Recent Blog Posts
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When IT Meets Politics
Why changing your on-line "shop" should be no harder than changing your supermarket
I blogged yesterday on the implications of the split of priorities between access to broadband and protecting the environment as revealed in the recent Policy Exchange report. Today I would like to expand on why I think Dido Harding was correct when she used the presentation meeting to call for more to be ...
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Inside Outsourcing
I wonder how HP workers feel about Meg Whitman's pay packet?
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday HP CEO Meg Whitman got over £9m pay in 2012 despite HP's heavy losses.She was only paid a basic salary of $1 but this was more than made up by $1.7m in bonuses and the remainder made up of shares and other income.Whitman, who ...
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The Full Spectrum
You have to love David and Goliath court room drama...
East Carolina University (Photo credit: phi1317)We all know if you are a big gun in the world of technology, especially from the US, you can seem untouchable. If you are the world's largest networking company, you definitely act like it. So, I wasn't hugely surprised when I read today that Cisco has been a...
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When IT Meets Politics
Midsomer Murders: The Broadband Killings
The feud turned to slaughter after Mavis Goodenough, the Wiccan High Priestess of Midsomer Harvest died of septicaemia after stepping on one of the mantraps protecting the poles of the overhead fibre link from the server in the Snug of the Fig and Femto to the wireless mast beside the changing hut at the F...
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Inside Outsourcing
Over 60% of people agree with outsourcing local government service
With more and more local authorities looking at ways to cut costs there is inevitably a focus on outsourcing services to the private sector. And IT is one of the areas that always seems destined to be farmed out.Recently councils such as Barnet and Cornwall have hit the headlines as a result of controversi...
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Inside Outsourcing
HP troubles show dangers of demotivated staff to business
Is the ability for IT services firms to provide the high levels of service their clients demand being undermined by a lack of motivation amongst mistreated staff.I wrote last week about how HP could shut down under-performing units. I suggested the services unit, which has been devalued by $8bn since it wa...
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Inspect-a-Gadget
What I learnt at CES Las Vegas
Spending a week in Sin City for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was surreal and exhausting. It never sleeps, and as a technology journalist in Las Vegas covering the biggest tech show of the year - neither do you. So CES is over and now that I'm no longer jet lagged -proven by being able to make a cup ...
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Computer Weekly Data Bank
Huge interest in cloud security technologies 2013
(Click on image to enlarge)Most companies have plans to deploy cloud security technologies, which include products designed to secure cloud servers and data, in 2013. Some 62% are either using cloud security technologies already, are about to use them, or are evaluating them. Only 38% do not have plans to ...
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Computer Weekly Data Bank
Application Software Spend - Manufacturing
Beverages manufacturers, with 100-999 employees, typically spend nearly £90k per annum on application software packages. The next largest outlay of £50k is by pharmaceutical companies. At the other extreme, wood & wooden products firms expend only £10k.Source: IT & Telecom Spend - 80 In...
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CWDN
'Live' Earth video camera on International Space Station
UrtheCast (pronounced "Earth-Cast") is launching and installing two cameras on the Russian module of the International Space Station. The UrtheCast team now says it will subsequently open up its API (application programming interface) so that software application developers can use its data to create appli...
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Open Source Insider
Open source clouds gather over Microsoft
The Microsoft Open Technologies subsidiary has announced a public preview of its app store for Windows Azure known as VM Depot. This programmer resource is hoped to allow developers to construct, deploy and share Linux configurations and create custom-made open source stacks. Developers can also use this c...
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Inspect-a-Gadget
CES 2013 VIDEO: Amzer screen protectors
Would you risk hammering or drilling your smartphone?In this video from CES 2013 in Las Vegas, Kyle Zurkan from Amzer, demonstrates the company's ShatterProof screen protection for smartphones.
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WITsend
Changes in attitudes needed so girls don't get left behind
Recently the United Nations (UN) said that women and girls are at risk of being left behind if countries don't start putting measures in place to change attitudes towards women studying in scientific and technological fields. The UN pointed out that this gap is an obstacle to a nation's progress and stems ...
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Inside Outsourcing
Forget giving up booze here are KPMG's New Year's resolutions in IT outsourcing
I have been doing blogs about IT predictions for 2013 but I haven't done any resolutions. Here are some New Year's resolutions from KPMG as well as some advice on achieving them.Leverage business services as a strategic asset, not just a transactional processing engineTackle end-to-end change management - ...
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The Full Spectrum
RIP MSN - the messenger of my generation
msn (Photo credit: Rufus Gefangenen)This week I have been pondering the end of an era and come close to wiping away a tear over the loss of a staple of my teenage dramas. The sword was already hanging over the head of Microsoft Messenger - or MSN Messenger as we all knew it - but I today received the email...
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Public Sector IT
CSC shoulders NHS loss by moving jobs offshore
CSC UK said last week it was cutting costs in the UK by moving jobs offshore, after posting a loss of nearly £1bn.It also revealed declining profits at its flagship, 10-year outsource with Royal Mail, which Computer Weekly revealed recently had avoided paying tax by front-loading contract costs.Directors s...
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Open Source Insider
A minor Enterprise Linux symphony
Red Hat has released an unashamedly labelled 'minor' release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This 5.9 version features better hardware enablement, security and certification improvements, improved developer tools and refined virtualisation technologies. The firm positions these so-called minor increments as p...
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Inside Outsourcing
Innovator describes challenges in finance sector IT in 2013
I have had some good feedback from the series of 2013 predictions I have been running.Experts from across the IT and outsourcing sector have given me their thoughts. As we are still in January I am going to continue to post people views.In the financial services sector CIOs face flat budget, along list of ...
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Computer Weekly Data Bank
Viruses and hacking are top security challenges in 2013
(Click on the image to enlarge)Malware and hacking tops the list of security concerns for organisations in 2013 in the wake of increasingly sophisticated attacks from criminal and state sponsored groups. Compliance is in third place, outranking mobile security, web application and cloud security, re...
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CWDN
Vorsprung durch Technik in the land of gold & blue
Everybody knows that Germany is the land of Vorsprung durch Technik and that you have to get up pretty early if you want to get your towels around the pool before the Shmidts, the Müller and the Rhinehousens - right? But did you also know that Deutschland is the land of gold and blue? There's a good lesson...
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Inspect-a-Gadget
CES 2013 HANDS ON: Huawei Windows 8 phone and giant phablet
Huawei launched a few devices at CES in Las Vegas this week, while none of them were confirmed with regions, dates or prices, two smartphones, which are expected to ship to China and then worldwide, caught my eye. The Ascend Mate - giant phablet with the "worlds largest screen" Again, a growing trend at CE...
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Computer Weekly Editor's Blog
Your customers are digital - are you?
In the hopefully unlikely eventuality that your company executives still need convincing that the internet is going to transform your business, the past few days have provided further evidence of the accelerating changes brought about by consumers moving to the web.Only last week, I highlighted, "Which bus...
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Inside Outsourcing
Can Huwawei cut it in mainstream IT services?
I was talking to a contact of mine some weeks back and he was telling me about moves by Chinese IT giant Huawei to get into more mainstream IT services rather than its telecoms home ground.In fact he told me he knows of a few deals in the offing for the vendor.He said despite the US and UK governments, par...
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Inside Outsourcing
Windows XP upgrades and SAP testing to drive project based outsourcing this year
Windows XP upgrades and SAP upgrade testing are two areas that will stimulate the outsourcing sector this year.Nick Mayes, research director at PAC, said in a report that while there will continue to be a level of demand for big traditional outsourcing deals that clean "'your mess for less" he expect...
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Downtime
How the Hapifork will stop you stuffing your face
As we all traipse back into work with that certain glow of too many mince pies around our waistlines, what better time to launch the technological fork to curb our munching? That's right, this week's CES conference in Las Vegas witnessed the launch of the Hapifork - a supped up piece of cutlery that slows ...
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Inspect-a-Gadget
CES 2013 HANDS ON: Panasonic's demonstration of its 4K 20-inch tablet prototype
At CES in Las Vegas this week, Panasonic unveiled a tablet to be added to CES's growing category of super-size screens. Sitting more in the "table PC" category, than "tablet", this technology demonstration will hopefully be out later this year with a few tweaks here and there. But the 20-inch tablet impres...
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Inspect-a-Gadget
CES 2013 HANDS ON: Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1 and Toughpad JT-B1
This week at CES in Las Vegas, Panasonic added to its line of rugged Toughpad tablets with the Windows 8 Pro 10.1-inch FZ-G1 and the Android 7-inch JT-BI. Since 1996 Panasonic has been producing mobile computers for the mobile workforce who need to rely on a more study product that will resist dust, water,...
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Computer Weekly Data Bank
IT & Telecom Spend - Life Insurance Companies
Life insurance companies with over 1000 employees spend dramatically more on IT & telecom than large UK organisations overall. Their outlay is expected to be over £29,000 per employee during 2013 rising to nearly £31,000 in 2015. The corresponding figures for the whole of UK are £4,340 and ...
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ITWorks
Does Tech City house the next Mark Zuckerberg?
This is a guest blog from Stephen Ball, vice president and general manager, UK and Ireland at Hitachi Data Systems Silicon Valley has delivered an endless list of technology success stories to the world, boasting names such as Apple, eBay, Google, Western Digital and Yahoo, so it was perhaps not su...
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Inside Outsourcing
TUPE need not be the end of the world for transferred staff
I blogged earlier today about TUPE. This is the llegislation that protects workers' rights if they are in a company that is acquired or if their role is outsourced to a third party.Although TUPE protects workers and is seen by many as favouring the workers it is often bad news for workers because it means ...
