstrate to the public using technology how it is possible for people to live in harmony with nature Continue Reading
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Opinion
19 Dec 2013
User acceptance testing needs real training, not just a short course
In spite of its importance, user acceptance testing (UAT) is often chaotic, problematic and ineffective Continue Reading
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News
05 Dec 2013
700,000 benefit claimants miss out on Universal Credit deadline
The secretary for work and pensions has admitted the Universal Credit benefit scheme will miss its 2017 deadline Continue Reading
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News
13 Nov 2013
AWS re: Invent 2013 kicks off in Las Vegas
Amazon Web Services' annual conference opens with product announcements to the 8,000 strong crowd during the keynote Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2013
Business-defined storage will help reconnect businesses with IT, says Forrester
Business-defined storage and datacentres will make IT more business-centric, according to Forrester Continue Reading
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News
04 Nov 2013
Co-operative Bank’s future dependent on £500m IT investment
Co-operative Bank has set aside £500m for four stage IT transformation as it attempts to stabilise after investors contribute to a £1.5bn rescue Continue Reading