2011 | Archive | ComputerWeekly.com

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

Virgin Media trials 1.5Gbps broadband at London's Silicon Roundabout

Virgin Media has rolled out broadband speeds of up to 1.5Gbps as part of a trial for businesses in the "Silicon Roundabout" area of London... Continue Reading

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

US House of Representatives committee approves cybersecurity standards bill

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill designed to increase education, research and development to counteract cyberthreats. Continue Reading

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

Businesses should prepare for Web 3.0, says Booz&Co

The next generation of web technology will transform the way businesses work within five to ten years, research by management consulting firm Booz&Co predicts. Continue Reading

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

Automated web application attacks are the top security threat, study reveals

Websites are attacked about 27 times an hour or once every two minutes on average, peaking at 25,000 attacks a minute or seven a second, according to research... Continue Reading

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

IT industry salaries rise 7.5% in 2011

Salaries for IT professionals have risen by 7.5% to reach an average wage of over £46,000 in 2011... Continue Reading

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

UK confirms international cyber rules conference

UK foreign secretary William Hague has confirmed that the government is to host an international conference on cyberspace in London on 1 and 2 November 2011. Continue Reading

July 25, 2011 25Jul2011 News

US court gives Oracle another chance to put its patent case against Google

A US judge has rejected Oracle's claim for $2.6bn in damages from Google for infringing Java patents, but has given Oracle the chance to come up with a more reasonable claim... Continue Reading

July 22, 2011 22Jul2011 News

DWP asks system integrators to list SME contractors to open up public sector deals

The Department for Work and Pensions is asking its systems integrators to list the number of SMEs in their supply chains, in a move designed to open up more public sector contracts to small businesses. Continue Reading

July 22, 2011 22Jul2011 News

Vodafone increases UK enterprise sales, driven by greater data traffic

Vodafone's latest results reflect increased use of smartphones and data consumption within the workplace. Continue Reading

July 22, 2011 22Jul2011 News

British Computer Society – the case for change

A year on from the BCS extraordinary general meeting (EGM), Amit Bhagwat looks at how BCS has evolved, why the EGM came about and gave the results that it did, what has followed since and, how BCS might consider its future from here. Continue Reading

July 22, 2011 22Jul2011 In Depth

How to write a disaster recovery plan and define disaster recovery strategies

Learn how to develop disaster recovery strategies as well as how to write a disaster recovery plan with these step-by-step instructions Continue Reading

July 21, 2011 21Jul2011 News

Securitytube.net releases WLAN security megaprimer

The Hacker News (THN) has reported that the latest SecurityTube.net release includes a 4.2Gb DVD containing over 40+ HD quality videos of their WLAN Security Megaprimer. Continue Reading

July 21, 2011 21Jul2011 News

Trend Micro aims to secure consumer mobile devices for enterprises

Security firm Trend Micro has announced an enterprise mobile management product to help organisations integrate consumer devices into an enterprise environment in a secure way. Continue Reading

July 21, 2011 21Jul2011 News

IDC blames decline in European PC market on weak consumer demand and high inventories

The west European PC market declined 8.9% compared with the same quarter the year before. A shift in interest and budget towards other products contributed to weak consumer demand and slow stock depletion across Western Europe, according to analyst ... Continue Reading

July 21, 2011 21Jul2011 News

Nokia reports £429m loss as smartphone revenues drop 32% in first half of 2011

Nokia has reported operating losses of €487m (£429m) in the first half of 2011, fuelled by a decline in smartphone sales. Continue Reading

July 21, 2011 21Jul2011 News

Hacking group Anonymous claims to have hacked into NATO servers and stolen data

Hacking group Anonymous has claimed to have hacked into NATO servers, according to the Blottr.com news service. Continue Reading

July 20, 2011 20Jul2011 News

Forrester: Seven trends to shape the future of enterprise applications and ERP

Over the next five years, technology changes will disrupt our long-held beliefs about the ownership and value of core enterprise application, writes Paul D. Hamerman, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. Continue Reading

July 20, 2011 20Jul2011 News

(ISC)² publishes official guide to CSSLP

Information security body (ISC)² has published the only official guide to the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) certification. Continue Reading

July 20, 2011 20Jul2011 News

Data breach at York University highlights urgency of security checks, says ICO

The University of York's accidental breach of thousands of students' personal data points to a need for improved security checks, according to the Information Commissioner's Office. Continue Reading

July 20, 2011 20Jul2011 Tip

Nmap tutorial: Nmap scan examples for vulnerability discovery

Learn how to use Nmap, the free network scanner tool, to identify various network devices and interpret network data to uncover possible vulnerabilities. Continue Reading

July 19, 2011 19Jul2011 Blog Post

Is there an alternative to female quotas for management boards?

Should companies be made to appoint a certain number of women to their boards in order to break the glass ceiling? Continue Reading

July 19, 2011 19Jul2011 News

Microsoft offers bounty in hunt for Rustock spambot operators

A $250,000 reward is being offered to anyone who provides new information that results in the identification, arrest and criminal conviction of the cybercriminals behind the Rustock botnet. Continue Reading

July 19, 2011 19Jul2011 News

Carphone Warehouse uses business process management to increase customer satisfaction

Retailer Carphone Warehouse is claiming a 25% jump in its customer satisfaction ratings after investing in BPM software to help staff deal with sales, queries and complaints. Continue Reading

July 18, 2011 18Jul2011 Tip

IT gap analysis template: Download the simplified edition

Use our simple IT gap analysis template to document gaps between promise and delivery, for foolproof IT gap analysis and recommendations for bridging gaps. Continue Reading

July 18, 2011 18Jul2011 News

E-commerce services launched by Union Bank of India

Union Bank of India has introduced e-commerce services in collaboration with ECS. Know how the new services can bolster the bank’s e-commerce portfolio and customer base. Continue Reading

July 18, 2011 18Jul2011 News

Sainsbury’s debuts mobile shopping site

Retailer Sainsbury's has launched a mobile version of its website to extend its commerce platform to additional channels. The optimised mobile site is built using a mobile platform provided by Usablenet. The platform provides access to over 15,000 ... Continue Reading

July 18, 2011 18Jul2011 News

Public-funded bodies must open data, transparency chief tells Demos

All bodies in receipt of public sector funding should be made to open up their data, said Tim Kelsey, the government's adviser on transparency and open data. Continue Reading

July 18, 2011 18Jul2011 News

Government shelves Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors database to save £11m

The government has shelved plans to create a database of electoral information, in a move estimated to save £11m. Continue Reading

July 18, 2011 18Jul2011 News

Cloud network design: Your apps are ready, but is your infrastructure?

Cloud network design means creating a flat infrastructure for horizontal virtual machine traffic flow along with distributed applications for bandwidth optimisation. Continue Reading

July 15, 2011 15Jul2011 In Depth

How to manage semi-structured data

Semi-structured data is here to stay, and it offers the potential for business advantage to companies that handle and analyse it well. Mark Whitehorn has advice on how to do that. Continue Reading

July 14, 2011 14Jul2011 News

CIO interview: Phil Pavitt, HM Revenue & Customs

HM Revenue & Customs CIO Phil Pavitt talks to Computer Weekly about the biggest and most challenging tasks in public sector IT. Pavitt discusses his overhaul of the department's IT; tackling spending cuts; public sector IT strategy and the role of ... Continue Reading

July 14, 2011 14Jul2011 News

Gartner urges IT departments to support end-user application development

Business IT users are increasingly looking outside the IT department for application development and in many cases are building applications themselves,... Continue Reading

July 13, 2011 13Jul2011 News

Managing iPads in enterprise networks

These days users expect to be able to use their iPads inside the business and as thousands of software vendors release applications for the iOS platform which provide data mobility and usability benefits to employees, the prospect of the iPad as a ... Continue Reading

July 13, 2011 13Jul2011 Tip

OCTAVE risk assessment method examined up close

The OCTAVE risk assessment method is unique in that it follows a self-directed approach to risk assessment. Leverage its strengths with this expert tip. Continue Reading

July 13, 2011 13Jul2011 News

Vendor evaluation criteria: Is your ERP vendor good with BI?

If your business is big on ERP, you may want to consider these vendor evaluation criteria when adopting a business intelligence solution. Continue Reading

July 13, 2011 13Jul2011 News

Central government staff lack skills in IT

A significant proportion of civil servants lack skills in areas such as IT, a National Audit Office report has found. Continue Reading

July 13, 2011 13Jul2011 Tip

SAP security tutorial: Top 10 SAP security implementation steps

Implementing SAP software securely isn't only the job of SAP specialists; the entire IT department has a role to play. Learn the top ten steps to a secure SAP implementation. Continue Reading

July 13, 2011 13Jul2011 News

HMRC saves £21m with first centralised government procurement contract

The government has awarded its first centrally managed contract for print services at HMRC with outsourcing company Williams Lea. The deal is expected to save £21m, replacing 140 contracts with one. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 Tip

Metasploit tutorial part 1: Inside the Metasploit framework

In part one of our Metasploit tutorial, learn the framework’s basics, to use it for vulnerability scans and create a simple exploit on a target system. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 Podcast

SAN migration strategy, preparation and execution

Learn what preparation goes into a SAN migration, how to handle the execution of the migration as well as the most difficult challenges, such as recabling in a fabric replacement. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 In Depth

IT in Europe e-zine: Data Management & BI Edition

The benefits of effective data management and business intelligence are many; so are the challenges. Get practical information and advice on data management & BI strategies in the IT in Europe ezine. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 Tip

Building the business case for a server refresh

As IT managers consider a server refresh, they need to create a solid business case for replacing hardware. Here’s how to garner support for the project. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 News

Cisco to axe 10,000 jobs

Cisco Systems may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, roughly 14% of its workforce, to combat weak profit growth, according to Bloomberg. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 News

Disaster recovery management: Kale Consultants’ ten-year journey

Kale Consultants’ disaster recovery management and business continuity planning journey makes for interesting reading in this comprehensive case study. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 News

Cyber terrorism set to increase after al-Qaeda calls for more cyber attacks, says government

Cyber terrorism will become an increasing problem as the tools and techniques needed for cyber attacks become more widely available, according to a report on the government's new counter-terrorism strategy. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 News

Twitter uses Acquia to provide Drupal-based development community site

Twitter has launched a new developer community site using open source content management system (CMS) Drupal, provided by Acquia. Continue Reading

July 12, 2011 12Jul2011 News

Infosys changes name and splits into four vertical sector divisions

Infosys has split itself vertically to enable it to do more work in specific business sectors, while a change of name reflects its broader remit. Continue Reading

July 11, 2011 11Jul2011 News

EMC’s caveman creed, HP says FAST is its idea, Pillar crumbles

The storage blogosphere has thrown up a fascinating EMC video explaining how cave painting is like social media. Seriously. Also HP says EMC’s FAST is its idea. Continue Reading

July 11, 2011 11Jul2011 News

IT professionals get multiple job offers and double-digit pay increases as demand surges

Demand for IT skills has increased as businesses begin to re-invest in IT and professionals with particular IT skills are receiving multiple job offers and double-digit pay increases if they switch employers. Continue Reading

July 11, 2011 11Jul2011 News

Microsoft packs a lot into July’s four Patch Tuesday security updates

Microsoft is to release only four security updates in this month's Patch Tuesday security update, but these will cover 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Office. Continue Reading

July 11, 2011 11Jul2011 News

Law firm uses RES Software to manage desktop transfer in office move

UK-based international law firm Stephenson Harwood used RES Software to retain and manage user desktop settings as well as upgrade desktop software during an office move. Continue Reading

July 08, 2011 08Jul2011 News

Communications minister Ed Vaizey says US ISP piracy deal could pave way for UK

The top five US internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed with film and music producers to issue warnings to customers suspected of online piracy and to take action against repeat offenders. Continue Reading

July 08, 2011 08Jul2011 News

Businesses understand social media risks but fail to take precautions, says survey

Businesses are using social media without taking adequate measures to monitor staff activity, which could open them up to security attacks and create compliance risks. Continue Reading

July 08, 2011 08Jul2011 Tip

Opex vs Capex: Maintaining the right balance

A few thumb rules can provide answer to the conundrum that puzzles CIOs, opex vs capex. Read these tips to know what suits you the best: Opex or capex. Continue Reading

July 07, 2011 07Jul2011 News

Business analyst skills shortage continues as IT job market grows

Business analysts are the IT staff most in demand for permanent and contract roles, according to KPMG. Continue Reading

July 07, 2011 07Jul2011 News

FireControl project failed because of inadequate EADS contract, MPs told

The failure of the canned £469m FireControl project was due to an inadequate IT contract, MPs were told at a Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Continue Reading

July 07, 2011 07Jul2011 News

ICO calls on UK businesses to open their doors to audits and reduce data breaches

Private enterprises make up a third of data security breach claims, but despite this, many continue to resist the offer of an audit by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), according to the privacy watchdog's latest annual report. Continue Reading

July 07, 2011 07Jul2011 News

Oracle releases iPad app for virtual desktop client

Oracle has released a virtual desktop client app for the Apple iPad to provide mobile access to server-hosted desktops and enterprise applications. Continue Reading

July 07, 2011 07Jul2011 News

Kognitio ships data analysis tool Pablo

Data analytics company Kognitio is now shipping Pablo, a product that allows users to build and query virtual OLAP (online analytical processing) cubes without data warehouse specialists. Continue Reading

July 06, 2011 06Jul2011 News

Business intelligence tool to be deployed at Tata AIG Life

One of India’s largest private sector insurers, Tata AIG Life plan to deploy a business intelligence tool. Learn what it wants from the new BI tool. Continue Reading

July 06, 2011 06Jul2011 News

5 cloud BI considerations for a successful rollout

Migrating an end-to-end business intelligence (BI) solution to the cloud can be complicated. Consider these five points for successful cloud BI migration. Continue Reading

July 06, 2011 06Jul2011 News

Predictive analytics, data visualisation, player tracking at play at Wimbledon

IBM provided predictive analytics, player tracking and data visualisation at Wimbledon. Continue Reading

July 06, 2011 06Jul2011 News

Ofcom UK broadband speed map shows wide areas of internet underinvestment

An interactive map of broadband speeds has revealed large sections of the UK need investment in internet connectivity. Continue Reading

July 06, 2011 06Jul2011 In Depth

Why more businesses are nearshoring in Eastern Europe

Low-cost, highly skilled IT labour and a relatively close proximity to the UK is making Eastern Europe an increasingly attractive destination to UK businesses Continue Reading

July 06, 2011 06Jul2011 News

Network security case study: College’s NAC virtual appliance makes grade

Wellington College’s network security case study explains how a NAC virtualization appliance blocks malware and provides increased capacity on demand. Continue Reading

July 05, 2011 05Jul2011 Answer

Choosing a RAID level depends on capacity needs and data criticality

In this Ask the Expert, Steve Pinder talks about which RAID level to choose, depending on the criticality of your data or the capacity required. Continue Reading

July 05, 2011 05Jul2011 In Depth

Case study: How a small business can benefit from SaaS

Professional beauty products distributor SweetSquared considers using Microsoft Office 365 alongside browser-based SaaS. Continue Reading

July 05, 2011 05Jul2011 News

ICO issues warning over NHS Data Protection Act breaches

Following five more NHS Data Protection Act violations, the Information Commissioner’s Office will redouble efforts to help NHS improve security. Continue Reading

July 04, 2011 04Jul2011 News

Hulu withdraws Facebook Connect feature after software glitch leaked users' data

US online video service Hulu has withdrawn its Facebook Connect integration because of security problems discovered soon after launch. Continue Reading

July 04, 2011 04Jul2011 News

Microsoft shares location data source code for review of Wi-Fi information harvesting

Microsoft is sharing source code used for location-based services to allow its collection of Wi-Fi access point data to be reviewed. Continue Reading

July 04, 2011 04Jul2011 News

Hacker group Anonymous steals user names and passwords in cyber attack on Apple

Hacker group Anonymous claims to have stolen 25 internal user names and passwords from Apple in the latest of a series of attacks on government and corporate websites around the world. Continue Reading

July 04, 2011 04Jul2011 News

IT services supplier Capita buys contact centre business Ventura for £65m

Capita has bought contact centre business Ventura for £65m in a further sign of IT and BPO consolidation. Continue Reading

July 01, 2011 01Jul2011 E-Zine

Data governance key to MDM takeoff

Air France-KLM is looking to develop a sustainable master data management programme, and proper data governance has emerged as a bedrock prerequisite for the airline group. Read about the importance of governance as well as data integration and data... Continue Reading

July 01, 2011 01Jul2011 Tip

Build open source business intelligence platform successfully

A business intelligence tool without a platform is like a body without a skeleton. Here is how you can build an open source business intelligence platform. Continue Reading