360°IT Blog
03 Dec 2010
You think that I'm strong...
You're wrong, you're wrong,
I'll sing my song - my song, my song.
So sang Robbie Williams in his introspective stadium anthem, Strong . It's...
I'll sing my song - my song, my song.
So sang Robbie Williams in his introspective stadium anthem, Strong . It's...
03 Dec 2010
Sounding off on SACD storage
In the audio world, Sony and Philips Electronics pushed the audiophile limits of the CD through the use of Super Audio CD (SACD). The format...
19 Nov 2010
Stop the IPv6 scaremongering!
Oh dear, here we go again. Remember the Y2K scare? When the media warned us that as the calendar rolled over from 1999 to 2000,...
12 Nov 2010
Silicon Roundabout and the Government's silicon see-saw
If you can judge a Government's commitment to an issue by the amount it has to say about it, then we should perhaps be heartened...
12 Nov 2010
The real laws of security
I've lost count of the number of security conferences I've attended over the past 40 years, but believe me it's a lot. Despite the advance...
05 Nov 2010
Naked rural fibre under our feet!
We hear from Government, regulators and industry that getting optical fibre into rural communities is going to be a really expensive exercise. But just an...
05 Nov 2010
An IT leader's take on the spending cuts
So, the Chancellor has made his speech. We've all heard how the Comprehensive Spending Review affects public sector budgets. But do we know what it...
29 Oct 2010
Are we building Frankenstein's monster?
Following Gary Kasparov's defeat by Deep Blue in 1997, the world of chess was outraged. Sound bites included "something strange is going on", "it didn't...
29 Oct 2010
Can IT kick-start the engine of recovery?
So, we all know about the Chancellor's "big gamble": be ruthless in cutting the public sector in a bid to reduce the structural defecit and...
22 Oct 2010
Can public-sector IT cut it?
In the end, Wednesday's spending review held few surprises. The Government and media have spent much of the past six months softening us up for...
15 Oct 2010
Don't spin, shout or silence in court - socialise!
Earlier this week low-cost airline Ryanair won its legal battle to close down the ihateryanair.co.uk website set up by a disgruntled customer. But its "victory"...
15 Oct 2010
The problem with perfection
A couple of weeks ago, I watched the documentary Find the Torch about Paul Weller's latest album, Wake up the Nation . Paul Weller is...
08 Oct 2010
The rise of the 'social CIO'?
Regular readers of this blog will know the role of social technology in the enterprise has been a recurring theme on here. Not surprisingly, it...
08 Oct 2010
Supplier relationships and Sod's Law
At the recent 360°IT event, I was fortunate to facilitate a panel discussion on the thorny and long-standing matter of suppliers' relationships with CIOs and...
01 Oct 2010
Can gameplay boost your business?
If you want ideas, let people tell you theirs. If you want good ideas, let them play games. I'm not talking about the free-and-easy 'office...
01 Oct 2010
Partners or providers? The path to better relationships
There was plenty of food for thought on offer at the 360°IT Event at Earl's Court last week. I sat in several breakout sessions related...
24 Sep 2010
Social and savvy - a snapshot of this week's 360°IT Event
If you weren't able to make it to this week's 360°IT event at Earl's Court, a quick glance at my Twitter timeline for 22-23 September...
23 Sep 2010
How to get SMEs into Government
The current need for drastic cuts in public spending offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the efficiency of the public sector. In order to achieve...
17 Sep 2010
Get off your bike and onto technology
The Coalition Government has made noises in two directions regarding the mobility of the UK workforce. First, they've been talking up the concept of "social...
16 Sep 2010
Have we traded road rage for Internet rage?
Now so many of us work from home, shop online and generally communicate using the Internet, our expectations of the web are rising. More and...
10 Sep 2010
The divide will be conquered
Only one in five senior (non-IT) managers involve their IT counterparts in business decision-making. Fewer than half claim to understand IT and almost a third...
10 Sep 2010
Why corporate IT can't innovate
One of the vaguest targets given to heads of IT is the directive to "be innovative". I've lost count of the number of times CIOs...
03 Sep 2010
Forwards through the rear-view mirror
Last year, I had my 50th birthday. With the thought of having to work for another 50 years at the back of my mind, I...
03 Sep 2010
Back to school - lessons from downtime
It amazes me organisations are still suffering longer than necessary interruptions to the availability of business-critical systems - not because they have an inadequate backup...
26 Aug 2010
Hey! You! Get off my cloud
I have long argued public cloud providers have set a new benchmark for IT security which in-house IT and traditional managed service providers will struggle...
26 Aug 2010
Sowing the seeds of disruption
I was recently a mentor at the Seedcamp event in London, a prestigious startup incubator event where selected firms get coaching and mentoring from industry...
20 Aug 2010
A price at any cost?
At a time when cost reduction is reportedly a priority for many organisations, one popular tactic seems to be to invite suppliers to tighten their...
20 Aug 2010
Ask not what projects can do for IT...
Too often, IT departments are told to make greater savings, do more with less or put projects on the back boiler as the business tries...
13 Aug 2010
It's time for real IT transformation
Earlier this week, an interesting email from McKinsey & Company dropped in my inbox, pointing to its report on Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch...
13 Aug 2010
If IT's so sexy, why can't we attract people?
It has been a busy few weeks for IT-related surveys. One revealed that many people in the UK would like to work in the sector....
06 Aug 2010
Let's bring IT and security back together
As a security professional, I have always found it paradoxical that there is often conflict between the information security and IT functions. Organisations need to...
06 Aug 2010
Storing up trouble
An article in the latest Computer Weekly reports that businesses are paying a high price for poor information management policies. The piece cites Symantec's 2010...
30 Jul 2010
Sun, sea, sand and... stress
Gone are the days of everyone being able to skip happily out of the office, safe in the knowledge that while on holiday they won't...
30 Jul 2010
Boulevard of broken dreams
Many IT projects that get conceived, developed and funded never actually see the light of day. Why? Because the 'business' has changed its mind. The...
23 Jul 2010
Bubbles and bridge-builders
Earlier this week, I watched a fascinating talk online by Ethan Zuckerman, a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard...
23 Jul 2010
Is your email killing you?
An interesting article in a recent edition of the ShortList magazine asked: "Is your email killing you?" With the rise of smartphones like Blackberrys and...
23 Jul 2010
Will we ever fix our software woes?
Why is it we continue to have the same challenges with our software suppliers that we seem to have had for the last two decades?...
16 Jul 2010
New media, same old story...
The other week on this blog, Peter Hinssen made the point that "we need to show users the way to the proper applications in the...
16 Jul 2010
On pyramids and tents
The famous pyramids of ancient Egypt were built 45 centuries ago to serve as monumental resting places for the pharaohs. They were a magnificent display...
16 Jul 2010
Dawn of a cool new age?
Received wisdom has it water and datacentres don't mix. Water-cooling was a necessary evil in the age of the mainframe, but these days our dear...
09 Jul 2010
Opening up can save the public sector
Earlier this week I attended the latest in the Reboot Britain series of events organised by Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the...
09 Jul 2010
Don’t let engineers design software or toilets
On a train journey from London to Liverpool last week, I found myself in a rather awkward situation. The toilet facilities on Virgin trains are...
09 Jul 2010
Fuzzy shape in the cloud
I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall;
I really don't know clouds at all....
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall;
I really don't know clouds at all....
02 Jul 2010
'Star Trek' could be closer than you think
Back in April, Professor Peter Cochrane predicted on this blog that "we are going to see manufacturing industry transformed by 3D replicators and networked operations...
02 Jul 2010
Why the paywall debate's a smoke screen
Earlier this year 360°IT's Denise Plumpton asked on this blog whether News International's decision to put the online versions of its flagship newspapers behind a...
02 Jul 2010
Success as a Service
I was recently asked by a finance director whether there was really anything different about today’s software as a service (SaaS) vendors that made them...
25 Jun 2010
Our sinister silicon insiders
All CIOs worry about security and spend significant sums trying to protect users, information and infrastructure. At every meeting I attend, it is generally acknowledged...
25 Jun 2010
Stop turning the young off IT
For some time now I've been worried about the future of IT in the UK and the way the profession is developing. I’m not normally...
25 Jun 2010
Can business save Britain?
According to the Treasury's own figures, the UK's economic recovery and financial future rely on us transforming into a flourishing, predominantly export-led economy in just...
18 Jun 2010
The rise of "bring your own" IT
Last week, Computer Weekly and 360°IT co-hosted a round table debate of senior private and public sector IT leaders on the topic of flexible working....
18 Jun 2010
Why "alignment" rings alarm bells
For years the phrase "aligning IT to the business" has been a mantra for aspiring CIOs. It's been said long and often that "alignment" is...
18 Jun 2010
Make or break for supplier relationships?
It seems some industries and sectors are further from the end of the downturn than others. The public sector, for example, is still only at...
11 Jun 2010
CEOs apathetic about IT? No, just bewildered
A dismaying headline in the latest Computer Weekly suggests
This strikes me as more than a little simplistic. Most top-tier CIOs have long recognised the...
This strikes me as more than a little simplistic. Most top-tier CIOs have long recognised the...
11 Jun 2010
Don't 'go dark' when the system's down
Last month I had to book a train ticket via thetrainline.com . To my annoyance, the system was not operating due to an industry-wide upgrade...
11 Jun 2010
The cloud hybrids are coming
Before you look over your shoulder for a plasma-rifle-wielding Terminator plugged into an all conquering Skynet artificial intelligence - no, I have not just witnessed...
04 Jun 2010
May the cloud be with you
Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest buzzword in the IT industry today is the cloud. Everything is cloud. You’ll be met with disdain...
04 Jun 2010
Should you stay or should you go?
Who wouldn’t want to swap the British rain for a nice sunny climate, or experience a new, exciting city? Working abroad can be great, and...
04 Jun 2010
Stop your sobbin'...
Why are IT leaders and C-level technology execs such apologists? "Well, I've spent 30 years in IT but I did spend a week in product...
28 May 2010
The £60 billion question
The $6.25 billion of public-sector cuts announced on 24th May by the Chancellor George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws included $95...
28 May 2010
Are we running around in cycles?
Some cynics might observe we’ve come a long way in IT to end up basically where we started. When you look at the time-sharing of...
28 May 2010
IT needs a sex change
I don’t need to emphasise how important IT is to the UK economy. Although he's no longer in charge, Gordon Brown was right when he...
21 May 2010
Dave and Nick's IT balancing act
As election fever subsides and the UK's new Government gets down to business, how will IT - both inside and outside Government - be affected?...
21 May 2010
Premature standardisation is the root of all evil
Facebook recently launched an initiative to spread its tentacles all over the Net by providing an integration possibility for third-party websites. Not that spectacular, you...
21 May 2010
Is IT embedded in your business's success?
Just how much of the really interesting, innovative and complex IT that drives a business's products and services is entrusted to the company’s CIO and...
07 May 2010
A lesson in courage and communication
I recently wrote a report for IT leadership forum CIO Connect entitled ‘IT outsourcing: the end of business as usual?’. The report describes the changes...
23 Apr 2010
The man from IT, he say… no!
Twice recently I have heard IT leaders warning peers they are in danger of being seen as the department that says “no”.
The latest occasion...
The latest occasion...
23 Apr 2010
People power and the new generation
In my last post, I discussed a few 'quick wins' in terms of improving the energy efficiency of the datacentre. But Quocirca believes IT should...
15 Apr 2010
The troubles with NHS IT (and outsourcing)
At the end of last month, the national press reported that the Government's £12.7 billion IT programme was in crisis after the NHS failed to...
08 Apr 2010
Value-added infrastructure in the cloud
IT infrastructure only exists to run applications. Many are the internal heavyweights of an organisation - enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, core banking suites,...
08 Apr 2010
The toughest job in the company
I formerly worked for a large global IT consulting firm where I was often knee-deep in the trenches alongside clients' IT departments, experiencing first hand...
08 Apr 2010
Can IT build a better Britain?
With election fever running high, now is a good time to ask what IT policies we need to help the UK ride out the recession...
31 Mar 2010
Can online paywalls really protect papers' revenue?
I heard on the news last week that The Times and Sunday Times are due to start charging for access to their online news and...
31 Mar 2010
Better, cheaper 'business as usual'
As the pressure on costs continues, how do those responsible for the 'business as usual' functions in IT react? I mean those who aren't part...
25 Mar 2010
Sunday night/Monday morning syndrome
I came across a new phrase recently, one I liked so much I plan to adopt its use in future articles, thereby claiming all the...
25 Mar 2010
Nothing changes - everything stays the same...
These words are starting to resonate with almost daily regularity - which is about the same frequency I hear the words 'cloud computing'. Now first...
25 Mar 2010
Has outsourcing killed the UK IT profession?
For years large organisations have been outsourcing infrastructure services and support, while smaller companies have increasingly been entering into managed service arrangements for similar provision....
19 Mar 2010
Time to take a stand on sustainability?
For many firms, the issue of sustainability seems to have taken a bit of a back seat over the past 18 months, as businesses have...
18 Mar 2010
Let's all stop talking 'tin and string'
What’s the secret of successful infrastructure purchasing? I’m not sure I have the answer, but I've gained quite a bit of experience over...
11 Mar 2010
Why first is no longer best
Back in December 2007 I was in Kampala, Uganda, for a two-week consulting gig. My stay in the beautiful east African country had a big...
03 Mar 2010
Beware how you benchmark outsourced IT infrastructure
I was recently involved as an expert witness in a dispute over a benchmarking clause in an IT infrastructure outsourcing deal. It has been a...
24 Feb 2010
Injecting passion into professionalism
The BCS's Adam Thilthorpe, one of the keynote speakers at this year's 360° IT, tells Jim Mortleman that far from being boring, IT professionalism...
23 Feb 2010
Technology's not the problem
Earlier this month I chaired a debate organised by 360°IT - the IT infrastructure event . Around the table were IT managers from various mid-sized...
19 Feb 2010
Time to find another job?
Okay - it’s official. IT is now a commodity, and as such all of us who work in implementing, managing or advising on IT are...
15 Feb 2010
IT from every angle - what's yours?
Welcome to the 360° IT blog. Before we kick things off proper, let's get something straight. This is not going to be your typical technology...