Back to school for the UK today but amidst the 2010 GCSE results we see a worrying trend emerging for IT Whilst, the number of pupils taking single sciences has surged, the overall pass rate rose again to a record 69.1%. Against a backdrop of increased pressure on university places ... read more..

The results of a new survey from the National Computing Centre (NCC) paint a challenging picture for the UK IT management community. When asked what was their most pressing issue in the current economic climate, most cited maintaining service levels with reduced budgets, this was closely followed by the challenge ... read more..

NCCs Head of Programmes and Projects, Dr Andy Hopkirk, recently participated in the 8th half-yearly meeting of Microsofts Interoperability Executive Customer Council meeting in Redmond, Washington USA (25th-26th May 25th, 2010).A total of nineteen council members from sixteen end user organisations participated in the meeting, representing multinational businesses, e-government and ... read more..

Defining the Problem be clear about what youre trying to achieve So you have an intrusion prevention system (IPS) project... It stands to reason that unless you really understand what an IPS can do for you, you may struggle to extract maximum value from it. Therefore, the ... read more..

Members can download the full PDF of Guideline 337 Over 20 years with IT at the heart of business, organisations have consolidated around large, fixed facilities where functions and business processes could be co-located. This model, predicated on the efficiency of centralised controls is now being rendered obsolete by ... read more..

Ahead of the Budget, George Osbourne will today announce details of plans to cut public spending by over 6.2bn, saying that action needs to be taken now to resolve serious long term issues in public finance. Budgets for IT, property, advertising and recruitment are expected to be cut and whilst ... read more..

According to the latest Security Breaches report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a new wave of security breaches is hitting UK businesses potentially costing them billions. Technology adoption has continued to evolve rapidly through virtualisation, cloud computing and social networks, and despite an apparent increased level of awareness of security risks and ... read more..

John Lovelock, Chief Executive of FAST IiS (the Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software), discusses possible threats to the digital economy. The digital economy has received much publicity over the last year, and especially the last few weeks. The Governments Digital Britain Report has led to the Digital ... read more..

Virtualisation appears to be on almost every companys agenda and is rapidly becoming a key element of IT strategies. In many ways, as our page 4 research article points out, the virtues of virtualisation are almost too good to be true: lower costs, better performance and greener IT. But virtualisation ... read more..

(Article taken from Technical Guidelines 4 Open Source Software written by The Open Learning Centre and Openforum Europe)When open alternatives are available, no citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to use a particular companys technology to access government information. I know a smart business decision when I see ... read more..

(Article taken from Management Guidelines 331 Future of the Desktop)The desktop computing marketplace is fast-paced, with an increasing variety of options for the delivery of information both within an organisation and the wider connected community. In facilitating this information, the way in which applications are installed and accessed has become ... read more..

(Article taken from Management Guidelines 330 Budgeting in a Recovering Economy) It will have escaped nobodys notice that this has been a tough year. Consequently, anyone who is in the process of or about to start the forthcoming years budget planning round may be considering the prospect with some trepidation. ... read more..

(Article taken from Management Guidelines 329 Multi-sourcing written by PA Consulting)It is becoming rapidly apparent, that of all the IT sourcing solutions currently used, multi-sourcing is by far the most challenging for organisations to successfully implement and manage. The reasons are numerous and some go to the very heart of ... read more..

(Article taken from Legal Guidelines 11 Shoosmiths)There is no universally accepted definition of Cloud Computing. This is perhaps what underlies so many of the misconceptions and gaps in understanding, and what causes difficulties when it comes to communicating the benefits and risks to the various tiers of a business.Regardless ... read more..

We like to think we live in a digital age but paper still plays a key role in most organisations. Yet paper documents can easily be lost or misfiled and are vulnerable to disasters like fire or floods not to mention the inefficiency and literal waste of space that ... read more..

IT Supplier rating How do your suppliers score? The National Computing Centre has released the latest results of its first ever IT supplier survey. The survey's objective was to provide peer review of the competency of a number of key IT suppliers, giving you an insight into their ... read more..

Companies running teams of engineers and providing field service operations face a tricky dilemma made worse by the recession: how to meet increasing demand for improved customer service while at the same time streamlining their own costs and operational efficiency. Cell phones and other mobile devices have revolutionised companies ability ... read more..

Combining paper and electronic corporate information makes obvious business sense. The best way to do it isnt so obvious. What is clear is that at a time of recession, paperbased information is an anomalous overhead that organizations would do well to eradicate or reduce. Technology in the shape of ... read more..

This is the first in a new series of articles in which we will explore the importance of risk management in the effective use of information systems and its impact upon the business. In this initial article, Ian Jones, head of ... read more..