IT services and outsourcing

Nordic private equity groups drive paytech investments as global actors hover

Private equity companies in the Nordic region are stepping up M&A activity as international tech firms eye acquisitions in the region Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O’Dwyer

The benefits of API-first software development

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how organisations are using an API-based approach to software development to boost digital initiatives. We examine the potential pitfalls in using cloud storage. And we talk to the Department for Work and Pensions about its four-year project to move from outsourced IT to the cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

OpenStack to get standardisation boost in China

New standards are being developed by the OpenStack Foundation and a standards body to improve the interoperability of OpenStack distributions in China Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Security Think Tank: Secure the cloud when negotiating contracts

Misconfigured cloud environments are increasingly identified as the source of damaging data breaches and leaks, raising serious questions for enterprises. Where does responsibility for data security in the cloud lie, and how can security professionals best work with their teams and cloud providers to resolve the problem? Continue Reading

By

• Petra Wenham

Sumo Logic buys into cloud security software market

Jask’s cloud-native autonomous security operations software will be integrated into Sumo Logic’s intelligence platform Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

IR35 tribunal rules HMRC wrong to pursue ex-DWP IT contractor for £240,000 in unpaid employment tax

HMRC has vowed to appeal against the outcome of an IR35 tribunal that ruled it should not be pursuing an ex-DWP and Accenture IT contractor for more than £240,000 in unpaid tax as his engagements classify him as self-employed Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Brits moving to digital banking channel faster than people in the US

Digital banking services rapidly gain popularity, but digital banks face major challenges to make deeper inroads into traditional banks’ customer bases Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

NHS Digital hit with £4.3m IR35-related tax bill after using HMRC CEST tool to assess contractors

The digital arm of the NHS used HMRC's much-maligned online tool to assess contractors, only for the tax agency to call into question its IR35 determinations and hit it with a tax bill totalling £4.3m Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Chinese companies fuelling OpenStack adoption in APAC

Led by Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and China Mobile, the Asia-Pacific region will account for a third of the global OpenStack market by 2023 Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Security Think Tank: In the cloud, the buck stops with you

Misconfigured cloud environments are increasingly identified as the source of damaging data breaches and leaks, raising serious questions for enterprises. Where does responsibility for data security in the cloud lie, and how can security professionals best work with their teams and cloud providers to resolve the problem? Continue Reading

By

• Mike Gillespie

IR35 reforms: Concerns raised over private sector’s lack of preparedness for April 2020 start date

As the countdown towards the IR35 reforms coming into force in the private sector continues, research by recruitment firm Hays draws concerns over an apparent lack of awareness and preparation amongst enterprises Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Government review of cloud-first policy concludes guidance should remain unchanged

A review into the continued relevance of the UK government’s six-year-old cloud-first policy has concluded its ‘brand recognition’ is too strong for it to be scrapped, according to GDS Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Alibaba Cloud earns security credentials in automotive and healthcare sectors

Alibaba Cloud’s compliance with Tisax and GxP follows earlier efforts by major public cloud suppliers to win over enterprises with strict data protection and security rules Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Singapore startup plugs AI skills gap with pre-trained microservices

Sentient.io is offering artificial intelligence microservices that developers can use to augment their applications with speech recognition and other AI capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

NordVPN enlists ethical hackers, launches bug bounty programme

Breached consumer VPN supplier details steps it is taking to shore up its cyber security posture after an unknown actor gained access to one of its servers Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Businesses at risk as mainframe skills die out

Most businesses that are heavily reliant on mainframes fear a shrinking skills pool Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Reykjavik: An IT ecosystem beyond the ice

Iceland is a small island between Europe and the US, and that is one of several reasons why it is attracting tech startups to its capital Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

Why Singapore’s GovTech is building an IoT technology stack

Government Technology Agency has built an internet of things technology stack to level the playing field for smaller firms and drive innovation in public sector IoT projects Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

IR35 private sector preparation: What the banks’ take on the reforms means for IT contractors

With six months until IR35 tax avoidance reforms are extended to the private sector, a number of financial services firms are thinning out their contractor workforce – is that the way to ensure compliance? Continue Reading

IR35 reforms – the difficult decisions facing IT contractors

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the difficult choices facing UK IT contractors from the controversial IR35 tax reforms. Social engineering is a major source of cyber security attacks – we look at mitigation strategies. And the IT chief at Mercedes F1 explains what it takes to support a world championship team. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Politics and inflexible legacy tech stymies disruptive innovation

Startups in traditional enterprises often feel they are being held back by culture, with legacy tech and business processes hampering innovation Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Exploring the UK’s tech opportunity in China

China is investing in technology at a scale unseen in the West – but it's open to British tech collaboration and as the UK seeks a new role in the world, the opportunities are enormous Continue Reading

By

• Russ Shaw, Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates

Key storage choices: Cloud vs tape for archive storage?

Tape still has benefits, such as an ‘air gap’ that can insulate archives from threats to data integrity. But what are the opportunities for cloud in tape’s traditional use cases? Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

£4,000 bug bounty could have saved BA from record ICO fine

British Airways and others could have saved themselves millions of pounds’ worth of fines by having ethical hackers check their systems for simple vulnerabilities Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nordic industrial giants continue to choose Indian suppliers for digital transformation

HCL signs new deals with Volvo Cars and Equinor as India-based IT services suppliers continue to grow in the Nordic region Continue Reading

By

• Alex Cruickshank

NordVPN blames datacentre provider for server breach

VPN provider insists no user data was compromised in a March 2018 server breach, and says its datacentre provider failed to inform it of the issue Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft vs Google – who’s winning the cloud email race?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, there’s a two-horse race for dominance in the cloud email market between Microsoft and Google, but they are not alone – we examine the runners and riders. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at governance, risk and compliance solutions. And we assess the progress of public cloud in the banking sector. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

European companies hold back outsourcing amid recession fears

Total outsourcing in Europe plummeted in the third quarter this year, compared with the previous three months Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Edge computing, 5G spur mobile mixed reality market

Research identifies 5G networks and edge computing as two key emerging technologies that will accelerate the development of mixed reality from 2020 Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Trend Micro buys cloud security firm to broaden offering

Acquisition of Cloud Conformity will address often overlooked cloud security fundamentals Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Virtual Instruments is now Virtana and aims at cloud, containers

Searches for “Virtual Instruments” returned too many synthesizers, so storage monitoring pioneer went through a blue sky ordeal. It has new plans for cloud and container capability, too Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Australia government moots cloud marketplace

The Digital Transformation Agency is planning a cloud marketplace for Australian government agencies to acquire a broader range of cloud services through a new procurement model Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

The lure of Google Cloud for Singapore’s Ninja Van

Regional logistics startup Ninja Van is consolidating all its compute resources on Google Cloud for cost savings and performance Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

The demise of Lehman Brothers sparked Inbotiqa’s flame: Fintech interview 29

Following its demise former IT workers at Lehman Brothers used the experience they gained at the bank to create a tech start up Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IR35 private sector preparation: What the banks’ take on the reforms means for IT contractors

With six months until IR35 tax avoidance reforms are extended to the private sector, a number of financial services firms are thinning out their contractor workforce – is that the way to ensure compliance? Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Commvault adds Metallic SaaS backup and Hedvig features

Backup software maker adds software-as-a-service Metallic, which can protect on-premise, cloud and hybrid platforms. Meanwhile, Hedvig gets datacentre features and erasure coding Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Key differences between cloud storage offerings

Cloud storage offerings are often largely similar. We run through the key areas where they can differ, such as location, range of services and data protection Continue Reading

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

Southeast Asian organisations warm to Anthos

Google Cloud sees pockets of interest in Anthos and could review its pricing strategy as adoption of the multi-cloud management platform grows Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Zopa continues in its mission to apply a Netflix user experience to banking

Zopa has made a credit scoring tool available as it continues to expand the portfolio of products it offers beyond loans. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

French and German banks end talks on challenger bank sale

After months of negotiations, BPCE's proposed sale of Fidor Bank to OLB has fallen through Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

PDPC issues cross-border data transfer guidelines for cloud services

Singapore’s data protection watchdog issues advisory guidelines to help businesses and cloud suppliers stay on the right side of the law under the country’s data protection regime Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

GoCardless gives 95% of its staff business intelligence at their fingertips

Fintech payments company GoCardless is enabling staff to carry out business intelligence queries themselves Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How AWS is cracking the public sector cloud market

The public sector cloud business takes time and resources to build, but the rewards can be meaningful, as the founder of Amazon Web Service’s public sector division has found Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

CW Middle East: Saudi banks trial biometrics in ATMs

Biometric and blockchain technologies are being used in tandem to provide ID verification at Saudi Arabian cash machines. Also read about the first government organisation in Bahrain to migrate to Amazon Web Services, and an interview with Yasmeen Al Sharaf, head of fintech and innovation unit, Central Bank of Bahrain. Continue Reading

Data management strategies are evolving – so must enterprises

A growing number of data-driven initiatives, alongside heightened demand for security in governance, data management and compliance, has led to the rise of a more holistic approach – integrated risk management Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

UK and Middle East PR firm ditches NetApp for Nutanix and Talon Fast

Four Communications needed better connectivity for collaboration between the UK and its gulf sites, so dumped server/storage for hyper-converged and a distributed file system Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

First government organisation in Bahrain migrates to Amazon Web Services

 Continue Reading

CIO interview: Mohamed Sater, head of IT at Mumtalakat

Mumtalakat’s head of IT, Mohamed Sater, is modernising the IT infrastructure of the organisation through cloud computing Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Inside Singapore Airlines’ cloud and DevOps journey

A team of engineers at Singapore’s flagship carrier shed light on how they are overcoming challenges in embracing cloud computing and DevOps Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Sweden’s SEB explores core banking in the cloud

Swedish Bank is the latest organisation to agree to start using a Google-inspired, cloud-native core banking platform Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Showcasing the potential of 5G

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we visit an ambitious trial in Bristol that is showcasing the possibilities offered by 5G roll-out. We look at how emerging automation technologies are enhancing the use of identity and access management tools. And we assess the Government Digital Service plan for transforming public services. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Red Hat: We’re a neutral broker

Red Hat remains agnostic in supporting organisations that are looking to run the same container orchestration platform in a hybrid and multicloud world Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

New threat group behind Airbus cyber attacks, claim researchers

Context Information Security’s threat intel and response teams says it has evidence that the recent supply chain attacks on Airbus are the work of a newly identified group called Avivore Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

HMRC extends contract with Capgemini but embeds flexibility

Department’s technology sourcing programme seeks to access the services of more tech providers, including SMEs and startups Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IR35 reforms will prompt Barclays to re-engage contractors on PAYE terms, 'leaked email' suggests

Barclays is understood to have notified line managers via email on 30 September 2019 of its plans to phase out use of limited company contractors, ahead of the IR35 private sector reforms coming into force in April 2020 Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Australia gets ready for open banking

Traditional banks and fintech firms alike will need to bite the bullet in the crucial startup period if Australia’s open banking regime is to succeed Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Kennedy

Dubai’s Precision Group takes manufacturing into the cloud

Head of IT at mould and packaging company talks about leading its digital transformation programme Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Private sector warned of ‘brain drain’ risk by putting off prep for April 2020 start of IR35 reforms

Legal firm warns private sector companies about the risks of putting off preparations for the IR35 reforms that take effect next year Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

GDPR compliance: Whose job is it and is it really possible?

Nobody seems to have a good handle on business GDPR compliance, how many businesses are compliant, or indeed what compliance really is, but according to security experts, it very much depends on who you talk to Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

All bank staff will have to understand APIs as the industry transforms

Can you describe what an API is in two sentences? If you work in a bank you might have to. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How drones and machine learning can prevent crocodile attacks

Cloud-powered drones equipped with machine learning algorithms will soon be able to detect crocodiles lurking in the waters of Queensland, Australia Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

National Library of Scotland says aye to Scality object storage

National digitised archives move off Hitachi SANs and Qualstar tape, object storage is embraced and a “no backup” strategy put in place with petabyte-scale Scality S3/file deployment Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Latest Lorca cyber security challenge has IoT focus

Government-backed cyber security innovation centre Lorca has issued new challenges around connectivity for its next intake of scaleups Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Pure adds Optane and QLC flash to boost performance and capacity

Flash storage player adds Intel Optane modules performance, a capacity flash range based on QLC drives, plus rebranding and GA of its on-premise/cloud leasing service Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cloud provider sweeps away legacy storage for 1PB of Infinidat

Core DataCloud decommissions storage from several vendors to consolidate to 1PB on Infinidat Infinibox, with DRAM and flash to accelerate hot data in front of disk back end Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Australia’s RMIT teams up with AWS on cloud skills training

Two new online courses will equip IT and business professionals with the skills to thrive in a cloud-first world Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

The Nordics’ passion for gamification goes global

Nordic startups are pioneering the gamification of educational apps, with an international market looking on Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

Drive for Nordic datacentre transformation

Nordic enterprises looking to spread abroad are outsourcing datacentre IT in cutting-edge ways to gain international advantage Continue Reading

By

• Alex Cruickshank

EBA outsourcing guidelines: What banks, fintechs and cloud providers need to know

The regulatory landscape for financial services and outsourcing will undergo a refresh this month with new guidance from the European Banking Authority. We look at what banks, fintechs and cloud firms need to do Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Direct Line built an insurtech it can tweak a thousand times a day

Insurance group Direct Line has added a new business to its portfolio, designed to let it act as a sandbox for its digital journey Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordic IT outsourcing: why India is leading the pack

A rising tide lifts all ships when it comes to outsourcing in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, but some ships have risen faster than others Continue Reading

By

• Alex Cruickshank

Singapore Airlines extends use of VMware Workspace One

Singapore’s national carrier is extending the use of Workspace One to more users in a move to enable its workforce to stay productive while on the go Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Facebook automatically generates pages for Islamic State and Al-Qaeda

Facebook algorithms have auto-generated hundreds of Facebook pages for the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia, according to a whistleblower Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Amadeus opens systems to kick-start innovation-driven ecosystem

By opening its systems, travel software company Amadeus is hoping to foster ecosystem-wide innovation in the travel industry Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

Inside Oman’s new tech startup drive

Oman is aspiring to be a tech startup hub and is on a mission to compete with its neighbours in the Gulf Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Fintech Bud cuts 20% of workforce

Fintech Bud is cutting support staff as it focuses on engineering open banking software capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Travelex launches fintech platform for B2B customers

Travelex has launched a digital platform that enables businesses to use its services via application programming interfaces Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ecuador citizens’ data breach holds lessons for enterprises

What caused the mass breach of Ecuadorian citizens’ data, and what can businesses learn from it? Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Top five cloud storage pitfalls

Cloud storage offers apparent simplicity, but unexpected costs, complexity, data movement and integration challenges can arise. We look at how to avoid common cloud storage pitfalls Continue Reading

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

Ensign InfoSecurity opens global headquarters in Singapore

The Singapore-based cyber security firm’s new headquarters will also be home to a new security operations centre that will be supported by Singapore-centric threat intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Research explores economic benefits of full-fibre and 5G at local level

The Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG) has published research by Oxera to help local authorities understand the benefits of full-fibre and 5G Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

West Midlands gears up for the next phase of 5G

West Midlands 5G (WM5G) marks launch of UK’s first dedicated 5G accelerator programme by holding a series of demos to showcase the wide variety of use cases that exist for the technology Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

There is nothing new in IT

Once a new technology becomes mainstream the industry needs to find a new thing to sell its customers. It’s been this way since the time IBM provided big metal boxes with integrated software and ... Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Fintech lender increases loan limit as customer demand accelerates

Small business lender Esme Loans has increased its loan limit to quarter of a million pounds as businesses are drawn to its simple and fast digital platform Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Industry opposition to no-deal Brexit hardens, says TechUK

A survey of TechUK members has found that 71% believe a no-deal Brexit at the end of October will negatively affect them in spite of their preparations Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How Zendesk plans to crack the enterprise market

Zendesk has been courting enterprises by billing itself as a customer experience software company and is leaning on its design smarts to stand out among bigger rivals Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Less than quarter of fintechs prepared for no-deal Brexit

A survey reveals that less than a quarter of UK fintech companies have their businesses prepared for the UK's exit from the EU Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CW Europe: Dutch authorities call temporary halt to datacentre construction

Two Dutch municipalities are putting all datacentre construction on hold while they put together a strategy to help them control developments. A local alderman said datacentres take up a lot of space and place a large burden on the electricity grid. Also read how France is racing ahead of Germany in making the most of service companies in India, and about Google’s plans for a new datacentre and technology training hub in Finland. Continue Reading

Bloomberg will move historic trading data to cloud in support of clients’ machine-learning ambitions

Bloomberg’s CIO for enterprise, Tony McManus, says its clients’ changing attitude to using cloud is changing the way the firm makes its real-time trading data available to the financial services community Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Fintech Fluidly combines Google’s cloud and AI tech to ease SME cashflow management woes

London-based fintech Fluidly explains how its recent all-in move to the Google Cloud is supporting its continued growth, and delivers new features to customers faster Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

A Deep Learning experience was the spark for Evolution AI: Fintech interview 27

Evolution AI is selling technology to banks that can enable a computer to read any text in any document and make decisions based on what it reads Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The emergence of the shopping centre-as-a-service model

Shopping centres have been morphing into wider entertainment, leisure and hospitality venues for some time, but their role is set to evolve yet further Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Inside NatWest Ventures

NatWest Ventures is helping NatWest bank to remain relevant to its SME businesses customer community through digital innovation Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ctera launches hybrid cloud HC2400M at media use cases

Edge filer specialist hits up the media and entertainment market with its NAS-like hardware that caches data locally, syncs with other nodes and stages data to the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Commvault buys Hedvig in push for global storage player status

Backup player Commvault aims to bring together datacentre and multi-cloud operations with software-defined storage that can unify access to almost any storage medium, anywhere Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

UK artificial intelligence investment reaches record levels

Funding for artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK has already surpassed 2018 figures, placing it behind only China and the US Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

Don’t forget fintech the service amid the record investment headlines

Fintech is not just about investors making money Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Tandem Bank steps up its artificial intelligence training with appointment

Tandem Bank names seasoned artificial intelligence expert to drive its journey to personalise banking Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Businesses need to keep investing in tech and hope to avoid a no-deal Brexit

A no-deal Brexit could have serious consequences for the UK tech sector and skills base, making it more difficult to recruit technology specialists and hire freelancers Continue Reading

By

• Albert Ellis, Harvey Nash Group

What tomorrow’s startups can learn from young people’s attitudes to tech

Nominet CEO Russell Haworth runs through young people's attitude towards tech and how start-ups can learn from them Continue Reading

By

• Russell Haworth, Nominet