Server hardware
Servers are the workhorse of every IT infrastructure, and new developments are constantly delivering greater processor power, higher performance, more storage capacity and better energy efficiency. From mainframes to blade servers, we analyse the trends and technologies that matter in server hardware.
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Feature
28 May 2025
AI and compliance: What are the risks?
We look at the areas of risk in artificial intelligence. Potential exposures abound, and include security and privacy issues, bias, accuracy and complete fabrication of results Continue Reading
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News
22 May 2025
Agentic AI to drive heavy infrastructure demands
As organisations begin to explore agentic AI, Dell’s Soo Mei May warns that scaling these intelligent systems will have higher compute, memory, storage and networking requirements, far exceeding those for generative AI Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Mar 2017
Storage performance 101: Server, array and fabric/network basics
We look at the key performance attributes of storage media in use today, and the choices and basic tuning steps you can take to get the most from your storage Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Feb 2017
Storage 101: Queue depth, NVMe and the array controller
We look at queue depth and fan-out and fan-in ratios. With NVMe they could become a thing of the past, but for now there’s still a bottleneck at the storage array controller Continue Reading
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News
19 Jan 2017
HPE buys hyper-converged pioneer Simplivity for $650m
Hardware giant pays out for hyper-converged market number two, and says it will keep existing Simplivity products, moving them all to its ProLiant servers by the end of 2017 Continue Reading
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News
18 Jan 2017
Nutanix, Simplivity and Pivot3 lead hyper-converged pack: Forrester
Forrester rates 12 hyper-converged infrastructure providers according to products, company strategy and market presence, with Nutanix, Simplivity and Pivot3 coming out on top-line Continue Reading
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News
30 Dec 2016
Top 10 virtualisation and storage stories of 2016
Flash storage has held onto the headlines in 2016, but hyper-converged infrastructure, containerisation, software-defined storage and VMware’s plans for the hybrid cloud are rising themes Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Dec 2016
Storage briefing: NVMe vs SATA and SAS
NVMe brings blistering performance gains over existing HDD-era disk protocols, and is a straight swap-in for PCIe server-side flash with array and hyper-converged products on the way Continue Reading
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E-Zine
01 Dec 2016
CW ASEAN: Building a digital future
In this month's CW ASEAN, read how Singapore is investing in technologies and skills to become a leader in the digital age. We analyze how the government has reorganized two departments to help digital technology prosper and hear from those in the finance and education sectors backing the move, as well as the man heading the newly formed department. We also look at how desktop virtualization will continue to grow in the Asean region, and focus on one example in Thailand, where the country’s health ministry is embracing virtualization in a push towards e-health. This issue also covers how organisations in Malaysia and Singapore are facing tough competition to attract the right skills to drive their IT strategies. Continue Reading
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E-Zine
29 Nov 2016
Machine learning keeps customers happy at Ocado
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how data scientists at online grocer Ocado are using machine learning technology to deliver better customer service and improve warehouse efficiency. Manufacturing giant GE is making a play to become a top 10 software supplier – we look at the plans. And we examine the future of server operating systems as workloads move increasingly to the cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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E-Zine
22 Nov 2016
IT spreads innovation at Unilever
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how consumer goods giant Unilever has changed its thinking about IT to support a global digital transformation programme. The UK boss of Hewlett Packard Enterprise assesses progress after the first year since HP split in two. And we examine how software development is changing in the enterprise. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
18 Oct 2016
Most businesses vulnerable to cyber attacks through firmware, study shows
Company culture and overall attitude to security is a major contribution to vulnerability to cyber attack through firmware, a study by Isaca has revealed Continue Reading
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News
11 Oct 2016
How Linux has influenced modern IT
On 25 August 1991, Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel. We look at how the open source operating system has evolved in the last quarter of a century Continue Reading
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E-Zine
07 Oct 2016
CW ANZ: Harnessing the power of server/storage architecture
In this month’s CW ANZ, read about how a council in south-east Queensland swapped its compute and storage systems for cloud services. Redland City Council CIO Glynn Henderson explains why the organisation went for a hybrid cloud system. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
22 Sep 2016
Hypergrid adds metered usage and networks to hyper-converged kit
Hyper-converged appliance maker will allow customers to pay for what they use in hardware that will now add networking Continue Reading
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E-Zine
22 Sep 2016
Computer Weekly 50th anniversary special
It’s been 50 years since Computer Weekly's launch on 22 September 1966. To mark this achievement, we have compiled a special edition of the magazine to reflect on how much the British technology industry has contributed over that time – and, of course, to celebrate our role in keeping IT professionals in touch with those developments – week-in, week-out, for half a century. Read this 100-page anniversary special now. Continue Reading
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News
07 Sep 2016
Combined Dell and EMC company targets intelligent things
The $74bn merger of Dell and EMC has created a technology giant with a remit to expand into the software-defined datacentre space to support IoT Continue Reading
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News
30 Aug 2016
Cloud firm Backbone relegates X-IO SAN with Atlantis tiered storage
London-based Backbone uses Atlantis USX as storage virtualisation layer on top of PCIe flash and X-IO and as a stepping stone to hyper-converged infrastructures Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2016
New Jersey turns to technology to keep offenders out of jail
New Jersey is developing criminal justice applications that will save offenders from spending years in jail before their cases are heard Continue Reading
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News
22 Jun 2016
Nutanix adds storage for containers, physical servers and all-flash
Hyper-converged infrastructure maker Nutanix adds container support with persistent storage, offers block iSCSI storage for physical servers and allows all-flash across the product range Continue Reading
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Photo Story
03 Jun 2016
Computer Weekly@50: What was happening in IT in June over the years
Significant articles published in the month of June over the last few decades from the Computer Weekly archives at The National Museum of Computing Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Jun 2016
It makes sense to go hyperscale/hyper-converged
Hyperscale computing and storage are the norm for web giants. Hyper-converged scenarios make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to gain the advantages of combined server/storage nodes Continue Reading
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Blog Post
27 May 2016
The incredible shrinking Hewlett Packard - where does it go next?
In 2011, Hewlett Packard’s annual revenue was $127bn, making it the largest technology company in the world by sales at that time – yet its market worth was a comparatively meagre $42bn. It had ... Continue Reading
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Feature
23 May 2016
PCIe SSD: Cache vs storage tier
Adding PCIe flash is a popular way of speeding up application response times, with more rapid I/O guaranteed, but should PCIe SSD be added as cache or as a tier of storage? Continue Reading
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Feature
13 May 2016
CW@50: How UK home brew gave computing to the masses
From batch processing to the graphical user interface, from desktop PCs to smartphones, from luggables to wearables, computing has come a long way since Computer Weekly was first published in 1966. We look at some of the personal computers that paved the way Continue Reading
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Feature
08 Apr 2016
CW@50: Storage – From punched cards to flash and the cloud
Since the launch of Computer Weekly in 1966, we have moved from a world of punched cards and paper tape to one where flash and the cloud have revolutionised data storage Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Apr 2016
CW@50: From ICL to ITIL
Standardisation helps industries to grow. Here in the UK, a number of highly influential standards emerged that have become building blocks for the modern computer industry Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Mar 2016
CW@50: The heyday of British computing - how the Brits ruled IT
We examine how the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s became an age of great innovation for the British computer industry Continue Reading
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News
09 Mar 2016
Hyperscale computing boosts server revenue
The likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft have bolstered server sales as they build increasingly powerful scale-out datacentres Continue Reading
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News
15 Jan 2016
Intel share price drops despite strong results
Despite growth in Intel's key datacentre and IoT businesses, investors remain concerned by falls in its core PC chip business amid market declines 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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E-Zine
01 Dec 2015
Balancing speed and risk in IT projects
In this week’s Computer Weekly, as IT leaders face boardroom pressure to roll out IT projects ever more quickly, we examine how to do that without running unacceptable risks. Michael Dell talks about how he sees the future for his company when it buys EMC in the largest IT acquisition in history. And we hear from IT chiefs about the challenges of implementing DevOps. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
02 Nov 2015
Hewlett Packard Enterprise: think of us as a startup
As Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc finally part ways, UK managing director Andy Isherwood shares some insight on what the future holds for the newly minted enterprise business Continue Reading
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News
29 Oct 2015
Met Office's new supercomputer to deliver £2bn of socio-economic benefits
The Met Office aims to realise a range of socio-economic benefits to UK industries thanks to improved forecasting with its new Cray supercomputer Continue Reading
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E-Zine
19 Oct 2015
IT giants Dell and EMC unite
In this week's Computer Weekly, Dell's proposed $67bn acquisition of EMC would be the biggest in the history of IT – we assess the implications. £175bn of IT outsourcing contracts come up for renewal in the next three years- what are your options? And we hear from IT leaders about security and the internet of things. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
12 Oct 2015
Dell set to buy storage company EMC
Two years after his audacious bid to reinvent the company he founded by re-privatising it, Michael Dell has put in a bid for storage giant EMC Continue Reading
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News
09 Sep 2015
High-performance computing and mainframe refresh limit server decline
IDC's market share data for server shipments shows mainframe users are running Linux on the z13, while high-performance computing (HPC) lifts x86 sales Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2015
Lenovo to cut jobs as it faces 'severe' challenges
Lenovo says the last quarter saw “severe challenges” in its main PC, tablet and smartphone markets Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2015
Hootsuite moves social media management toolkit to IBM Softlayer cloud
Social media management dashboard maker shifts App Directory to IBM cloud Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Aug 2015
Case study: Open University uses Microsoft Azure to create course content clearance hub
The Open University recently scooped the award for Best Cloud Project at the CW European User Awards, and here's why Continue Reading
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News
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
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
VCE takes wraps off "hyper-converged" VxRacks to fast-track users to the cloud
EMC-owned converged infrastructure specialist expands portfolio of cloud-enabling platforms Continue Reading
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E-Zine
20 Apr 2015
The future of Moore's Law at 50
In this week's Computer Weekly, Moore's Law – the seminal forecast by Intel founder Gordon Moore that oversees technology development – is 50 years old. We look at its modern relevance and future implications. IT chiefs discuss whether Windows is still core to their strategy. And we look back at five years of government IT. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
25 Mar 2015
Atomic Weapons Establishment to build supercomputer for Trident simulations
The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) builds HPC cluster based on SGI ICE XA system to support Trident programme Continue Reading
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News
24 Mar 2015
HP Helion Rack looks to speed up enterprise private cloud adoption
HP wants to take the heavy lifting out of moving to the private cloud by offering enterprises pre-configured and tested infrastructure packages Continue Reading
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News
23 Mar 2015
Microsoft's Nano Server: What to expect from this leaner, meaner Windows Server
With Microsoft reportedly set to announce a stripped-back version of Windows Server, what can IT leaders expect to see? Continue Reading
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Photo Story
23 Mar 2015
IT priorities 2015: How will IT decision makers spend this year's budget?
The 2015 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT priorities survey has examined the investment plans of IT managers in the UK and Europe in 2015 Continue Reading
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E-Zine
09 Feb 2015
Tackling security with quantum physics
In this week's Computer Weekly, we examine research that promises to deliver new levels of encrypted communications using quantum teleportation. IBM has announced its latest mainframe – but will the company's problems hinder its future? And we find out how one company has used the low-cost Raspberry Pi in its enterprise IT. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
04 Feb 2015
National Grid uses IBM to add predictive maintenance capabilities
National Grid is using cloud-based analytics powered by IBM SoftLayer to provide preventative maintenance Continue Reading
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News
03 Feb 2015
EMC launches VSPEX Blue EVO:Rail hyper-converged appliances
EMC announces VSPEX Blue EVO:Rail hyper-converged appliance in general purpose and performance variants Continue Reading
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News
28 Jan 2015
Wellcome Trust builds 1,728-core grid for DNA analysis
The Wellcome Trust Centre has deployed a high-performance computing cluster based on Fujitsu servers Continue Reading
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News
27 Jan 2015
Microsoft revenue drops due to “restructuring”
Microsoft’s year-on-year net income has dropped by around $695m due to “integration and restructuring” plans, according to the firm’s fiscal statement Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2015
IBM revenue declines as company shifts to higher value deals
IBM has reported a 12% decline in profits for the fourth quarter of 2014 following the sale of its System x business to Lenovo Continue Reading
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Photo Story
19 Jan 2015
UK's fastest supercomputer upgrades to 2Pflops and 5PB of tiered storage
The UK's fastest supercomputer upgrades to 4,920 nodes and 2 Petaflops performance with tiered storage including 5PB of direct-attached disk Continue Reading
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News
19 Dec 2014
Price cuts and posturing in the public cloud war
The price battle among commodity cloud players is set to rage on, but how much impact is it really having for enterprise customers? Continue Reading
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News
10 Dec 2014
Hero Group uses vMotion to replace SAN and servers with Nutanix
Baby food, fruit and cereal bar company Hero Group has migrated its Holland operations over to a single virtual platform Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2014
HP is ‘coming back strong’, says CEO Meg Whitman
At the HP Discover event in Barcelona, CEO Meg Whitman addressed the future for customers following HP's split into two businesses Continue Reading
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News
01 Dec 2014
ABN Amro re-signs IBM for 10-year, multibillion-euro IT contract
ABN Amro has extended its multibillion-euro outsourcing deal with IBM by another 10 years Continue Reading
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News
18 Nov 2014
Intel merges PC and mobile divisions
Intel plans to merge its profitable PC group with the loss-making division that sells chips for smartphones and tablets Continue Reading
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E-Zine
10 Nov 2014
Migrating away from Windows Server 2003
In this week’s Computer Weekly, as Microsoft prepares to end support for the popular Windows Server 2013 operating system, we assess the risk for organisations that fail to migrate in time. We hear from IT leaders delivering benefits from enterprise social media use to improve staff collaboration. And we look at criticisms from Oracle users about the supplier’s software licensing practices. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2014
Interview: The IT powering animated movie-making
Video special effects require similar processing to oil and gas, but lack the budget, says head of technology at Illumination Mac Guff, Bruno Mahe Continue Reading
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News
04 Nov 2014
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
31 Oct 2014
The real story behind The Imitation Game film
The life of Alan Turing is being celebrated on the big screen this month. The Imitation Game from Studio Canal opens on November 14th 2014 and tells the story of the war hero who’s achievements until recently were largely unknown. Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2014
British fashion retailer AllSaints picks Google tools for innovation
Fashion brand AllSaints has refreshed its technology strategy with Google technologies to improve collaboration Continue Reading
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News
28 Oct 2014
Government replaces Becta education IT procurement framework
Government seeks up to 20 suppliers to form a £300m procurement framework for ICT services to public-sector education organisations Continue Reading
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News
27 Oct 2014
Cloud providers rush to build European datacentres over data sovereignty
Cloud providers IBM and Google build datacentres in the EU as enterprises insist on keeping their data in Europe Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2014
BBC takes iPlayer video production to AWS cloud to beat bottleneck and storage woes
Having run Video Factory on AWS for over a year, BBC's Robert Shield explains how he overcame iPlayer bottleneck and availability challenges Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2014
European enterprises can halve colo expenses by moving north, says Gartner
Favourable environmental conditions in Northern Europe mean enterprises can save on their datacentre expenses Continue Reading
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News
21 Oct 2014
Why Shell, BP and PwC teamed up to launch platform-neutral IT4IT Forum
Lack of IT integration and workload interoperability is pushing enterprises such as Royal Dutch Shell to collaborate with IT providers to develop standards Continue Reading
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News
20 Oct 2014
IBM operating income falls by 18% as it offloads semiconductor unit
IBM reported lower-than-expected earnings for the third quarter of 2014, with revenue down by 4% year-on-year Continue Reading
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Feature
15 Oct 2014
Cloud, frozen pizza model and the immutable infrastructure
The architecture pattern for immutable infrastructure is based on the made-to-order pizza model Continue Reading
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News
10 Oct 2014
Starbucks uses cloud to manage innovation and disruptive technologies
Starbucks coffee chain innovates IT strategies to hone its competitive edge using cloud services, says IT director Robert Teagle Continue Reading
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News
01 Oct 2014
Microsoft readies Windows 10 Technical Preview
Microsoft is today releasing a preview of Windows 10, the next version of the Windows desktop operating system Continue Reading
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News
29 Sep 2014
ARM enters mainstream datacentre with HP’s ProLiant Moonshot servers
ARM chips have entered mainstream enterprise datacentre with HP's production-ready ARM-powered Moonshot servers Continue Reading
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News
25 Sep 2014
Oracle releases OpenStack Support for Oracle Linux and Oracle VM
Oracle has made its Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux distribution generally available to support customers Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2014
Accommodation booking site picks Dell cloud to fix downtime issues
Eviivo, a UK-based online accommodation booking website, has placed its business-critical systems on a Dell cloud platform Continue Reading
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News
23 Sep 2014
Google to build giant '40-football pitch' datacentre in the Netherlands
Google will invest €600m to build a giant, 120-megawatt datacentre in the Netherlands Continue Reading
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E-Zine
15 Sep 2014
The IT challenges facing an independent Scotland
In this week’s Computer Weekly, as Scotland goes to the polls to vote on independence, we assess the IT challenges the country would face. We look at the products available in the fast-growing market for object storage. And we ask if it will be worth migrating to future version of Windows given the rise in mobile usage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
02 Sep 2014
Why bare metal cloud is in vogue
Bare metal services have been around since 2009 but cloud is witnessing renewed interest in it thanks to new offerings Continue Reading
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News
29 Aug 2014
Windows Server 2003 EOL: HP seeks to cash in as IBM-Lenovo deal yet to close
As enterprises look to refresh their infrastructure, HP is playing the stability card to win deals as IBM and Dell are mired by uncertainties Continue Reading
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News
21 Aug 2014
Load balancing supports Kent County Council's VDI project
Kent County Council picks Kemp Technologies load balancers to support a deployment of VMware Horizon View and Workspace across its estate Continue Reading
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Feature
20 Aug 2014
The internet of things is coming: Is your datacentre ready?
Gartner estimates the IoT will see 26 billion units installed by 2020 – channelling huge volumes of data traffic into datacentres Continue Reading
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News
15 Aug 2014
Nike builds datacentre cloud and network infrastructure
Nike is creating a scalable next-generation datacentre cloud and retail network infrastructure using Juniper's MetaFabric architecture Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2014
Intel unveils first 14nm processor aimed at mobile computing devices
Chipmaker's first processor based on 14nm micro-architecture will be thinner, cooler and aimed at tablet PCs Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2014
Intel watches ARM as low-powered computing thrives
As the PC market continues to decline, ARM is proving that non-x86 chips have a long and prosperous future Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2014
Bitcoin mining firm CoinTerra signs multi-megawatt datacentre deal
CoinTerra, the firm that provides the hardware and software that power the bitcoin blockchain ecosystem, signs a multi-megawatt datacentre deal Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2014
Lack of coding skills may lead to skills shortage in Europe
European Commission urges people to learn coding, warning that a lack of coding skills could see Europe facing skills shortage by 2020 Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2014
Citrix SaaS revenue rises 12% while overall revenue grows 7% YoY
Citrix has reported a 7% revenue increase in its second quarter of fiscal year 2014 . But it reported double-digit revenue growth in SaaS Continue Reading
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News
08 Jul 2014
Airbus deploys modular datacentre strategy to boost HPC capacity
The aircraft manufacturer has deployed HP's performance optimised datacentres (PODs) to increase its high performance compute capabilities for its engineers Continue Reading
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News
03 Jul 2014
Microsoft and Google propose 25Gbps and 50Gbps Ethernet networks for cloud datacentres
Technology giants including Microsoft and Google form a consortium to fire up datacentre networks’ performance for cloud-scale infrastructure. Continue Reading
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E-Zine
27 Jun 2014
CW Europe - July 2014 Edition
In this issue of CW Europe we investigate how changing your storage can make the world of difference to your company’s carbon emissions. Continue Reading
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News
18 Jun 2014
Case study: How eBay uses its own OpenStack private cloud
eBay runs one of its most crucial workloads – its website – on an OpenStack private cloud platform developed by itself Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Jun 2014
Micro-datacentre: What IT problems it solves and what workload systems suit it
A micro-datacentre is a smaller containerised datacentre system designed to solve different problems or to handle different workloads Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2014
Datacentre spending shifts to Europe as buyers focus on low-cost servers
Server manufacturers made 20% less in sales in the first quarter of 2014, compared with the fourth quarter of 2013 Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2014
Facebook shares lessons learnt from deploying Raid in HDFS clusters
Facebook deployed Raid in large HDFS clusters to increase capacity and reduce data replication, but it faced many challenges Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Jun 2014
Will silicon photonics replace copper cabling in mainstream datacentres?
Silicon photonics can increase bandwidth in servers, improve data transfer speeds and reduce complexity. But are datacentres ready for it? Continue Reading
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News
29 May 2014
BSkyB retunes IT to ready-for-anything datacentre quad
British broadcaster BSkyB has based its IT on four core datacentres that are resilient, interconnected, energy-efficient and cloud-ready Continue Reading
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News
23 May 2014
HP job cuts head towards the 50,000 mark as company tackles cost
A further 16000 jobs are set to go as HP continues to slash its workforce through a restructuring initiative which began in 2012 Continue Reading
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News
30 Apr 2014
Oracle updates Solaris, but is its server strategy sound?
Oracle has released a beta versdion of Solaris 11.2. But does Solaris and the Sparc server platform have a future? Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Apr 2014
Erasure coding vs Raid as a data protection method
Erasure coding is mooted as a potential successor to Raid and backup software Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2014
Six Degrees datacentre suffers outage for more than 12 hours
Customers using Six Degrees’s datacentre and hosting services faced downtime as the hosting and managed services provider suffered an outage for over 12 hours Continue Reading