Guides

CW500: Managing IT transformation at the BBC

The BBC planned to cover every sport from every venue during the entire London 2012 Olympic Games. With more than 2,000 hours of live sport that meant the pressure on the IT department to ensure that everything worked was enormous.

But the BBC has this year faced several major challenges, from broadcasting the Diamond Jubilee and the European football championships not to mention the Proms, and live music festival the Hackney Weekend, all while moving large chunks of its operation from London to Manchester, and into its newly expanded Broadcasting House location in central London.

Computer Weekly Supplier Directory

In this Computer Weekly Supplier Directory you will find supplier profiles on a full range of vendors. A downloadable report is available, on each supplier, analysing the challenges facing it, along with figures about financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold.

In addition you will find up to date news and tip on each supplier, videos and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

A guide to application performance management

Application monitoring solutions are designed to aid your organisation in detecting and resolving issues with application performance, before they affect your end users.

Focusing on monitoring and managing the performance/availability of applications, this guide offers news articles, tips and advice. This guide includes topics such as the speed of transactions, networking issues, workflow and related tools for performance detection and diagnosis.

A guide to the Public Services Network (PSN)

The Public Services Network (PSN) is intended to create a “network of networks” to enable the delivery of government services from any provider or location.

Whitehall has already released two frameworks for PSN connectivity and services this year, and hopes that will save £390m by cutting costs and providing greater flexibility.

But rather than existing as a centralised programme, PSN can be viewed as an on-going move toward network aggregation. Many local authorities have already created local PSNs in their area, rather than waiting for central government to take the lead in creating a ‘top down’ national PSN.

In this guide to the Public Sector Network you will find news, case studies and videos on the topic.

IT in Healthcare

Health informatics in the NHS is going through a massive period of change, following plans to dismantle the National Programme for IT and devolve procurement to local commissioning groups.

While trusts will be tasked with overseeing systems such as electronic patients records at a local level, central government is intent on pushing through an open data agenda for health in an attempt to broaden the marketplace for companies offering mobile health apps.

Supplier profile: Cisco

In this Cisco supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Cisco, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Cisco in addition to further Cisco resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

Next Generation Firewalls: Learning Guide

Networking has come out of the shadows in recent years. With more mobile devices than ever, cloud computing taking hold and highly virtualised data centre environments, it is no longer about dumb pipes or the plumbing in the background, but a key feature to modern tech deployments.

But, with great power comes great responsibility, and as much as networks have never been as important as they are now, keeping those networks secure is top priority.

The term firewall has been used for many years as something to keep the bad guys out of the corporate network and keeping your data safe. Now, the phrase on the lips of networking professionals is Next Generation Firewalls, where the safety of the application is king.

In this guide, we give you the definition of a Next Generation Firewall, tell you about the big players involved and try to cut through the hype of the phrase that is becoming common place in data centre conversations.

Supplier profile: IBM

In this IBM supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing IBM, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on IBM in addition to further IBM resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

CW500: Datacentre transformation

IT departments are often caught up in a dilemma when it comes to datacentre management. Demands for storage and processing power continuously increase, while budgets are nearly flat. Meanwhile, new technology models, such as virtualisation and cloud computing, are offering radical new ways to deliver datacentre services.

In such a scenario, what should the CIO do? How can an organisation ensure that a datacentre transformation improves service levels, meets user needs and cuts costs?

Supplier profile: Microsoft

In this Microsoft supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Microsoft, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Microsoft in addition to further Microsoft resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

CW500: The future of software development

Today’s software development strategy needs to consider trends such as agile, mobile, app stores, cloud, middleware, open source and open standards – and more. The future of software development increasingly blurs the lines between in-house applications, packaged software, and the cloud.

How can an IT leader ensure their software strategy meets such demands, and uses the right combination of in-house and external skills?

Supplier profile: Infosys

In this Infosys supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Infosys, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Infosys in addition to further Infosys resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

CW500: Managing social media

With the advent of IT consumerisation, employees continue to increase the pressure on CIOs to allow more flexibility in how they operate. Staff who are familiar with social media in their personal lives want to use similar tools to help their working life. Increasingly, business leaders also want to deliver products and services based on social media.

IT leaders need suitable strategies and governance to exploit social media technology to improve productivity and collaboration, to set the boundaries between flexibility and corporate data security, and also to measure results.

Supplier profile: Capita

In this Capita supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Capita, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Capita in addition to further Capita resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

EMC World 2012 conference coverage

EMC World 2012 is taking place 21-24th May at The Venetian, in Las Vegas.

Keep up to date with all the conference news and industry tips.

Supplier profile: HP

In this HP supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing HP, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on HP in addition to further HP resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

Supplier profile: EMC

In this EMC supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing EMC, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on EMC in addition to further EMC resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

IT in Europe

The IT in Europe ezine explores hot topics and issues that European businesses are currently facing. Take a look each month for in-depth European news and technical advice. Below you can download our collection of IT in Europe ezines.

Contributors to the IT in Europe ezine include:

Supplier profile: Dell

In this Dell supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Dell, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Dell in addition to further Dell resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

London 2012 Olympic Games Coverage

The London Olympics is finally underway! As thousands of tourists and locals descend on the Olympic Park, we keep you up to date with all the news from the Games.

In this guide you will find all the London Olympic news so far, including the effect it will have on London businesses, commuters, power drainage, bandwidth and more. Read the opportunities that have been created with local communities, IT skills and job creation.

Keep up to date on IT news from the 2012 London Olympics here.

Supplier profile: CA Technologies

In this CA Technologies supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing CA Technologies, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on CA Technologies in addition to further CA Technologies resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

A beginner's guide to virtualisation

You would be hard pushed to find someone in the IT sector that hasn’t heard of the word ‘virtualisation’ by now. However, just because it is a hot topic and regularly used buzzword doesn’t mean that everyone is a pro on the subject.

For those who have only heard of the word ‘virtualisation’ and would like to know more this guide contains information on installation, troubleshooting, configuring, virtual storage, and the different virtualisation technologies available to you.

Supplier profile: Accenture

In this Accenture supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Accenture, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Accenture in addition to further Accenture resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

Supplier Profile: Oracle

In this Oracle supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Oracle, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Oracle in addition to further Oracle resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

InfoSec Europe 2012: Conference coverage

Keep up date with all the news from InfoSec Europe 2012, taking place 24-26 April at London’s Earls Court.

Here you will find pre-show news, conference news and features, videos and images from exhibitors and attendees around the show.

Supplier profile: SAP

In this SAP supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing SAP, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on SAP in addition to further SAP resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

How to comply with the EU cookie law

The EU cookie law is a piece of privacy legislation that was originally adopted by all EU countries on May 26th 2011. The UK was given one year to comply with the EU directive after it updated its Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which brought the EU directive in to UK law.

The cookie law requires websites to gain consent from visitors to store or receive any information on a computer or any other web connected devices (e.g. smartphone or tablet). The cookie law has been designed to protect online privacy of customers by making them aware, and giving them a choice, about the amount of information collected by websites. Each EU member has its own approach to the law; however the basic requirements of the directive remain the same.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is responsible for ensuring that organisations comply with the cookie law. The ICO has issue two sets of guidelines, so far, with the most recent reminding those concerned how the law ‘will not go away.’

After May 26th if a business is not compliant, or is not visibly working towards compliance, it will run the risk of enforcement action and a possible fine of up to half a million pounds.

Read news and tips on how to comply with the EU cookie law.

The Budget 2012: Are you better or worse off?

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne reveals the contents of his red box, this year, find out all the news from the Budget 2012.

Keep up to date on the UK government’s plans for the economy and public finances, for the year ahead.

Supplier profile: Symantec

In this Symantec supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Symantec, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Symantec in addition to further Symantec resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

Blade servers: How to decide on Unix or Linux

How do you decide whether to use Unix or Linux for your blade server and whether now is even the right time to consider a migration?

Common questions that should influence your choice are:

• Why are you considering moving off your current platform?
• How many users do you support?
• Does your application require high availability?
• Which operating system does your staff know best?

In this guide you will find news, tips and features on Unix and Linux for blade servers. In addition you will find the most popular and helpful command lines for both operating systems.

A UK guide to government and public sector IT

A guide to support IT professionals in making well informed decisions about technologies used within public sector organisations. Tips, news and podcasts include examples from the National Audit Office, the British Army, and local councils on how to translate technology into business benefits.

Learn how public sector organisations are using virtualisation, business intelligence, and unified communications in addition to implementing tighter security regulations.

IT Works

Keep up to date on IT skills and training in the UK with news, video interviews, tips and blogs from industry experts.

Supplier Profile: Fujitsu

In this Fujitsu supplier profile you will find a special nine-page report from Computer Weekly which analyses the challenges facing Fujitsu, its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the IT market and its future strategies.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Fujitsu in addition to further Fujitsu resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

Virtualisation

While virtualisation may be considered the best way forward for data centre infrastructure, there are plenty of barriers to successful adoption.

A quick guide to IT security

Information security and data protection is crucial for every business, as it is likely that your company’s most prized asset is its data. Failure to secure your company’s sensitive information could be damaging to its brand in addition to leading to possible legal ramifications.

This quick guide, to IT security, includes news, tips, and articles on tackling cyber-attacks, data protection, malware and computer viruses.

A guide to embracing IT consumerisation

In this guide you will learn how to accept IT consumerisation as part of your IT department. As enterprises proactively address this trend, new relationships with between the IT department and users are being developed; however so are new fears.

Learn how to secure a mobile environment, the best networking techniques and how to benefit from BYOD.

Desktop computing is no longer about IT providing tools for employees. Consumer technology requires a rethink of IT support.

A guide to buying storage hardware and software

This guide has been designed to help storage managers with their storage software and hardware decisions. It contains information on managing, implementing and maintaining storage technologies to help IT professionals with their storage software and hardware purchases.

This guide to buying storage hardware and software covers hard disks, tape drives, disk storage, and virtual storage.

Reflections on 2011 and predictions for 2012

With 2011 now behind us we have taken a look back at technology trends throughout last year, in addition to looking ahead to what 2012 may hold.

In this guide you will find 2011 roundups on virtualisation, cloud computing, outsourcing, storage, data management, careers and the IT channel.

A guide to simplifying data centre management

Nowadays a data centre is a complex and sometimes daunting environment to manage. Efficient data centre management enables you to plan updates and schedule changes in line with your data centres’ build out. Expansions, data centre updates and server consolidation projects are more popular than ever, but can uncover many challenges.

This guide has been designed to improve your knowledge around data centre management, so you can stay compliant, hit green IT initiatives and targets, lower costs, and increase scalability, in addition to keeping the lights on. Let this data centre managers’ guide be your one-stop resource centre for information and advice on data centre management.

This data centre management guide covers management tools, data recovery and virtualisation management.

IT services and managed services

Deciding on whether to utilise IT services, as part of your business strategy, can be a hard decision to make. Firstly you need to decide whether or not IT services will be right for your business, in the long term, and secondly decide which IT services will be better suited for your company.

For example outsourcing may not always save you money, so it is important to do your research on the subject. According to a survey carried out at InfoSecurity Europe 2011, in London, and the RSA Conference 2011, in San Francisco, IT services contracts were costing more than expected for 62% of businesses.

The survey conducted by automation software supplier Lieberman Software found that out of the 500 IT professionals, who responded, a landslide 62% admitted to their outsourcing contracts costing them more than expected, despite turning to the option of outsourcing as a way to cut costs. Of these, 27% said costs were significantly higher when they included outsourcing as part of their IT strategy.

The guide has been designed to support you with decisions about IT services and managed services. Whether you are considering using IT services, currently receiving poor managed services, or outgrowing an existing provider, let this guide be your one-stop resource centre for information and advice on IT services.

This IT services guide covers outsourcing, managed service providers and cloud services.

Green computing energy efficiency guide

Green computing is no longer just a white-wash expression, as government schemes like the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme, the Climate Change Agreement (CCA) or the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), are encouraging companies to revaluate their use of IT resources. Finding new ways of improving energy efficiency is no longer a boardroom discussion, but a reality for many UK businesses.

This guide has been designed to help you improve overall energy efficiency, within the IT department, and implement the right green technology for your business.

This green technology guide covers green computing, government legislation and energy efficiency.

The network administrators’ guide

As a network administrator it’s your job to install, configure and maintain PCs, network operating systems and network equipment.

To support you in managing your network, establish security levels, and control system access, we’ve put this mini tutorial together for you. The network administrator tutorial has been designed to support you with your network security and network management needs. Let this tutorial be your one-stop resource centre which contains information and advice for network administrators.

This network administrators’ tutorial covers network security and your network management.

Data analysis and business intelligence tutorial

Business intelligence can be beneficial for analysing internal raw data, such as turnover by department or product, and identify inefficient business processes that can be re-engineered to better suit your business needs. However, you have to ensure that your data is clean, trustworthy and of good quality for those who will use it.

This guide has been designed to enable you to maintain a competitive edge, through the analysis of business data and better data management.

This business intelligence tutorial covers data management, data analysis, business data usage and business analytics.

Business intelligence (BI) is an all-encompassing category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analysing, and providing access to data to support enterprise users in making better informed business decisions. Business intelligence applications include the activities of decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), data management, statistical analysis, forecasting, data analytics and data mining.

Social Media Awards 2011

Computer Weekly's search for the best use of social media in IT is back for its fourth year and we want you to take part in our new, improved awards programme for 2011.

Social media is an increasingly important tool for communication, collaboration and sharing experiences among the UK IT community, so we’ve expanded our successful blog awards to become the Social Media Awards.

If you need some help deciding, then click on the category pages to find out more about the shortlisted social media heroes.

Find out more about IBM's involvement in the Social Media Awards.

Voting has now begun so click on the link below and be sure to vote for your favourites!

Blade servers: How to decide on Unix or Linux

How do you decide whether to use Unix or Linux for your blade sever and whether it’s time to consider a migration?

Common questions that should influence your choice are:

• Why are you considering moving off your current platform?
• How many users do you support?
• Does your application require high availability?
• Which operating system does your staff know best?
Nowadays both Unix and Linux are valid and reasonable infrastructure choices, so you just need to figure out which is the best option for you and your business.

In this guide you will find news, tips and features on Unix and Linux for blade servers. In addition you will find the most popular and helpful command lines for both operating systems.

Essential guide: EU Data Protection Regulation

This guide lays out what the new European Data Protection Regulation means for European businesses.

Find news, features, tips and videos on the European Data Protection Regulation

Migrating to a private cloud data centre

How do you run your own data centres as efficiently as Google, Facebook, Microsoft or Amazon? Most enterprises are not fortunate enough to start on a greenfield site, so existing data centres must be retrofitted to accommodate greater demands from the business.

Gartner estimates that the useful life of a datacente can be extended significantly through the use of low power server blades that can run VMs to achieve 90% utilisation. In this series of articles we will look at how the industry is starting to offer hardware as a service to support the private cloud, where users can pay for additional CPUs, storage, and UPS and cooling capacity almost on-demand.

We will also include case studies that showcases how the major shifts in the approach taken by systems management tools is helping them to reduce the amount of human intervention required to operate private clouds.

Spotlight on women in UK IT

There is growing concern around the lack of women in IT and whether the numbers will improve for roles which are both available now and in the future. In light of this Computer Weekly recently held an event to address the issue of attracting more females to the technology sector, inviting some of the most influential women in IT to share their views and personal experiences.

You can find coverage of this event below along with the results of the Top 25 Most Influential Women in UK IT Awards. In addition you will find the results of Mortimer Spinks and Computer Weekly’s Women in Technology 2012 survey.

Supplier profile: Adobe

In this Adobe supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Adobe, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Adobe in addition to further Adobe resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

A guide to business process automation software

Automation software is being used by businesses to reduce the costs associated with completing particular processes. It is a way of reducing labour intensive activities.

Business processes begin with a task such as a customer asking a mobile operator for a new SIM card, which triggers off a chain of events that is concluded when the customer confirms receipt of the card.

This guide, with news, case studies and research, describes what automation software is and how it is transforming businesses. Keep up to date with the spread of business process automation software.

Storage and backup infrastructure

As with the rest of data centre computing, storage is becoming virtual. The industry is addressing the need for virtual server storage and virtual server backup.

Virtualisation will drive the need for faster storage, such as solid state disks and hybrid drives to cope with the increased demand for more IOPs.

Along with these trends storage provisioning for disaster recover remains a top priority for IT departments. Investment in SANs is being diverted to more cost-effective data centre replication, such as running Fibre Channel over Ethernet on top of existing wide area networks.

VMworld 2012 conference coverage

VMworld 2012 ran August 26-30, at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco. We had a team of TechTarget editors at the show covering the latest news and analysis.

Find out the latest news coverage from VMware’s annual conference.

FreeForm Dynamics Library

In this Freeform Dynamics Library you will find regular contributors from research house Freeform Dynamics.

Click on the images of the analysts below to read their articles.

These Computer Weekly contributors provide expert tips and opinion pieces.

You will also find the latest news from Computer Weekly.

Supplier profile: Steria

In this Steria supplier profile you will find a special nine page report from Computer Weekly analysing the challenges facing Steria, along with figures about its financial performance, the services it offers, its place in the market and what the future may hold for the supplier.

You will also find up to date news and tips on Steria in addition to further Steria resources and whitepapers from TechTarget’s research library.

CW500: The boardroom view of IT

What does your boardroom really think of IT – and of how the IT function is led and delivered? Surveys often highlight a mismatch between how CIOs perceive the relationship with their senior peers, and how those same executives view IT.

The so-called “IT-business divide” has existed since IT has been used in business, or so it seems. Yet the modern organisation is more dependent on technology, and the skills of those who lead in IT, than ever before.

So how can the CIO and the CEO best come together to meet the needs of both? In this CW500 Club event, we invited some tech-savvy business leaders to give their views on how IT is perceived in the boardroom.

Conference coverage: Dreamforce 2012

Dreamforce attracted 70,000 people to the Moscone Center in San Francisco recently and 30,000 watched coverage of the conference online.

The four day event, run by Salesforce.com even managed to entice The Red Hot Chili Peppers and MC Hammer to perform for attendees.

TechTarget had a team of reporters at the show, finding out what makes it so attractive to attendees every year.

Read all our news coverage of Dreamforce.com below.

VMworld Europe 2012 Coverage

VMware’s annual VMworld Europe 2012 is taking place in Barcelona this year at the Gran Via. TechTarget has a team of reporters at the show to keep you up to date on all the news, tips and expert advice.

The Best of VMworld Europe 2012 user awards will also be unveiled, so you can find out all the winners and read their case studies here.

RSA Conference Europe coverage 2012

RSA Conference Europe 2012 recently took place on 9-11 October. Computer Weekly’s Security Editor was present reporting on all the latest news and tips.

Taking place at the Hilton London Metropole the three days were designed for users to learn, network and discuss the best way to address security issues that threaten us all.

Read all the news from the event below.