Computerworld UK "SI and tech insights"

Rolling your own crypto

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:40:00 GMT

I have been advising clients for many years on the use of cryptography to protect sensitive information. From keeping highly sensitive personal data secure to ensuring the integrity of financial transactions, cryptography plays a vital and central role as part of an overall solution to these problems.

Get smarter about open source

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:08:00 GMT

Open source has come a long way in the past few years, and great stories of open source's success are abound.

Social Networking -- the pill for painful Cloud adoption?

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:36:00 GMT

I recently read an interesting report from The Economist on social networking “A world of connections”, and I agree with the authors that we’re in the midst of a profound change.

MDM, what's in a name?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Master Data Management, or MDM to those in the know, is a later addition to the vast lexicon of IT acronyms. But what does it really mean? Some industry acronyms are fairly self-explanatory such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BI (Business Intelligence).

Social Network Analysis 2.0

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:34:00 GMT

When most people hear “Social Network Analysis (SNA)” today, they usually think about Facebook or Xing. However, Social Network Analysis is actually an empirical method that has been well-established even before the age of personal computers.

Government Cloud: Yes? No? Maybe?

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:42:00 GMT

There is significant discussion within government bodies as to what are the best ways to start realising the potential cost savings (and other benefits) offered by cloud service providers, including:

The future is wide open

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:42:00 GMT

Here we are, at the front of a new year and decade. For open source software, the refined fuel that has enabled many of the incredible information technology happenings of the previous decade, the future is, well, wide open.

Deeper collaboration the real prize with SaaS

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:46:00 GMT

In the energetic debate on SaaS and cloud computing, the spotlight often hovers on the technology itself versus the real benefits it brings, which sometimes becomes a distraction.

Enterprise MDM and apple pie

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:26:00 GMT

These days looking after single domains of master data, the traditional silos of customers, vendors and materials, is so last year. The latest value driver is bringing all of the organisation’s master data together in one place and having one MDM solution. Everybody wants that. Who wouldn’t?

Reporting and dashboards: Visual merchandising for business intelligence

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:33:00 GMT

Visual merchandising, primarily and most notably a retail term, is the art of optimising the presentation of a product or service in order to stimulate sales.

From perimeter security to data security

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:23:00 GMT

Traditional security models are typically modeled around protected corporate borders or perimeters through use of perimeter based firewalls, Network Intrusion Detection, Network Access Controls, and similar corporate barrier based security.

The value of Open Source Software in enterprise IT

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:46:00 GMT

When talking to clients about the value of open source in enterprise IT I explain that the benefit is more than just cost reduction. I emphasize that the value goes beyond lower cost.

Semantic Analytics? One step at a time

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:18:00 GMT

Way back in 2001, the founder of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee published his vision of the future Web. (In this book he states that the Web is designed for being read by humans and not for being understood by machines.

Reading the signs for SaaS

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:33:00 GMT

Given that I live and breathe SaaS and cloud computing with clients everyday, it’s sometimes easy for me to forget that this is still an emerging model in the enterprise.

Zen and the art of master data management

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:12:00 GMT

I am always intrigued by the number of times I hear how difficult it is to justify the business case for new master data management initiatives. Andy Hayler talks about this theme a lot in his insightful and entertaining blog.

Virtualisation is the workhorse behind cloud computing. Get to know it

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:00 GMT

The magic pixie dust that makes a cloud a cloud is virtualisation technology. It makes one computer behave as though it were many. It also makes many computers behave as one.

Open source software -- its about opportunity

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:31:00 GMT

Open source software is as much about opportunity as it is about preference, trend, or even choice.

Hybrid delivery model in business intelligence

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Business intelligence (BI) has evolved significantly in recent years - development tools are more sophisticated, business has become more refined, senior stakeholder sponsorship has increased, it goes on.…

SaaS: Focus on value rather than features

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

I’ve talked with many companies trying to decide whether to move to a SaaS model for CRM and HR applications or to stick with on-premise.

Forging a path to Productivity-as-a-Service

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:23:00 GMT

Now we’ve seen an amalgam of on-line and on-demand software hoisted in the name of productivity. The difference today is conviction and target audience of the vendors.

What's wrong on your website? Use analytics to improve user experience

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:17:00 GMT

In a recent post, Rob Walker shared his thoughts on the evolution of BI.

The real differences between SaaS and on-premise

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:48:00 GMT

I often get asked the question by clients “why should SaaS be any different to on-premise applications”?

The second wave in open source

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:13:00 GMT

The economic malaise currently gripping the globe has claimed many victims, but one area of business that has actually benefited is open source software adoption.

The virtualisation of cryptographic services

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:10:00 GMT

There is an ever increasing trend to virtualise IT services and we see this in nearly every facet of IT, from data centre provisioning to fine-grain identity management.

Cloud: Finding True North

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:47:00 GMT

I recently presented a workshop on cloud computing to a fairly large pharmaceutical company.