IT suppliers

GDPR-readiness of EU Cloud Code of Conduct wins backing of European data protection authorities

The EU Cloud Code of Conduct, which aims to help IT buyers source GDPR-compliant cloud services, has found favour with the European Data Protection Board Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Subpostmaster campaign group to meet Post Office scandal inquiry chair

The subpostmaster campaign group JFSA refused to cooperate with initial inquiry because it ‘lacked teeth’, but is now willing to talk after it was put on a statutory footing Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

India’s HCL to hire 1,000 tech professionals in the UK

Indian IT suppliers set to create thousands of IT jobs in the UK, which supports their intention to have more staff based closer to customers Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Microsoft EU Data Boundary dubbed ‘smoke and mirrors’

Data protection experts claim Microsoft’s decision to create an EU Data Boundary is a tacit admission that it routinely transfers and processes the personal data of European citizens outside the bloc Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Shift to digital remittances helps sector retain transaction value

Global remittance volumes and value was more resilient than expected over the past year, partly as a result of the take-up of fintech services Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Santander says sorry for weekend tech outage

Bank’s customers were unable to access multiple banking channels because of technical problems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Why new EU rules around artificial intelligence are vital to the development of the sector

Shawn Tan, CEO of global AI ecosystem builder Skymind, explains why the European Union’s new rules on artificial intelligence are a good thing Continue Reading

By

• Shawn Tan

Container-native storage: A definition, and what to ask suppliers

We look at container-native storage – aka cloud-native storage – what defines it, and its benefits as a way of bringing persistent Kubernetes storage to containerised applications Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Financial and technical obstacles hit Danish datacentre heat recycling plan

A datacentre project in Denmark is grappling with the challenges of reusing waste heat in local central heating systems Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

Portworx gets container-native array management for Pure hardware

Container storage player Portworx builds in container-native functionality to allow discovery, provisioning and management from inside Kubernetes cluster, but only on Pure arrays so far Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Fujitsu bags £3bn in public sector contracts while software errors wreck the lives of subpostmasters

The supplier at the centre of the Post Office Horizon scandal has so far escaped the ramifications of its role in the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

SolarWinds CEO calls for collective action against state attacks

SolarWinds CEO tells NCSC’s CyberUK conference he is exploring the possibility of collaborating with other companies on collective cyber action against attacks backed by nation states Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Business Finland rolls out 5G industrial initiative

Finland is incentivising technology businesses to invest in 5G research and development to create export opportunities Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Computational storage: What is it? Why now, what for, who from?

Computational storage is an emerging architecture category, in which compute is put near storage to address I/O bottlenecks resulting from large volumes of data Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

AWS, Microsoft and Google secure spots on £750m UK government Cloud Compute framework

Tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM and Oracle are among the suppliers to secure a place on the four-year CCS Cloud Compute framework Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Chip supply shortages are hitting hard

In this week’s Computer Weekly, a shortage of semiconductors is affecting industries beyond just IT – we examine the implications. We talk to the CIO of pharmacy chain Boots about how tech helped in being an essential retailer during lockdown. And we look at the prospects for young people entering the IT sector post-pandemic. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Post Office contacts over 500 subpostmasters potentially wrongly prosecuted for financial crimes

The Post Office has contacted hundreds of people it might have wrongly prosecuted for financial crimes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordic real estate industry moves digital

The Nordic real estate is investing in technologies like IoT to prepare the sector for the changing demands from customers post-Covid Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Google to introduce mandatory MFA for users

In future, holders of Google accounts will have no option but to use multifactor authentication if they want to use the firm’s services Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Netherlands to build new national supercomputer

The Netherlands has laid out plans for its next national supercomputer, to be known as Snellius Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

HSBC blocks £249m in UK fraud with voice biometrics

HSBC voice recognition technology has reduced telephone banking fraud as demand for the channel increases Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Post Office dishonesty in Horizon scandal is reason enough for statutory public inquiry

Subpostmasters, MPs and the public call for a full statutory judge-led public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal, following another damning court judgment Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Deploying productivity monitoring software ethically

While software that tracks the activities of staff can be helpful to companies with a remote workforce, managers must consider employees’ concerns and privacy Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Nebulon helps DCI offer high-performance edge hyper-converged

Cambridge-based cloud and colo provider DCI will offer DataQube servers with Nebulon, which marries a cloud control plane with local PCIe-connected flash storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Government digital chiefs outline plans for CDDO and GDS

Paul Willmott, Joanna Davinson and Tom Read talk about establishing a digital, data and technology sub-board, plans to hire a chief technology officer and a chief data officer, and a five-year plan for the Government Digital Service Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Infosys to create 1,000 tech jobs in UK

Infosys joins TCS in announcing the creation of UK IT jobs as India and the UK negotiate a future trading relationship Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Backup failure: Four key areas where backups go wrong

We look at the key ways that backups can fail – via software issues, hardware problems, trouble in the infrastructure and good old human error – and suggest ways to mitigate them Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Scality launches Artesca container-native object storage

Object storage specialist gets on a burgeoning container object storage market with Artesca, which runs from Kubernetes to provide persistent storage for containerised applications Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Leaky Azure storage account puts software developer IP at risk

Source code for multiple products was left exposed in an unsecured Microsoft Azure cloud storage account, say researchers, but attributing responsibility for the error has proved difficult Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Justice at last in Post Office IT scandal

In this week’s Computer Weekly, 12 years after we broke the story, victims of the Post Office IT scandal finally have their criminal convictions overturned. We take a virtual tour of a Microsoft datacentre and meet a server called ‘Mega-Godzilla Beast’. And we find out how technology is transforming Nationwide Building Society. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

French legal challenge over EncroChat cryptophone hack could hit UK prosecutions

Lawyers are challenging the legality of a French police operation to harvest tens of thousands of messages from the EncroChat encrypted phone network in a move that could overturn criminal prosecutions in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Digital tech potential in health and social care not yet realised, says King’s Fund

Report by health policy think-tank says that although there is evidence that digital technology can support staff and patients, there are large gaps in the evidence base Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

London mayoral candidates debate tech

The four mayoral candidates have set out their plans for the tech sector, including creating skills academies, harnessing kinetic energy, creating a London passport and setting up new tech hubs, but Tech London Advocates founder Russ Shaw says they all missed the mark Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

GCHQ: Cyber investment a guarantor of UK’s global status

GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming sets out a vision for the UK’s cyber security future Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Five reasons to look at hyper-converged infrastructure

HCI promises easy setup, purchasing flexibility, low procurement and operation costs, reliability and all in one box – but there are challenges too Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Winemaker racks Pure all-NVMe all-flash for rapid SAP response

Concha Y Toro also pocketed a 35% saving in storage costs following a move from as-a-service storage provision to Pure Storage FlashArray//X all-flash hardware Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK’s proposed IoT cyber security law gathers momentum

New statistics appear to vindicate UK government proposals to force suppliers to be upfront about IoT security Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Drax partners with Solace to manage biomass supply chain

Event-based IT architecture helps energy provider optimise its biomass supply chain and drive greater efficiencies, but questions remain about the fundamental sustainability of biomass as an alternative to coal Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Codecov supply chain attack has echoes of SolarWinds

Supply chain attack on code auditing service may have compromised the likes of HPE and IBM Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Banco Santander moving more than 200 servers to cloud per day

Banco Santander has migrated about 60% of its IT infrastructure to the cloud and is reaping the benefits Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

London needs a mayor of growth

Here East’s CEO Gavin Poole on why the next mayor must ensure London remains the tech capital of Europe, and the importance of learning from the past Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Poole

Transatlantic relationship strengthens Sweden’s startup sustainability

Nordic startup network is taking lessons from Canada in getting women into the IT industry Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

UK fintech investment hits new heights as government announces increased support

The UK fintech sector saw high levels of investment in the first quarter of this year, with increased support from the government Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

London tech manifesto calls on next mayor to support tech industry

The London tech manifesto, put together by several tech organisations, calls on the city’s next mayor to support tech companies, increase digital skills investment and tackle the lack of diversity in the sector Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Finnish government strengthens country’s IT network security

Finland’s government has created a new national organisation to help public and private bodies improve network security Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Sutton Council trials in-home sensor tech

The council is deploying sensors in the homes of vulnerable people to be able to detect when they might need help Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

In-sourcing IT in Wales has provided a positive change, says auditor

While savings have not been as great as expected, the decision to in-source IT in Welsh government has been a success, according to Audit Wales Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Microsoft is most impersonated brand in phishing attempts

Technology companies continue to be frequently spoofed by cyber criminals in their phishing attempts Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cloud archiving: A perfect use case, but beware costs and egress issues

The advantages of cloud archiving are ease of use and being well-suited to potential latency issues, but IT teams need to be aware of costs and issues around moving data from and between clouds Continue Reading

By

• Maxwell Cooter

Why Microsoft’s $19bn acquisition of Nuance makes sense

Microsoft regularly demos real-time speech-to-text transcription and has just spent $19bn on bolstering its voice capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

AET gets Ctera to smooth hybrid cloud access to big files

Remote locations with unreliable WAN connections needed to share large files, which was a real headache until US engineering firm got Ctera edge filers with Azure cloud as a tier Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Europe provides growth for TCS despite year floored by pandemic

Tata Consultancy Services grows its continental European business despite economic slowdown brought by Covid-19 restrictions Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The evolution of RPA

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide looks at the future of robotic process automation (RPA). Google’s legal victory against Oracle over the use of Java APIs has huge significance for software developers. And we find out how expectations of IT have grown as firms prepare for the post-Covid workplace. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Another 27 Danish banks get access to open banking APIs

Nordic banks gain access to open banking capabilities from Nordic API Gateway, with an agreement through their shared IT service provider Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ctera KubeFiler to bring Kubernetes storage to its cloud gateways

KubeFiler uses the container storage interface to allow Kubernetes to access persistent storage as if it were from a local NAS device, and while keeping existing access profiles Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Loan Charge Group MPs demand IR35 shake-up to stop contractors becoming ‘zero-rights employees’

Inquiry by Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group calls on government to tweak IR35 legislation during passage of next Finance Bill Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Datacentre Editor

IR35 reforms: MPs call on government to clean up UK’s ‘wild west’ contracting labour supply chain

A 200-strong group of MPs is calling for urgent action from the government to protect contractors from the dubious practices of non-compliant umbrella companies and badly behaved employment agencies just days after private sector IR35 reforms came into force Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Demands for changes to ‘barmy’ rules on digital evidence have government’s ear

The government is listening to calls for changes in how digital evidence is considered in court, as Post Office IT scandal spells out current rule's inadequacy Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Where now for storage? Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage

Part II: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Where now for storage? Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE

Part I: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Lose-lose US sanctions apply brakes to Huawei’s 2020 growth

Bans on Huawei products in infrastructures around the world begin to affect its bottom line, but comms technology provider shows growth and reaffirms commitment to creating greater value for customers and society in the face of adversity Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Commerzbank picks Google for cloud migration

German bank expands its work with Google Cloud and plans to move 85% of applications to its platform Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IR35 reforms: Slow government progress on umbrella regulation exposes IT contractors to tax risks

With thousands of IT contractors set to start working through unregulated umbrella companies for the first time when the IR35 reforms take hold in the private sector, concerns are growing about the danger this could pose to their income and tax affairs in years to come Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

The ticking timebomb of IR35

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we reveal that IT contractors are seeking a multimillion-pound payout after confusion over the forthcoming IR35 tax reforms. Many firms are building data lakes to improve their analytics – we examine the storage implications. And we talk to the CIO at the London School of Economics. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Data warehouse storage: Has cloud made on-premise obsolete?

There once was no alternative to building a data warehouse on-premise, but with cloud providers targeting analytics, building data warehouses on-site is looking obsolete Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How far has open banking come in Europe?

Open banking is a relatively new concept, having come into effect in Europe only in the last couple of years. So what is the state of play? Continue Reading

By

• Alex Cruickshank

TSB Smart Agent integrated into mobile banking app

TSB has integrated a smart agent, developed to relieve pressure on its contact centres during the Covid-19 pandemic, into its mobile app Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Backup survey: UK councils’ downtimes five times longer than average

Backup product supplier Veeam’s freedom of information request finds councils’ average downtime is seven hours and that backup and disaster recovery testing is not done frequently Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Ecolabels and data sanitisation key to recycling and reusing IT assets

Ecolabels on hardware and data sanitisation of devices are key to recycling and reusing old IT equipment respectively, helping enterprises avoid unnecessary asset destruction and contributing to increasingly high levels of electronic waste globally Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

NHS Shared Business Services launches £1bn digital hardware framework

Framework consists of 19 suppliers, and offers user IT hardware products and services to the NHS and public sector organisations Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

NHS Wales shapes up ambitious plans for digital patient-facing app

Computer Weekly looks at NHS Wales’ project to create a patient-facing app and a collaborative ecosystem for technology suppliers and NHS providers to deliver joined-up care Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

The 3-2-1 backup rule: Has cloud made it obsolete?

The 3-2-1 backup rule was made for small-scale use in the pre-cloud era when tape still ruled. Is it relevant in the 2020s, or can we repurpose its fundamental principles? Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Former Skyscanner COO will lead Scotland’s tech-led recovery programme

Following his independent review of the Scottish tech sector, Mark Logan will oversee a programme to establish the country as a world-class technology hub Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Interview: Ivan McKee, Scottish innovation minister

Scotland’s innovation minister talks to Computer Weekly about the country’s new digital strategy, the importance of inclusion, and why the strategy is underpinned by ethical thinking Continue Reading

$50m ransomware demand on Acer is highest ever

Record-breaking double-extortion cyber attack saw REvil gang exfiltrate financial data from Taiwan-based PC manufacturer Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

QLC flash storage: What it costs and its best use cases

QLC flash brings high capacities at costs coming down close to spinning disk. So what are the use cases for QLC solid state, which make best use of its relatively low endurance Continue Reading

By

• Maxwell Cooter

Government bids final goodbye to Gov.uk Verify

Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary Julia Lopez confirms launch of “discrete” successor to Gov.uk Verify Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Reshaping the women-in-tech debate in Denmark, from the top down

Tech Nordic Advocates adopts a different approach to closing the gap between women and men in the Danish tech startup sector Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

NHS will get shared care records by September 2021, says Matt Hancock

The health secretary sets September 2021 target for shared care records roll-out, and wants to explore potential of moving patient data being held in proprietary systems to the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Survey: Backup failures hit a high as pandemic working hits home

Veeam survey finds distributed working plus operations that span on-prem and the cloud the background to high numbers of failures in backup and restore, with 40% of SLAs not met Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Capita restructures to simplify its business

Business services supplier creates two core units that focus on public sector and commercial enterprise customers and will sell off non-core assets Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordic healthcare digitisation drives medtech growth

Nordic medtech is growing rapidly as the healthcare sector adopts technologies such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

One-fifth of all UK tech investment went to just 10 scaleup firms in 2020

Annual Tech Nation report shows UK technology firms saw record levels of investment in 2020, but a significant proportion of it was concentrated in a small number of scaleup enterprises Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Insurers unable to fill a quarter of tech roles

Insurance companies need to fill tech skills gaps if they are going to prosper in the age of insurtech Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IR35 private sector reforms: IPSE warns of UK contracting talent exodus unless start date delayed

Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed research into what contractors plan to do once the IR35 reforms come into play highlights growing risk of talent shortages Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Government plans for fresh AI strategy

The government wants to “unleash the power of AI” and be “the most pro-tech government ever”, according to digital secretary Oliver Dowden Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Potential miscarriages of justice of Scottish subpostmasters move to full review

The Post Office Horizon scandal gets bigger as subpostmaster prosecutions in Scotland are reviewed Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Scottish farm subsidy body slashes dev time with Pure all-flash

Rural directorate ditched hybrid flash EMC SAN for Pure all-flash storage and cut developer time in half, while beta testing Cloud Block Store and planning container project Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Met Police chooses Capgemini as strategic IT infrastructure services provider

Capgemini has a history of providing the force with day-to-day technology services, and will now deliver its infrastructure services under the Pegasus programme Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Private equity house buys McAfee enterprise business

Deal to sell off enterprise unit will see McAfee become a pure-play consumer organisation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cumbria and Nottinghamshire care homes pilot diagnostic telemedicine

Two care homes trial telemedicine system that allows GPs to carry out detailed patient assessments without leaving the surgery Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Nordic innovators change emphasis on gender equality in society

Female technology innovators in the Nordics take a different approach to trying to improve opportunities for women Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

UK contactless payment limit more than doubled

UK increases the amount that can be spent in one go using a contactless payments card to £100 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Glitch signs collective bargaining agreement with unionised workers

US software startup’s ‘milestone’ agreement with employees focuses on job security and labour rights rather than salaries and benefits Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK’s Arkivum up for €4.8m EU science data archive project

CERN-led multi-petabyte scale research data archive bid will use Google cloud and compete with AWS-based and open source designs from other providers Libnova and Onedata Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

IR35 private sector reforms: Hays calls on Treasury to delay April 2021 start date by a year

UK and Ireland managing director of recruitment giant Hays writes to HM Treasury to demand a delay and review of the government’s plans to roll out the IR35 reforms to the private sector from April 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

SME backup: Card maker ditches tape-only for Nakivo 3-2-1 setup

IG Design Group gains a modern backup regime with data held on disk, in the cloud and long-term on tape in a move that has helped it to slash backup and restore times Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

PGA Tour teams up with AWS to improve fan engagement during tournaments

PGA Tour selects Amazon Web Services as its official cloud service partner as it sets about revamping tournament viewing experience for golf fans Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

HSBC offers to help customers transitioning to digital banking as branch closures continue

HSBC is offering its customers training in how to bank digitally in a safe and effective way as it, like many banks, moves customers out of branches and towards using online services Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Reading Borough Council to overhaul IT infrastructure

Council and its children’s services partner award contracts worth £13.2m for shared IT infrastructure Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad