2011 | Archive | ComputerWeekly.com

November 02, 2011 02Nov2011 In Depth

The consumerisation of IT: it’s a trickle, not a tide, but you still need to be ready

If media headlines and supplier claims are to be believed, organisations today are faced with an unstoppable tide of many different types of personal device connected to the corporate network Continue Reading

November 02, 2011 02Nov2011 In Depth

The top five SME security challenges

Best practice in IT security and compliance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is often seen as a "grudge purchase", but SMEs face the same threat as larger organisations - just without their budgets. Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 In Depth

Social Media Awards 2011: Vote now!

Computer Weekly's search for the best use of social media in IT is back for its fourth year, in association with IBM, and we want you vote for the best uses of social media in UK IT. Fill out the form below and submit your vote. Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 News

MoD calls on academics, industry and inventors to pitch cyber security ideas

The Ministry of Defence is calling for innovative solutions from academia and industry to protect and secure UK interests in cyberspace. Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 News

Government trials voice recognition for Universal Credit benefit claims

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is testing a voice recognition system to authenticate claimants of its flagship Universal Credits system, as part of the department's work on identity assurance (IDA). Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 News

Hague calls for collaboration to realise full potential of cyberspace

It is increasingly clear that countries with weak cyber defences and capabilities will find themselves at a serious strategic disadvantage given the rise of state-sponsored cyber attacks, according to foreign secretary William Hague. Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 News

Migration committee calls for opinions on minimum salary for IT staff on ICT visas

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is calling for opinions on whether the minimum pay of £40,000 is set at the right level for overseas employees brought to the UK on Intra Company Transfer visas (ICT) Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 In Depth

Application - aware networking emerges but has far to go

Application awareness is emerging on firewalls and WAN optimization devices,but efforts fall short of a network-wide strategy,especially at Layers 2 and 3. Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 E-Zine

Adopting an application-centric architecture

Enterprise networking has shifted from focusing on infrastructure to concentrating on the delivery of the applications that help users do their jobs. Uncover how networking professionals view applications and how their jobs have changed as a result ... Continue Reading

November 01, 2011 01Nov2011 In Depth

Improved debt collection with BI: An ICICI Bank story

Debt collection can gain immensely by BI. By powering this, ICICI Bank has effectively turned debt collection into a customer-relations management program. Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

Government earmarks £10m for Identity Assurance

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has earmarked £10m for implementation of the government's Identity Assurance (IDA) programme, with the cash coming from its £650m cyber defence fund - with the potential for more near £1bn of savings if the ... Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

Are network performance monitoring tools ready to meet new challenges?

Network performance monitoring tools must adapt to handle virtual infrastructure, new applications and hybrid cloud environments. Are they ready? Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 Tip

Ways to align ITIL processes with your disaster recovery plan

Aligning ITIL processes to your DR plan leads to more efficient and effective use of IT infrastructure. Learn more about ITIL processes and DR in this tip. Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

Japan may be facing sustained cyber attack

Japan's mapping agency is the latest in a series of government agencies to be targeted by hackers, raising fears that the breaches are part of a series of sustained attacks. Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

Barclays customers unable to log into online bank accounts

Barclays has confirmed some customers are unable to log into online bank accounts and are experiencing slow response times Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

Samsung overtakes Apple in global smartphone shipments

Samsung has overtaken Apple in worldwide smartphone shipments after Apple suffered its lowest levels of shipments in two years Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

Facebook admits to 600,000 cyber attacks a day

Facebook has revealed that every 24 hours it receives around 600,000 logins to the social networking website from impostors attempting to access users' messages, photos and other personal information. Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

UKtech50: We launch the search for the most influential people in UK IT

Computer Weekly has launched the second annual UKtech50, the definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT - the leaders driving the creation of a high-tech economy. Continue Reading

October 31, 2011 31Oct2011 News

What can a CIO learn from Steve Jobs?

Steve Jobs might have been a product and marketing wonder kid but there are lots of lessons CIOs can learn from his method. Continue Reading

October 30, 2011 30Oct2011 News

Cloud storage boom as users rush to outsourcers

The Spring 2011 edition of IDC’s Storage User Demand Survey says 40%of enterprise storage users plan to outsource some of their storage needs in the next twelve months, with “an average of over 250TB will be acquired” by each user. Continue Reading

October 28, 2011 28Oct2011 News

UK security strategy draws on growing expertise across Whitehall

The UK's soon-to-be-released cyber security strategy includes input from policy makers across government, says Nigel Harrison of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA). Continue Reading

October 28, 2011 28Oct2011 News

Open University expands computer-aided teaching portal for educators worlwide

The Open University has completed the second stage of a £2.5m Department of Education funded initiative to deliver computer-aided teaching to the classroom. Continue Reading

October 28, 2011 28Oct2011 News

Survey finds UK IT jobs concentrated in London and south-east England

With software houses and the financial services sector creating by far the most permanent IT jobs, career opportunities are being condensed into south-east England. Continue Reading

October 28, 2011 28Oct2011 News

Software skills survey reveals SQL highest in demand followed by C programmers

The latest survey from Salary Services Limited (SSL) has revealed the software skills most in demand in the latest quarter of 2011. Continue Reading

October 28, 2011 28Oct2011 News

US Tennis Association cuts costs running Citrix XenApp in Amazon cloud

The US Tennis Association (USTA) is reducing disaster recovery, hosting, helpdesk and licencing costs after choosing to run its Citrix XenApp environment in Amazon's Web Services (AWS) cloud. Continue Reading

October 28, 2011 28Oct2011 News

HP announces U-turn to keep PC division after Whitman completes internal review

HP has reversed its decision to spin-off the company's PC division following an internal review by CEO Meg Whitman, who replaced form head Leo Apotheker in September. Continue Reading

October 27, 2011 27Oct2011 News

Analysis: What is the secret sauce in SAP's success?

SAP notched up the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in software and software-related services, but with the last major upgrade to SAP's core enterprise resource planning (ERP) product way back in 2005, how is the company achieving ... Continue Reading

October 27, 2011 27Oct2011 News

IP network critical to video technology at FA’s St George's Park development

The Football Association (FA) is implementing the latest networking and video technology at its coaching and education centre. The St George's Park centre will be the FA's second major centre alongside Wembley, where operations are currently centred. Continue Reading

October 27, 2011 27Oct2011 News

Case Study: How RBS built a business case for virtual desktops to cut costs

With an annual technology spend of £1.5bn, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) wanted to move 55,000 of its users to a virtual desktop platform to change the way its employees work and cut costs. Mark Diamond, CIO at RBS, shares his lessons learnt in ... Continue Reading

October 27, 2011 27Oct2011 News

Analysis: What is the secret sauce in SAP's success?

The last major upgrade to SAP's core enterprise resource planning (ERP) product was released in 2005, so how is the company achieving record growth? Warwick Ashford reports Continue Reading

October 27, 2011 27Oct2011 News

VMware-based server consolidation yields long-term savings

Avis achieved long-term cost savings and efficiencies with a VMware-based server consolidation. Its transformation won the Best Virtualisation and Server Consolidation Project award at VMworld Europe. Continue Reading

October 27, 2011 27Oct2011 News

US and Canadian subscribers sue RIM over Blackberry service outage

Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is facing legal action by consumers in the US and Canada for the three-day services outage in mid-October caused by a core switch failure in RIM's infrastructure. Continue Reading

October 26, 2011 26Oct2011 News

How Unilever took control of its software

Unilever has automated the processes it uses to manage its software globally through a service which has saved millions of pounds, reduced the complexity of its software portfolio and improved security. Continue Reading

October 26, 2011 26Oct2011 News

Amazon sees profits plummet 73% as company eyes iPad’s market share

Amazon's profits plunged 73% to $63m in Q3, as it invested to take on the iPad with its e-readers and Kindle Fire tablet computer. Sales grew 44% to $10.88bn, boosted by pre-orders for the Amazon Kindle Fire. Continue Reading

October 26, 2011 26Oct2011 News

One in five IT staff expected to quit current employer within 12 months

One in five IT staff are likely to leave their current employer next year in search of more interesting projects and career opportunities, while 80% feel they need a job change to progress their career, according to exclusive research. Continue Reading

October 26, 2011 26Oct2011 News

John McCarthy, father of Artificial Intelligence and creator of LISP language, dies aged 84

The artificial intelligence (AI) community is mourning the death of John McCarthy, the US scientist who invented the LISP computer language at the heart of this field of study. Continue Reading

October 25, 2011 25Oct2011 News

Virgin Media Business sees sales increase by 1.2 per cent

Virgin Business Media saw its sales increase by 1.2% to £154m compared to the same period last year, as the company saw an increase in public sector business. Continue Reading

October 25, 2011 25Oct2011 News

Commonwealth launches web portal to connect two billion citizens

The Commonwealth Secretariat has launched a social media portal to enable the two billion citizens of its 54 member states to collaborate on common issues. Continue Reading

October 25, 2011 25Oct2011 News

New skills initiative aims to help young people into IT security career

A new skills development initiative hasbeen launched to encourage more young people to start a career in information security. Continue Reading

October 25, 2011 25Oct2011 News

Microsoft claims most Android smartphone manufacturers now pay patent fees

Microsoft has claimed most Android smartphone manufacturers now pay the software giant patent fees. Continue Reading

October 24, 2011 24Oct2011 News

UK broadband speeds increase, but thousands left in the slow lane

Thirty percent of UK internet traffic is now at speeds above 5Mbps, an increase of 70% compared to last year. Continue Reading

October 24, 2011 24Oct2011 News

Wikileaks turns to fundraising as US finance companies cut off donations

Wikileaks has stopped publishing whistle-blowing information to concentrate on raising funds in the face of bankruptcy. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says a blockade by US finance companies has cut off 95% of the organisation's revenue from ... Continue Reading

October 24, 2011 24Oct2011 News

Apple loses tablet market share as iPad yields 27% to Google Android devices

Apple's share of the tablet market has shrunk 29% to 67%, as Google's mobile operating system Android took a chunk out of the company's global sales during the last quarter this year with a rise of 27% from 2.3% for the same period a year earlier. Continue Reading

October 24, 2011 24Oct2011 News

Why do big IT projects fail? Part one: The professionals

Academics, CIOs, lawyers, a professor of outsourcing, a consultant and an investigative journalist answer the question on the minds of many a business and IT professional: Why do big IT projects fail? Continue Reading

October 21, 2011 21Oct2011 News

HP will not replace retiring CTO Shane Robison

Hewlett-Packard has announced its chief strategy and technology officer, Shane Robinson, will retire at the end of October - and won't be replaced. Continue Reading

October 21, 2011 21Oct2011 News

Winner's photo: iPod Shuffle

A member of the audience wins an iPod Shuffle for attending the Best of VMworld User Awards Continue Reading