In Depth

In Depth

• Intelligent ways to tackle cyber attack

  Artificial intelligence-powered security tools should enable IT security teams to achieve more with less  Continue Reading

• Storage pros and cons: Block vs file vs object storage

  Despite the many changes in storage, there are still some fundamentals that hold true. We look at the key defining characteristics and use cases of block, file and object storage  Continue Reading

• Automating IT security

  IT security’s battle with the hacking community has always been a game of cat and mouse, but it’s becoming increasingly automated  Continue Reading

• APAC hybrid cloud adoption still cloudy

  Although there are clear benefits of hybrid cloud, APAC enterprises aren’t making the most of them due to the lack of holistic understanding, strategic frameworks and skill sets  Continue Reading

• Drive to improve flash reliability

  Due to its limited write cycles, flash-based storage can corrupt data. Computer Weekly looks at how flash reliability is being addressed  Continue Reading

• How business software can stay clear of digital addiction

  Consumer software is notoriously and deliberately addictive. Should companies and B2B IT emulate that or take the high ground of avoiding the spread of user digital addiction?  Continue Reading

• Decision points in storage for artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data

  Artificial intelligence and machine learning storage is not one-size-fits-all. Analytics work differs, and has varied storage requirements for capacity, latency, throughput and IOPS. We look at key decision points  Continue Reading

• Auditing for algorithmic discrimination

  Despite the abundance of decision-making algorithms with social impacts, many companies are not conducting specific audits for bias and discrimination that can help mitigate their potentially negative consequences  Continue Reading

• Getting infrastructures in shape for the big return to work

  As firms get used to a partial return to the workplace, what will this mean for those that have been charged with keeping business networks up and running during lockdown?  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How Covid-19 has elevated the status of the datacentre industry

  The pandemic has served to highlight just how dependent the world is on the datacentre community – and governments, policy-makers and investors are taking note  Continue Reading

• Between a cloud and a hard place: companies change applications tack

  The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has intensified and sped up the migration of business applications to the cloud  Continue Reading

• Black Lives Matter, but do bots know that?

  The volume of content generated each day necessitates automated moderation to curate everything as it is published, ensuring offensive and objectionable material is blocked. But this only works if systems are adequately configured and reviewed  Continue Reading

• How Malaysia’s industries are tapping IoT

  Computer Weekly speaks to four industries that claim to have benefited from various IoT deployments and how it has changed their businesses  Continue Reading

• Will the Covid-19 crisis accelerate a shift in tech talent out of London?

  As the coronavirus pandemic has forced firms to work more flexibly, threatening traditional large office spaces in London, will tech talent make a long-term shift away from the capital?  Continue Reading

• Diversity in coding bootcamps

  Coding bootcamp operators must actively engage with issues of access, diversity and inclusion if they want to stop reproducing the same gendered, racialised and class-based outcomes the tech sector keeps promising to address  Continue Reading

• Digitally mapping for solidarity and cooperation

  How digital mapping tools can be used to promote solidarity and cooperation between enterprises, groups and individual organisers with a strong social purpose  Continue Reading

• APT groups’ mobile momentum finally faces resistance

  State-backed APT groups are increasingly targeting mobile devices as Covid-19 puts the spotlight on remote working infrastructure security. We explore how the industry is fighting back  Continue Reading

• David vs Goliath: How the smaller cloud firms have weathered the Covid-19 storm

  The toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on the hyperscale cloud community is well documented, but how have smaller providers fared in the face of soaring demand for their services?  Continue Reading

• Making the most of coding bootcamps

  Computer Weekly explores how aspiring developers can make the most of coding bootcamps, with a focus on how to avoid being duped by a programme that promises more than it can deliver  Continue Reading

• How to apply zero-trust models to container security

  Containers have become a common fixture in software development, but they have resulted in new concerns for security teams. Is zero-trust the answer to tackling them?  Continue Reading

• Cloud flash storage: SSD options from AWS, Azure and GCP

  We look at the flash storage options available from the big three cloud providers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform – that can help narrow the gap between on-site and cloud workloads  Continue Reading

• Dealing in data

  Lessons learned from pandemic data reporting will help forge new analytics techniques to improve data quality  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage on-site hardware: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

  We look at the big three cloud vendors’ on-site offerings: AWS’s Outposts, Gateway and Snow hardware, Azure’s Stack and Arc appliances, and Google Cloud’s software-defined Anthos  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How to go back to the office safely and securely

  Security teams should be used to supporting remote workers effectively by now, but what’s going to happen when people start returning to their offices? We look at the risks and how to address them.  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage 101: NAS file storage on AWS, Azure and GCP

  We look at NAS file storage options in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. All three offer native-based and NetApp-based file storage, with Azure adding single namespace cache services  Continue Reading

• Accurate data in, better insights out

  The coronavirus pandemic has propelled data into the headlines, but it has also shown the challenges of dealing with incomplete datasets  Continue Reading

• Collaboration technology is breeding burnout – keep it real

  The Covid-19 pandemic has inevitably caused the use of collaboration platforms to spike. But as fatigue sets in, organisations try to keep their use cases focused  Continue Reading

• Keeping the lights on: Managing datacentre engineers through Covid-19

  The coronavirus pandemic has seen datacentre engineers reclassified as “essential workers”, but how are their employers ensuring they can continue to do their work in a safe and secure way?  Continue Reading

• The datacentre chill-factor: Finding the right conditions

  Computer Weekly explores a variety of cost-effective, energy-efficient services currently using innovative methods to keep datacentres cool  Continue Reading

• Cloud storage 101: File, block and object storage in the cloud

  We run the rule over file, block and object storage from the big three public cloud providers: AWS, Azure and GCP. We look at what’s on offer and the use cases they are aimed at  Continue Reading

• Constructing the future for engineering – finding the right model where one size does not fit all

  Design and engineering has rapidly evolved to be all about interconnected devices. We see how one of the leading manufacturing software suppliers is meeting the challenge  Continue Reading

• The Billion-Year Archive project: A post-apocalyptic disaster recovery plan

  The Arch Mission Foundation’s Nova Spivack opens up about its Billion-Year Archive project, which aims to provide the Earth with an apocalypse-level disaster recovery plan  Continue Reading

• GDPR at two: How far we’ve come, how far we still have to go

  Marking two years of the General Data Protection Regulation, industry voices weigh in on the state of data protection and privacy, consider what has changed, and what still needs to change  Continue Reading

• Mainframe storage: Three players in a market that’s here to stay

  Far from disappearing, the mainframe market and the storage it needs is here to stay for some time. The three key array makers compete with high-end flash-equipped products  Continue Reading

• 2B or not 2C? That is the question for 5G

  A flurry of 5G network launches in all major markets in Asia, North America and Europe, focused on consumer applications and services. This looks set to change in 2020 as the operators get down to business  Continue Reading

• Malaysia’s data protection practices still have some way to go

  Some Malaysian firms are not using data protection tools to the fullest potential, while others only think about data protection after a breach  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Hardening up datacentre equipment supply chains post-Covid-19

  Fears about hardware shortages, staff absenteeism and how to keep sites up and running with social distancing have dogged the datacentre sector since the start of the pandemic, so how is the sector faring?  Continue Reading

• Datacentre liquid cooling: What needs to happen for it to become commonplace in colocation?

  As demand for increasingly dense racks and compute-heavy workloads increases within datacentres, could this lead to a wholesale shift in preference from air-to-liquid-based cooling systems? If so, at what cost to the environment?  Continue Reading

• Surveillance capitalism in the age of Covid-19

  Could the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic further consolidate surveillance capitalist practices and enterprises? Author Shoshana Zuboff warns Computer Weekly it is possible  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Retailers reach for tech to keep staff connected in the crisis

  From fast-tracking home-working strategy, to conducting training and board meetings virtually, read about how retailers are keeping staff connected during the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis  Continue Reading

• What are the security priorities for the post-coronavirus world?

  The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing massive change across the business world and things may never go back to normal. What does security look like in this new world, and what will buyers be prioritising?  Continue Reading

• Five pillars of public sector IT

  Finding better ways for people to collaborate and share information digitally is the challenge government needs to embrace. We look at ways in which this can be achieved  Continue Reading

• Storage 101: Replication vs backup, and synchronous vs asynchronous

  Storage 101: Can replication replace backup? What are the pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous backup? What’s the best way to mix backup and replication?  Continue Reading

• How Blackwell's is responding to the coronavirus pandemic

  Traditional bookshop chain Blackwell’s talked about adaptations to its business model, trends and IT operation during the coronavirus crisis  Continue Reading

• Contact tracing: The privacy vs protection debate

  The Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated extreme measures not seen in peacetime for over 100 years. Contact-tracing apps are being developed as a tool for managing the pandemic, but are they a step too far?  Continue Reading

• Storage 101: Crash-consistent vs application-consistent snapshots

  We look at crash-consistent and application-consistent snapshots and backup, how they are defined, the pros and cons of each and the benefits and limits of Windows VSS  Continue Reading

• Changing realities of digital transformation in the public sector

  Digitisation of citizen service delivery and government operations has accelerated during the coronavirus outbreak, despite legacy constraints  Continue Reading

• The People vs Amazon: ‘They will have to answer to all of us’, says fired employee Christian Smalls

  Former Amazon employee Christian Smalls speaks to Computer Weekly about his termination and how the company is trying to silence dissent as it reports massive sales  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How to cope with the digital skills divide

  Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, employers need tech and digital talent more than ever. But how can organisations recruit and train the skills they need during a lockdown?  Continue Reading

• Unified communications: The key to prospering in the new working reality of Covid-19

  Covid-19 lockdowns are causing a collective rethink in the way companies operate, with unified communications transformed from a nice-to-have to a business essential as remote working becomes the new normal  Continue Reading

• Designing software to include older people in the digital world

  The Covid-19 coronavirus crisis has accentuated the importance of including older people in the digital world. How can software firms design products to include generations that came to maturity before the internet?  Continue Reading

• Snapshots 101: Array vs backup software

  We run the rule over snapshots in storage arrays and backup software and find a range of capabilities that go from mere support to fully snapshot-centric approaches  Continue Reading

• Public sector IT: The road to digital

  Progress to digital transformation is patchy in the public sector, but some CIOs are embracing the strategy  Continue Reading

• A carrot-and-stick approach to fixing cyber security complacency

  With a majority of IT decision-makers holding the opinion that their employers are complacent when it comes to data protection, we look at what needs to be fixed, and how to fix it  Continue Reading

• Storage 101: Snapshots vs backup

  We go over the basics of snapshots. They are a quick and accessible way of protecting data, but they are not a substitute for backup. So how do you combine the two?  Continue Reading

• Customer experience software can help companies weather the Covid-19 storm

  Advanced customer experience software can help companies weather the current Covid-19 storm, as well as build resilience. Marks & Spencer is one firm exploring the technology  Continue Reading

• How to overcome application modernisation barriers

  Most businesses are not lucky enough to be able to build a new cloud native architecture. We look at how to take legacy applications forward  Continue Reading

• High-performance object storage: What’s driving it?

  Object storage is getting its performance on to meet the needs of content delivery, analytics and IoT use cases while enabled by rapid flash storage media and other tech advances  Continue Reading

• Australian firms soldier on amid Covid-19 outbreak

  From the largest financial institutions to small companies, Aussie firms have been dialling up their use of technology tools to keep their businesses humming during the coronavirus pandemic  Continue Reading

• Multicloud storage 101: Pros, cons, pitfalls and strategies

  Not putting all your eggs in one basket can be helpful to an enterprise’s resilience strategy. We look at multicloud storage and the benefits and pitfalls it brings  Continue Reading

• How APAC firms are coping with the Covid-19 outbreak

  The air of change looms large in companies operating in the Asia-Pacific region, with some doing better than others in keeping the lights on amid the coronavirus pandemic  Continue Reading

• Applications: Combining the old with the new

  We look at how organisations can integrate legacy applications with newer digital platforms  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: The role of AI in the ‘war’ against epidemics and pandemics

  What role can artificial intelligence play in battling against epidemics and pandemics, such as the current Covid-19 coronavirus one? Data science is stepping up to back up medical science and to prepare humanity better for future pandemics  Continue Reading

• NAS backup: Which suppliers have gone post-NDMP?

  NAS backup with NDMP has many drawbacks so some vendors have moved to a data management approach that tracks changes and allows for incremental forever protection  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Contactless limit rises as retailers make point-of-sale changes

  The spending limit for contactless card payments is increasing to £45 today (1 April), which is just one of several ways that retail point-of-sale is evolving in response to the coronavirus  Continue Reading

• Malaysia’s business continuity planning readiness a mixed bag

  Larger Malaysian enterprises have BCP in place, but SMEs lag behind and will find it harder to weather the Covid-19 storm  Continue Reading

• Top five compliance concerns for UK business in 2020

  We look at the top five legal and regulatory compliance concerns for UK businesses in 2020. It’s a list that includes GDPR, the DPA, PECR, PCI-DSS and the CCPA  Continue Reading

• Why security validation matters

  FireEye’s top executives in Asia-Pacific discuss the benefits of security validation and offer their take on the region’s cyber threat landscape  Continue Reading

• What are the drivers for application modernisation?

  Application modernisation is not something that just happens, nor is it just driven by digitisation and cloud-first strategies  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How app developers large and small are working to help fight Covid-19

  Computer Weekly looks at how a range of actors are using technology to help mitigate the various impacts caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak  Continue Reading

• Governing by data: Limits and opportunities

  Governing by the use of data analytics may be fashionable, but what are its limits as well as its opportunities? Lessons from Estonia, Essex, and healthcare  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Grocers scrambling to update online and delivery propositions

  The supermarkets have effectively become the fourth emergency service as the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis takes hold, aided by significant online and delivery changes  Continue Reading

• Edge computing environments: what you need to know

  An edge case in business sits at the limits of what's viable, and edge computing requirements suggest a similar struggle  Continue Reading

• What’s the problem with NAS backup?

  NAS backup has always been problematic, but what exactly are the issues with NDMP, and what are backup suppliers doing to make a decades-old storage staple easier to protect?  Continue Reading

• The AWS bucket list: Keep your cloud secure

  Misconfigured cloud installations risk billions of records being exposed, damaging organisations’ finances and reputations. Paying attention to securing AWS storage buckets is a simple matter  Continue Reading

• Benefits of branching out into SD-WAN

  There is much more to SD-WAN than just cheaper branch office connectivity, so IT buyers have a lot to consider  Continue Reading

• Computational storage: What is it and what are its key use cases?

  Computational storage brings the CPU to the storage and so boosts system performance by tackling processing tasks, such as near the edge or in AI/machine learning workloads  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: How to implement safe and secure remote working

  Find out what CIOs and CISOs need to know to enable their end-users to work remotely and stay secure during the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis, and learn how users can help themselves  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus: Can the networks take the strain?

  It was predicted that the mass roll-out of computer networks would mean at some point that there was no difference between work and home as a working location. These assumptions are about to be tested to the full  Continue Reading

• How Oxeva delivered budget analytics with Pure Storage flash NAS

  Web hosting provider Oxeva thought the consultants were mistaken and that what suited the web giants for analytics/big data wasn’t necessarily what was needed for enterprise customers  Continue Reading

• Shirts and suits retailers using tech to stay smart

  Enhanced personalisation, increased visualisation and much more customisation with a digital twist comprise the to-do lists of several UK formalwear retailers  Continue Reading

• Container storage 101: What is CSI and how does it work?

  We look at the container storage interface, which provides an interface to persistent storage in the products of storage array makers, and how it relates to Kubernetes  Continue Reading

• Networking gains ‘cool’ status

  There is renewed interest in networking, driven by enterprises looking at how public cloud services can co-exist with on-premise IT  Continue Reading

• Malaysia’s digital transformation efforts progress

  Malaysian enterprises are taking steps to modernise their infrastructure, but many are still grappling with the lack of niche IT skills in key emerging technologies such as the internet of things  Continue Reading

• Lean, mean and green: The datacentres of the future

  Working out how to develop more efficient datacentres in an increasingly resource-hungry world is not easy, but it is possible  Continue Reading

• Molotov.tv streams 24/7 with Dell EMC and Scality object storage

  France-based Molotov.tv has offered streaming TV services on digital platforms since 2016, based on Dell EMC servers with GPU acceleration and Scality Ring object storage  Continue Reading

• Upcoming conflict minerals regulation does not cover major technology companies

  A forthcoming regulation designed to stem the flow of conflict minerals is unlikely to change the behaviour of technology companies because loopholes in the new rules mean they are not covered  Continue Reading

• How will the 2020 Budget affect the UK tech sector?

  Co-founder of crowdfunding app WhatWeWant looks at what the UK's tech sector can expect from the 2020 budget  Continue Reading

• Three network technologies driven by cloud-native computing

  Networking technologies are being driven heavily by digitisation and cloud computing. Gartner picks three networking trends to watch  Continue Reading

• Cache vs tier: What’s the difference between cache and storage?

  We look at the key distinctions between cache and tiers of storage, and where the line has become blurred with fast flash, 3D Xpoint and storage class memory technologies  Continue Reading

• Flash storage tiers: Performance, cost and use cases

  We look at performance, cost and potential use cases for the key flash storage types available, such as Nand flash, 3D Xpoint and Intel Optane, plus SAS, SATA and NVMe connectivity  Continue Reading

• The future of open source licences is changing

  The Open Source Insider blog on Computer Weekly recently asked industry experts for their views on the future of open source licensing  Continue Reading

• Rook 101: Building software-defined containerised storage in Kubernetes

  Rook – think castles, not birds – uses the principles of containerisation and the methods used in Kubernetes to build storage that’s abstracted from the hardware it lives on  Continue Reading

• Datacentres operators must move away from diesel backup generators to give back to grid

  While the diesel backup generators used by datacentre operators have a limited environmental impact, using them for extended periods of time to power sites to feed energy back into the grid is not a sustainable solution to growing electricity demand  Continue Reading

• How to find the right zero trust strategy

  Large tech companies and the US Federal Government have adopted zero trust as their next-generation security model  Continue Reading

• Trusty methods to keep out intruders

  Today’s hyper-connected world means trust can no longer be taken for granted to keep networks secure – enter the zero-trust model  Continue Reading

• Kubernetes storage 101: Container storage basics

  We look at the basics of creating storage and specifying it for applications in container storage using Kubernetes Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume Claims  Continue Reading

• How HR robotics can be good for people

  The automation of human resources processes, some of which uses robotic process automation, can benefit humans, as a clutch of Nordic and UK organisations show  Continue Reading

• How to build the perfect tech team despite talent shortages

  The technology skills gap is growing worldwide, despite digital skills being as important as ever. So how can IT leaders develop the perfect tech team in the current talent environment?  Continue Reading

• Is this Netflix-style thriller the future of security training?

  Cyber awareness specialists at KnowBe4 reckon that bringing Netflix-style production values to corporate videos heralds a new approach to security training  Continue Reading