IT services and outsourcing

UK winners and losers in digital tech

The UK's retail and telecoms companies are among the best in the world at digital technology, but a survey of digital leaders shows there is still room for improvement for many UK firms Continue Reading

By

• Tony Farnfield

Post Office IT system goes on trial

In this week’s Computer Weekly, 10 years after we revealed concerns over the Post Office’s Horizon accounting system, affected subpostmasters finally get their day in court. We look at how businesses are turning to wearable technology to help employees stay healthy. And we analyse the key players and products in the market for object storage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Last call for a European public cloud?

Europe’s self-described No.1 ‘hyper-scale cloud provider’, OVH, held its 6th annual customer conference in Paris recently. Attendees got to meet the new CEO, Michel Paulin, and hear about the ... Continue Reading

By

• Richard Edwards, Freeform Dynamics

Accelerator for female-led ‘social tech’ startups opens in London

We in Social Tech will support the growth of 60 businesses over the next 18 months through bespoke business consultancy packages Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Deutsche Bank to create cloud-based digital cheque processing system

German banking giant Deutsche Bank will replace manual and paper-intensive cheque processing methods with an automated system in the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Emea Content Editor, Computer Weekly

PoliceTech report looks at how startups can work with UK police

A new report looking at how startups can penetrate the policing market has been released, but there are still a number of practical and ethical challenges facing SMEs moving into the space Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Jlab 2019 to focus on experiential shopping

Each year, John Lewis hosts a number of retail startups intent on using technology to transform the industry. Next year they will be aiming to change the customer experience in-store Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

BT makes progress with Global Services restructuring

Telco sets out plan to get its troubled Global Services business unit fighting fit Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

A guide to choosing cloud infrastructure services

We take a look at the considerations when choosing infrastructure as a service, and what needs to be in place for enterprises to get the most out of the cloud computing technology Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Robotic delivery service hits the streets of Milton Keynes

Following extensive testing and a limited commercial roll-out in campus enterprise environments, Estonian robotics firm Starship Technologies is launching a direct-to-consumer robot delivery service in Milton Keynes Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How Bahrain plans to become a regional fintech hub

Bahrain is a small island with big plans for its financial technology industry Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

IR35 changes could see banking IT jobs offshored

New rules on how contractors pay tax could tip the big banks towards increasing IT outsourcing Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Triumph Motorcycles kick-starts changes with high-tech HR

The Leicestershire-based motorcycle company is deploying IT systems to give customers and its own staff a ‘premium brand experience’ Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

IoT R&D projects missed out on £10m of government funding

A series of delays and disruption caused chiefly by changes in project ownership meant the government’s IoT UK Research and Innovation Programme failed to use a quarter of its allocated budget between 2015 and 2018 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

AWS urges enterprises to embrace their heritage when facing down disruption from startups

At this year's AWS Transformation Day, the cloud giant's enterprise strategist, Miriam McLemore, talked about why enterprises should be looking to embrace their heritage and legacy when moving to the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Digital services tax weakens the case for tech startups to choose the UK

The UK government’s plan for a tax specifically targeting big digital firms risks undermining international efforts to reform corporate taxation for the digital age Continue Reading

By

• Julian David, TechUK

AWS retains cloud market leader status in Q3, as Microsoft and Google post gains

AWS retains its title as the world's biggest cloud provider, but the position is not going unchallenged by the likes Microsoft and Google, Synergy Research Group's third quarter market analysis shows Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Traditional financial services firms face extinction within 12 years

A large number of large banks could disappear within 12 years unless they change business models and economics Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How Avanade keeps pace with Microsoft and the market

Systems integrator Avanade has had to adapt to Microsoft’s evolution into an “ecosystem platform” that includes open-source software Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Manchester’s evolution from rag trade to e-commerce riches

As Amazon and Moonpig plan to open Manchester hubs, the focus once again turns to the city’s in-demand digital and e-commerce scene Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Finnish city Espoo trials artificial intelligence for community support

The authorities for Finnish city Espoo are testing out AI technology to help them target services at the residents who need them most Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Philips looks to artificial intelligence to train its workforce

Healthcare company is looking to AI, chatbots and learning playlists to help staff learn new skills more quickly as it adapts changing business priorities Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Mitigating third-party cyber risks in a new regulatory environment

GDPR and the NIS Directive increase the focus on managing cyber security throughout the supply chain. Organisations need to check their suppliers are compliant Continue Reading

By

• Cavan Fabris

Consumer rights champion Which? begins digital journey

Consumer rights organisation has always had a subscription business, but is now transforming into a digital one through cloud computing Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Firms will use AI to automate HR processes within two years

Companies are gearing up to automate HR processes with artificial intelligence and machine learning, while at the same time battling with outdated IT systems Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Nordic banks target SME customers with fintech services

Traditional Nordic banks are slimming down workforces as they turn increasingly to technology-based service delivery, and some are linking up with small fintech companies to deliver online products. Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Oracle bullish on growth in ASEAN

Enterprise technology juggernaut Oracle claims traction in cloud applications and growing interest in its cloud-based autonomous database service in Southeast Asia Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

The fintech interview: Part 7 ClauseMatch

ClauseMatch is a London based startup that offers to automate the process that banks go through to prove they comply with industry regulations Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK unicorn creation goes unrivalled in Europe

The UK's regional cities are creating more billion-dollar tech startups than many European capitals, with the UK as a whole creating more unicorns since 2016 than France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

SMEs use fintech in fight against online giants, but fears remain

Online SMEs are turning to financial technology to help them make payment processes easy for customers as they try to compete with online giants Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CIOs and the cloud: The future of European enterprise software

European organisations are moving to the cloud rapidly, but trepidation remains in concerning certain aspects, such as security Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Where next for digital identity?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the UK government hands its digital identity service, Gov.uk Verify, to the private sector, we examine the history and prospects for the troubled system. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at cloud-native architecture. And we compare the flash storage capabilities of the leading cloud providers, AWS, Azure and Google. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Government to invest an extra £215m in UK innovation centres

The extra funding will be given to the Catapult network of innovation centres, focusing on digital, medicines discovery, future cities and transport systems Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Identity and access management is becoming a vital business concern

Many companies are struggling to provide secure access to the high number of applications and systems in use by their employees Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

A new era of collaboration for the NHS

Great Ormond Street Hospital's new research and innovation unit, Drive, marks a significant shift towards greater collaboration between NHS organisations and third-party industry partners Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

CIO interview: Tamara Lohan, founder and CTO of Mr & Mrs Smith

Head of technology and co-founder of luxury travel firm Mr & Mrs Smith explains how the firm is revamping its technology to provide customers with a seamless experience Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

The fintech interview: Part 6 Rebuilding Society

Rebuilding Society is a Leeds based fintech trying to offer SMEs access to better loans as well as selling its technology to organisations setting up crowdfuning initiatives Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Chinese insurance giant extends cloud service to other sectors

Ping An is opening up its cloud service to more sectors, including real estate and automotive, in its efforts to become a technology company Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Dubai Health Authority unveils virtual health app for GP consultations

Health authority adopts new technology as part of the Dubai Future Accelerators initiative Continue Reading

By

• Edward Banda

Google Cloud CTO Brian Stevens on using open source for competitive advantage in the public cloud

Google Cloud CTO Brian Stevens on how the enterprise cloud conversation is changing, and why not all supplier declarations about supporting open source technologies are quite what they seem Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

'Sealed cloud' promises better data security

TÜV SÜD’s Singapore Sealed Cloud does not grant administrators access to data, reducing the possibility of hackers breaking into databases using compromised administrator credentials Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

UCaaS supports British Medical Journal’s cloud-first ambitions

With a growing global business and a CIO intent on doing everything in the cloud, the British Medical Journal turned to unified communications-as-a-service provider RingCentral to make its comms infrastructure fit for the cloud era Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The fintech interview: Part 5 Honcho

How a serial entrepreneur and a former soldier plotted to take on the car insurance price comparison sites Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

APAC security spending tipped to reach new highs

Security services will be the largest and fastest-growing slice of the overall security pie in the Asia-Pacific region Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

GlaxoSmithKline R&D CDO on combining Hadoop and Docker to boost drug discovery efforts

Mark Ramsey, chief digital officer of research and development at GSK, describes how banking on big data, containers and on-premise technologies is speeding up the company’s efforts to uncover new drugs and improve the hit rate of its clinical trials Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

There is more to fintech than meets the eye

Financial technology goes way beyond the flashy apps facing consumers and into the depths of the back office Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Hammerspace launches with hybrid cloud-era NAS virtualisation

Startup Hammerspace launches from five-year stealth to make NAS files available anywhere, on-prem and in cloud, with technology that splits metadata and payload for lightweight virtualisation Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Hortonworks CTO weighs in on Cloudera merger

Besides marrying technologies from Hortonworks and Cloudera, the two companies could also come up with new product components after their merger is sealed Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Delivering Diversity in Technology: startup panel

How can we help female entrepreneurs successfully grow and scale their businesses? Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Atos and Google open London-based digital innovation centre to boost enterprise adoption of AI

Atos and Google follow up the news of their global joint push to increase enterprise use of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies by opening London-based innovation centre Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Research and innovation unit for healthtech opens at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Drive research unit is dedicated to bringing the latest technological developments into healthcare Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

The fintech interview: Part 4 Akoni

Finetch Akoni brings corporate treasury capabilities to the SME sector with Google functionality the Holy Grail Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

AVIn A Well Balanced Time...

Me and Load-Balancers (the artist wot became known as the Application Delivery Controller at some point in its life, even though it always did this anyway) go back a long way; 20 years basically, ... Continue Reading

By

• Steve Broadhead, Broadband Testing

CW Middle East: Middle East warms to humanoid robots

Countries in the Middle East are warming to humanoid robotics, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence as these technologies become widely accepted globally. Also in this issue, read why Saudi Arabia has called on London’s fintechs to set up in the country with the promise of government support, and find out how the Gulf Warehousing Company has introduced cloud-based technology to replace paper processes used by its HR department. Continue Reading

Is Indian tech sector a threat or opportunity to UK’s fintech sector?

India is an opportunity and a threat when it comes to any tech focused sector and the UK government wants to ensure it is a friend in Fintech. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IT departments struggle to balance innovation with everyday IT operations

IT departments are struggling to adapt to an expanding role that includes both adopting innovation initiatives while keeping core systems running effectively, according to the 2018 Insight Intelligent Technology Index Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Wood Wharf set to become the capital's largest home for scaleups

Canary Wharf Group has unveiled plans to turn two million square feet of its five million square feet Wood Wharf development into office space for fast-growth scaleup businesses Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Singapore extends reach of digital ID system with cloud

GovTech is using AWS to host a developer platform that enables government agencies and businesses to develop services that build on the upcoming National Digital Identity system Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

Project xCloud: Microsoft draws on Azure for device-agnostic gaming push

Microsoft has revealed details of how its global Azure datacentre footprint will play a pivotal role in helping realise its ambitions to provide a low-latency, device-agnostic user experience to the worldwide gaming community Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Access to full-fibre broadband continues to expand under Vodafone-CityFibre partnership

Customers in three more towns and cities will soon be able to access ultrafast fibre-to-the-premises broadband service Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Grab signs up for Azure, nabs investment from Microsoft

Ride-hailing, delivery and mobile payments firm will use slew of Azure services to improve operations and customer experience Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Airbus secures European institutions against cyber threat

Airbus CyberSecurity has partnered with Atos to help protect 17 European government institutes from cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Ctera to enhance multi-cloud after $30m funding boost

Ctera does “NAS replacement” on object storage in the cloud, but wants its customer on-premises hardware to be smarter to allow tiering of data to multiple private and public clouds Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Geospatial Commission pumps £5m into unlocking value of location data

Commission wants to unlock the value of location data held by its partners through the use of emerging technologies Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

EE switches on 5G test network at Canary Wharf

MNO explores high-capacity zone testing for its 5G network roll-out, with the first phase expected to target hotspots such as London’s Canary Wharf Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The fintech interview: Part 3 Wrisk

Read how UK insurtech Wrisk was born and raised Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Digital Catapult launches Ethics Framework for AI and machine learning

Innovation centre hopes to foster responsible and ethical development of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

London tech startups awarded £15,000 as part of Mayor's 'smart city' initiative

Eight London tech startups have been awarded £15,000 each to help Mayor of London realise vision of the capital as a world-leading smart city Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

How to implement a multicloud storage strategy

We look at how to build a multicloud storage strategy and benefits such as performance, availability and features, as well as potential limitations such as data mobility Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

How Australian firms are plugging the tech talent gap

Australian companies such as Atlassian and Ansarada are now turning to international options to access scarce talent Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

UK Blockchain startups, who are you?

Who are the UK companies trying to have a share of the trillions of pounds that will be created by the Blockchain industries Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The Most Influential Women in UK IT 2018

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we announce our annual list of the 50 Most Influential Women in UK IT, and talk to this year’s winner, Code First: Girls CEO Amali de Alwis, about the challenges of achieving diversity and inclusion in IT. Also, our latest buyer’s guide looks at the future of collaboration software and asks how to avoid information overload. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Singapore government makes bold cloud move

Most government IT systems will be migrated to commercial cloud services within five years, while a private government cloud will host more sensitive workloads Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Berners-Lee’s startup promises more control over web data

Startup will support open source platform that allows users to choose how and where their data is stored Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

New cloud storage services for Microsoft Azure at Ignite 2018

Microsoft launches Data Box hardware appliances for cloud ingestion, Avere vFXT cloud NAS, Ultra SSD storage based on NVMe flash and Azure Premium file storage Continue Reading

By

• Christophe Bardy

The fintech interview: Part 2 CreditLadder

CreditLadder is helping renters build up their credit scores and helping the rental industry get good renters Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Brighton’s 5G experiment enters new test phase with focus on virtual reality

The latest phase of the Digital Catapult’s 5G mobile network testbed in Brighton has begun, with digital businesses from across Sussex taking part in trials of augmented, mixed and virtual reality technology Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

BlackTDS: How can enterprise security teams avoid an attack?

Proofpoint researchers found a bulletproof hosting evolution, BlackTDS, this is believed to be advertised on the dark web. Learn what security teams should know with Nick Lewis. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Lewis

Object storage: On-prem, in the cloud and hybrid

We take a look at the object storage market and products and find offerings made to build public and private clouds that often provide a link between the two Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

OpenStack storage update 2018: After Rocky

Snapshots and container storage support are among recently added functionality in the open source private cloud platform, but vendor driver support for OpenStack is not universal Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Indian IT giant TCS sees IBM and Accenture as nearest rivals

Rapidly-growing Tata Consultancy Services has its eyes on the US IT giants, with customer service key if it is to overtake them Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Financial services firms face potential security bombshell

UK financial services are facing a security crisis over outdated services and applications, a survey shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Australia’s ANZ banks on Google Cloud

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has signed up for the Google Cloud Platform to help its bankers deliver data insights to institutional customers Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

The fintech interview: Part 1 Taina Technology

The fintech industry is maturing to the point that it now has subcategories, find out about some of the companies making hay in the sector. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Your IT provider is being acquired – what does this mean for you and your business?

Merger and acquisition activity is widespread in the IT sector, but what does it mean for you when one of your key tech suppliers is bought up by another firm? Continue Reading

By

• James Kitching, Coffin Mew

Mapping the future at Ordnance Survey

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how the UK mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, is innovating to put geospatial data at the heart of smart cities. We look at how to manage subscription and licensing costs when moving to the cloud. And we examine how proposals to change the UK visa system could help to tackle IT skills shortages. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Foreshadow mitigation obscures licensing impact

Performance of virtual machines could be severely affected by the workaround for Intel’s latest processor flaw. To compensate, more processors will be needed Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

What if a small fintech could replace global giant Allianz in corporate deal?

An insurtech company set up a few years ago has dislodged 130 year old global insurance giant Allianz in BMW deal Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Alibaba debuts its first service robot

Chinese tech firm is eyeing a slice of the global robotics market, starting with a service robot that delivers items to hotel guests Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

The importance of binning idols

The art of 3D printing has suffered a setback in Kuwait, after pressure from hysterical clergymen forced the closure of its local Doob 3D store with accusations of idolatry. The company offers a ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

Asda outsources app development to support digital future

Supermarket chain Asda is outsourcing its application development to HCL to access and build skills and experience in agile development methods Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Flash storage in the cloud from the big cloud providers

We survey the big three cloud providers – AWS, Azure and Google – and find a range of mostly block storage flash storage options with performance choices available Continue Reading

By

• Chris Evans

Waitrose to launch same-day delivery trial

High-end supermarket Waitrose is partnering with retail delivery startup On the Dot to trial same-day delivery for its food and wine goods Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Alibaba Cloud making deeper push into smart cities

At its annual conference in Hangzhou, Chinese cloud supplier Alibaba demonstrated the transformative impact of its technologies on society and called for more manufacturers to adopt smart manufacturing processes Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Employers turn to wearable technology to help staff manage work-life balance

Companies are realising that there are sound business reasons for ensuring their employees get enough sleep and exercise, so they are turning to wearable technology to help their staff stay healthy, despite the pressures of work Continue Reading

By

• Christian Annesley

The importance of smartphone sustainability

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the considerable environmental footprint of the mobile phone industry and ask what can be done to further the circular economy. We find out how disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is being used and when it’s an option for businesses. And we look at some of the UK’s emerging fintech success stories. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

How SAP is riding on Asia’s growth story

The enterprise software behemoth’s Asia-Pacific business is growing and believes its latest C/4 Hana suite is uniquely geared to the scale of the region Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Capitalism too short-termist? The tech sector suggests otherwise

Many observers criticise businesses and stock markets for being too short-termist – but if that was the case, how did Amazon, Uber and their ilk ever come into existence? Continue Reading

By

• Tim Worstall, Adam Smith Institute

Leeds Beckett University asks Alexa for help cutting Clearing admin

Dougal Scaife, head of digital experience and engagement at Leeds Beckett University, opens up about how combining chatbots with Amazon Alexa is helping update the Clearing process for the 21st century Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

How the big five storage array makers tier data to the cloud

We look at the big five storage array makers' efforts to connect on-premise hardware with cloud storage and find automated tiering, on-ramps, and backup and archive capability Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor