IT management

Strategic IT

Find out how two leading CIOs have enabled their organisations to use information technology as strategic driver, in this extract from the book Strategic IT. Continue Reading

Case study: How eBay uses its own OpenStack private cloud

eBay runs one of its most crucial workloads – its website – on an OpenStack private cloud platform developed by itself Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Bangalore IT sector supports waste pickers through cloud platform

A cloud-based platform created by IT services firm MindTree aims to help India’s waste pickers to organize themselves as small businesses Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget India contributor

Interview: John Swainson, president of Dell Software

Dell Software president John Swainson's aims to make Dell Software a $5bn business Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

IFDS integrates UK and India service centres

International Financial Data Services has implemented software to balance workloads across UK and Indian delivery centres Continue Reading

Improve the success of HR systems implementation

Mark Martin, former HR executive at Direct Line Group and T-Mobile, lists the key questions you need to ask suppliers when selecting a HR Technology system. Continue Reading

Travel group Expedia aims to predict your holiday plans

Travel group Expedia is developing technology that will predict the needs of its customers before they call about their travel plans Continue Reading

Micro-datacentre: What IT problems it solves and what workload systems suit it

A micro-datacentre is a smaller containerised datacentre system designed to solve different problems or to handle different workloads Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Can social science save the web?

Pretty much every week these days you can expect a story in Computer Weekly on one of two topics: the growing importance and influence of the web to business and economic development; and the ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

HSBC makes executives responsible for application consolidation

In the next few weeks, senior executives at HSBC globally will have KPIs to reduce the number of applications they run Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Engineering firm fined for using unlicensed Autodesk software

Project Options has been fined £16,000 by the Business Software Alliance, following an online tip-off Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Will silicon photonics replace copper cabling in mainstream datacentres?

Silicon photonics can increase bandwidth in servers, improve data transfer speeds and reduce complexity. But are datacentres ready for it? Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Russia invests £2.8bn to deliver 10Mbps fibre broadband across the country

Earlier this week, I was in Moscow, visiting the Skolkovo Innovation Centre, Russia's $15bn attempt to create a tech startup environment to compete with Silicon Valley.I mentioned in one of my ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Skolkovo Innovation Centre - Russia's Silicon Valley?

The Russian government is ploughing billions of rubles into creating a rival to Silicon Valley - but will the Skolkovo Innovation Centre succeed? Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

India needs to convert IT skills to entrepreneurship

India's start-up industry has been boosted by the growth of smart and cloud technologies and the rise in demand for big data and related services Continue Reading

By

• Anup Basti

Unilever appoints Jane Moran as global CIO

Former CIO of Thomson Reuters, Jane Moran, has joined Unilever as its new global CIO Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

UK airports lead move to cloud services

UK airports are at the vanguard of using cloud to develop innovative services, says Gatwick CIO. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

CW Europe – June 2014 Edition

Europe is on a quest for innovation, looking like it might even give California’s Silicon Valley a run for its money in a few years’ time. London’s Silicon Roundabout in Old Street may be smaller than Silicon Valley in size and reputation; however it is often featured on the list of top ten best cities to begin a startup company. Continue Reading

CIOs should 'leave innovation to marketing'

CIOs should focus on managing the technical infrastructure and leave innovation to other parts of the business – conclusion of a major study. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Sapphire 2014: SAP CEO McDermott declares war on ‘complexity’ and sets Fiori free

Bill McDermott, SAP CEO, devoted his opening keynote at Sapphire 2014 to declaring war on business process “complexity” Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

High availability strategy key to saving costs, says Sungard AS

The cost of IT downtime is extremely high for businesses – but must all systems and applications be highly available all the time? Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Bringing the technology world to Russia

The billions of rubles of government money being invested in the Skolkovo Innovation Centre on the outskirts of Moscow (read my previous post for more details) is not only going into developing the ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

How Moscow money and the post-Soviet generation hope to create Russia's Silicon Valley

The Skolkovo Innovation Centre is about a half-hour drive from Red Square, in a 400 hectare building site on the outskirts of Moscow. Today and tomorrow, it's the venue for the second annual ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

IT supplier insolvencies fall for first time as economy recovers

Technology companies have reached a turning point as insolvencies fall for the first time in 2014 Continue Reading

By

• Tim Wood and Henry Kirby

BSkyB retunes IT to ready-for-anything datacentre quad

British broadcaster BSkyB has based its IT on four core datacentres that are resilient, interconnected, energy-efficient and cloud-ready Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Future of in-house datacentres in the cloud era

It is predicted that companies will spend three times more on the cloud by 2017. But as cloud goes mainstream, are in-house datacentres really dying? Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

CIO interview: Ian Cohen, CIO, Jardine Lloyd Thompson

Running a programme to transform the business is the wrong way to go about change, according to Ian Cohen, CIO at insurance broker JLT Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

IT headcount lags behind growth in digital strategies

There is a huge gap in technology staffing for e-commerce operations, according to a new report from analyst Forrester Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Cisco CTO tells women "there is no such thing as work-life balance”

Cisco’s chief technology officer, Padmasree Warrior, said there is “no such thing as a work-life balance”, but instead she integrates the two Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Air Transport Industry Insights 2014

This report from SITA looks at the impact of business intelligence on airlines and airports. Continue Reading

Straight to the Top. CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-based World

There is a growing trend to emphasise the business skills of CIOs, but in-depth knowledge of technology is still necessary for CIOs to succeeed, writes Gregory S. Smith, in this extract from his book, Straight to the top. Continue Reading

CIO interview: Robert Teagle, European IT director, Starbucks Coffee

Robert Teagle leads IT across the 30 markets that Starbucks owns and operates in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

The problems of legacy IT in banking

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as problems caused by legacy IT in banks become increasingly critical, we assess the difficulties in updating banking systems. After the Windows XP support issues – we look at a similar problem facing Oracle users. And we take an in-depth look at managing corporate networks to enable mobile IT. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Are the UK's borders being compromised by legacy IT systems?

My sources suggest that the IT problems that affected UK airports and sea ports earlier this week were related to Warnings Index, the ageing system that sits at the heart of the UK's border ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Addressing security and privacy on the industrial internet

The smart grid and smart meters are part of the wider industrial internet, which will offer insight into people’s life at home. What are the security implications? Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

CW Europe – May 2014 Edition

This issue of CW Europe looks at how European Union (EU) countries vary in sharing patient records and exchanging data. Continue Reading

Interview: Nick Roberts, president of Socitm and IT group manager

This month, Nick Roberts, IT group manager at Surrey County Council, took over as president of Socitm, the association of IT and digital professionals working in and for local public services Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Software developers suffer as IT companies endure rising insolvencies

Increase in the number of IT insolvencies expected as the economy improves Continue Reading

By

• Tim Wood and Henry Kirby

Oracle updates Solaris, but is its server strategy sound?

Oracle has released a beta versdion of Solaris 11.2. But does Solaris and the Sparc server platform have a future? Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

SDL turns to cloud HR to join up businesses in 40 countries

The technology is central to the company’s strategy to integrate formerly autonomous businesses in 38 countries into a single operation Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Is DWP looking for yet another new chief for Universal Credit?

Is the troubled Universal Credit programme looking for yet another new leader for the project?A good contact of mine has told me that he was approached by two separate headhunters recently, asking ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Case study: How big data powers the eBay customer journey

With 50TB of machine-generated data produced daily and the need to process 100PB of data, eBay has an astronomic data challenge Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

US judge orders Microsoft to hand over email data held in Dublin

A US Judge has ordered Microsoft to give the District Court access to the contents of one of its customer’s emails stored on a server located in Dublin Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Erasure coding vs Raid as a data protection method

Erasure coding is mooted as a potential successor to Raid and backup software Continue Reading

By

• Manek Dubash

Gartner: CIOs spend more on BI as business growth returns

The return to business growth is driving IT spending among UK and Irish CIOs, according to Gartner's 2014 CIO Agenda survey Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Leveraging Talent

Learn how to make the most of your IT workforce and how to nurture talent by following these strategies used by HR professionals. Continue Reading

CIO briefing on agile development

How do we create agile organisations and behave in a more agile way? Kelly Waters executive Consultant, Coach, and Interim CTO, offers some answers in this presentation. Continue Reading

Six Degrees datacentre suffers outage for more than 12 hours

Customers using Six Degrees’s datacentre and hosting services faced downtime as the hosting and managed services provider suffered an outage for over 12 hours Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Managing IT projects for business change. Dealing with trouble.

Jeff Morgan and Chris Dale offer advice on managing unanticipated events that can disrupt IT projects in this extract from their book, Managing IT Projects for Business Change. Continue Reading

Transforming business at the intersection of marketing and technology

Businesses have to change themselves quickly and dramatically if they want to survive and thrive, say Bob Lord and Ray Velez, CEO and CTO of razorfish, in this extract from their book, Covnerge. Continue Reading

How CIOs drive innovation and create value across the enterprise

Today's CIO is uniquely positioned to lead innovation and drive transformation across the modern enterprise, says Hunter Miller, in this extract from his book, Leading The Epic Revolution. Continue Reading

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has his Trustworthy Computing moment

In 2002, Microsoft chief Bill Gates sent out the Trustworthy Computing memo to staff. Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, had his Trustworthy Computing moment this week. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Q&A: SAP's Mike Ettling discusses SuccessFactors cloud HR strategy

Computer Weekly talks to Mike Ettling, global head of cloud and on-premise HR at SAP, about the company’s strategy for its SuccessFactors cloud HR technology Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Greenpeace singles out datacentre firms for lack of energy efficiency

Greenpeace's new report on datacentre energy efficiency lauds efforts of some tech giants while singles out others for their lack of commitment to green energy Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Co-op Bank plans to 'fix the fundamentals' and invest in IT

The Co-operative Bank intends to invest in IT systems following a troubled year Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

DWP should scrap existing Universal Credit IT, say MPs

Department for Work and Pensions should consider scrapping its existing IT for Universal Credit and focus solely on the new digital solution, say MPs Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Workday sees opportunity for cloud financial management in Europe

Workday plans to push cloud finance and accounting services to enterprise in Europe, but observers say its background in HR technology may prove an obstacle Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Law Society advises legal industry's IT teams over cloud

The Law Society has published best-practice advice for legal firms' IT teams that are considering using cloud computing, following increased use of the cloud to store data Continue Reading

CIO interview: Leandro Balbinot, global CIO, HJ Heinz

Food giant HJ Heinz is gearing up to expand its international presence with a technology modernisation programme encompassing 23 countries Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Cabinet Office vetoed Home Office plans for 'critical' e-Borders replacement

Home Office plans for IT systems to replace ageing border security systems that contain “critical vulnerabilities” were vetoed by the Cabinet Office Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Who wants Windows XP to live forever?

And so the most popular PC operating system of all time reaches the final winter of its years.Windows XP goes out of regular support on 8 April, but it is testament to its enduring success that ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

RBS IT head Mike Errington retires

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) IT head Mike "Offshore Errington" is to retire after months of speculation during the bank's cost-cutting operation Continue Reading

Pharmaceuticals company turns to cloud HR technology

Astra Zeneca CIO Dave Smoley turns lessons learned from an earlier cloud HR implementation to use at the pharmaceuticals giant Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Government signs £5.5m Microsoft deal to extend Windows XP support

The government has signed a deal with Microsoft to support Windows XP across the UK public sector for 12 months after 8 April deadline Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

UK update to copyright law imminent

The UK is to update its 1988 copyright law for the digital age in line with a nearly three-year-old review Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

How to manage the tension between agility and discipline in IT

Agility requires a new level of discipline that is redefining IT project management Continue Reading

By

• Tim Wasserman

Can the mainframe remain relevant in the cloud and mobile era?

IBM mainframes run more than 1.1m transactions per second, yet the mainframe has remained largely unfashionable. We investigate Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Understanding the real value of IT and proving it to the business

At a time when costs are being continually squeezed, there is more pressure than ever to demonstrate the business value of technology Continue Reading

By

• Lisa Kelly

Grant Thornton spends £3m in move to cloud HR services

Financial advisory firm invests in cloud talent management as it gears up to expand its operations in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Customer privacy an ongoing challenge, says Unilever

Unilever has set up a programme to address the continually evolving challenge of privacy issues relating to customer data Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The digital CIO: How digital technology will change the way organisations work

If you are an IT leader, digital technology is likely to be a pivotal factor in your career over the next five years Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Mine machine data to boost business value

Businesses risk losing their competitive edge if they are unable to drill down into the information captured by machine-generated data Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

The psychology of IT projects: Why they fail

Mark Seneschall, an experienced IT projects professional, explains why IT projects so often prove so challenging, why they are so prone to failure in this book extract. Continue Reading

CIO Thought Leadership: The Sum of all brands

This article by Ade McCormack looks at the impact customer-centricity has on organisations. Continue Reading

Big Digital Leadership

This paper by digital strategist Ade McCormack, offers CIOs advice on turning digital technology trends into a business advantage. Continue Reading

Case study: How John Lewis conquered the web

An in-depth look at the inside story of John Lewis' £40m e-commerce strategy. Continue Reading

Oracle pushes Exadata servers aggressively against IBM PureSystems

IDC’s latest market share data for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), has shown that Oracle is beginning to grow its server business Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Presentation: Virgin Media’s unified communications strategy

Colin Miles, director of IT Technical Services of Virgin Media explains how unified communications has transformed the company, in this presentation for Computer Weekly's 500 Club for IT leaders. Continue Reading

Presentation: The BBC’s Unified Communications Strategy

Steve Shepherd, head of IT and business alignment at the BBC, explains how unified communications technology is transforming the BBC. Continue Reading

Three-quarters of UK charities are failing to adapt to digital

Charities in the UK are failing to adopt digital agendas in their organisations Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Interview: Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor

Charles Phillips is at a critical point in his role at Infor. Over the past three years as CEO he has invested heavily in overhauling the company's enterprise software Continue Reading

By

• Derek Du Preez

Hacktivism: good or evil?

IT lawyer Dai Davis looks at the rise of hacktivism and its impact on business and international politics Continue Reading

By

• Dai Davis, Percy Crow Davis & Co

Government finally ends e-Borders programme

The government has formally ended the troubled e-Borders programme, with its intended functions merged into a new project Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Opinion: The Strategic Execution Framework

Innovation. Agility. Performance. Scalability. Are these among the key initiatives for your company this year? Continue Reading

By

• Tim Wasserman

Executing Your Strategy 6: Transition

This is the final part of a six part guide which explains the key steps of the Strategic Execution Framework, developed by the Stanford Advanced Management Programme. Continue Reading

Insurance Industry IT: What’s costing you dearly?

Its time to replace badly automated insurance business processes with more flexible systems, say analysts Rob Bamforth and Clive Longbottom. Continue Reading

GDS becomes political as Labour launches digital government review

Government IT - and in particular, the role of the Government Digital Service - is about to get political. Tomorrow night, the Labour Party launches its digital government review, a programme ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Case study: BG Group turns to cloud HR to reach staff in multiple countries

Gas exploration and production company replaces SAP HR technology with Oracle Fusion in the cloud. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Thames Water pilots smart analytics with Accenture

Thames Water is six months into an 18 month pilot with Accenture Smart Grid to pilot real time monitoring to deliver an improved service Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Is DWP about to lose its CIO?

I've been told that the Department for Work and Pensions CIO, Andy Nelson, is about to step down from the role.The information came from a usually reliable source, but at the time of writing this, ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Channel 4 CTO Bob Harris leaves to set up consultancy firm

Channel 4 chief technology officer Bob Harris is leaving the broadcaster at the end of March to set up his own consultancy business Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

IT Security Salary Index (UK)

Are you being paid the right rate for the job? Check out this IT Security salary index from Acumin. Continue Reading

Executing Your Strategy 5: Engagement

This is the fifth of a six part guide which explains the key steps of the Strategic Execution Framework, developed by the Stanford Advanced Management Programme. Continue Reading

No more email? Why companies are turning to collaboration technology

Collaboration technologies are helping companies improve their employees' work-life balance Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

IT sector sees sharper rise in insolvencies than overall economy

Information and communications companies in the UK are suffering a rising number of insolvencies Continue Reading

By

• Tim Wood and Henry Kirby

Inspiring disruption: Tech Trends 2014

Disruptive technologies provide an opportunity to reshape organisations, change business models and transform industries Continue Reading

Interview: Prepare for the end of the silicon era

IT breakthroughs are governed by the insights of Intel's Gordon Moore in 1965. IBM fellow Bernie Meyerson believes Moore’s law no longer holds true Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Thanks Microsoft - we now know that everybody prefers ODF to OOXML for government document standards

Microsoft's call to its friends in the software community to contribute to the government's consultation on open document formats seems to have worked. Although, perhaps not as Microsoft intended. ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Executive interview: Microsoft targets the non-professional developers

The developer community is changing. There are far more people programming now, says Microsoft's Tim O'Brien Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Five tips for managing project change requests

Change is an inevitable part of a project, so working out in advance how best to handle change requests will make the whole process much easier Continue Reading

By

• Elizabeth Harrin