Computer Weekly articles from November 2007

Computer Weekly archives from November 2007

News.
November 13, 2007... Business continuity is best thought of as the test of how your business would cope when things go wrong. It is as important for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as it is for multinationals. Bob Tarzey, service director with a focus...

News.
November 13, 2007... Deutsche Bank has cut its IT costs by 30% and doubled the performance of its IT department over the past five years by using outsourcing and partnering relationships to free up staff for development. The bank has just added more of its...

News.
November 13, 2007... Dell is acquiring iSCSI storage virtualisation firm EqualLogic for [pounds sterling]700m. Dell said the acquisition will strengthen its product and channel business for simplifying and virtualising IT for customers globally. It said iSCSI...

News.
November 13, 2007... Deutsche Bank has cut its IT costs by 30% and doubled its productivity by using outsourcing and partnering relationships over the past five years. The bank announced this month that it has extended multimillion-pound outsourcing contract...

News.
November 13, 2007... F5 Networks says it is delivering a nine-fold increase in performance in its updated application firewall system. The new BIG-IP Application Security Manager 9.4.2 is also optimised for the increasing number of apps built with web 2.0...

News.
November 13, 2007... HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has agreed a restructuring of its Aspire IT outsourcing contract to save cash. HMRC is aiming to cut its IT running costs by around 10% by 2010-2011. Deepak Singh, HMRC CIO, said, "I am delighted that we have...

News.
November 13, 2007... IBM has introduced new software to help customers modernise the applications on their mainframes. As an extension of IBM's [pounds sterling]50m Mainframe Simplification investment announced in 2006, the new software portfolio helps System...

News.
November 13, 2007... Inverclyde Council has implemented an advanced [pounds sterling]3m fibre-based network to save on its communications costs. The network supports a voice over IP service and a high-bandwidth Ethernet virtual private network for 5,000 staff....

News.
November 13, 2007... Microsoft has expanded its enterprise search offering with the launch of the free Search Server 2008 Express. Search Server 2008 Express, which will be available as a free download, helps businesses securely connect to a wide range of...

News.
November 13, 2007... Trading Standards and the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast) have joined forces to start cold calls on software resellers to check whether they are selling bootleg software. The two organisations will first start calling on resellers...

News.
November 13, 2007... IT is seen as the geekiest profession by graduates, with few now wanting to enter the industry. When 150 graduates were questioned by recruitment firm Just IT, 78% thought IT was the geekiest career option, and that it was not particularly...

News.
November 13, 2007... IBM has developed a videogame to help university students develop business and IT skills. Innov8 is an interactive, 3-D educational game designed to bridge the gap in understanding between IT teams and business leaders in an organisation....

News.
November 13, 2007... IBM has launched an energy efficiency certificate programme for IT departments. In conjunction with third-party certification body Neuwing Energy, the IBM programme will provide clients with documentation and verification of the energy...

News.
November 13, 2007... A UK mediation service provider has set up a panel to focus on intellectual property and technology disputes. In Place of Strife's specialist panel of mediators will handle disputes related to IT and computer law, trademark and patent...

News.
November 13, 2007... The London Stock Exchange has blamed a technical issue with its Infolec data dissemination feed for the system failure that prevented some firms from trading yesterday afternoon (7 November). Some traders were unable to complete trades...

News.
November 13, 2007... The UK's top 100 retailers are turning to outsourcing to improve the effectiveness of their IT budgets, which have remained static at 1.3% of sales for the past three years, according to research from Martec International. A report based...

News.
November 13, 2007... Microsoft has sacked its CIO for "violating company policies". Microsoft said CIO Stuart Scott was "terminated" after a company investigation. The firm is now looking for its fourth CIO in as many years. Until a replacement is found,...

News.
November 13, 2007... The UK is likely to lead discussions on internet security as part of an international debate on the future of the internet. However, UK delegates will also address access, diversity, openness, and critical internet resources at the Internet...

News.
November 13, 2007... Vodafone and Nokia have agreed to launch a new range of integrated Vodafone services on Nokia handsets to improve connectivity and communications for Vodafone customers. The integrated suite of Vodafone services will be combined with the...

News.
November 13, 2007... UK business continuity practitioners have welcomed the prospect of the first BSI British standard for business continuity to be published this month. "The standard will give companies clear guidelines on putting together a business...

News.
November 13, 2007... The Home Office will call for bids for the first two pieces of work on the National Identity Scheme in May 2008. The mini projects are for the biometric database and application and enrolment operation. The call will come out as soon as the...

News.
November 13, 2007... Ian Grant ian.grant@rbi.co.uk Eighty per cent of firms do not block access to social networking websites despite the threats they can pose to network security, a survey of more than 1,000 IT staff has revealed. The report by...

News.
November 13, 2007... BSI British Standards is to publish a specification for web standards early next year to govern the effectiveness, function and appearance of websites. The publicly available specification (PAS 124) will be developed using a two-stage...

Special Report.(datacentre designs)
November 13, 2007... Today's business environment runs 24 hours a day. Customer demand and the "follow the sun" necessities of global operation mean that access to transactions and services is needed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and downtime has massive...

IT migration disrupts services for Abbey.(News)
November 13, 2007... UK bank Abbey has acknowledged that service to customers has been disrupted as it grapples with migrating to a "state of the art" core banking system. Abbey's parent company, Spanish banking group Santander, is migrating the UK bank to its...

Technology.
November 13, 2007... Lack of interoperability and liability hold back identity management IT An identity management strategy is vital to allow businesses to collaborate with business partners and support regulatory compliance, but the technology poses...

How to ensure optimum value from IT investments.(Management)
November 13, 2007... Driving value from IT projects requires watching for danger signs and a willingness to let go of a project if it will not deliver return on investment When entrusting your investment funds to a professional fund manager it would be...

how to take your systems global.(Features)(globalisation and technology standards )
November 13, 2007... In this third instalment in our series on globalisation, Lindsay Clark looks at how to approach the challenge of managing the transition from a legacy environment to a globalised infrastructure, and finds it's not all about technology ...

Revenue cuts deal to shave [pounds sterling]50m off annual IT spend.(News)
November 13, 2007... HM Revenue & Customs has struck a deal to cut its IT spending with Capgemini by hundreds of millions of pounds over the life of its outsourcing contract with the supplier. The agreement compensates Capgemini with a three-year contract extension...

General Motors oils supply chain with Web 2.0 lessons.(News)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... General Motors has developed a set of best practices based on social networking and open source projects to specify how IT suppliers and users companies communicate. The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Acquisition standard...

Birmingham hospital eases storage burden with e-mail archiving tool.(Career Moves)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... University Hospital Birmingham has implemented an enterprise archiving system to help it manage increasing volumes of e-mail communications. The system, EAS from storage firm Autonomy Zantaz, was installed by system integrator Essential...

Opinion and Letters.
November 13, 2007... Monday Corporate bored meeting this morning. As I came in I noticed that the director of finance was sitting next to the chief executive. This is always a bad sign. They have revised the budget projections for next year in the light...

Datacentre built on Harrods' roof.(News)(Harrods to use enterprise resource planning system )(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... Harrods is migrating its SAP enterprise resource planning system from Osterly in west London to a datacentre on the roof of its flagship store in Knightsbridge. The project will ensure that IT staff can support key store IT systems on...

Law firm gets compliant with Neverfail system.(News)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... Global law firm Davies Arnold Cooper has invested in a Neverfail disaster recovery system to comply with a new regulation on business continuity for solicitors. The updated Solicitors' Code of Conduct, introduced in July, requires law...

Chevron to use Sharepoint in 180 countries.(News)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... Chevron is standardising on Microsoft Sharepoint in the third phase of a project to overhaul its IT infrastructure linking 56,000 employees in 180 countries. "Sharepoint allows teams to set up content collaboration sites quickly and it is...

Human risk is neglected in disaster plans, warns study.(News)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... Staff are being overlooked in organisations' disaster recovery plans, according to a report published this week. The report, based on interviews with business continuity practitioners, urges business to prioritise human risk when developing...

News.
November 13, 2007... PCI compliance used as blueprint for IT security Payment services company Total Web Solutions (TWS) has used the security procedures introduced in a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) project to boost security across its...

News.
November 13, 2007... Whitehall urged to learn from Northern Ireland Whitehall could learn valuable lessons from a major IT change programme under way in Northern Ireland, analysts said this week. As reported in Computer Weekly last week, the [pounds...

Banks need single view for Basel 2.(News)(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.)
November 13, 2007... analysis HSBC's plans to create a single view of customer records is typical of the enterprise-wide systems that banks will need to comply with new international rules HSBC's plans to create a single anti-fraud system for all of its...

Cooling may wipe out server savings.(Technology)(datacentres management)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... Higher power and cooling costs could negate the financial advantages of cramming more servers into datacentres unless firms improve the monitoring of their energy overheads, Gartner has warned. Rakesh Kumar, research vice-president at the...

Google coding tools open alternatives to Facebook.(Technology)
November 13, 2007... Google has introduced an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for the social networking sector that could challenge the dominance of Facebook, which is built on proprietary APIs. Opensocial, a set of APIs that lets...

Catastrophic opportunity.(Opinion and Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 13, 2007... Ensuring that your business continues to serve customers in spite of the myriad plagues of our time - summer floods, autumn leaves on the line, and retro industrial disputes - is maturing into a discipline that calls upon IT more than any other...

Will Microsoft ruling have knock-on effect?(Opinion and Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 13, 2007... EC takes a tough line with antitrust judgement Now that the dust has settled on the legal battle between the European Commission and Microsoft, the question remains what, if any, impact the judgement of the Court of First Instance (CFI) may...

Opinion and Letters.
November 13, 2007... Government is beginning to address the skills gap Karl Parkinson, chairman, Computeach International I read with great interest the article by Rebecca Thomson entitled "European Commission plans blue card to ease IT skills shortage"....

survive the unexpected.(Special Report)(small to medium-sized enterprises )
November 13, 2007... Business continuity planning is necessary to keep a business afloat in the event of unexpected problems. Miya Knights looks at what SMEs can do to survive a disaster Business continuity is best thought of as the test of how your business...

De Montfort degree to explore IT in society.(Career Moves)(Brief article)
November 13, 2007... A degree looking at the social impact and role of IT will be launched next year by De Montfort University in Leicester. From September 2008, the BA (Hons) course in society and information will explore the role of IT in society, and the...

Demand for IT skills rising as credit crunch shows flaws in bank systems.(Career Moves)
November 13, 2007... Demand for IT skills in the financial services sector is rising, after the "credit crunch" highlighted weaknesses in firms' computer models, ReThink Recruitment said last week. Banks are looking to improve the ability of back-office systems...

Career Moves.
November 13, 2007... Government-backed initiative aims to attract women back into IT A government-backed initiative has been launched to try to persuade women who have left IT after taking a career break to return to the industry. The programme, from IT...

Komodo opens up multi-language programming.(Career Moves)
November 13, 2007... Hot skills Integrated environment knits together different skills What is it? Komodo is an integrated development environment (IDE), which is the umbrella term given to a collection of software development tools organised in a single...

Career Moves.
November 13, 2007... The question What are the options for a Cobol expert? I returned to IT a year ago after a 10-year absence. I am an analyst programmer with Cobol and RPG experience, and I was lucky enough to get a trainee position with a small local...

News.
November 13, 2007... A former DuPont scientist in the US has been jailed for stealing the company's trade secrets. Former DuPont employee Gary Min was sentenced in a US court to 18 month's jail and ordered to pay a [pounds sterling]15,000 fine after...

News.
November 13, 2007... Airlines could have to provide more data on passengers to countries under new laws proposed by the European Union. European officials want law enforcement authorities in member states to receive Passenger Name Record (PNR) information,...

News.
November 13, 2007... HP has updated its Integrity server line-up with the latest processor technology and new software to help customers reduce costs through enhanced automation and improved energy efficiency. The Integrity family of servers and server blades...

News.
November 13, 2007... IBM is offering a one-stop shop for the 12 stages of Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Credit card payment processing companies need to meet all 12 PCI requirements for safeguarding customer payment card data, a process that usually...

News.
November 13, 2007... A campaign group against government waste has called on the government to cut its losses and scrap the compulsory ID card scheme. "The money they have wasted so far is insignificant compared to the billions that will be squandered if they...

News.
November 13, 2007... This year's conference held by the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) will be focused on user experience of IT skills management. Organisers say the event will be useful to IT directors who want to improve their organisations'...

News.
November 13, 2007... IBM is reducing IT complexity with new products that support its ongoing "Autonomic Computing" strategy, to deliver self-managing, self-healing computing systems. The latest products announced by IBM deliver operational intelligence from...

News.
November 13, 2007... Organisations must use IT to exploit collaboration and communities beyond traditional business boundaries to achieve business innovation, says analyst Gartner. Shrinking returns from business automation and the impact of Web 2.0 are...

News.
November 13, 2007... The prime minister's e-Petitions operation is up for an e-government award. The shortlist for the e-Government National Awards 2007 has now been finalised. On 5 November the 81 names of the finalists were published. The awards set...

News.
November 13, 2007... Businesses need to open up their networks and applications to improve the return on investment of business automation by taking advantage of Web 2.0 collaboration, Gartner has advised. The analyst firm has predicted that by 2009, six out of...

News.
November 13, 2007... Google has finally announced its mobile phone strategy and it is not a new phone. Andy Rubin, Google director of mobile platforms, said, "Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we are not announcing a...

News.
November 13, 2007... The Humber Mental Health Teaching Trust has selected a helpdesk system to provide improved centralised IT support to primary care and mental health trusts in the area. The Humber Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust has selected Supportworks...

News.
November 13, 2007... IBM has devised an energy efficiency certificate programme to help IT directors to use energy efficiency gains as a business metric. An evaluation conducted by Neuwing Energy Ventures, a verifier of energy efficiency projects is used to...

News.
November 13, 2007... One of the liabilities of the internet, copyright violation, could be solved by an invention from Japanese boffins. A Waseda University research group has developed a fast way to search through large numbers of images to find close matches...

News.
November 13, 2007... Business collaboration is the top enterprise IT challenge for 2008, say firms. A survey of 250 IT directors by IT consultant Touchstone Group says accessing and sharing business information within a company is the biggest challenge. ...

News.
November 13, 2007... An independent scientific laboratory, commissioned by Greenpeace, has found that the iPhone contains toxic chemicals that could interfere with sexual development in mammals. The lab tested 18 internal and external components of the iPhone...

News.
November 13, 2007... The Land Registry will block online access to sensitive data following a security flaw being identified on its online registry service. A newspaper reported that criminal gangs have stolen [pounds sterling]12m in two years exploiting the...

News.
November 13, 2007... A CD containing personal data on 15,000 people has been lost by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) putting them all at risk of exploitation. The disc was meant to be sent from the revenue office in Newcastle to insurance company Standard Life's...

News.
November 13, 2007... Businesses are undermining their network security according to a survey from IT security firm Safenet, which reported that some 8,500 mobile devices are left at airports. The major London airports reported the biggest haul of gadgets,...

News.
November 13, 2007... Warning as first serious Apple Mac Trojan hits Apple Mac users are no longer immune to Trojan attacks, after a Texas-based Mac security firm, reported the first serious Trojan to affect the Apple Mac platform. Users may be forced to...

News.
November 13, 2007... The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is upgrading its existing networks and implementing high-performance wireless networks to deliver better bedside care. Affiniti has been appointed to provide and manage the new IP-based infrastructure....

News.
November 13, 2007... Microsoft has unveiled a multi-year strategy designed to help businesses create software based on a service oriented architecture. Dubbed "Oslo," the strategy involves building on the model-driven and service-enabled principles of Microsoft...

News.
November 13, 2007... UK online shoppers will spend [pounds sterling]13.8bn during the Christmas festive season this year - a 42% increase on last year. The estimate is from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG). IMRG, which represents leading etailers,...

News.
November 13, 2007... Members of the influential UK Oracle User Group have urged the enterprise software giant to get its virtualisation pricing model ready. More immediately, they pleaded that Oracle avoid the temptation to bring new Fusion upgrades to market....

News.
November 13, 2007... It is a quiet Patch Tuesday next week with Microsoft only distributing one "critical" security patch and one "important" fix on 13 November. Redmond says there will be one critical patch to address vulnerabilities in the Windows client and...

News.
November 13, 2007... PC shipments in Western Europe grew 17.7% in the third quarter, said analyst Gartner, but the UK market was weaker than other countries. The analyst said third quarter PC shipments totalled 13.8 million units, a 17.7% increase on the same...

News.
November 13, 2007... Amazon is to sell Red Hat Enterprise Linux on demand to firms. Red Hat has announced the beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux via the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) web service. This collaboration delivers all the...

News.
November 13, 2007... One of the UK's largest insurers, Royal and SunAlliance (R&SA) has outsourced its IT and printing operations for 10 years, in a deal that could be worth [pounds sterling]92m, if all contractual obligations are met. The outsourcer,...

News.
November 13, 2007... Super 3G mobile handsets will take the lion's share of the market by 2012. Research firm Informa predicts global handset sales will reach [pounds sterling]1.452bn by 2012, led by sales of super 3G, next generation mobile broadband devices....

News.
November 13, 2007... Mobile technology has created an oppressive work environment where end-users feel swamped by requests for their time. Instead of empowering workers most feel they are constantly on call and under scrutiny, a survey has shown. The research,...

News.
November 13, 2007... Most telecom carriers will fail to transform themselves into successful content enablers by 2012, said analyst Gartner. The analyst said 80% of carriers will fail to make the transition, even though traditional telecom carriers can no...

News.
November 13, 2007... In the wake of its merger and integration with MyTravel, travel agency Thomas Cook has outsourced the management of application, infrastructure and business processes to Accenture for 10 years. The deal, which also covers finance,...

News.
November 13, 2007... Microsoft has launched the next generation of its Windows Live free online communications services. The new offering delivers enhancements to popular services such as Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Spaces. ...

News.
November 13, 2007... Worms, once responsible for some of the worst virus epidemics in history, are now on the decline and are gradually fading into the background as hackers are looking to make money instead. Figures compiled by web security outfit PandaLabs...