Information management

Should you run your database on premises or in the cloud?

Use of cloud databases is surging, but there are still reasons for on-premises ones. Here's a comparison of cloud and local database architectures to help you choose. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Foot

Open source promises advantages for business applications

Open source software may provide a cost-effective approach to building business applications, as well as ensuring transparency, but there are challenges to keep in mind Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

AI Singapore, Google to build regional dataset for LLMs

AI Singapore and Google Research Asia-Pacific will build a corpus of open-source training data through Project SEALD to drive the development of LLMs in Southeast Asia Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

data exploration

Data exploration is the first step in data analysis involving the use of data visualization tools and statistical techniques to uncover data set characteristics and initial patterns. Continue Reading

By

• Scott Robinson, New Era Technology
• Katie Terrell Hanna
• Jacqueline Biscobing, Senior Managing Editor, News

Government insists it is acting ‘responsibly’ on military AI

The government has responded to calls from a Lords committee that it must “proceed with caution” when it comes to autonomous weapons and military artificial intelligence, arguing that caution is already embedded throughout its approach Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

HP emphasises AI in partner programme enhancements

Vendor uses partner event to share details of changes coming in May, and its plans to increase support for partners keen to get involved with artificial intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Simon Quicke, Microscope Editor

decision-making process

A decision-making process is a series of steps one or more individuals take to determine the best option or course of action to address a specific problem or situation. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon
• Ed Burns
• Kate Brush

web content management system (WCMS)

A web content management system (WCMS) is a type of content management system (CMS) that provides an organization with a way to manage digital information on a website through creating and maintaining content without prior knowledge of web programming or markup languages. Continue Reading

By

• Scott Robinson, New Era Technology
• Demetra Edwards, TechTarget
• Karolina Kiwak

Chancellor targets £36bn productivity boost with £4.2bn digital transformation plan

In his 2024 spring budget, Jeremy Hunt announced funding to use tech to improve productivity across the public sector, with most of the cash focused on digital initiatives in the NHS Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Singapore refreshes geospatial masterplan

Masterplan aimed at driving mainstream adoption of geospatial applications and grooming geospatial talent, among other goals, will help to position Singapore as a global geospatial hub Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Interview: How a fundraiser became more data-savvy

We speak to a fundraiser in the charity sector about how an apprenticeship in data analytics has given her Excel, PowerBI and Power Query skills Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Generative AI's effect on content management systems

Generative AI's ability to create content can enhance workflow automation within a CMS. Yet, organizations must implement guardrails to ensure data privacy and content quality. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Peledie, 365Knowledge Ltd.

Open Rights Group accuses LiveRamp of ‘unlawful’ data processing

Privacy campaigners at Open Rights Group have submitted formal complaints to UK and French data regulators about allegedly unlawful data processing by online advertising firm LiveRamp Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Own targets SaaS backup and offers analytics insight

Targeting a growing market – SaaS applications that lack backup – Own offers backup, fine-grained restores and analytics on data stores that can bring business insight Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How PSA is reducing empty trips for trucking firms

The Singapore port operator has built a platform that leverages Here Technologies’ trip planning and location services to help container trucking firms improve operational efficiency Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

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

data quality

Data quality is a measure of a data set's condition based on factors such as accuracy, completeness, consistency, reliability and validity. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon
• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

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

UC finetunes tech strategy to support digital masterplan

The University of Canberra is scoping a new project to determine data, integration and multicloud strategies to support its long-term digital roadmap Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

How TeamViewer is charting its growth beyond remote connectivity

TeamViewer CEO Oliver Steil outlines the company’s efforts to build on its remote connectivity and control capabilities to support emerging use cases such as smart factories Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Executive interview: David Wong, Thomson Reuters

We speak to the chief product officer of Thomson Reuters about working with artificial intelligence and embedding Microsoft Copilot for Word Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Microsoft president commits to Azure open platform for AI

Brad Smith sets out Microsoft’s ambitions to make Azure the best platform to host foundational AI models, and train and run AI applications Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Microsoft’s ‘unfair’ cloud licensing under scrutiny

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine claims that Microsoft’s licensing policies are damaging competition in the cloud. Our latest buyer’s guide asks if hybrid cloud is now CIOs’ end goal, and not just an interim step on the journey. And we look at how the focus on customer experience is impacting the unified communications market. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

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

Secret court hears claims of police surveillance against journalists

Journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey argue that the use of covert powers by the police to identify their confidential sources represents an attack on press freedom Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Home Office signs tech and data sharing deal with Frontex

The UK’s deal with the EU border agency is intended to improve operational cooperation, and will expand British authorities’ access to technology and data that can be used to reduce small boat crossings of the English Channel Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

LLMs explained: A developer’s guide to getting started

A guide to help enterprise developers use large language models securely, efficiently and cost-effectively in their applications Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

What is data governance and why does it matter?

Data governance is the process of managing the availability, usability, integrity and security of the data in enterprise systems, based on internal standards and policies that also control data usage. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Uber CEO denies pricing algorithm uses ‘behavioural patterns’

Uber workers are concerned about what data is being used by the company’s algorithm to set variable pay and pricing levels after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi admits to using drivers’ ‘behavioural patterns’ Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Alibaba Cloud debuts Model Studio

Alibaba Cloud’s Model Studio provides access to its Qwen family of foundation models and other third-party models and a suite of tools to speed up training and deployment of large language models Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

BERT language model

BERT language model is an open source machine learning framework for natural language processing (NLP). Continue Reading

By

• Cameron Hashemi-Pour, Former Site Editor
• Ben Lutkevich, Site Editor

Alan Turing Institute hits ‘key milestone’ in AI strategy

The Alan Turing Institute reaffirms its commitment to addressing “grand challenges” in health, environment and security with the appointment of four new directors Continue Reading

By

• Steve Ranger

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

How DBS is industrialising AI across its business

Southeast Asia’s biggest lender is building a strong data foundation and upskilling employees on data and artificial intelligence to realise its vision of becoming an AI-fuelled bank Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Intelligent defence – the role of data in the military

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the role of data in tying together military operations across ground, air, sea and cyber. Has SAP finally convinced customers to migrate to cloud ERP? We assess the trends. And we talk to the CIO helping to set up the UK’s fastest supercomputer. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Data: the golden thread of military defence

Information is the lifeblood of warfare. From frontline fighters to logistics, manufacturing, R&D, and recruitment, data remains crucial. Continue Reading

Amazon defends facial-recognition tech sale to FBI despite moratorium

The FBI has confirmed it is using Amazon’s Rekognition image and video analysis software, but Amazon says it is ‘false’ to suggest this violates the company’s self-imposed moratorium on selling facial-recognition technology to US police Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Why open data is needed in the battle to address homelessness

Centrepoint needed to send FOIs to more than 300 local authorities in England to access required information Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

A powerful case for more open data

A panel discussion at the recent State Open Con 24 conference has shone a spotlight on the red tape, inefficiency and political moves that prevent opening up data sets to tackle a crisis affecting ... Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Government reaffirms commitment to hold off on AI laws

The UK government reaffirming its commitment hold off on artificial intelligence legislation has been received positively by industry for balancing innovation and safety Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK government responds to AI whitepaper consultation

The UK government is considering introducing binding legal requirements for companies developing the most powerful AI systems, and has outlined a range of funding to realise the ambitions of its ‘pro-innovation’ framework for artificial intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

data sampling

Data sampling is a statistical analysis technique used to select, manipulate and analyze a representative subset of data points to identify patterns and trends in the larger data set being examined. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon
• Kinza Yasar, Technical Writer
• Jacqueline Biscobing, Senior Managing Editor, News

CIO interview: Stuart Birrell, chief data and information officer, EasyJet

The short-haul airline fills an aircraft every 10 seconds through its e-commerce operation – all while transforming its booking systems and migrating its IT estate to the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

self-service analytics

Self-service analytics is a type of business intelligence (BI) that enables business users to access, manipulate, analyze and visualize data, as well as generate reports based on their discoveries. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon
• Ed Burns

Sea-Lion explained: Southeast Asia’s first large language model

The Sea-Lion large language model was built to cater to the language and cultural diversity of Southeast Asia, which is currently underserved by existing models that mostly originate from the West Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

UK police facial recognition explained: What you need to know

In this essential guide, Computer Weekly looks at the use of facial recognition technology by UK police forces, including the points of contention around its deployment so far and where it’s heading next Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Welsh workers’ AI experiences shaped by uneven power dynamics

Workers in Wales are being negatively affected by the unregulated introduction of artificial intelligence into workplaces due to asymmetric power dynamics Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Retail’s Big Show: Reporting from the retail technology front line

What themes will we be seeing in the retail tech space over the next year according to the 2024 National Retail Federation’s Big Show? Continue Reading

By

• Glynn Davis

7 benefits of Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint offers a central repository where users can store and collaborate on business content. The tool's benefits include improved efficiency, scalability and compliance. Continue Reading

By

• Tim Murphy, Site editor

Tech companies warn EU over encryption plans

In this week’s Computer Weekly, tech companies are calling on the European Commission to rethink plans to weaken internet encryption – we explore the issues. We talk to credit rating agency Moody’s about why it thinks now is the time to start investing in quantum computing. And we examine how a different approach to recruitment could ease the datacentre sector skills gap. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

content analytics

Content analytics, also known as content intelligence, is the process of measuring and analyzing how users interact and engage with digital content. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

What developers need to know about LLMs in the enterprise

We look at the main areas enterprise developers need to consider when building, testing and deploying enterprise applications powered by large language models Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor
• Adrian Bridgwater

GenAI tools ‘could not exist’ if firms are made to pay copyright

AI firm Anthropic hits out at copyright lawsuit filed by music publishers, claiming the content ingested into its models falls under ‘fair use’ and that any licensing regime would be too complex and costly Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK government consults on age verification tech in alcohol sales

The government has said it wants to allow the use of digital identities and various age-verification technologies in alcohol sales Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

in-memory analytics

In-memory analytics is an approach to querying data residing in a computer's random access memory (RAM) as opposed to querying data stored on physical drives. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati

Google Bigtable

Google Bigtable is a distributed, column-oriented data store created by Google Inc. to handle very large amounts of structured data associated with the company's Internet search and Web services operations. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

white hat link building

White hat link building is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique for increasing the number of high-quality backlinks to a webpage. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

The race to regulate AI: 2024 unpacked

EU’s AI Act is set to become ‘gold standard’ of AI regulation. Will other countries adopt the same high standards or like the UK opt for a light touch in favour of growth and investment? Continue Reading

By

• Jamie Rowlands and Angus Milne, Haseltine Lake Kempner

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

Knowledge Management 2.0: have we found a way to make KM work?

This is a blogpost by Jim Webber, Chief Scientist at Neo4j, on how tech has finally caught up with ideas. To a computer, classifying things in the real world can be a bit of a puzzle. We’ve taught ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

UN chief blasts AI companies for reckless pursuit of profit

The United Nations general secretary has blasted technology companies and governments for pursuing their own narrow interests in artificial intelligence without any consideration of the common good, as part of wider call to reform global governance Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Davos 2024: AI-generated disinformation poses threat to elections, says World Economic Forum

Disinformation and misinformation are the top risks facing businesses, governments and the public over the next two years Continue Reading

Davos 2024: AI disinformation tops global risks

In this week’s Computer Weekly, AI-generated disinformation and misinformation will be the top risks for businesses, governments and the public over the next two years, according to the World Economic Forum. Intel’s CTO discusses the chip maker’s plans for the European market. And we examine the dearth of digital skills among elected officials. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

transactional data

In computing, transactional data is the information collected from transactions. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

ICO prompts confusion over police cloud legality

The UK data regulator has suggested that, despite major data protection concerns, it is likely to greenlight police cloud deployments because of an information-sharing agreement with the US government Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

AI will create a thousand Post Office scandals

Critical computing expert Dan McQuillan weighs in on the proliferation of artificial intelligence throughout the public sector and the potential this opens up for a slew of new IT scandals Continue Reading

By

• Dan McQuillan

Helsinki: The trailblazing smart city

Helsinki has transitioned from modelling the best of smart city innovation to becoming a fully-fledged smart city Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud)

SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) is the concept that the convergence of four technologies is currently driving business innovation. Continue Reading

By

• Nicole Laskowski, Senior News Director

Tape is back on the main menu

The news that another of the big players in global file systems, Hammerspace, has integrated tape access into its data orchestration software should remind us all that tape’s modern incarnations ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

2024: The year Generative AI is let out of its cage  

Instead of worrying about AI taking over their jobs perhaps people should wonder if their work will be taken over by a new starter who knows how to use AI.   Continue Reading

By

• By Peter van der Putten, Director AI Lab, Pegasystems

NAO head calls for clean data and modern government IT

Better IT procurement, better IT systems and better data are among the recommendations Gareth Davies is giving to Parliament Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

British Library catalogues back online after ransomware attack

The British Library has restored online access to its main catalogue of nearly 40 million items on a limited basis as it continues the long and arduous process of recovering from a ransomware attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

AI likely to worsen economic inequality, says IMF

While artificial intelligence will replace some jobs and complement others, the International Monetary Fund says that, in most of the scenarios it envisages, the technology will likely deepen macro-economic inequalities Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

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

SharePoint administrator

A SharePoint administrator is the person who oversees an organization's installation and operation of the Microsoft SharePoint collaboration and content management platform. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati

UK government seeks public views on impacts of AI-generated porn

The government’s Pornography Review will look in part at the use of AI throughout the industry to generate sexually explicit content without people’s consent Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Redefining the cyber domain to tackle the challenges of tomorrow

Emerging technologies have brought about a new age of cyber – and we need a 360-degree collaborative approach more than ever to succeed Continue Reading

By

• Saj Huq, Plexal

MPP database (massively parallel processing database)

An MPP database is a database that is optimized to be processed in parallel for many operations to be performed by many processing units at a time. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati

Davos 2024: AI-generated disinformation poses threat to elections, says World Economic Forum

Disinformation and misinformation are the top risks facing businesses, governments and the public over the next two years Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Scotland ‘sleepwalking’ to mass surveillance with DPDI Bill

The independent checks and balances over biometrics and biometric-enabled surveillance must be strengthened to prevent Scotland from sliding into a surveillance state along with the rest of the UK Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

The future of CISOs in APAC

This is a guest post by Geoffrey Coley, regional chief technology officer for Asia-Pacific at Veritas Technologies The pace at which the cyber threat landscape is evolving with the use of malicious ... Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

India firms warm to responsible AI

Almost two-thirds of organisations said their responsible AI practices and policies were mature or they had taken steps towards responsible AI adoption, according to a Nasscom study Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Unit4 predictions for 2024: pervasive ERP, conversational UX breakthroughs

This is a guest blogpost by Claus Jepsen, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Unit4 2024 is going to be an important year for the enterprise technology sector as various factors influence ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Richer customer experiences at your service

The arrival of contact centre technologies and services into the world of unified communications and collaboration has seen core features expanded to make customer experiences richer and more profitable Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Fighting money laundering with AI

Mike Foster, CEO of SymphonyAI Sensa-NetReveal, talks up how AI can be used to fight financial crime and how the company’s technology can augment existing AML investments Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

big data engineer

A big data engineer is an information technology (IT) professional who is responsible for designing, building, testing and maintaining complex data processing systems that work with large data sets. Continue Reading

By

• Cameron Hashemi-Pour, Former Site Editor

Data: the golden thread of military defence

Information has been the lifeblood of warfare for centuries and modern data strategies are no different. From frontline fighters to logistics, manufacturing, R&D, and recruitment, data is crucial Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Qualtrics supports Dow digital transformation

How US-based materials science company has used analytics tools from Qualtrics to target improvements to customer experience Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Top 10 India IT stories of 2023

We recap the year’s top 10 stories in India, including the country’s datacentre boom and innovations in space and agriculture technologies Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Top 10 AI regulation stories of 2023

From the UK government’s publication of its long-awaited AI whitepaper to its convening of the world’s first AI Safety Summit, here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 AI regulation stories of 2023 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2023

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2023 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Top 10 ANZ IT stories of 2023

We recap the top 10 stories in Australia and New Zealand, including the innovations and challenges that organisations in the region have faced over the past year Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

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 business applications stories of 2023

Generative AI has become unavoidable for business applications suppliers. C-level executives offer insights here, while the fundamentals of user enterprise software strategy remain visible beneath the AI froth Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Top 10 police technology stories of 2023

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 police technology stories of 2023 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Immigration clampdown could worsen UK IT skills shortage

The UK government’s recent clampdown on immigration could exacerbate the IT skills shortage in the country, especially in web design and development Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

business process outsourcing (BPO)

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a business practice in which an organization contracts with an external service provider to perform an essential business function or task. Continue Reading

By

• Alexander S. Gillis, Technical Writer and Editor
• Mary K. Pratt
• Emily McLaughlin, Coravin

Top 10 storage stories of 2023

In this 2023 review, we consider if flash will thrash disk, what the Toyota outage shows about capacity planning, how to achieve green storage, the backup and compliance risks of AI, the lowdown on DPUs, and more Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Predicted tech trends driving the world of work in 2024

This is a guest blogpost by Paul O’Sullivan, UKI CTO and SVP Solution Engineering, Salesforce. The only constant in technology is change and the next revolution is upon us - Artificial ... Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor