Computer Weekly Data Bank

Some 40% of organisations in the UK and Europe expect their IT security budgets to increase in 2013 in response to increased security threats,  research from Computer Weekly and TechTarget reveals. Some 34% expect security budgets to remain the same and only 5% expect any decrease in budget. However, in a reflection of financial uncertainty in the economy, 21% said they did not know how their security spending would look next year.

As businesses invest more in analytics technology to extract valuable intelligence from business data, managing and storing that data becomes more challenging.

This graph shows which types of data companies typically retain for the longest. Source files, customer records and organisational records are at the top of the list.

One difficulty is that much valuable company data is stored in spread sheets and documents held on people's personal computers.

Managing this data requires a proper information lifecycle strategy which ranks data by its value to the organisation.

You can find out more here in this report from Cognizant.

To learn more download Computer Weekly's special report on Cisco.

Packed with graphs and diagrams this independent briefing is essential for any organisation thinking of working with Cisco.

Most IT professionals surveyed by Computer Weekly believe that outsourcing is contributing to a shortage of skilled IT professionals in the UK.

There are good reasons for thinking they are right. The entry level jobs for IT professionals are disappearing as more companies outsource, which means fewer young people are entering the profession. That in turn means more pressure to outsource.

How can the circle be squared ? One solution is to bring in IT professionals  in to organisations at a higher level, though an IT equivalent of an MBA, for example.

The British, apparently, are the third most enthusiastic nation for using social networking tools in Europe,behind the Spanish and the Italians, according to a survey from Google.

Apple continues to dominate sales of tablet, with the iPad, and that shows little sign of changing soon, according to projections from Gartner. By 2016, sales of tablets based on Apple's iOS operating system will make up just under half of total tablet sales, while Android tablets will make up about 40% of the tablet market.

Microsoft will account for a relatively small 12% of total tablet sales, despite the impending launch of tablet-friendly Windows 8 operating system. Although Research In Motion's Playbook tablet, designed around the Blackberry, has been well received, sales of tablets based on RIM's QNX operating system are expected to account for only a small slice of the market.

Printing may not be the most exciting activity in IT but as every CIO knows when the printers don't work you get to hear about it pretty quickly.

Phil Pavitt, CIO of the HM Customs and Revenue is a shrewd operator. When he wanted to convince the board of HMRC to renegotiate the department's £200m contract with Cap Gemini, he needed to needed to win their trust quickly.

How did he do it ? He made sure the department's printers were working properly.

For the people running printing, reliability is just as important as for the people using printers. Low maintenance costs are their number one priority, according to this survey by analyst group Quocirca. Thats closely followed by the ability to understand how printers are being used, and low energy consumption,

You can find out more in their report on energy efficient managed print services here.

Worldwide IT spending is expected to grow modestly in 2012. Austerity measures in the Eurozone and flat spending by the US government will mean lower spending increases compared to 2011, according to projections from Gartner.

Spending on telecoms equipment is expected to show the greatest growth in 2012, with a rise in global spending of 6.9%. Spending on enterprise software is expected to grow by 5%, computing hardware by 4.3%, and IT services by 1.3%.


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