Articles By Rik Ferguson at CIO UK

Clouds of vapour

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:01:00 GMT

According to Wikipedia, a polemic is a contentious argument that is intended to establish the truth of a specific belief and the falsity of the contrary belief. I am sufficiently concerned about certain current aspects of the business development of the cloud to polemicise on the matter.

Perspective Matters: Contextual Security

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:54:46 GMT

Time was when one of the key things that a security technology had to avoid, was initiating an avalanche of event notifications. Tuning technologies to only alert when something Very Certain and Very Bad had happened was the order of the day. Your firewall had to be absolutely certain that those...

Boardroom engagement for CIOs

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:51:00 GMT

You are invited to report on IT at meeting of the board. You systematically work your way through the list of items you want to bring to the senior management team�??s attention. The last of which is the two-day website outage that took place the previous weekend.

Unlocking the cloud

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:19:00 GMT

The marketing message for January�??s Cloud Expo Europe 2013 at Olympia was �??Unlock the Cloud�??. I spent my first day at the Expo chairing the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) Knowledge Network Theatre, and most of the second visiting exhibitors�?? stands.

Steve Connor, Carillion CIO, the key quotes

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:37:00 GMT

Carillion is a relatively new name for a company that has been part of the construction and support services industry in some shape or form for over a century.

The CIO portfolio will be as diverse as society

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:00:38 GMT

It is widely accepted that although difficult at times, the diversity in UK society has been beneficial to this country. Based on CIO round table events and a slew of recent interviews, it looks as if the enterprise application landscape is about to go through a diversity transformation akin to...

Jaguar Land Rover CIO Jeremy Vincent interview, the key quotes

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:13:00 GMT

The big cat bites back

Write once, exploit anywhere

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:05:28 GMT

Is Java safe for enterprises or for individual users? A question that has been the topic of the month since the most recent widely publicised zero-day vulnerabilities and associated exploits in Oracle's Java distribution. Not a question though, that has a straightforward answer.Java was...

Andy Haywood's diversity challenge as the Co-op Group CIO

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:39:00 GMT

From food and finance to farming and funerals, the Co-operative Group touches all parts of our lives. Andy Haywood�??s IT strategy is to bring all these strands together as one

CIO Jeremy Vincent hunts down an exciting future at Jaguar Land Rover

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:45:00 GMT

A difficult past isn�??t stopping Jaguar Land Rover and its CIO Jeremy Vincent from hunting down an exciting future

Visa Europe's CIO Steve Chambers plays his next card

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:53:00 GMT

Its new payment processing platform is live, but the pace of change at an increasingly technology-led Visa Europe shows no sign of letting up, says its CIO Steve Chambers

Philip Langsgale's legacy

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:45:04 GMT

It is a sad start to 2013 with the sudden loss of Department for Work and Pensions CIO Philip Langsdale in late December 2012. Aged just 56 Langsdale was one of the UK's leading CIOs in a career that included a successful tenure at BAA. Colleagues from the BCS, of which he was a Fellow, and his...

LV= CIO Richard Warner the key quotes

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:46:00 GMT

Insurance firm's CIO shares his title with his IT department

Unilever CIO Willem Eelman, the key quotes

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:28:00 GMT

Willem Eelman is repackaging IT to meet business and ecological needs

A New Model for fast, efficient IT

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:47:00 GMT

Three years ago, CEB identified five trends that are rapidly reshaping IT

Software testing's stars of tomorrow

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:04:00 GMT

Europe�??s annual meeting of software testers, EuroSTAR, revealed a raft of startup companies riding the wave of change in an industry undergoing great transformation

AstraZeneca's CIO Jon Kirby, the key quotes

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:08:00 GMT

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has had a difficult recent history and like many businesses it faces some tough challenges in the near future. Jon Kirby, CIO at the Anglo-Swedish organisation, is part of a new leadership team facing up to those challenges.

The Results-Oriented CIO

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:46:00 GMT

Kaoru Ishikawa was a Japanese academic who advanced the notion of quality in part based on the work of the renowned US quality consultant W Edwards Denning. He graphically depicted cause and effects in what many may remember as the fishbone diagram.

Bangladesh is promising big things from a growing small software industry

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:30:00 GMT

Bangladesh should stop comparing its ICT industry with that of its bigger neighbour. Its outsourced offerings are on a much smaller scale but are no less innovative for it

Assessing the security of the devices entering the CIO's domain

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:35:16 GMT

There appears to be room for a "big three" at the top of the smartphone tree at the moment.The operating systems that appear to have solidified their dominance, at least in the consumer marketplace are Apple's iOS and Google's Android, leaving Microsoft and Research in Motion slugging it out for...

Being a key element of cultural transformation

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:44:00 GMT

One of the symptoms of the digital economy is that the small group of early technology adopters is growing rapidly.

European Commission strategy to address cloud concerns

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:38:00 GMT

SMEs are adopting cloud solutions with great success, but large-scale delivery is being held up by concerns over standards and security. The EC is picking up the mantle

CIOs focus their budgets on transformation and collaboration

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:47:00 GMT

The past few years have seen surprisingly healthy increases in IT spending, but the outlook for 2013 is more modest.

CIOs are reaching the Summit

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:19:00 GMT

CIOs have found their place in the organisation which enables them to do good work regardless of whether they have a key to the executive washroom.

Redefining BYOD

feedback@cio.co.uk (Rik Ferguson) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:38:47 GMT

More companies are seeing the benefits of allowing their employees to bring personally owned devices into the workplace and onto the corporate network. The familiarity of having your own smartphone for work means that you can work faster and, perhaps cynically from the employer's perspective,...