In Depth

In Depth

• Next generation of collaboration and communication services

  Future comms systems may look and feel rather different from what exists today – we look at the journey for communications services  Continue Reading

• Electric vehicle transition comes with uneven costs

  Governments, car makers and tech companies are promoting electric vehicles, but are they considering the uneven social and environmental costs from extracting the critical minerals needed to make batteries?  Continue Reading

• The importance of mid-band 5G for European economic growth

  The roll-out of 5G networks promises to revolutionise the role of high bandwidth wireless connectivity, but underestimating the role of mid-band spectrum could needlessly restrict its benefits  Continue Reading

• Growing prospects for edge datacentres

  Although the value that edge datacentres provide is not in question, for many companies, the journey to adoption is far from fixed  Continue Reading

• Interview: LF Energy on using open source to ready energy systems for phasing out fossil fuels

  With the climate crisis putting increasing pressure on countries to decarbonise their economies, the founder of open source championing LF Energy talks about digitising power networks to be ready for renewables  Continue Reading

• Snapshots vs backup: Use both for optimum RPOs

  We look at snapshots and backup, the key difference, their pros and cons and how best to use the two approaches in an integrated data protection strategy for optimal RPO  Continue Reading

• Positive benefits in the new experience economy

  While creating a positive employee experience (EX) has been on the agenda of companies for years, the concept – and that of the experience economy in general – has come of age in the Covid-defined working arena  Continue Reading

• Refugee support group works with tech startup on reporting system

  Computer Weekly speaks to a refugee support group about its ongoing collaboration with an academic tech startup to develop a digital human rights reporting system for refugees  Continue Reading

• How algorithmic automation could manage workers ethically

  Managing workers by algorithm and automated process has generated ethical problems aplenty. Can such means be pressed into the service for a more ethical mode of worker management? We find out  Continue Reading

• Using technology to reinvent stores

  Technology is becoming an important part of the shopping experience at home, in stores and in-between, so how are retailers using technology to advance the store experience?  Continue Reading

• Enterprises shore up supply chain resilience with data

  Using data to gain better visibility over their supply chains and forge closer connections between disparate links is helping organisations respond to disruptions faster  Continue Reading

• The role of infrastructure as code in edge datacentre computing

  As datacentre computing is pushed to the edge of the organisation’s network, IT has to address the overheads associated with remote server management  Continue Reading

• Storage requirements for AI, ML and analytics in 2022

  We look at what is needed for artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the pros and cons of block, file and object storage to store and access very large amounts of often unstructured data  Continue Reading

• Has Wi-Fi 6 stalled before it even got started?

  The need for wireless internet connectivity is more crucial than ever. Wi-Fi 6 and 6E were supposed to meet that need, but some say that uptake has stalled. We see what is happening in wireless  Continue Reading

• Snapshots best practice: Five key things you need to know

  We look at snapshots best practice, including the way they work, why they are not the same as backups, how to avoid heavy processing overheads and key user permissions tweaks  Continue Reading

• The time is now: Edge datacentres come of age

  After years of hype and speculation, could the post-pandemic period see a resurgence in interest in the build-out of edge datacentres and compute environments as enterprises look to dust off projects that Covid-19 forced them to shelve?  Continue Reading

• Backup types explained: Full, incremental, differential, synthetic

  We look at backup – on-prem and cloud – and the key variants available, from full backup to synthetic full, via incremental, differential, incremental forever and reverse incremental  Continue Reading

• Boots accelerates its digital accessibility journey

  Boots is working with website accessibility software provider Recite Me to make its website more user-friendly and improve the customer experience  Continue Reading

• Recruitment risks: Avoiding the dangers of fraudulent candidates

  Tech companies are seeing an increase in fraudulent job applications, with associated impacts on risk and cyber security. So how can organisations protect themselves from fraudulent applicants while ensuring they recruit the best talent?  Continue Reading

• Industry clouds are all the rage, but are they driven by marketing or customer need?

  Industry clouds – cloud applications designed for specific sectors – are fashionable staples of supplier marketing, but are they what corporate IT is demanding?  Continue Reading

• Why you need soft skills to excel in your tech career

  With deliberate practice you can hone your soft skills, increase the impact of your work and grow your influence in an organisation  Continue Reading

• Weighing up the nuclear option for powering datacentres

  Resourcing energy-hungry IT through the race to reduce carbon emissions means looking objectively at all the options, including nuclear power  Continue Reading

• Cloud ERP: Rise of the industry cloud

  There is a new variable in the build or buy debate, and it’s all about the way cloud-based services connect internal and external business processes  Continue Reading

• Storage suppliers put Kubernetes platforms centre stage

  How to orchestrate the orchestrator? Storage suppliers’ Kubernetes management platforms aim to meet storage and data protection challenge in containerised application environments  Continue Reading

• A waste of energy: Dealing with idle servers in the datacentre

  Servers can be the slackers of the datacentre, consuming power without doing much work. Why not whip them into shape?  Continue Reading

• Dynamic workforce planning gains ground in more turbulent economy

  Some organisations are developing dynamic workforce planning approaches to cope with increasing economic turbulence and change – the South Central Ambulance Service is one  Continue Reading

• How data analytics drives wind turbine power generation

  Data analytics and related software lies behind the burgeoning wind turbine industry, with predictive maintenance to the fore. We find out how  Continue Reading

• How can I avoid an exodus of cyber talent linked to stress and burnout?

  Cyber security professionals have played a crucial role during the pandemic, yet many feel like their employers aren’t providing adequate mental health support and have considered quitting their jobs as a result. What can employers do to help them?  Continue Reading

• Ratcheting down the tension in the hybrid world

  Employers who reject the trend towards adopting more flexible, hybrid ways of working may struggle with staff retention - and CIOs have more to win or lose than most in a hybrid world  Continue Reading

• Best-of-breed cloud ERP applications proffer a modern strategy

  How organisations are using best-of-breed SaaS products to fill gaps in their enterprise application strategy and deliver a modern approach to ERP  Continue Reading

• Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Maintenance and continuous improvement

  In the final article in this four-part guide to disaster recovery planning, we look at how and when to update, maintain, audit, review and continually improve the DR plan  Continue Reading

• Datacentres and climate change: Operators accused of being all talk and no action on sustainability

  Datacentre operators talk a good fight when it comes to tackling climate change, but there is far more they should and could be doing to make their operations more sustainable, say experts  Continue Reading

• Five key points on file locking vs object locking

  We look at file vs object storage locking mechanisms, how different forms of storage ensure data consistency, and especially how object storage is tackling the challenge  Continue Reading

• Why some data-driven decisions are not to be trusted

  Companies often express the desire to be data-driven – but what if the data isn’t right? Data democratisation could be part of the solution  Continue Reading

• How APAC organisations can mitigate edge security threats

  The move to the edge expands an organisation’s attack surface. Here are some measures that organisations can take to minimise their edge security risks  Continue Reading

• Why post-pandemic reskilling must focus on mainframes

  A major contributing factor to UK-wide skills shortages is the significant number of people who have left the workforce since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic  Continue Reading

• Swedish researcher cuts through the hype around autonomous vehicles

  Linköping University’s Michael Felsberg makes realistic predictions about when self-driving cars will become available  Continue Reading

• English Channel surveillance used ‘to deter and punish migrants’

  Instead of opening safe and legal routes to the UK, the country’s border control ecosystem is deploying surveillance technologies in the English Channel to deter migrant crossings, it is claimed  Continue Reading

• Decarbonising datacentres: Turning the hot air about heat reuse into real-life use cases

  Reusing waste heat from datacentres to warm local businesses and homes could bring about considerable reductions in carbon emissions and lower energy costs, so what needs to happen to make this a more widespread practice?  Continue Reading

• Ship from store: A pandemic retail trend that’s here to stay?

  Shipping online orders from bricks and mortar stores looks set to be a pandemic trend that will stick around to form part of retail’s new normal  Continue Reading

• Software firm saves storage array costs with Nutanix hyper-converged

  Banking SaaS provider Vialink needed more IOPS when its NetApp arrays slowed up, but Nutanix hyper-converged proved a better package than Pure Storage and Dell EMC, too  Continue Reading

• Retailers get business-critical IT and data management in order

  Decathlon and Toolstation are among the retailers investing in new technology to support business-critical applications and better data management  Continue Reading

• A plan for technical and security training

  An array of options is available to help IT leaders refresh security skills or update tech skills. We look at how to decide what is best  Continue Reading

• Information in the metaverse is A Tale of Two Cities

  The metaverse will make it easier to access an increasing wealth of information, but it also will make it more difficult to distinguish real from fake, accurate from wrong – and that goes for information as well as the information sources themselves  Continue Reading

• Cracking the code on blockchain and crypto: What might adoption mean for datacentres?

  A high share of datacentre customers look set to adopt blockchain technologies, including digital currencies, over the next few years  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage cost challenges and how to tackle them

  We look at cloud capacity procurement pitfalls, forecasting challenges, the danger of over-buying, supplier lock-in, deciphering billing and resizing capacity when projects finish  Continue Reading

• Define RPO and RTO tiers for storage and data protection strategy

  We look at RPO and RTO in defining data protection and disaster recovery strategies and how to specify tiers that reflect the importance of different systems in your organisation  Continue Reading

• Christal Bemont, Talend CEO: Show up as yourself

  Christal Bemont, CEO of data management firm Talend, reflects on coming through difficult times in solidarity with co-workers, and how data quality assumes a heightened significance in the digital era  Continue Reading

• How to beat the heat: What can datacentre operators do to meet emissions targets?

  With new mandates around sustainability proliferating, datacentres must find ways to meet their environmental goals while remaining competitive and meeting customer service-level expectations  Continue Reading

• Storage and 5G: Big impacts likely as wide-area topologies evolve

  Enterprise 5G will boost the need for storage generally. It will also push capacity needs closer to the edge and create new locations for processing and storage  Continue Reading

• It takes a village: Protecting kids online is everyone’s responsibility

  The rapid uptake of smartphones among children has contributed to the increasing number of cases of cyber bullying and online grooming. Is this an educational issue or a cultural problem, and can modern enterprise help?  Continue Reading

• Evolving a data integration strategy

  Linking IT systems together is never going away, but the approach CIOs adopt is key to ensuring relevant data feeds the decision-making process  Continue Reading

• Retail’s staff engagement and happiness problem – can tech help?

  Keeping staff engaged, motivated, connected and content is no easy task for retailers, but the industry is exploring new tools and techniques to improve the workplace  Continue Reading

• Hybrid working in the metaverse  

  Few topics have attracted more headlines over the past year than hybrid work and the metaverse. How can these realities fit together and become productive in the new normal of work?  Continue Reading

• How Dutch hackers are working to make the internet safe

  We hear how the personal mission of a Dutch hacker grew into a serious organisation with international ambitions  Continue Reading

• Posix vs object storage: How much longer for Posix?

  We look at Posix compliance in storage and why it is being challenged by object storage and the need to scale much further than Posix-oriented storage was ever intended to  Continue Reading

• Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Staff training, incident and media management

  In the third in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we set out the key components of DR staff awareness and training programmes, as well as incident management and dealing with the media  Continue Reading

• How open source is shaping data storage management

  Open source data storage offers a great deal of flexibility, but unlocking its benefits will require strong technical resources to meet requirements such as stability, high availability and security  Continue Reading

• Four emerging data integration trends to assess

  To accelerate their performance in data integration, companies are evaluating and adopting a range of contributing technologies  Continue Reading

• Finland brings cryostats and other cool things to quantum computing

  Not only is Finland the clear leader in refrigeration technology for quantum computers, but it also leads in fundamental research into the underlying quantum information theory  Continue Reading

• What neurodivergent people really think of working in cyber security

  Many firms are filling cyber security skills gaps by hiring neurodivergent talent – but more support is needed for neurodivergent cyber security professionals, writes autistic tech journalist Nicholas Fearn  Continue Reading

• Data integration dogged by complexity and vital to business

  Integrating data is one of the thorniest challenges in business intelligence and analytics – achieving it is technically and organisationally complex, while it is gaining in importance all the time  Continue Reading

• NRF review: What’s in store for retail tech in 2022?

  What themes will we be seeing in the retail tech space over the next year according to the 2022 National Retail Federation’s Big Show?  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage data residency: How to achieve compliance

  There’s a conflict between cloud storage and the need to comply with local laws and regulations. We look at cloud data location, data residency, data sovereignty and data adequacy  Continue Reading

• Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust advances digital-first strategy

  Trust is making progress with its 10-year plan, centred around an electronic patient records system  Continue Reading

• Refrigeration firm freezes legacy backup for one Cohesity cluster

  France-based Clauger had reached limits of capacity and complexity with multi-supplier legacy backup, so moved to one Cohesity cluster and gained restores that took mere minutes  Continue Reading

• Navigating PIPL: European businesses plot their next steps into China

  How does China’s strict new Personal Information Protection Law impact European businesses?  Continue Reading

• Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Setting strategy and developing plans

  In the second in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we look at how to formulate a DR strategy and develop detailed DR plans for your organisation, while taking cloud services into account  Continue Reading

• Stakes raised for hybrid cloud as complexity challenges continue

  Hybrid cloud may be with us for some time, so what does that mean for cloud provision in 2022?  Continue Reading

• EDSFF brings built-for-NVMe connectivity to the datacentre

  Aimed at enterprise use cases, EDSFF offers incredible flash density in shared storage and hyperscale deployments, but storage products that use it are still thin on the ground  Continue Reading

• How Forensic Architecture uses tech to protect human rights

  Forensic Architecture speaks to Computer Weekly about how it uses various digital technologies to investigate human rights abuses around the globe, including the pushback of migrants over the Greek border and the killing of Mark Duggan by London ...  Continue Reading

• Object storage: How research institute got 850TB for €150,000

  French scientific research institute had its budgets cut and to meet the new cost constraints, it settled on Swarm software-defined object storage from DataCore  Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud storage: Options for rearchitecting enterprise IT

  Hybrid cloud is seen as a way to have the best of both the on-premise and public cloud worlds. We look at the pros and cons of hybrid cloud storage  Continue Reading

• Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Assessing risk and business impact

  In the first in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we provide a step-by-step guide to building firm foundations for the disaster recovery plan, with risk assessment and business impact analysis  Continue Reading

• Finland moves to industrialise quantum computing

  For the Finnish government, now is the time to start preparing for the day when quantum computers will have practical value  Continue Reading

• What does 2022 have in store for hybrid working?

  The Omicron coronavirus variant has brought a return of working restrictions. Can we be optimistic about the resilience of organisations as they try to get the best out of their workforce?  Continue Reading

• Dispelling the top five myths of modern infrastructure

  Modern infrastructure is agile, flexible and scalable. It is at the forefront of every CIO’s digital strategy – and it's everywhere. But with the multitude of choices comes complexity  Continue Reading

• A legal minefield called the metaverse

  Will the metaverse create a $1tn revenue market? Who knows? How long will it take to reach this lofty potential? Who can tell? Will people invest across this emerging landscape of speculative riches? You bet  Continue Reading

• How to make AI greener and more efficient

  Artificial intelligence promises both to combat the ill effects of climate change and to make the emergency worse with excessive energy use. How can AI be made greener?  Continue Reading

• How to create a sustainable continuous learning culture

  How can organisations create a continuous learning culture that will militate against the so-called great resignation? We explore, using Vodafone and Deutsche Bank as cases in point  Continue Reading

• University of Edinburgh extends IoT data science to south-east Scottish pupils

  The University of Edinburgh is part of a 15-year mission to educate the data scientists of tomorrow among school pupils in its south-east Scotland sphere  Continue Reading

• New supercomputer opens doors for researchers in Sweden

  More than twice as powerful as its predecessor, a new supercomputer ushers in new opportunities for researchers who rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning  Continue Reading

• Sharp end of the edge: Managing micro-datacentres in a shared environment

  Ongoing diversification in datacentre types gives rise to management challenges for operators, prompting a rethink about how they run their sites  Continue Reading

• Evolving datacentre chipsets put cooling, power and software management techniques under microscope

  New processor designs that could revolutionise approaches to supporting higher power densities at the rack still look years away, it appears  Continue Reading

• Accessible retail: Personalising the UX for disabled consumers

  An online marketplace built with an ‘accessibility-first’ mantra is set to go live in spring 2022 – and it comes amid several new inclusive retailing moves  Continue Reading

• Fuzzy logic: The challenge of building data science teams

  In the face of a dearth of data science talent, and a crippling lack of diversity in the pool as it is, what are companies doing to build, manage and keep data science teams together? We find out  Continue Reading

• Avoiding the two-tier workforce in the third workplace

  The new world of hybrid working is sometimes referred to as the third workplace. Yet just as firms are having to deal with the ‘great resignation’, they are in danger of unwittingly creating a two-tier workforce  Continue Reading

• SMEs step up e-commerce ventures under shadow of Covid

  A raft of smaller retailers have stepped up their e-commerce businesses during the pandemic, ranging from books to candles, rugs to togs  Continue Reading

• The developing metaverse: Commercial realities of extended realities

  The metaverse is almost certain to become a highly competitive commercial playground, if not battlefield. It will likely not only establish highly profitable markets but also lead to high-profile failures  Continue Reading

• Is the IT sector beset by fear-mongering?

  The arms race between hackers and security teams has led to a plethora of new technologies, but it can be hard to differentiate between sensible cyber purchases and those that are promoted by exaggerating risk  Continue Reading

• Scale-up vs scale-out: Horizontal vs vertical scaling for storage

  We look at the differences between scale-up and scale-out in storage – or horizontal vs vertical scaling – and the key ways it can be carried out on-prem and in the cloud  Continue Reading

• Clouds gather over Chinese providers – but is there a silver lining?

  With the geopolitical outlook chillier than for some time, Computer Weekly explores the future prospects for UK-China approaches to technology and business  Continue Reading

• The emerging role of software in business development

  Business leaders generally recognise the importance of software as a business enabler – but some see technology driving business growth  Continue Reading

• How enterprise 5G is playing out in Australia

  5G adoption is taking place in the industrial arena and other sectors, but telcos will need to transform themselves and overcome cost challenges to drive wider adoption  Continue Reading

• Edge storage: Four key points

  Edge storage is driven by rapidly emerging edge computing and data gathering use cases. We look at why it makes sense to store data at the edge and the key challenges involved  Continue Reading

• Retailers as tech firms: Next, The Very Group and others see power in the platform

  Gap and Reiss are set to utilise Next’s end-to-end e-commerce service, Total Platform, in 2022, as more retailers carve out a future as part tech company  Continue Reading

• Swedish researchers are patiently developing a useful quantum computer

  By 2028, the Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology in Sweden expects to have a useful quantum computer  Continue Reading

• How advanced comms can gain an edge in the post-pandemic world

  Advanced communications not only connects the real world to the digital world, but also enables a hybrid and more environmentally friendly world of work  Continue Reading

• Ensuring hybrid work works in the new normal

  The hybrid business is becoming a reality, but how can firms ensure a positive employee experience and learn how to identify and manage risks?  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage compliance pitfalls: Post-pandemic and post-Brexit

  We look at the key areas of cloud storage compliance that can trip you up, with shared responsibility with cloud providers and data residency among the most important  Continue Reading