Data centre
Deciding where and how to build and operate a datacentre is one of the most important decisions your organisation will make. This section covers how to build a solid datacentre infrastructure, including selecting the right location to build your new facility, best practices for designing a new datacentre, and cooling and air flow techniques. Learn about green IT, data management systems, servers and operating systems.
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Opinion
09 Dec 2024
AI and cloud: The perfect pair to scale your business in 2025
On the Sixth Day of AI, we explore how leveraging AI and cloud can enhance business performance and shares tips for successful implementation. Continue Reading
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News
06 Dec 2024
What do the home secretary’s policing reforms mean for the future of the Police Digital Service?
The government is to create a new central body for policing with IT strategy in its proposed purview, but what does this mean for the Home Office-backed Police Digital Service? Continue Reading
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News
06 Oct 2021
VMworld 2021: VMware CEO fleshes out and refines company’s enterprise multi-cloud strategy
VMware’s new CEO, Raghu Raghuram, uses the VMworld 2021 keynote to set out the company’s expanded take on the meaning of multi-cloud Continue Reading
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News
06 Oct 2021
Open Infrastructure Foundation hails surge in OpenStack deployments as Microsoft joins ranks
Open Infrastructure Foundation’s chief operating officer lifts the lid on how the pandemic is shaping and accelerating adoption of its open source cloud platform OpenStack Continue Reading
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Podcast
06 Oct 2021
Top women in UK tech, AI on puffin island – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast
In this episode, Caroline Donnelly, Clare McDonald and Brian McKenna discuss CW’s annual programme to choose the most influential women in UK tech, as well as Newham Sparks, and puffin-counting AI Continue Reading
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News
06 Oct 2021
Aetos to deploy Singtel MEC for security operations
Security firm Aetos will use Singtel’s multi-access edge computing platform to run applications such as surveillance robots, drones and video analytics at its security command centre Continue Reading
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News
05 Oct 2021
Kao Data secures up to £130m in funding to finance colocation datacentre expansions
Harlow-based colocation giant has secure further investment as its expansion plans gather pace Continue Reading
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E-Zine
05 Oct 2021
The Most Influential Women in UK Technology 2021
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we reveal the 50 women chosen as the most influential in UK technology for 2021, and talk to the 10th winner of our annual list – Poppy Gustafsson, CEO of Darktrace. Also, our latest buyer’s guide looks at digital customer experience technologies. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
29 Sep 2021
AWS courts local councils across UK and Ireland with three-month free cloud services trial offer
Amazon Web Services is seeking expressions of interest from local authorities across the UK, Ireland and Spain to take part in a three-month cloud trial programme Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Sep 2021
Riskier business: How Brexit could be changing downtime risk and resilience in the datacentre
As the UK enters the final quarter of its first year from the Brexit transition period, the risk picture for local datacentres remains unclear Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Sep 2021
Could Iceland be the best place in the world for high-performance computing?
Most of Iceland’s cheap, sustainable energy is currently used by aluminium smelters, but recognising the need to diversify, the Landsvirkjun power company now promotes other uses Continue Reading
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News
29 Sep 2021
The Security Interviews: How SolarWinds came through its darkest hour
In his first major UK press interview, SolarWinds CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna tells Computer Weekly how a relentless focus on transparency saw the company safely through a nightmare cyber breach scenario Continue Reading
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News
29 Sep 2021
AWS launches programme to advance health equity
The $40m global health equity programme will fund projects that improve health outcomes for underserved communities Continue Reading
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News
28 Sep 2021
How one red team exercise averted a new SolarWinds-style attack
Palo Alto Networks shares details of how its red teamers found and sealed a customer vulnerability that could have led to another SolarWinds-style supply chain attack Continue Reading
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News
28 Sep 2021
Pure launches Fusion cloud control layer for storage
Pure Fusion is a storage control plane across cloud and datacentre. Portworx Data Services also launches to provide database management for container storage platform Continue Reading
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E-Zine
28 Sep 2021
Chancellor Rishi Sunak talks tech
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about his plans to support innovation and growth in the UK tech sector. Composable IT is the latest trend in building software to support business change. And Halfords built its own service management software – and now is selling it to other retailers. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Sep 2021
Considerations for sustainable data center design
To design a green, sustainable data center, consider methods to improve energy conservation and efficiency. Then, look into green -- or greener -- energy source alternatives. Continue Reading
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News
27 Sep 2021
GCP gets triple-redundant NAS and built-in Kubernetes backup
Google Filestore Enterprise will provide synchronous replication across three zones, while Backup for Google Kubernetes Engine brings built-in container cluster data protection Continue Reading
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News
27 Sep 2021
Private equity cash fuels Nordic datacentre growth
Private equity companies are betting on the Nordic datacentre sector as demand for services in the region accelerates Continue Reading
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News
27 Sep 2021
CIO interview: Jon Braithwaite, CIO, Compass Group UK & Ireland
FTSE 100 catering services company is undergoing a widespread overhaul of its technology and improving the digital offering to customers Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2021
IT systems failure blights UK Border Force electronic passport gates
The Home Office confirms the UK Border Force electronic passport gates are up and running again after passengers complain of missed flights due to earlier immigration processing delays Continue Reading
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News
23 Sep 2021
Regulator concerns about resilience and security could slow cloud adoption in financial services
Report by Association for Financial Markets In Europe highlights the pressure financial services firms face as they seek to balance the need for innovation with regulatory requirements Continue Reading
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News
23 Sep 2021
European cloud providers are growing revenue but losing market share, Synergy data shows
Latest data from Synergy Research Group highlights changing dynamics within the European cloud market, as the US giants continue to grow their share Continue Reading
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News
23 Sep 2021
Threat actors target VMware vCenter Server users
Users of VMware vCenter Server are advised to patch a series of vulnerabilities post haste Continue Reading
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News
23 Sep 2021
SSE Renewables teams up with Microsoft for AI-led puffin conservation project on Isle of May
Green energy provider talks up the potential for artificial intelligence technology to help speed up the time it takes to bring new supplies of renewable power onto the grid Continue Reading
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News
22 Sep 2021
Salesforce to debut Hyperforce architecture in Singapore
Salesforce is rolling out its Hyperforce infrastructure architecture in Singapore by the year-end, enabling enterprises to run Salesforce applications on Amazon Web Services Continue Reading
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News
22 Sep 2021
Newham aims to harness local talent to build data economy in London
The London Borough of Newham sets out to enable its young, digitally savvy population to build a data economy for sustainable growth through the launch of Newham Sparks at London Tech Week 2021 Continue Reading
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News
22 Sep 2021
Linode commits to NVMe storage infrastructure upgrade across its global datacentre portfolio
Alternative public cloud service provider Linode has commited to revamping the storage infrastructure across its 11 datacentres, which include sites in the US, UK and Germany Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Sep 2021
Pros and cons of on-site power generation for data centers
Organizations considering a move to on-site power generation should weigh drawbacks -- such as cost -- against benefits, including sustainability and increased control over power. Continue Reading
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News
21 Sep 2021
UK needs coordinated effort to regain ground in high-performance computing
The UK is falling behind in the supercomputer league as a lack of skills and awareness of large-scale computing holds back organisations Continue Reading
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News
21 Sep 2021
Stax to expand in New Zealand, Southeast Asia
Australia’s homegrown cloud management platform is setting its sights on neighbouring markets amid growing cloud adoption across the region Continue Reading
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News
21 Sep 2021
Hyperscale cloud giants look to pick up the pace of self-built datacentres in London
Latest quarterly datacentre market tracker data from DC Byte and Knight Frank suggests a shift in investment priorities for the hyperscale cloud giants could be on the cards Continue Reading
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Blog Post
21 Sep 2021
Why water usage is the datacentre industry’s dirty little secret
In this guest post to mark Sustainable Development Week, Arnaud de Bermingham, president and founder of cloud provider Scaleway sets out why the datacentre industry must come clean about its water ... Continue Reading
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21 Sep 2021
Hybrid IT: Making datacentre and cloud work better together in the enterprise
Enterprises are increasingly trying to balance and manage IT assets in a variety of environments, but there are plenty of tools and technologies out there to make the job a lot easier Continue Reading
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E-Zine
21 Sep 2021
The cities planning for ethical use of AI
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to tech leaders in Barcelona and London about a collaboration to ensure ethical use of AI in the era of smart cities. The UK government wants to reform data protection law – we assess the implications. And we examine the latest best practice in hybrid cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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Feature
20 Sep 2021
Climate change and datacentres: Weighing up water use
Given that a mid-sized datacentre uses as much water as three average-sized hospitals, green IT needs to start considering water usage Continue Reading
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News
20 Sep 2021
ASEAN organisations face observability gap
Organisations in Southeast Asia are grappling with a hodgepodge of observability tools and have some way to go before they can achieve full visibility over their technology stacks Continue Reading
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News
16 Sep 2021
NTT and Equinix lead APAC co-location market
The two datacentre service providers are leading the pack in co-location services in the Asia-Pacific region thanks to their growing business from hyperscale cloud suppliers Continue Reading
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News
14 Sep 2021
TikTok’s take-off fuels hyperscale datacentre spend by parent company ByteDance
Following its meteoric rise to social media prominence, TikTok’s parent company is confirmed as being the world’s seventh-biggest datacentre spender after just three years of expansion Continue Reading
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News
14 Sep 2021
Uptime Institute highlights patchy reporting of water use by datacentre operators
With the water usage habits of datacentres coming under increased scrutiny, research from resiliency think tank Uptime Institute highlights shortcomings in the sector's reporting of how much water facilities use Continue Reading
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E-Zine
14 Sep 2021
Is 3D printing about to hit the mainstream?
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out about the emerging consumer services using 3D printing and ask if the technology is about to go mainstream. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at the importance of sustainable datacentres. And we analyse the risks of increasing contactless card spending limits and whether tech could help. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
13 Sep 2021
Google joins Microsoft and Facebook by pledging to replenish more water than it consumes by 2030
Google is the latest tech giant to go public with its commitment to becoming a water-positive entity Continue Reading
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13 Sep 2021
Gartner: How to turn old datacentres into critical IT assets
IT infrastructure and operations leaders are increasingly focusing on new ideas and technologies alongside ways to deliver business value Continue Reading
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News
13 Sep 2021
Portcast secures $3.2m, eyes global expansion
Logistics startup Portcast will use its pre-Series A funding to expand globally and bolster its cloud-based service with prescriptive AI capabilities Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Sep 2021
The second coming: The Nordic datacentre market comes of age
As concerns mount about space and power constraints within several of Europe’s largest datacentre hubs, enterprises are being urged to consider shifting more of their energy-intensive workloads to the Nordic countries Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Sep 2021
Five things you need to know about cloud file services
We look at cloud file services, which provide a file system-like architecture that gives users access to file data wherever they are, just as if it were a local NAS filer Continue Reading
- 08 Sep 2021
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Blog Post
08 Sep 2021
Marriages Are Back On The Agenda – Even In IT
Ah – the return of “normality” in the UK – i.e., people are still getting ill but the government admits it doesn’t care any longer, other than by increasing taxes… But enough of the ... Continue Reading
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News
06 Sep 2021
Verne Global acquired for £231m as Nordic datacentre investment trend gathers pace
Icelandic colocation firm acquired by digital infrastructure investment fund as demand for datacentre capacity in the Nordics continues to grow Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2021
Berlin court reverses ban on use of EncroChat evidence in criminal trials
Berlin Superior Court allows use of EncroChat evidence in criminal trials but lawyers say the question will ultimately need to be decided by the German Supreme Court Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2021
HPE revenue boosted by digitisation drive
Company says it has experienced strong growth thanks to demand accelerating during the pandemic Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2021
Equinix acquires two Mumbai datacentres to expand colocation operations into India
Colocation giant Equinix has acquired a physical presence in India for the first time, following the completion of its acquisition of two Mumbai datacentres Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Sep 2021
Can green colocation help orgs meet sustainability targets?
Colocation providers prioritizing sustainability draw customers seeking to offset carbon emissions. But many orgs can also take steps to address sustainability issues in-house. Continue Reading
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Feature
02 Sep 2021
Five key questions to ask about storage-as-a-service and consumption models
We look at important questions to ask providers of consumption-based storage procurement services, such as base costs and burst, usage measurement and upgrade paths Continue Reading
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Blog Post
02 Sep 2021
UK government's Innovation Strategy needs to be cloud-powered to succeed, argues UKCloud
For the government’s Innovation Strategy to fulfil its 2035 vision, it must recognise cloud computing’s role as a driver of transformation, says James Maynard, solutions director at public sector ... Continue Reading
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News
02 Sep 2021
HPE signs 10-year GreenLake HPC deal worth $2bn with US National Security Agency
The US National Security Agency has enlisted the help of HPE and its GreenLake platform to aid the delivery of its data management strategy Continue Reading
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News
01 Sep 2021
NTT Group to grow global datacentre footprint by 20% over next 18 months
Carrier-neutral colocation giant has set out plans that will see it continue to add datacentre capacity across all of the major markets it operates in Continue Reading
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News
31 Aug 2021
The Raxio Group sets out Pan-African colocation datacentre expansion plans
Pan-African datacentre developer The Raxio Group has embarked on a collaboration that will pave the way for it to increase its colocation footprint within the continent Continue Reading
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E-Zine
24 Aug 2021
How datacentre power growth is leaving Dublin in distress
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at the challenges faced by Dublin’s datacentre sector, as growth leaves the city’s electricity infrastructure creaking. We ask whether recent initiatives to close the UK’s digital skills gaps are working. And we examine the latest injustice to hit the Post Office Horizon scandal. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
- 24 Aug 2021
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News
24 Aug 2021
Inchcape picks Rise with SAP on Google Cloud to motor on digital
Auto sector company Inchcape has chosen SAP’s Rise service on Google Cloud to drive forward its digital transformation programme Continue Reading
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Feature
23 Aug 2021
Uninterruptible power in the datacentre: Choosing between sustainability and uptime
With datacentres under heavier pressure to decarbonise, could even the lowly UPS play a larger role? Continue Reading
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20 Aug 2021
CapitaLand’s Ascendas India Trust to build datacentre
New datacentre campus near Mumbai will deliver 90MW of power to host technology and cloud suppliers as well as large Indian companies in a fast-growing market. Continue Reading
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20 Aug 2021
Datacentres gear up for the future
Datacentre operators in the Asia-Pacific region are dabbling in advanced power and cooling solutions, along with machine learning and edge computing, to keep pace with growing demand for their services Continue Reading
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Blog Post
20 Aug 2021
Power and water: The environmental balancing act datacentre operators need to address
The datacentre industry is going through a boom time at the moment, but operators must ensure all this growth does not come at a cost to the environment, writes Computer Weekly senior editor, ... Continue Reading
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News
20 Aug 2021
Facebook vows to replenish more water than it consumes across its global operations by 2030
Social networking giant is following in Microsoft’s footprints by setting itself a goal of becoming a water-positive entity by 2030 Continue Reading
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News
19 Aug 2021
HPE-Microsoft supercomputing collaboration on ISS speeds research into space travel health impacts
Several months on from the deployment of a microwave-sized supercomputer on the International Space Station, details of the research it's powering have started to emerge Continue Reading
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Blog Post
19 Aug 2021
Throwback Thursday: Is IT investment handled better now than a decade ago?
People like to think that the way IT works with business has changed dramatically in the past 13 years, but have the important challenges faced back then really been addressed? This week, we look ... Continue Reading
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News
18 Aug 2021
How Australia’s Octopus Deploy is simplifying DevOps
Brisbane-based startup Octopus Deploy recently secured $172.5m in venture funding to advance its goal of simplifying software deployments for DevOps teams Continue Reading
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Podcast
17 Aug 2021
Computing exams, AI, water and datacentres – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast
In this episode of the CW Downtime Upload, Clare McDonald, Brian McKenna and Caroline Donnelly discuss the recent A-level and GCSE computing results, AI appropriacy and datacentre water consumption Continue Reading
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News
16 Aug 2021
NAB partners AWS, global banks on open finance
Australia’s NAB teams up with three other banks and AWS to run an open global finance challenge that will see participating teams prototype new digital banking services Continue Reading
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News
16 Aug 2021
Microsoft launches 'top secret' Azure cloud region for US intelligence community
Microsoft continues to deliver on its pledge to provide cloud services to the US government that are compliant with all strengths of data classification Continue Reading
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Blog Post
16 Aug 2021
Post-pandemic business planning: Choosing the right datacentre partner
In this guest post, Darren Watkins, managing director of colocation provider Virtus Data Centres shares his top tips on what enterprises should be looking for in a datacentre partner. Those of us ... Continue Reading
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News
15 Aug 2021
UK government tells firms to use cloud to curb their carbon emissions and fight climate change
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has listed moving to the cloud among the steps that businesses should take to help fight climate change Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2021
Regulatory complexity hinders cloud adoption by financial services firms, Google study finds
Business leaders within the financial services space reveal details of what is holding up cloud adoption within their industry in latest Google poll Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2021
Government Digital Service signs two-year public cloud hosting deal with AWS worth £12m
The Government Digital Service has signed its longest and highest value deal with AWS to-date, as the public cloud giant’s hold on the public sector continues to grow Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2021
Multicloud adoption on the rise
But IT decision-makers are wary of costs and worried that they have insufficient skills to maintain secure environments Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2021
Wyndham Hotels turns to AWS to weather Covid-19 and company spin-off
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is in the midst of a multi-year digital transformation that has seen it shutter its datacentres and move 90% of its IT infrastructure to the Amazon Web Services public cloud Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2021
Norway’s government steps up efforts to court overseas datacentre investors and developers
The Norwegian government is making a concerted push to attract more foreign investment into its datacentre sector by talking up the country’s green credentials Continue Reading
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News
11 Aug 2021
Microsoft contests decision to award AWS $10bn NSA cloud contract
Microsoft and AWS are in the midst of another dispute over the outcome of a $10bn US goverment cloud contract Continue Reading
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E-Zine
10 Aug 2021
Real-time data analytics in action
In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the emerging applications of real-time analytics and highlight the challenges for businesses to maximise the benefits. EU experts are calling for reform of US surveillance laws – we look at the issues. And we talk to the co-CEO of HR software giant Workday. Read the issue now. Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2021
Researchers uncover database with 126 million unsecured records
Business-to-business marketing firm OneMoreLead was storing tens of millions of records in an unsecured database, exposing at least 63 million people to fraud, identify theft and phishing campaigns Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2021
Possible ransomware attack hits Italian vaccine booking system
It is still unclear who is behind the attack that caused Covid-19 vaccine bookings in Lazio, Italy, to grind to a halt, as despite masses of files being encrypted no specific ransom demands have been made for the decryptor Continue Reading
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News
09 Aug 2021
Alliance formed to build modular power-hungry HPC datacentres in energy surplus regions
Green datacentre company Cloud&Heat Technologies has formed an alliance with Earth Wind & Power that will see the pair seek to build scalable, modular datacentres in areas where utility firms are producing surplus energy Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Aug 2021
Hybrid IT: Making datacentre and cloud work better together in the enterprise
Enterprises are increasingly trying to balance and manage IT assets in a variety of environments, but there are plenty of tools and technologies out there to make the job a lot easier Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Aug 2021
Explore hot and cold aisle containment for your data center
Explore hot aisle and cold aisle containment for the data center, a practice that can reduce energy costs by helping better manage environmental factors. Continue Reading
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News
04 Aug 2021
Research points to growing importance of secondary datacentre hubs across Europe in years to come
Datacentrepricing’s half-year look at the growth of the European datacentre market reinforces the rising importance of secondary datacentre hubs across the continent Continue Reading
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News
04 Aug 2021
Amazon vs Google vs Microsoft: Gartner report blasts public cloud giants’ sales tactics
Latest Magic Quadrant report from Gartner shines a light on heavy-handed sales tactics by some of the public cloud market’s biggest players Continue Reading
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News
04 Aug 2021
Dropbox shares datacentre sustainability strategy as it plots to be 100% renewably powered by 2030
Cloud-based file sync and share giant goes public with plans to run all its datacentres on renewable power by 2030 Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Aug 2021
Disaster recovery for SMEs: Five key areas to consider
We look at key disaster recovery considerations for SMEs, including why backup is not enough, how to create a disaster recovery plan, best-practice DR testing and DR as a service Continue Reading
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News
03 Aug 2021
Panasas’s 10x saving bumps NetApp from HPC storage deployment
University of Wollongong got 1.2PB for the cost of 100TB for HPC storage in its cryo-imaging institute. Scale-out NAS maker Panasas also brought life sciences expertise to bear Continue Reading
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03 Aug 2021
Investigating process and performance improvement in private cloud
Continuous process improvement means, among other things, creating an environment that helps enterprises gauge performance as requirements change. However, the whole picture should be considered before deciding on an approach. Continue Reading
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News
03 Aug 2021
Huawei courts Asian startups in cloud push
Huawei will spend $100m over three years to grow the startup ecosystem in key markets as it eyes a bigger slice of Asia’s cloud market Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2021
Covid-19: TechUK urges government to tweak self-isolation policy for critical datacentre workers
TechUK wants datacentre operators to be allowed to run their own "test and release" protocols for Covid-negative workers that have been told to self-isolate by NHS Track and Trace Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2021
Covid-19: Lockdown lifting slows Amazon’s sales growth during Q2
Amazon’s revenue growth rate hits a post-pandemic speed bump, as the lifting of lockdown restrictions in various countries sees fewer people shopping online Continue Reading
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Definition
30 Jul 2021
DOS (disk operating system)
A DOS, or disk operating system, is an operating system that runs from a disk drive. The term can also refer to a particular family of disk operating systems, most commonly MS-DOS, an acronym for Microsoft DOS. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jul 2021
Olympic Broadcasting Services taps cloud for content delivery
Live footages of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are being supplied to broadcasters through the public cloud for the first time Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2021
Google posts $50bn in ads revenue as it looks to broaden the business
Google reported second-quarter revenues of $61.9bn driven by spending on ads, but the company’s CEO sees the business moving into new areas Continue Reading
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News
28 Jul 2021
APAC organisations can reduce carbon footprint with cloud
Energy savings of nearly 80% can be achieved by running business applications in the cloud rather than on-premise infrastructure, study finds Continue Reading
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News
27 Jul 2021
Standard Life Assurance uses IGEL to support home workers
Insurance company repurposed office-based PCs with IGEL OS to provide 4,500 users with remote desktop access Continue Reading
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Definition
26 Jul 2021
preboot execution environment (PXE)
Preboot execution environment (PXE), pronounced pixie, is a set of standards that enables a computer to load an operating system (OS) over a network connection. Continue Reading
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News
22 Jul 2021
Research: Cultural barriers hold enterprises back from building ‘high-performing’ DevOps teams
The tenth annual State of DevOps report by configuration management software provider Puppet suggests many enterprises are struggling to reap the full benefits of taking an agile-like approach to software development Continue Reading
