Information management

Alibaba eyes retail sector with new cloud offerings

Chinese cloud supplier says retailers will be able to use its machine learning platform to understand consumer preferences, among a slew of services it is making available globally for the first time Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Digital projects failing because of poor databases

Legacy databases are unsuitable to run modern digitisation initiatives. Teams risk losing their jobs if their projects fail, warns Couchbase Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

How automation can help create value, the 5th ‘v’ of data

This is a guest blogpost by Neil Barton, CTO, WhereScape For CDOs, defining the data and analytics strategy for their organization is increasingly the most important aspect of their job, with 86% ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Servitisation: What it is and how it can transform companies

The idea that every product-based company needs to put service first is a radical shift in how businesses organise themselves. Is it more than rhetoric? Continue Reading

By

• Marc Ambasna-Jones

UK above average on strategic use of analytics

The UK has slightly more chief data officers than the global average, which helps drive strategic initiatives – but security is still seen as a major hurdle Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Rentokil robot Trevor kills off mundane processes

Pest control firm has deployed artificial intelligence robots to take out manual processes and progress its learning organisation approach Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

CW Benelux: Netherlands to experiment with self-driving trains

In this issue, read how Dutch railway operator ProRail will test self-driving trains on a small set of railroad tracks to learn if they can be part of the country’s notoriously busy network. Also, find out how a network of smart towns and cities is growing in the Netherlands, and why Dutch organisations are being urged to unite to fight DDoS attacks. Continue Reading

Government sets out vision for better use of rail data

The government and the rail industry have developed a joint action plan to remove barriers to better data use by improving access to data, developing better standards, increasing skills and encouraging collaboration Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Confluent Platform 5.0 aims to mainstream Kafka streaming

Confluent Platform updates seek to bring data streaming with Apache Kafka to a wider audience. A new GUI and user-defined functions are part of the 5.0 release. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

Open source DBMS software gains foothold in enterprise IT

Open source databases are increasingly making their way into corporate IT environments, says Gartner analyst Merv Adrian in a Q&A. But some care is required. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Government launches digital economy competition review

Obama’s former chief economic advisor will lead panel on competition in the digital economy to ensure regulations are fit for purpose Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Data has potential to enhance UK economy and productivity, says government

Government paper sets out potential for data to drive economic value, and highlights series of challenges that need to be addressed to fully gain benefits Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

GDPR harmonised with local laws in Nordic EU states

Sweden provides an interesting challenge for the European Union’s data protection regulation due to its laws around freedom of press and free speech Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

What machine learning practitioners can learn from data warehousing

Cloudera’s head of emerging business shares lessons that machine learning practitioners can learn from their cousins in data warehousing Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Cynozure lets you hire a chief digital officer on demand

Why pay for a full-time chief digital officer? Cynozure has a new service to enable smaller businesses to swap them out, as and when they need a change Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

UK fintech investment exceeds US and China

Financial technology investments in the UK have surpassed those made in the US and China Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Briton ran pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign that helped Trump deny Russian links

A British IT manager and former hacker from Darlington ran a disinformation campaign that duped former US intelligence agents and provided Donald Trump with manufactured “evidence” to deny that Russia interfered with the US election Continue Reading

By

• Duncan Campbell , 2QQ Ltd, Sussex University

M&S aims to give 1,000 employees data skills

Luxury supermarket Marks and Spencer has partnered with Decoded to create a programme aimed at teaching its employees data skills Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

How F1 and others are moving beyond descriptive analytics

Formula 1 and Merck Sharp & Dohme are using data analytics to better understand user behaviour and predict the future Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

BigQuery ML moves machine learning into Google BigQuery

Google is enabling BigQuery users to build SQL-based machine learning models inside the cloud data warehouse via a BigQuery ML technology now out in beta. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Cities key to making data a new form of infrastructure, says Nesta

City governments need to take charge of data use and leverage responsible innovation, as data should not be seen as a saleable commodity, but a common good, according to the innovation foundation Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

An IT operating model for the digital age

Enterprises need to form cross-functional teams and give them the mandate to work together towards a single goal Continue Reading

By

• Tim Sheedy, Ecosystm

Qlik-Podium acquisition aims to boost BI data management

With its acquisition of Podium Data, Qlik seeks to amplify its enterprise BI data management capabilities and raise the level of competition with Tableau and Power BI. Continue Reading

By

• Shaun Sutner, Senior News Director

Beyond GDPR: ePrivacy could have an even greater impact on mobile

From how we monitor air pollution and manage our public transport systems, to how we enable connected cars and the next generation of 5G mobile services, the forthcoming ePR could have a lasting impact on European society Continue Reading

By

• Jade Nester, GSMA

How to attach databases to custom SQL Server containers

Deploying SQL Server in Docker containers for production applications typically requires custom containers. Here are guidelines on how to attach databases to them. Continue Reading

By

• Michael Otey

Capital markets firms to ramp up public cloud spending

Companies in the investment sector are increasingly using the public cloud to improve access to business-critical data Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Has collaboration software wrought perilous communication overload?

A new generation of collaborative software, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, could prove a knowledge management boon. But does it have a dark side of communication overload? Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

Reskilling the analytics team: Math, science and creativity

Technical skills are a must for data scientists. But to make analytics teams successful, they also need to think creatively, work in harmony and be good communicators. Continue Reading

By

• Nipa Basu

Good data quality for machine learning is an analytics must

As companies add machine learning applications, they need to really understand -- and be able to improve -- their data. That's where data quality initiatives come in. Continue Reading

By

• David A. Teich

At Intuit, machine learning enhances products, CTO says

Intuit's machine learning and AI technology are transforming its many financial software products. CTO Tayloe Stansbury discusses what that means for Intuit. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Labbe

How Splunk is ‘splunking’ data for APAC enterprises

Splunk’s regional vice-president talks up the company’s business strategy and how its customers are using big data analytics in security and IT operations Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Rio Tinto transports iron ore with autonomous train

The 280km journey in Western Australia was made under Rio Tinto’s autonomous train programme aimed at improving the productivity and safety of workers Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Chief data officer role: Searching for consensus

The chief data officer role is about many things -- regulations, innovation, AI and more. Consultant Randy Bean discussed the matter ahead of an MIT symposium on the topic. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

Canada raises banner of AI to boost tech industry

Toronto has gone big for artificial intelligence, aiming to draw in international talent and boost its IT industry Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

How graph data modeling can help evaluate database tools

Mapping data to a graph model can be challenging, but these steps can help you create prototype applications -- which then can aid in evaluating graph databases. Continue Reading

By

• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity Inc.

The threats of AI must be taken seriously to prevent harm

The risks of AI use are growing as the technology becomes more pervasive. Rather than laugh off the threats, businesses should move to mitigate them before they become headaches. Continue Reading

By

• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity Inc.

CW Middle East: Can Saudi Arabia build the Silicon Valley of the Middle East?

In April this year, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman visited Silicon Valley in the US to meet tech giants such as Apple and Amazon in its efforts to fast-forward the kingdom’s technology capabilities. Read about its lofty ambitions. Also in this issue, read how demand for skilled IT professionals is increasing rapidly in the Middle East, which is facing a talent crunch. Meanwhile, Gulf Cooperation Council smart city initiatives are gathering momentum. Continue Reading

Indonesia leads ASEAN region in AI adoption

The sprawling archipelago of more than 260 million people is becoming a hotbed for adoption of artificial intelligence, led by digital native companies such as Go-Jek and Kaskus Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

Siemens and Alibaba Cloud eye Chinese IoT market

The two bigwigs will develop industrial internet of things offerings for China’s manufacturing industries that are being digitised through various state-led initiatives Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov tells Tableau users human intelligence still has role to play

Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion, tells Tableau’s European conference that artificial intelligence is a positive force that will stoke, not choke, human creativity Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Singapore to build speech recognition system to speed up emergency response

Emergency responders in the city-state could be able to react more quickly in future with the help of the world’s first mixed-lingual speech recognition engine, to be developed at a new artificial intelligence speech lab Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

eHarmony hooks up with Redis NoSQL database for hot storage

The Redis key-value store finds use in a system to match would-be romantic partners on dating site eHarmony, which employs a variety of NoSQL databases to make love click online. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

Bosch teams up with Singapore Polytechnic in IoT training push

Bosch and Singapore Polytechnic have set up two learning labs to train students on the use of the internet of things in advanced manufacturing Continue Reading

By

• Kimberly Chua

Trainline shaking up rail travel beyond making trains run on time

Trainline's data scientists are applying the latest technologies to vast data sets to make train journey ticket prices easier to navigate Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Why AI must move beyond pattern-matching

Artificial intelligence and deep learning have revolutionised applications such as computer vision, but more complex problems require a different approach Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Exiting EU committee cattle-prods government on 'data adequacy'

House of Commons Select Committee for Exiting the European Union urges the government to start the process to secure a “Data Adequacy Decision” from the EU pronto Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Labeled data brings machine learning applications to life

The types of data being collected for analytics use are increasing, but traditional structured data is a good match for machine learning. Gartner's Svetlana Sicular explains why. Continue Reading

By

• Maxine Giza

Government welcomes Lords AI report, vaunts industrial strategy

The government has published its official, supportive response to the House of Lords select committee report on artificial intelligence, published earlier this year Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

New deals bolster IBM’s European cloud business

IBM has signed up a number of new customers for its European cloud, focusing on the platform and software services in the IBM public cloud Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

GPU cloud tools take complexity out of machine learning infrastructure

While talk of AI on GPUs is abuzz, actually building a machine learning infrastructure remains a dark art. A startup's PaaS is looking to automate parts of the process. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

AI for recruiting helps companies land top job candidates

More enterprises are using AI in hiring today, a practice that can help surface strong applicants. But there are several pitfalls businesses need to watch for. Continue Reading

By

• Ronald Schmelzer, Cognilytica

Hadoop data governance services surface in wake of GDPR

GDPR influence is touching a Hadoop big data world that was immune to many privacy considerations until now. This podcast features the rise of Hadoop data governance for data lakes. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

Case study: Logistics firm GWC moves from paper to digital HR in three months

Qatar-based logistics firm Gulf Warehousing Company introduced smart appraisals for employees, cut the time it takes to recruit, and gave staff and managers access to accurate HR data by replacing paper systems with human resources software Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Bolloré Group partners with Alibaba for cloud and co-development

French transportation conglomerate will use Alibaba cloud, and Alibaba will look at using Bolloré's battery technology in its datacentres Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Singapore’s Fullerton Health gears up for the cloud

Private healthcare service provider Fullerton Health is moving business applications to Microsoft’s cloud services before rolling out data analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance operations and patient care Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Formula One switches from on-premise to machine learning on AWS

Formula One plans to use advanced analytics to improve the data it can show to motor racing fans Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Four first steps for customer data management

Forrester's Mike Gualtieri details how to develop a unified plan to manage customer data that gives business users what they need to manage CRM programs. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Gualtieri, Forrester Research

The future of BI is bright, as experts note evolving trends

Fast-evolving tech trends like machine learning and cloud storage management will have big roles in BI in the coming years, especially with the dominance of cloud computing, experts say. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Labbe

MongoDB 4.0, Stitch aim to grow NoSQL apps in cloud, on-prem

NoSQL vendor MongoDB upgraded its database software with ACID support, while also releasing a serverless platform intended to simplify application development. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Three factors for protecting sensitive data in the GDPR era

Data privacy is a hot topic nowadays thanks to GDPR and the Facebook data scandal. But how do data security, access control and data protection differ? Continue Reading

By

• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity Inc.

British Muslim challenges use of intelligence databases for repeated police stops

Muzaffar Abdullah is challenging police use of intelligence databases to repeatedly stop and question Muslims, after being arrested for refusing to answer questions under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. His lawyers say he had been stopped at least 10 times before and the police should have known he had no connection to terrorism Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Digital transformation is just business change

Don't always start with the technology if you're driving transformation, but always start with the business Continue Reading

By

• Ed Tucker, Human Firewall

NHS collaborates with private health on sharing patient data

Work has begun on establishing a set of data standards to enable private healthcare patients’ data to be shared with the NHS Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Data locked in legacy systems curbs digitisation plans

Maintaining access to data stuck in legacy systems is costly and limits IT’s ability to work on digital transformation initiatives Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Malaysia makes good progress in building analytics talent

The country’s talent development and funding schemes have brought the benefits of big data to many organisations, but the quality and volume of its analytics talent can be improved Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

What's the difference between DDL and DML?

What's the difference between DDL and DML? Get the answer and see examples of data manipulation language and data definition language commands for SQL databases. Continue Reading

By

• Bridget Botelho, Editorial Director, News

Hadoop data lake architecture tests IT on data integration

Hortonworks users talk about building Hadoop data lakes to support new applications -- and the challenges their teams face on ingesting and refining data for end users. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

SAP outlines approach to data management

Through its Hana Data Management Suite, SAP hopes to alleviate the challenges of managing data amid growing data security needs in an increasingly hybrid IT landscape Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

CDO interview: Andrei Belevtsev, Gazprom Neft

Russian oil giant will harness the latest technologies right across its business, says chief digital officer Continue Reading

By

• Vladimir Kozlov

HR projects are leading company moves to digital tech, say business leaders

Business leaders say their human resource IT programmes are leading the way to the wider deployment of digital and cloud technology across their organisations Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Teradata sues SAP over Hana for stealing trade secrets

Data warehousing supplier Teradata is suing SAP in a Californian court for stealing trade secrets, copyright infringement and antitrust violations Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Ethical AI requires collaboration and framework development

Countries and companies are attending to the ethics of artificial intelligence technology use. Such efforts need to be collectively determined to result in solid frameworks Continue Reading

By

• SA Mathieson

CIO interview: Mike Young, Centrica

We speak to the CIO whose CEO recently met with the head of Microsoft to talk about strategy Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Chief data officers go to summer school

Authors of the “Chief data officer’s playbook”, Caroline Carruthers and Peter Jackson, are running a summer school, supported by data governance software supplier Collibra Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

CIO interview: Michael Cole, European Tour and Ryder Cup

Michael Cole, chief technology officer at the European Tour and Ryder Cup, discusses how he is helping the sport of golf broaden its appeal through his “connected course” digital transformation vision Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Hortonworks cloud options grow via Google, Microsoft, IBM

Hortonworks now supports Google Cloud Storage and has also broadened cloud deals with Microsoft and IBM, aiming to increase cloud uses of its big data platform. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

What goes into a customer analytics data integration framework

Customer data integration is a minefield for IT teams to navigate. But incorporating a set of core technical functions into an integration architecture can ease the process. Continue Reading

By

• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity Inc.

Data integration techniques to help keep BI data consistent

Data integration processes that aren't managed properly can create inconsistent data in BI and analytics applications. Here are some steps to avoid that problem. Continue Reading

By

• David Loshin, Knowledge Integrity Inc.

Bank uses AI to select job candidates

Singapore’s DBS Bank is using artificial intelligence to automate parts of its recruitment process Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Can good data approaches help uncover bad data social manipulation?

Software definitely helped cause the pernicious problem of fake news – but could also ameliorate it, says data expert Emil Eifrem, in a guest blogpost. Time was it was the tabloid newspapers that ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

StorageCraft to unveil unified storage, backup and cloud appliances

StorageCraft arose as a backup software maker but now plans converged storage, backup and analytics play in a move to unify offering built on core and acquired products Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Challenges and benefits of the Cloud

This is a guest blog by Claudia Imhoff, CEO Intelligent Solutions and founder, Boulder BI Brain Trust Like any new initiative, there are both challenges and benefits to weigh when deciding whether ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Government Geospatial Commission opens up OS MasterMap data

The Geospatial Commission, announced by chancellor Philip Hammond in his 2017 Autumn Budget, has opened up some Ordnance Survey MasterMap data to boost small businesses Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Case study: Mercedes F1 team makes gains with Pure Storage all-flash

Two years ago, the Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team deployed Pure Storage all-flash arrays in its datacentre and in mobile racks out on the circuit. It’s a bet that has paid off for the racing team Continue Reading

By

• Christophe Bardy

CW Europe: Lufthansa’s HR IT project takes off

Lufthansa says it is confident of landing a company-wide HR IT project after having to go back to the drawing board. Also in this issue, read about the ComputerWeekly/TechTarget IT Priorities survey’s findings that many European technology leaders are expecting to increase IT spending through 2018, and how a major report has reassured Swedish society that artificial intelligence will be a positive force for change despite fears of job losses. Continue Reading

Tableau acquisition of MIT AI startup aims at smarter BI software

Tableau acquires AI startup Empirical Systems in a plan to provide users with automated data modeling capabilities and enable broader BI and analytics applications. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Labbe

DCMS sets out plans for National Data Strategy

A new centre for data ethics and innovations will drive UK government policy making regarding data sharing and use of public data Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

How National Geographic uses tech to captivate its audience

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how the world-famous National Geographic magazine is adapting to the digital age and using technology to better engage its audience. We ask what Microsoft’s $7.6bn acquisition of GitHub means for the open source community. And our latest buyer’s guide looks at the trends in developer tools. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Google Cloud data lake fuels cloud payment processing flow

To create a cloud payment processing system, Global Payments first had to deploy a data lake in the Google Cloud. Getting quick user feedback was another early step. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

IT spending reaches 10-year high as CIOs struggle with digital technology strategy

IT leaders have seen their budgets and headcounts rise for the first time in 10 years, but face challenges implementing their digital strategies Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Big data skills shortages – and how to work around them

Businesses are finding it hard to recruit enough people with big data and analytics skills, but for CIOs there are alternative strategies to consider Continue Reading

By

• Shamus Rae, KPMG

The bumpy ride to digital transformation

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at the lessons to be learned from General Electric’s bumpy ride to digital transformation. We assess the use of software-defined networking in corporate IT infrastructures. And we find out how Royal Bank of Scotland approaches digital and business innovation. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Starburst finds new worlds to conquer with SQL query engine

Relational databases may have hit a wall of late, but the SQL query engine seems poised for wider growth. Starburst, a retro startup of sorts, is among those looking to take it wider still. Continue Reading

By

• Jack Vaughan

BI vendors aim to ease visual data analysis by business users

Despite the self-service BI push, enabling end users to take the lead on analyzing and visualizing data is often still a challenge -- one that vendors continue to address. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

WD-40 oils sales and finance processes in Europe with Epicor

WD-40 has automated its business processes with Epicor ERP, finding the system’s service-oriented architecture good for providing flexibility in the company’s business growth Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Cloud storage is hot - again!

But what do people mean when they talk about cloud storage – and do they really know what it can do these days? Not so long ago, once you got beyond Dropbox, for most professional users cloud ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

New data science platforms aim to be workflow, collaboration hubs

Oracle's acquisition of DataScience.com is shining a spotlight on workbench-style platforms designed to centralize advanced analytics work by teams of data scientists. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Addressing the ethical issues of AI is key to effective use

Enterprises must confront the ethical implications of AI use as they increasingly roll out technology that has the potential to reshape how humans interact with machines. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Walch, Project Management Institute

AI elevates predictive maintenance for Kone and ThyssenKrupp

Kone and ThyssenKrupp are using artificial intelligence to improve predictive maintenance of their lifts and escalators Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Policy Exchange report calls for GDS to be moved to DCMS

Think-tank wants Government Digital Service to create a “single digital government account” for citizens, and says bringing the organisation into the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport will improve focus on “all aspects of digital transformation” Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad