In Depth

In Depth

• A guide to scale-out NAS: The specialists and startups

  Specialist suppliers and startups in scale-out NAS, a technology that’s gone mainstream for its superior ability to scale capacity and performance  Continue Reading

• Q&A: MarkLogic CEO Gary Bloom talks strategy

  Gary Bloom, CEO of NoSQL database supplier MarkLogic, talks to Computer Weekly about strategy  Continue Reading

• The digital CIO: Why embrace digital innovation?

  Having the right digital strategy can make or break an organisation  Continue Reading

• Demystifying Kubernetes: the tool to manage Google-scale workloads in the cloud

  We are witnessing a new technology wave in the form of immutable infrastructure and micro-services  Continue Reading

• Sweden’s Klarna and Spotify design big data architectures to aid business growth

  Many organisations still don't know how to capitalise on big data. Swedish firms Klarna and Spotify are making use of its possibilities  Continue Reading

• Government's digital strategy could cut red tape

  Governments can harness digital technology to make public services more efficient and generate significant cost savings  Continue Reading

• Choice and ease of use: key elements of a good app store

  Companies need to focus on individual user requirements and make sure their app store delivers the right tools for the right job  Continue Reading

• The internet of things is coming: Is your datacentre ready?

  Gartner estimates the IoT will see 26 billion units installed by 2020 – channelling huge volumes of data traffic into datacentres  Continue Reading

• Scale-out NAS product survey: The big six

  We survey the big six storage array makers’ scale-out NAS product ranges  Continue Reading

• What ingredients go into the successful app store?

  An enterprise app store should provide the controlled availability of apps for employees.We look at what is available for organisations to use  Continue Reading

• The UK’s new computing curriculum is here: Are teachers ready?

  The computing curriculum is finally commencing, so have teachers found the support they needed to prepare in time?  Continue Reading

• Wearable technology will up the game for sports data analytics

  Wearable technology is a big industry thanks to the ‘quantified self’ movement. It’s now giving a boost to professional sports data analytics professionals  Continue Reading

• Key storage performance metrics for virtual environments

  We run the rule over storage performance metrics – latency, throughput and IOPS – that are key to optimising virtual machines  Continue Reading

• Big Apple revolution: How to manage Macs in the enterprise

  Apple’s products were once niche devices. Now, following a consumer-led initiative, they are widely used across the enterprise  Continue Reading

• A guide to smart home automation

  Unless it is a new build, the challenge in creating a smart home is that technology must work irrespective of the age of the property  Continue Reading

• The pros and cons of iPads in the enterprise

  The iPad is often the first platform for which developers produce apps – but it is substantially more expensive than its competitors  Continue Reading

• Analytics scours World Cups for greatest footballer of all time

  Sports data company Opta’s analytics of every World Cup finals match ever played since 1966 adds to the debate on who is football’s greatest of all time  Continue Reading

• Big players target object storage at cloud and archive

  All but one of the big six storage vendors have object storage products that target public and private cloud environments and/or archiving use cases  Continue Reading

• Unilever puts SAP at the captain’s table

  Consumer goods company Unilever works hand in glove with SAP in “speeding up its growth”, according to senior executives at the two firms  Continue Reading

• Backup vs replication, snapshots, CDP in data protection strategy

  Best practice data protection strategy combines backup with snapshots, CDP and replication for different levels of recovery  Continue Reading

• Dame Stephanie Shirley: Entrepreneurs learn to survive

  Dame “Steve” Shirley shares her experiences of being an entrepreneurial woman in IT during the 1950s and 1960s  Continue Reading

• Micro-datacentre: What IT problems it solves and what workload systems suit it

  A micro-datacentre is a smaller containerised datacentre system designed to solve different problems or to handle different workloads  Continue Reading

• Will silicon photonics replace copper cabling in mainstream datacentres?

  Silicon photonics can increase bandwidth in servers, improve data transfer speeds and reduce complexity. But are datacentres ready for it?  Continue Reading

• OpenStack storage: Cinder and Swift explained

  is a rising star in private cloud infrastructures. But what about OpenStack storage? We run the rule over OpenStack Cinder and Swift  Continue Reading

• Future of in-house datacentres in the cloud era

  It is predicted that companies will spend three times more on the cloud by 2017. But as cloud goes mainstream, are in-house datacentres really dying?  Continue Reading

• In-memory databases - what they do and the storage they need

  In-memory databases offer high performance data processing, but how do you protect data in volatile DRAM and what kind of storage is needed for longer term retention?  Continue Reading

• Principles of compliance in the financial services industry

  Compliance in financial services can appear a staggeringly complex web of laws and regulations, but some key principles apply, says Mathieu Gorge of Vigitrust  Continue Reading

• Erasure coding vs Raid as a data protection method

  Erasure coding is mooted as a potential successor to Raid and backup software  Continue Reading

• Write-through, write-around, write-back: cache explained

  Cache is vital for application deployment, but which one to choose – write-through, write-around or write-back cache? We examine the options  Continue Reading

• VMware versus Hyper-V storage comparison

  VMware versus Hyper-V storage: How do the two leading hypervisors compare when it comes to deploying storage and in terms of their key storage features and functionality?  Continue Reading

• Would the real flash storage successor please stand up?

  Flash storage will hit a wall in development terms by around the end of the decade. But which successor is best placed to replace it: Memristor, MRAM or phase-change memory?  Continue Reading

• How to manage the tension between agility and discipline in IT

  Agility requires a new level of discipline that is redefining IT project management  Continue Reading

• Can the mainframe remain relevant in the cloud and mobile era?

  IBM mainframes run more than 1.1m transactions per second, yet the mainframe has remained largely unfashionable. We investigate  Continue Reading

• Understanding the real value of IT and proving it to the business

  At a time when costs are being continually squeezed, there is more pressure than ever to demonstrate the business value of technology  Continue Reading

• Using NoSQL databases to gain competitive advantage

  NoSQL is attracting growing interest from businesses - we examine three case studies: Amadeus, i2O and Temetra  Continue Reading

• Target data breach: Why UK business needs to pay attention

  Late last year, US retailer Target was hit by one of the biggest data breaches in the industry's history. So what happened and why is it relevant to UK businesses?  Continue Reading

• The digital CIO: How digital technology will change the way organisations work

  If you are an IT leader, digital technology is likely to be a pivotal factor in your career over the next five years  Continue Reading

• Hacktivism: good or evil?

  IT lawyer Dai Davis looks at the rise of hacktivism and its impact on business and international politics  Continue Reading

• Converged stacks: What they are and the benefits they bring

  We survey the converged stacks market: Servers, storage and networking in pre-configured product bundles for specific virtualisation and application use cases.  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage options in Scandinavia

  It has never been faster or cheaper to store data in the cloud and Scandinavian businesses have taken up cloud storage with gusto  Continue Reading

• No more email? Why companies are turning to collaboration technology

  Collaboration technologies are helping companies improve their employees' work-life balance  Continue Reading

• Hadoop 2 opens new vistas beyond current UK data management practice

  Hadoop 2 enables a greater range of data-crunching tasks, beyond Hadoop’s previous scope of batch processing, directly within the stack itself  Continue Reading

• A guide to APM for the network manager

  Has application performance management become a much needed discipline for the network manager? We examine the issues for IT departments  Continue Reading

• The UK’s problem with power

  Datacentre power buyers say Britain’s deregulated energy market is as complex as trading in derivatives  Continue Reading

• Flash storage: What it is and where to deploy it

  A guide to the key decisions in flash storage: MLC vs SLC, all-flash vs hybrid, whether to add flash to an existing SAN, flash as a tier vs cache, and more  Continue Reading

• Troubleshooting datacentre management issues

  Gaining better control of the datacentre has to be a high priority to ensure high levels of performance and availability  Continue Reading

• Create a mobile policy employees can trust

  With Gartner predicting a fifth of all enterprise BYOD projects would fail by 2016, we look at how businesses can embrace mobility successfully  Continue Reading

• The future of the tablet computer in the enterprise

  Tablets come in all manner of profiles and on a variety of platforms – but which will shape up as the workplace favourite of the future?  Continue Reading

• Big banks' legacy IT systems could kill them

  A banking T-Rex is dying and nimble competitors will pick at its carcass. Is it too late for the retail bank giants to overhaul their IT and survive?  Continue Reading

• VDI storage basics and persistent versus non-persistent desktops

  A look at the fundamentals of VDI storage and how to specify storage for likely workloads and persistent versus non-persistent desktops.  Continue Reading

• Minerals firm Imerys upgrades IFS ERP as economy lifts

  Imerys has 30 different ERP systems around the globe. A plan to move to a single instance of ERP, thrown off course by recession, was achieved in 2012; other business benefits have accrued  Continue Reading

• Next generation hotspots: The future of Wi-Fi?

  A new solution for connecting to wireless hotspots could change the user experience forever. But as Steve Evans points out, there will need to be more collaboration in the telecoms and networking industries before we start to reap the benefits.  Continue Reading

• Realising the benefits of a totally connected world

  The internet of things will transform everyday life, from managing airports’ passenger flow to heating buildings and caring for the elderly.  Continue Reading

• BlackBerry Enterprise Server – Should you stay or should you go?

  John Chen’s recent open letter to BlackBerry customers holds many promises for the future  Continue Reading

• SMB 3.0 brings enterprise-class storage to Hyper-V deployments

  SMB 3.0 is Microsoft’s replacement for the “chatty” CIFS file access storage protocol that offers enterprise-class storage to Hyper-V deployments  Continue Reading

• Optimising performance and security of web-based software

  On-demand applications are often talked about in terms of how suppliers should be adapting the way their software is provisioned to customers.  Continue Reading

• Procter & Gamble uses Teradata cloud analytics for global marketing

  Procter & Gamble has 15,000 websites, but sells almost exclusively through retailers. This makes gathering intelligence on customers tough  Continue Reading

• Future Gazing: The Future of IT in 2020

  The next six years will see the influence of technology accelerate, and that will mean radical changes for the role of the IT department and the CIO  Continue Reading

• Why agile development races ahead of traditional testing

  Traditional testing practices optimise large, centralised testing but struggle to support the rapid delivery of agile development.  Continue Reading

• Financing IT purchases

  There are a number of ways a new IT platform can be acquired but choosing the right method for your business is key.  Continue Reading

• Big data storage: Hadoop storage basics

  Hadoop changes the game for enterprise storage. We look at how Hadoop crunches big data, its key storage requirements and survey the vendors  Continue Reading

• Make a high-performance computing and high-availability datacentre

  High performance computing and high availability systems are no longer limited to engineers and scientists. But is your datacentre ready?  Continue Reading

• High street stores embrace digital to entice customers

  Customers are using technology in favour of the high street, but some stores are fighting fire with fire.  Continue Reading

• How Capgemini keeps its Merlin datacentre green and energy-efficient

  Capgemini's Swindon-based Merlin datacentre is one of the most energy-efficient in the world. But what makes it green?  Continue Reading

• A guide to WebRTC

  Real-time communications standards aim to help more users speak with ease over the internet. Computer Weekly looks at how the systems work  Continue Reading

• Cloud file-sharing for enterprise users

  Cloud file-sharing services have become near-ubiquitous among enterprise users. We survey the risks, benefits and alternatives to Dropbox  Continue Reading

• iSCSI switch selection and configuration

  iSCSI switch selection means looking out for the type of features that matter to iSCSI SAN traffic. We run the rule over the iSCSI switch market to see what’s available  Continue Reading

• Top 10 Android security tips

  As Android becomes more prevalent in the enterprise, Computer Weekly gives you 10 top tips for keeping your devices secure  Continue Reading

• VPNs: The past, present and future

  We give you a rundown of all you need to know about virtual private networks and how the cloud is changing their future  Continue Reading

• How to plan and manage datacentre redundancy

  Provisioning of a datacentre to survive a range of failure scenarios has become critical for many businesses. Here's a datacentre redundancy plan  Continue Reading

• A business case for games play at work

  How businesses can use computer games techniques to motivate staff at work  Continue Reading

• Virgin Media uses ETAdirect to manage engineers more predictively

  Virgin Media is using predictive analytics to get the right engineer out to the right problem. It believes its use of TOA Technologies cloud-based ETAdirect system gives it a competitive advantage  Continue Reading

• Big data journalism exposes offshore tax dodgers

  How journalists harnessed big data to challenge offshore financial secrecy  Continue Reading

• An introduction to cyber liability insurance cover

  Cyber liability insurance cover has been around for 10 years, but most security professionals seem to have not heard of it or know that it exists  Continue Reading

• LUN storage management for vSphere and Hyper-V

  LUN storage partitioning has been transformed with the advent of virtualisation. Find out how it differs between VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V implementations  Continue Reading

• How to monitor and improve the health of your datacentre

  Any datacentre manager looking to support the business should take an end-to-end systems management approach to keep the datacentre in shape  Continue Reading

• From chess to ping pong: How Pegasystems is capturing the Fortune 500

  Pegasystems is winning business from the world's leading companies as business process management technology enters the mainstream  Continue Reading

• Best practices in software asset management for a flexible, resilient IT

  Managing software assets is vital in order to maintain a highly flexible and up-to-date IT platform and more importantly remain compliant  Continue Reading

• Tools for talent management

  An increasing number of human resources management systems are coming to market.. What are the benefits?  Continue Reading

• What’s wrong with flash storage: And what will come after?

  Flash storage has taken the enterprise by storm, but its days are numbered due to an unfavourable combination of technological obstacles and manufacturing economics  Continue Reading

• Virtualisation and the LUN: Storage configuration for VMs

  Virtualisation and the LUN: Storage admins used to match LUNs to physical servers, but that’s all changed. Find out how in this guide to the basics of VM storage  Continue Reading

• Manage identity and access to improve business processes

  Streamlining identity and access management is essential to exploiting your organisation’s assets and employees’ productivity.  Continue Reading

• Sweating your datacentre’s IT assets - is it a good idea?

  Amid economic uncertainties, businesses want to get more from existing IT assets. But does it make sense from an IT point of view?  Continue Reading

• Wireless charging: The story so far...

  Rupert Goodwins looks into the technology behind wireless charging and whether it is good enough yet for wider adoption  Continue Reading

• VMware storage: SAN configuration basics

  For VMware storage basics start here – the fundamentals of configuring SAN storage for VMware, such as VMFS, VMDKs, connectivity options and VMware storage features  Continue Reading

• Aadhaar project data collection: An interview with Mindtree's CEO

  Get a view into the data collection efforts for the Aadhaar project from Krishnakumar Natarajan, the CEO at service provider Mindtree.  Continue Reading

• SSD RAID essentials: What you need to know about flash and Raid

  With the advent of flash and high-capacity HDDs, what do today’s storage professionals need to know about Raid and its new variants?  Continue Reading

• Workplace IT services in flux: wherever, whenever, whatever

  Enterprise computing is in upheaval as the emphasis shifts towards automation and user-device provision.  Continue Reading

• CW500: 4G to underpin ubiquitous mobile services

  The catalyst for debate at April’s CW500 Club meeting was the arrival of the 4G mobile network in the UK  Continue Reading

• The internet of things is set to change security priorities

  IT leaders must protect against the security risks introduced by the growing interaction between technology and the physical world.  Continue Reading

• How to create a good information security policy

  Information security policies provide vital support to security professionals, yet few organisations take the time to create decent policies  Continue Reading

• Windows XP end of support: What to do next

  CIOs may not wish to carry on running a 12-year-old desktop OS, but thousands of incompatible applications leave many with no choice  Continue Reading

• Microsoft SQL Server data profiling tool put to work

  Andy Hogg demonstrates how to clean up dirty data with the data profiling tool that comes with Microsoft SQL Server  Continue Reading

• 100Gbps Ethernet – is it time to move?

  Do you need 100Gbps Ethernet in your datacentre, or is the technology just going through a hype cycle? Computer Weekly investigates.  Continue Reading

• The history of OpenFlow

  Computer Weekly takes a look back at the beginnings of the software-defined networking protocol and the technology behind it  Continue Reading

• What does a petabyte look like?

  How can you visualise a petabyte of data? What is it in real terms? Some experts try to make real the colossal size of the mighty petabyte  Continue Reading

• Wired vs wireless in the enterprise

  What are the pros and cons of wired and wireless connectivity, and what does the future hold for the corporate environment?  Continue Reading

• How to tackle big data from a security point of view

  Before leaping into big data, companies must be clear what they are trying to achieve, otherwise their investment will be wasted  Continue Reading

• Horror stories of women in tech: The worst advice I’ve ever received

  Women share experiences of being told to think like a male, keep your head down, and to not even bother with a career in tech.  Continue Reading

• How to manage the risk of the human factor in database administration

  Fail to manage the risk of the human factor in database administration and you court disaster. DBAs, like air traffic controllers: work in pairs?  Continue Reading