IT suppliers

Women in tech, loan charge woes and automation – The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload Podcast

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Clare McDonald, Caroline Donnelly and Brian McKenna discuss the publication of the long list for the 2020 Most Influential Women in UK Technology, the latest developments in the IR35 private sector reforms, and the impact of AI-driven automation on journalists and other knowledge workers Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications
• Clare McDonald, Business Editor
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

MSP Xchanging attacked in ransomware incident

Specialist managed services provider is restoring customer access to systems after an unspecified ransomware incident Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Fujifilm software allows S3 access to LTO tape libraries

Fujifilm Software Defined Tape allows tape libraries to act as an S3-based object storage archive accessible as a tier of storage on-premise or in the cloud Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Avinor creates contactless airport check-in for Norway

Norwegian airport operator introduces touchless travel check-in to limit the potential spread of Covid-19 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ferry port implements terminal operation system remotely

UK ferry port takes advantage of suppliers remote-working capability to complete IT project during lockdown Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Government to fund diagnostic health tech projects

Six health projects across the UK, using technologies to detect chronic and terminal illnesses, will be given £13m in funding by the government, while £3m will come from Cancer Research UK Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Qumulo hybrid cloud NAS provides special effects for Cinesite

Hybrid cloud scale-out NAS from Qumulo used to offload Active Directory lookups and other workloads to the AWS cloud that had suffered in peak times when on Isilon Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Genomics England taps up AWS and Lifebit to create cloud-based Covid-19 research environment

Genomics England is looking to open up collaboration on Covid-19 genome datasets with researchers across the globe with new cloud-based research environment, which will be based on AWS and Lifebit’s technologies Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Qumulo Shift opens up scale-out NAS to AWS S3 in the cloud

Qumulo Shift will automatically convert file data on its NAS arrays to S3 object storage format in the AWS cloud. The functionality will be free to customers from July Continue Reading

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• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Nebulon emerges with software-defined storage, but from the cloud

Startup to offer on-site storage with local I/O and some controller functionality in the cloud, combining software-defined and cloud to bring “fleet management at scale” Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Peer-to-peer lender Zopa gets full banking licence

Peer-to-peer lending pioneer works towards creating the ‘Netflix of banking’ Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Amazon’s carbon emissions surge during 2019

Amazon’s carbon footprint continues to grow, jumping 15% in one year, with the company maintaining it will take some time for its green investments to yield measurable results Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

IT services giant gives staff time out to volunteer for police clients

IT services company CGI responds to Met Police call by offering its staff the opportunity to take 11 days paid leave to volunteer their time Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

SoftIron aims at data too valuable for commodity storage

UK array maker hopes to be the storage provider of choice for those that really value their data, with highly optimised Ceph-powered hardware aimed at HPC users and enterprises Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Cloud flash storage: SSD options from AWS, Azure and GCP

We look at the flash storage options available from the big three cloud providers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform – that can help narrow the gap between on-site and cloud workloads Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

EU-backed bid to build data preservation cloud for European research community gathers pace

The Archiver project, which aims to create a hybrid cloud-based data preservation environment for scientific researchers across Europe, has named the ICT suppliers in the running to deliver on its vision Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Nordic business is leading open banking charge in Europe

Nordic region has the right ingredients to prove open banking can benefit consumers, businesses and the economy Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Kent and Medway CCG deploys digital Covid-19 dashboard

Dashboard gives NHS staff information on ventilator bed usage, available personal protective equipment and the number of staff infected by Covid-19 Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

US buildings firm saves big on HDDs with Nasuni cloud NAS

APi Group dumps first-generation file sharing for Nasuni, which allowed it to save ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’ with standard hardware deployments and cutting local storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Datacentre investment boost as Norway’s government reinstates tax relief

Government reinstates datacentre energy tax relief for cryptocurrency mining organisations after investments in the country’s datacentres drops Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Activists call on Zoom to implement encryption for all

A coalition of tech organisations and nonprofits have urged Zoom CEO Eric Yuan to make end-to-end encryption available to all users Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

QLC + 3D Xpoint = Vast Data’s universal storage

Vast marries cheap-and-deep QLC flash with super-fast 3D Xpoint to bring flash for all data, with a particular eye on analytics and with NAS and S3 object access for now Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

NHS signs countrywide deal with Microsoft

‘Landmark’ IT deal will see NHS organisations in England get access to all Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Office 365, and strengthen cyber security measures Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Blow to government review of Post Office scandal as key forensic accountants refuse to support it

The government’s proposed review of the Post Office IT scandal has received a further setback as forensic accountants join subpostmasters in refusing to back it Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Cloud storage on-site hardware: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

We look at the big three cloud vendors’ on-site offerings: AWS’s Outposts, Gateway and Snow hardware, Azure’s Stack and Arc appliances, and Google Cloud’s software-defined Anthos Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Tech firms respond to Nordic government calls

Nordic firms are working with tech suppliers to help them get back up and running after Covid-19 Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

CogX 2020: Rethinking technological innovation

Innovation processes and relationships must be fundamentally restructured to bring in more stakeholders, and spread the benefits of technological change as far as possible Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Coronavirus: Danske Bank to make permanent changes to working practices

Danske Bank has seen the value of remote working during the unplanned proof of concept triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Cloud storage 101: NAS file storage on AWS, Azure and GCP

We look at NAS file storage options in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. All three offer native-based and NetApp-based file storage, with Azure adding single namespace cache services Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

AS Roma to develop video tracking with Acronis AI expertise

Italian football club will get variable-price ticketing using artificial intelligence expertise to develop systems. It has also deployed Acronis cloud backup Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Bankers say artificial intelligence will separate winners and losers

The application of artificial intelligence at banks will be the difference between the ones that succeed and the ones that fail in the coming years Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordic CIO interview: Janne Puustinen, Valmet

Janne Puustinen built Finnish industrial technology company Valmet’s entire IT organisation from scratch after a demerger Continue Reading

By

• Eeva Haaramo

Cystic fibrosis and Covid-19 patients get tech to monitor condition at home

NHS at Home programme sees cystic fibrosis patients given home spirometers and coronavirus patients given oximeters, together with an app, to monitor their condition from home and share information with clinicians Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

London Tech Week to go ahead through Zoom

London Tech week will go ahead next week, with the tech industry attending through Zoom Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Dutch organisations invest heavily in compliance – but in vain

Despite the fact that companies in the Netherlands have invested heavily to comply with GDPR legislation introduced two years ago, 90% of them are still discovering fundamental weaknesses in their IT environment Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

The Security Interviews: How the BSI protects the IoT from itself

David Mudd of the BSI reveals how a pragmatic and realistic approach to security vulnerabilities underpins its internet of things kitemark, helping give users the confidence to buy smart devices safely Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government departments could cut payment costs through API deal

The UK government adds fintech to its approved procurement list which promises to cut the costs of receiving payments Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

OneFS for Cloud is a heavyweight entrant in cloud file storage

Dell EMC’s porting of its Isilon OneFS scale-out file system to cloud and hybrid use cases brings a big player to a market that has had some innovative incumbents for some time Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Covid-19 pandemic accelerates work on NHS App

The coronavirus health crisis has sped up work to integrate online consultations in the NHS App, exceeding roll-out targets and driving uptake Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Employees must be consulted on technologies monitoring the return to work

Experts say the workforce must be ‘in the room’ and given a meaningful say about technologies introduced to monitor their return to work following the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

HSBC platform uses AI to analyse trading data thousands of times faster

HSBC is offering its US share trading customers artificial intelligence-powered insights into public information about listed companies Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How Saudi Arabia is using cloud to navigate the Covid-19 downturn

Organisations in Saudi Arabia are using cloud computing services to help them navigate challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Inside India: The world’s IT powerhouse

The Covid-19 pandemic is turning out to be a big fork in the road for many companies. But what about the industry that keeps the lights on for them? Continue Reading

By

• Pratima Harigunani

The new future of work

We may come to stop talking about ‘remote’ working altogether after the coronavirus pandemic. It could become just ‘working’ – part of the normal mix of how things are done Continue Reading

By

• Bev White, Nash Squared

Kaminario offers cut-price virtual SAN in the cloud

Flash pioneer Kaminario builds its VisionOS out to the cloud and says its cloud block storage is much cheaper than what is available from the native cloud services of the big three providers Continue Reading

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• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Cloud storage 101: File, block and object storage in the cloud

We run the rule over file, block and object storage from the big three public cloud providers: AWS, Azure and GCP. We look at what’s on offer and the use cases they are aimed at Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Hospital uses robots to manage air supply to patients

Northampton General Hospital deploys automation to ensure oxygen is always available as demand increases amid Covid-19 crisis Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Max Schrems accuses Ireland of ‘Kafkaesque’ delay in Facebook GDPR investigation

Privacy campaigner Max Schrems has urged the European Commission to intervene after the Irish Data Protection Commission allegedly used ‘Kafkaesque’ tactics to delay investigations into Facebook’s compliance with GDPR Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Mainframe storage: Three players in a market that’s here to stay

Far from disappearing, the mainframe market and the storage it needs is here to stay for some time. The three key array makers compete with high-end flash-equipped products Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Infinidat sees containers and S3 as key to join storage big guns

But that’s not all. The array maker – that brings flash performance with massive amounts of HDD plus cache – plans for NVMe-over-fabric and use of 20TB hard drives too Continue Reading

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• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Facial-recognition suppliers race to identify hidden faces

The number of companies claiming to have developed facial-recognition tools that can identify masked faces has skyrocketed since the start of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Coronavirus: Dutch work on XR technology shows promise in pandemic scenario

Netherlands leads the way in the development of extended reality technology, which could prove its value in a crisis such as Covid-19 Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Pandemic spurs QR code app upgrade at PayPal

PayPal introduces QR code payment functionality to its mobile app to support social distancing Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Coronavirus: Bahrain sees fintech take-up surge amid Covid-19 crisis

Covid-19 has spurred the use of financial technology in Bahrain, which could boost the industry in the country and wider Gulf region Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Portworx to add application profiles to persistent container storage

Kubernetes persistent container storage that runs from inside the cluster will add application storage profiles for applications such as Apache Kafka, Elasticsearch and Postgres Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Covid-19 contact-tracing apps under review – The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Caroline Donnelly and Brian McKenna are joined by networking editor Joe O’Halloran to discuss the government’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app. They also discuss the design of software for older people Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications
• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Storj app builds QNAP NAS into its Uber-like cloud storage network

QNAP NAS users can use the Storj app to configure spare capacity as part of the Tardigrade S3 cloud, which offers storage at half the cost of the main providers Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Scotland calls on tech companies to help build a digital nation

Trade body launches challenge for tech firms to contribute ideas to create a “critical national digital infrastructure” for Scotland Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Ocado makes the friendly workplace robot a reality

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out how Ocado is making robot-human collaboration a reality with its Armar-6 smart robot. Unified communications has become a must-have lockdown capability – we assess the key technologies. And as contact-tracing apps emerge to help deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, we examine the data privacy challenges. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Privacy advocates demand clarity over Covid-19 datastore

Government and NHS face questions about the involvement of private technology companies with coronavirus datastore Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

NHS looks for remote monitoring tech

NHSX is seeking suppliers to help scale up remote monitoring across the health service in England, particularly for Covid-19 patients, and will go out to tender shortly Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Coronavirus: Digital bank’s valuation falls as it seeks funds to ride Covid-19 storm

Monzo is seeking new investment to help it through the coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CW APAC: Trend Watch – business response to coronavirus

With countries the world over reeling from the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, which has meant sweeping changes both economically and socially, Computer Weekly looks at how firms in the Asia-Pacific region have adapted to what has so quickly become the new normal. Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Nearly £2bn of UK fintech investment lost so far

Investment into UK fintechs falls dramatically during Covid-19 pandemic as venture capitalists hold back Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Opportunity in times of crisis for Nordic tech startups

Nordic tech startups face some major challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, but this could be the making of some of them Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

Will the NHS’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app work?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we get the expert reaction to find out if the NHS contact-tracing app will work. Staying close to clients is crucial through lockdown – we look at the importance of customer experience management. And imagine implementing a digital transformation plan in two weeks – one CIO explains how he did it. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Dell EMC launches PowerStore NVMe container-based storage array

PowerStore controller software is based on container modules for SAN and NAS storage, while the mid-range array is all-NVMe and aimed at performance-hungry use cases such as Splunk Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Scottish government launches tech sector review

Review, to be led by former Skyscanner COO Mark Logan, will look at how tech sector can help Scotland’s economy recover from Covid-19 Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Storage 101: Replication vs backup, and synchronous vs asynchronous

Storage 101: Can replication replace backup? What are the pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous backup? What’s the best way to mix backup and replication? Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Pure Storage FlashBlade OS v3.0 brings protected snapshots

Pure also adds remote replication and aims at storage use cases for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads in its all-flash NAS and object nodes Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Tech firms risk cashflow issues due to pandemic

Analyst Gartner warns that some tech firms may go bust because of inadequate coronavirus planning, and CIOs will need to reassess IT supplier viability Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Coronavirus: TSB develops smart agent to help staff during pandemic

TSB took just five days to design and implement a smart digital agent to answer customer questions during the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Storage 101: Crash-consistent vs application-consistent snapshots

We look at crash-consistent and application-consistent snapshots and backup, how they are defined, the pros and cons of each and the benefits and limits of Windows VSS Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

StorageOS v2 puts ‘mini brains’ in Kubernetes storage volumes

StorageOS persistent software-defined storage for Kubernetes distributes control plane decisions to volumes in a cluster and takes away the impact on centralised scheduler Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

NatWest Bank shutters its app based bank after five months

NatWest is closing its consumer-facing, app-based bank and increasing its focus on mobile business bank Mettle Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

University of Oxford embarks on cloud-fuelled AI research push with AWS

University collaborates with Amazon Web Services to accelerate the pace of technology innovation in a range of artificial intelligence-related fields with the help of cloud Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

No going back to packed workplaces after Covid-19

A recent project by IT service providers outlines how, in a post-coronavirus world, businesses like Barclays Bank will reduce their reliance on skyscrapers packed with people Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Amazon commits to reinvesting $4bn of projected second-quarter profit into coronavirus response

Online retail giant Amazon sees revenue surge, but profits drop during first quarter of 2020 following surge in reinvestment to ready its business for Covid-19-induced uptick in consumer demand for online orders Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Snapshots 101: Array vs backup software

We run the rule over snapshots in storage arrays and backup software and find a range of capabilities that go from mere support to fully snapshot-centric approaches Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Covid-19 will decimate fintechs, but those that survive will prosper

The coronavirus will wipe out some fintechs, but those that get through it will share in the next growth phase of the industry's development Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IR35 off-payroll rules have ‘never worked satisfactorily’, rules Finance Bill Sub-Committee

An inquiry into the government’s plans to extend the IR35 reforms to the private sector concludes that the roll-out should be delayed because the entire off-payroll legislation is flawed and in need of a revamp Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Coronavirus: UK schools will get tech support from Google and Microsoft

Government hires tech giants to provide remote working resources to children while schools are closed Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How likely are IT service providers to offer discounts in an unprecedented global recession?

As the global economy slows, businesses are trying to cut costs, with IT services one of the first stops – but what are the chances of a happy outcome? Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

What comes after flash? Weebit Nano hopes its ReRAM will

Weebit Nano’s ReRAM stores bits by building resistive filaments and promises a 1,000x speed boost over flash in chips that can store data for years and is well-suited to edge uses Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Storage 101: Snapshots vs backup

We go over the basics of snapshots. They are a quick and accessible way of protecting data, but they are not a substitute for backup. So how do you combine the two? Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Coronavirus: Banking and mobile sectors collaborate to stop text scams

Initiative aims to protect 50 genuine brands and government organisations from being impersonated by cyber criminals Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Traditional banks need to do more than gloss over back-end systems with fintech paint

Banks need to work with fintechs if they are to prosper in the new world, but first they must update their back-end systems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Klein takes sole command of SAP as Q1 results show Covid impact

As Christian Klein becomes sole chief executive officer, SAP announces total revenue of €6.521bn for the first quarter, up 7% on Q1 2019 Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Coronavirus: Pandemic will see consolidation of offshore captive centres

Offshore captive IT operations owned by western businesses will be sold off to raise cash and boost efficiency amid Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Dutch organisations address business email compromise fraud

Public-private partnership in the Netherlands works to break the chains used by fraudsters to carry out BEC attacks Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

High-performance object storage: What’s driving it?

Object storage is getting its performance on to meet the needs of content delivery, analytics and IoT use cases while enabled by rapid flash storage media and other tech advances Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

St Albans council integrates systems in effort to streamline processes

The council of St Albans has implemented a unified digital platform to streamline how citizens interact with its services, as well as its own decision-making processes Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Coronavirus: Nordic digital educators collaborate with authorities amid pandemic

Nordic education technology startups are supporting education establishments in offering continued education during the Covid-19 crisis Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Coronavirus: Nordic authorities use tech in fight against Covid-19

Nordic government organisations are working with private technology firms in the region to support their efforts to contain the coronavirus Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Apple and Netflix most imitated brands in phishing attacks

A new report highlights the brands which are being most frequently spoofed by cyber criminals in phishing attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Podcast: Ruthlessly prioritise applications during Covid-19

We talk to Alex McMullan, CTO international at Pure Storage, about scaling up storage and compute for remote working and why that means prioritising applications Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK altnets increase full-fibre coverage by 50%

Independent network providers notch up notable year in 2019 as fibre access for all becomes political hot potato Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

SAP preliminary Q1 2020 results: Covid-19 takes a bite as in-person events cancelled

The coronavirus public health crisis has hit SAP’s first quarter, according to its preliminary financial results statement Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Coronavirus puts brakes on 5G core deployments

Research firm identifies short- and long-term impacts that global pandemic will have on 5G core and edge networks Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

‘It's going to be a really different NHS’ – how NHS Digital is tackling the coronavirus crisis

The Covid-19 outbreak has led to huge amounts of work for NHS Digital, shifting its priorities and creating unprecedented demand for products and data, but it has also had a positive impact, says CEO Sarah Wilkinson Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad