Database management

MPs hold first ever debate on live facial recognition

MPs have held an open debate on police use of live facial recognition technology for the first time since it was initially deployed by the Met Police in August 2016 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Police cloud project raises data protection concerns despite legal reforms

Ongoing data protection issues with the use of hyperscale public cloud infrastructure by UK police could complicate the ambitions of nine forces to move their common records management system into the cloud Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Fresh concerns over NHS England registries procurement

Clinicians and technologists behind a number of medical devices registries being brought together by NHS England on a new common platform have accused the health service of flouting public sector procurement regulations Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Interview: Petra Molnar, author of ‘The walls have eyes’

Refugee lawyer and author Petra Molnar speaks to Computer Weekly about the extreme violence people on the move face at borders across the world, and how increasingly hostile anti-immigrant politics is being enabled and reinforced by a ‘lucrative panopticon’ of surveillance technologies Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Snowflake brings AI to data for Australian businesses

At the Sydney leg of the Snowflake World Tour, the company showcased how its platform simplifies data management, reduces costs and drives AI adoption for Australian businesses Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

What is Microsoft Visual FoxPro (VFP)?

Microsoft Visual FoxPro (VFP) is an object-oriented programming (OOP) environment with a built-in relational database engine. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati
• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor
• Jessica Sirkin

Dell CTO: Enterprise AI poised to take off in 2025

After a period of experimentation, the building blocks are in place for wider enterprise adoption of AI, says Dell Technologies’ global CTO, John Roese Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Techcombank’s tech investments set to fuel record profit

The Vietnam bank is targeting $1bn in profit in 2024 while maintaining a flat headcount and reducing physical branches, thanks to its investments in artificial intelligence and a data engine Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

What is Oracle?

Oracle is one of the largest vendors in the enterprise IT market and the shorthand name of its flagship product, a relational database management system (RDBMS) that's formally called Oracle Database. Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Wright
• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

Why responsible AI is a business imperative

Tools are emerging for real-world AI systems that focus more on responsible adoption, deployment and governance, rather than academic and philosophical questions about speculative risks Continue Reading

By

• Mary Branscombe, Computer Weekly

APAC organisations embrace generative AI

Study reveals a surge in GenAI adoption across APAC, with businesses looking to train their own models, likely to address specific regional needs and market dynamics Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

M1 ditches 70% of legacy systems in cloud transformation drive

Singapore telco M1 is switching off 70% of its legacy systems by the end of 2024 and leveraging Salesforce to offer more personalised services Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

What is NoSQL (Not Only SQL database)?

NoSQL is an approach to database management that can accommodate a wide variety of data models, including key-value, document, columnar and graph formats. Continue Reading

By

• Kinza Yasar, Technical Writer
• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting
• Jack Vaughan

Data sharing for immigration raids ferments hostility to migrants

Data sharing between public and private bodies for the purposes of carrying out immigration raids helps to prop up the UK’s hostile environment by instilling an atmosphere of fear and deterring migrants from accessing public services Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Storage technology explained: Vector databases at the core of AI

We look at the use of vector data in AI and how vector databases work, plus vector embedding, the challenges for storage of vector data and the key suppliers of vector database products Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Retailers question using live facial recognition for shoplifting

Retailers praise benefits of retrospective over live facial recognition in dealing with shoplifting, but stress there are ongoing concerns around the ethical, legal and safety implications of using the technology in stores Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Chief data officers highlight data integrity woes

In a report from the company co-founded by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, CDOs discuss the challenges of artificial intelligence and using increasing amounts of personal data Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Key-value flash targets more efficient data storage

We look at key-value storage, which promises much greater I/O efficiency and longer flash drive lifespans, but may be constrained by limited use cases and lukewarm productisation efforts Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

QiStor flashes key-value storage software for hardware acceleration

US-based startup will develop storage software allied with FPGA chips to allow data storage to bypass spinning disk era block addressing to speed performance and cut energy use Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Newcastle City Council swaps out Oracle Java for Azul

Changes to Oracle’s Java licensing meant the council no longer received free security patches Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Leeds Teaching Hospitals deploys patient records and data sharing on Azure

In-house patient records system has been migrated to the Microsoft public cloud, opening up the potential for greater data sharing Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Oracle Exadata Exascale: Big architecture shift for small workloads

Exascale is multitenant architecture for Oracle Database that promises performance equal to dedicated infrastructure and savings compared with existing products, with AI workloads in mind Continue Reading

By

• Gaétan Raoul, LeMagIT

How India is driving road safety with technology

Traffic departments, law enforcers and new-tech players are betting on technology tools such as AI-powered drones and mobile apps to improve road safety across India Continue Reading

By

• Pratima Harigunani

CrowdStrike blue screen bug serves a stark warning

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we analyse the lessons from the global IT outage caused by the blue screen bug in CrowdStrike security software. We talk to the data chief of Barilla, the €4bn pasta maker, about the benefits of asking, “So what?” And we find out how Finland is taking a lead on quantum computing. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Cloud databases: Base jumping for the bigger picture

In the era of cloud-native computing, graph and NoSQL have emerged as two alternatives to the relational database model Continue Reading

By

• Marc Ambasna-Jones

India bolsters digital agriculture and space tech in Budget 2024

India will extend its digital public infrastructure to the agriculture sector and set up a venture capital fund for space startups, among other tech initiatives in its latest Budget Continue Reading

By

• Kavitha Srinivasa

Cloud database comparison: AWS, Microsoft, Google and Oracle

Here's a look at the rival cloud database offerings from AWS, Google, Microsoft and Oracle based on their product breadth, migration capabilities and pricing models. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Foot

Serving up a GenAI experience at Wimbledon

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we go behind the scenes at Wimbledon to find out how technology is improving the tennis experience for fans. We talk to Meta’s AI research chief about the challenges and opportunities of large language models. And we find out why cloud databases are becoming increasingly popular. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Riding the cloud database wave

There is set to be a surge in demand for cloud databases, driven by new use cases and greater decentralised IT spending Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

What is a vector database?

A vector database is a type of database technology that's used to store, manage and search vector embeddings, numerical representations of unstructured data that are also referred to simply as vectors. Continue Reading

By

• Sean Michael Kerner

AT&T loses ‘nearly all’ phone records in Snowflake breach

Hackers have stolen records of virtually every call made by AT&T's customers during a six-month period in 2022, after compromising the US telco's Snowflake data environment Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

data marketplace (data market)

A data marketplace, or data market, is an online store where people can buy data. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Barney, Technology Writer

How data drives decisions at BAE Systems

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the chief data officer of one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers, BAE Systems, about data strategy and diversity. Microsoft’s claims over sovereign cloud for government IT are under scrutiny – we examine the issues. And our latest buyer’s guide looks at trends in cloud databases. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Trends in the cloud database market

We look at how the cloud database market is evolving Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is an open standard application programming interface (API) that allows application programmers to easily access data stored in a database. Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Wright
• Adam Hughes

TDCX and Supa team up on data labelling

TDCX has teamed up with data labelling firm Supa to speed up data labelling with up to 98% accuracy using the human-in-the-loop approach Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

relational database

A relational database is a type of database that organizes data points with defined relationships for easy access. Continue Reading

By

• Alexander S. Gillis, Technical Writer and Editor
• Ben Lutkevich, Site Editor
• Jacqueline Biscobing, Senior Managing Editor, News

AI’s environmental cost could outweigh sustainability benefits

Artificial intelligence can help organisations manage and mitigate their environmental impacts in a number of ways, but the highly polluting nature of the technology could outweigh its other sustainability benefits if not dealt with Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Multi-cloud databases: How to deploy and manage them

Deploying databases on different cloud platforms offers various benefits. Here's a set of 10 best practices for building a multi-cloud database architecture. Continue Reading

By

• Jeff McCormick

Drilling into data to help the UK’s energy transition

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how data is accelerating the UK’s energy transition to net zero. With Windows 10 support ending next year, we examine the issues around preparing to upgrade to Windows 11. And we explore the key considerations when deploying artificial intelligence infrastructure to harness its full potential. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

European data chief prepares bid to get UK to join EU digital single market

Data initiative Gaia-X is trying to plug the UK into a planned digital European single market, as the EU seeks to extend the reach of vast and controversial data laws over global supply chains Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

How Dataiku is supporting ‘everyday AI’

Dataiku president Krish Venkataraman outlines what it takes for enterprises to scale and govern their use of artificial intelligence while making the technology accessible across their business Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Storebrand divests from IBM over supply of biometrics to Israel

Norwegian asset manager Storebrand’s decision to divest from IBM comes amid growing scrutiny of the role technology companies play in Israel’s human rights abuses Continue Reading

By

• Andrew Kersley

Podcast: AI and its impact on data storage

We talk to Shawn Rosemarin, vice-president for R&D at Pure Storage, about the requirements of AI workloads, and what data storage needs to cope with AI Continue Reading

DataStax launches on-premise GenAI in ‘hyper-converged’ format

NoSQL database specialist adds generative AI for datacentre deployments where cloud is a no-no for cost, security or compliance reasons, with a focus on vector storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Google ups ante in GenAI with Gemini enhancements

Google has updated Gemini 1.5 Pro with a two-million-token context window and debuted a smaller, lightweight model optimised for high-frequency, specialised tasks Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

NetApp upgrades AFF all-flash as it targets AI storage

New AFF arrays offer performance boost for artificial intelligence, while NetApp trumpets its advantages as a provider of sustainable and intelligent infrastructure for all kinds of workloads Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Compare NoSQL database types in the cloud

NoSQL systems are increasingly common in the cloud. Read about the different types of NoSQL databases that are available from major cloud providers and other vendors. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights
• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

12 top open source databases to consider

Open source databases are viable alternatives to proprietary ones. Here's information on 12 open source and source available technologies for weighing database options. Continue Reading

By

• Sean Michael Kerner

Google Cloud accelerates asteroid discovery for US-based non-profit

Google Cloud opens up about the work it is doing with a US-based planetary science non-profit to help map the solar system Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

What’s it like being the IT chief at Man Utd?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we speak to the chief digital information officer at Manchester United Football Club to discuss the IT that keeps a premiership team running. We also investigate how well prepared the UK is for major semiconductor supply chain disruptions. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Podcast: How to prepare your data for digital transformation

We talk to Chris Gorton, EMEA managing director at Syniti, about how to prepare data for digital transformation Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

query

A query is a question or a request for information expressed in a formal manner. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati
• Andrew Zola
• Adam Hughes

CW Innovation Awards: Gleaning data insights with AI

Hong Kong-based Citic Telecom CPC has built a data platform that leverages large language models to generate insights and speed up data retrieval and analysis Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

What is a cloud database? An in-depth cloud DBMS guide

A cloud database is an organized and managed collection of data in an IT system that resides on a public, private or hybrid cloud computing platform. Continue Reading

By

• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

database as a service (DBaaS)

Database as a service (DBaaS) is a cloud computing managed service offering that provides access to a database without requiring the setup of physical hardware, the installation of software or the need to configure the database. Continue Reading

By

• Alexander S. Gillis, Technical Writer and Editor
• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

columnar database

A columnar database (column-oriented) is a database management system (DBMS) that stores data on disk in columns instead of rows. Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Wright

Government dismisses Lords’ concerns over facial recognition

UK government is claiming police forces’ use of live facial recognition is comprehensively covered by existing laws, in response to a Lords investigation that found police lacked a clear legal basis to deploy it Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Google Cloud debuts agent builder to ease GenAI adoption

Vertex AI Agent Builder is touted to enable developers with different levels of expertise to build conversational AI agents grounded in enterprise data Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

schema

In computer programming, a schema (pronounced SKEE-mah) is the organization or structure for a database, while in artificial intelligence (AI), a schema is a formal expression of an inference rule. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati
• Andrew Zola

Cloud database security: Best practices, challenges and threats

If your company is using a cloud database, it's critical to stay on top of security. Review the security features offered by top cloud providers, plus some best practices. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Shackleford, Voodoo Security

Google Cloud embeds Gemini across product portfolio

Google Cloud’s Gemini model will power a slew of AI assistant capabilities across its portfolio to bring the benefits of generative AI to developers and enterprise users Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Public worried by police and companies sharing biometric data

More than half of the British public do not feel comfortable with police forces sharing biometric data with the private sector, including facial recognition images, to tackle crimes such as shoplifting Continue Reading

By

• Josh Osman, Computer Weekly

Government struggles to upgrade legacy IT systems, says PAC chair

In her annual report, Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier calls legacy IT one of government’s ‘big nasties’ and says money urgently needs to be spent to fix the situation Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Top AI infrastructure considerations

Artificial intelligence workloads can put considerable strain on technology infrastructure. Here are some of the key considerations when deploying AI infrastructure to harness its full potential Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Different types of database management systems explained

The various types of database software come with advantages, limitations and optimal uses that prospective buyers should be aware of before choosing a DBMS. Continue Reading

By

• Craig S. Mullins, Mullins Consulting

Oracle Cloud: A discussion about public cloud, dedicated regions and Alloy

We speak to Oracle cloud chief technical architect Pradeep Vincent about cloud deployment scenarios Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

How Vast Data is simplifying data infrastructure

Vast Data CEO Renen Hallak explains how the company’s unified data platform that combines storage, database and compute capabilities into a single technology stack can improve the efficiency of analytics and artificial intelligence workloads Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Spring Budget risks funding legally questionable police tech

Open legal questions around how UK police are using facial recognition and cloud technology could undermine the £230m investment committed in the Spring Budget to “time and money-saving technology” for police Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Creative workers say livelihoods threatened by generative AI

Computer Weekly speaks with various creative workers about the impact generative artificial intelligence systems are having on their work and livelihoods Continue Reading

By

• Adele Zeynep Walton

Cloud DBA: How cloud changes database administrator's role

Cloud databases change the duties and responsibilities of database administrators. Here's how the job of a cloud DBA differs from what an on-premises one does. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Foot

flat file

A flat file is a collection of data stored in a two-dimensional database in which similar yet discrete strings of information are stored as records in a table. Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Wright
• Rich Castagna
• Adam Hughes

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that supports a wide variety of transaction processing, business intelligence (BI) and data analytics applications in corporate IT environments. Continue Reading

By

• Rahul Awati
• Adam Hughes
• Craig Stedman, Industry Editor

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

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

By

• Chris Foot

star schema

A star schema is a database organizational structure optimized for use in a data warehouse or business intelligence that uses a single large fact table to store transactional or measured data, and one or more smaller dimensional tables that store attributes about the data. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

How ANZ organisations can address challenges in AI adoption

Pure Storage's global CTO Alex McMullan discusses the data and sustainability challenges in artificial intelligence adoption, which can be addressed by centralising datasets and focusing on data quality and management Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Withers

Met Police to scrap and replace ‘racist’ Gangs Violence Matrix

A database used by the Metropolitan Police to identify and track people linked with gang violence is being decommissioned and replaced. The decision follows a long-running controversy over its discriminatory impacts on young black people, but campaigners warn that racial discrimination will persist with new tool Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Amazon defends facial-recognition tech sale to FBI despite moratorium

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

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK government responds to AI whitepaper consultation

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

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK police facial recognition explained: What you need to know

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

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

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

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

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Google Bigtable

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

By

• Robert Sheldon

transactional data

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

By

• Robert Sheldon

Helsinki: The trailblazing smart city

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

By

• Matthew Staff

British Library catalogues back online after ransomware attack

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

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How legal disclosure failures disrupted the Post Office Horizon inquiry

From overly narrow search terms, overzealous deduplication of documents and failed email migrations, poor management of legal discovery has delayed justice for postmasters in the Horizon inquiry   Continue Reading

By

• Martin Nikel, Thomas Murray

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

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

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

MPP database (massively parallel processing database)

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

By

• Rahul Awati

Top 10 ANZ IT stories of 2023

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

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Top 10 police technology stories of 2023

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

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Police defend facial recognition target selection to Lords

Senior police officers confirm to Lords committee that facial recognition watchlist image selection is based on crime categories attached to people’s photos, rather than a context-specific assessment of the threat presented by a given individual Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK police plan national roll-out of facial-recognition phone app

UK police chiefs plan to expand use of facial-recognition technology through a nationwide roll-out of mobile-based tools and increases in retrospective facial-recognition, but oversight problems persist Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

DWP to surveil bank accounts of benefit claimants for fraud

The UK government has outlined how it plans to tackle benefit fraud by giving the Department for Work and Pensions new powers compelling banks to collect and share data on claimants’ bank accounts Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Outgoing police tech watchdog warns of declining oversight

The outgoing biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner for England and Wales discusses police deployment of powerful new surveillance technologies, and the declining state of oversight in this area Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Cancer Research UK uses AWS for payments and trial search function

Charity Cancer Research UK has been using AWS to make its donations platform more scalable, as well as making it easier for patients to find clinical trials Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

AI Safety Summit review

Computer Weekly takes stock of the UK government’s AI Safety Summit and the differing perspectives around its success Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

‘Egregious’ to link passport data with facial recognition systems

The Scottish biometrics watchdog has spoken out against the UK policing minister’s plans to integrate passport data with police facial recognition systems Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

How AWS is building a tech stack for generative AI

Olivier Klein, chief technologist for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services, dives deeper into the technology stack the company has built to ease GenAI adoption Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Oracle’s Steve Miranda: Customers nearing inflection point with Fusion

In a Q&A with Computer Weekly at Oracle Open World, applications head Steve Miranda discussed how its customers are moving from project-driven to business-driven approaches, and how GenAI is for real Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

CDO interview: Andrew Curry, manager of the Central Data Office, ExxonMobil

The head of the oil and gas giant’s data organisation is leading a strategy to establish enterprise-wide principles for the use of data as part of a unified corporate ecosystem Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels