Why is the UK government prone to IT disasters?
Back in March, at the height of the nationally imposed lockdown, Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised a solution in the form of a coronavirus tracing app that would see us all out of lockdown safely. Although the much-touted NHSX app was said to be at the heart of the strategy to contain the spread of Covid-19, months later, it was ditched due to security concerns, forcing the Government to change tack to work with tech giants Apple and Google on a new app, shifting its strategy to work with human tracers instead.
With measures easing and life now the most 'normal' it has been for quite some time, the newest iteration of the app is still yet to be released. It is clear that even in the midst of an international health crisis, the public sector has defaulted to looking only to big vendors to provide technical solutions -- and to its own detriment.
IT gets bigger budgets and more respect as a result of COVID-19
A survey of 153 IT decision makers across the UK and US finds that 43 percent of IT leaders feel more respected by their business counterparts since the start of the pandemic.
The research by digital transformation company Ensono also reveals that one in three have been given more scope to define IT spend and a third of organizations are looking to increase IT budgets.
Traumatizing content and towering heights: America's three worst tech jobs
What is the worst job in the tech industry? Even in the United States, where Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA) rules are intended to protect workers from dangerous or inhumane working conditions, there are a few tech jobs in which the cons of the position appear to significantly outweigh the pros.
Here are three of the very worst jobs in technology.
A post pandemic world: A technologist's thoughts on professional and social change
It’s sometimes hard to imagine life returning to normal. Nevertheless, this pandemic, like those of the past, will eventually recede, but it won’t leave us unchanged. COVID-19 has already had a dramatic impact on our lives and how we interact, conduct business and obtain the products and services we need.
As chief technology officer of a technology service provider, it’s my job to consider how such events will shape business so we can adjust the services we deliver accordingly. Naturally, I have specific thoughts on topics like backup and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), but I also have to consider societal changes and the ways in which businesses and consumers will utilize technology moving forward. So, what will a world after COVID-19 look like? Here are a few observations and thoughts.
Not just the end of IT, the end of IT contractors
Yesterday, I predicted the demise of conventional IT caused by the wide adoption of SD-WAN and SASE, accelerated by the emergency demands of everyone working from home. Now that Congress has passed a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 bail-out, let’s throw-in the implications of that legislation to see what effect it is all likely to have on what used to be IT. The short version is to expect an even bigger bloodbath as IT employees at all levels are let go forever. Please understand that some version of this bloodbath was going to happen anyway. What matters right now is how we respond to it.
While my previous column was generally about turning lower-level IT nerds into Uber drivers, this one goes a little further up the food chain to include IT contractors and consultants. Yes, I’ll be using IBM as an example, not because Big Blue is anything like a bellwether anymore, but because I just know it so well.
2020 brings the death of IT
IT -- Information Technology -- grew out of something we called MIS -- Management Information Systems -- but both meant a kid in a white shirt who brought you a new keyboard when yours broke. Well, the kid is now gone, sent home with everyone else, and that kid isn’t coming back… ever. IT is near death, fading by the day. But don’t blame COVID-19 because the death of IT was inevitable. This novel coronavirus just made it happen a little quicker.
I mentioned the switch from MIS to IT because that name change presaged the events I am describing here. Management Information Systems was an artifact of big business, where corporate life was managed rather than lived. Information Technology happened when MIS escaped into the wild. MIS meant office buildings and Local Area Networks while IT includes home workers in their pajamas which, frankly, describes me at this precise moment.
Introduction to time series forecasting
From forecasting the weather each day, predicting the future price of an asset, or identifying seasonality in a company’s sales revenue, time series forecasting plays an incredibly important part of our personal and professional lives.
Forecasting the future is never an easy task, although in this article we’ll introduce several statistical and machine learning techniques that can help us with the task. In particular, we’ll cover the following topics:
The IT manager's role in physical security integration
When I started my 10-year career in IT, it was common in smaller companies to see IT departments managing physical security. IT teams knew when new staff were onboarded and offboarded, and access control was just another task to add to their processes. While larger organizations had IT departments as well, they also may have leaned more on a facilities department or even dedicated physical security staff.
Since then, the worlds of physical security and IT have converged. While some of this system has stayed the same, there’s been one major change: regardless of who’s in charge of managing physical security, IT is involved by either owning the system or individual parts of it -- tasks like network or server provisioning, database management, backups and firmware upgrades. Enterprises are starting to understand this convergence and that they must take a more active role in security and where it fits in the organization’s overall strategy. Teams responsible for security -- both physical security and IT -- will face increased calls to work together and address their companies’ ever-evolving security needs.
3 ways to be more adaptable to change
One of the biggest things an organization can do to stay afloat and thriving in our current competitive landscape is to be readily adaptable to change. In contrast, one of the biggest mistakes I often see organizations make is not having a strong enough grasp on their IT infrastructure to do so.
This means that when a problem arises, decision makers will often act out of instinct and make changes that then create further problems or cause unexpected side effects. Once you can quickly and properly survey the technological and/or organizational landscape you’re working with, being adaptable to change can be almost effortless. Below are a few tactics to help you remain adaptable to change and avoid potential catastrophe in the face of an uncertain market.
An apology letter to IT
Dear IT, we owe you an apology.
To IT teams everywhere, we’re sorry. We’re sorry for the endless To Do list that never seems to go away. In fact, it seems to only get longer, and we know it feels even more impossible to get your head above water every single day. The overwhelming number of security threats. The never-ending Windows updates. Helpdesk requests and self-inflicted errors caused by rogue software that users install without permission. The ridiculous number of mobile devices we’ve introduced into the landscape, which we expect you to protect and maintain. You’re swimming faster and faster, but still drowning in tasks. And, we know that you’re getting tired.
Boosting the sagging morale of enterprise IT team
If you talk with people who work in enterprise IT departments, you are likely to sense the stress radiating from them. Demands placed on team members can be debilitating as they attempt to fortify systems against incessant threats while keeping increasingly complex networks running with speed and efficiency. And the pressure continues to mount. Something needs to change before the culture and integrity of IT departments becomes irreparably damaged.
IT departments make up the central nervous system of an organization. How healthy a company’s infrastructure is reveals a lot about it overall. If systems don’t run accordingly -- from all-out crashes to slow performance to endpoint compliance issues -- companies can’t meet their potential. In today’s fast-paced, ultra-competitive environment, this could prove fatal.
Computer downtime is biggest workplace irritant
Computer downtime ranks as the most significant irritant in the workplace according to a new survey.
The study of employees at 500 UK businesses carried out by YouGov for Cherwell Software finds 41 percent naming downtime, ahead of forgotten passwords (23 percent), the lack of parking spaces (22 percent) or stolen meeting rooms (15 percent).
IT's role continues to evolve -- here's what to expect at your startup
Now that technology is at the core of all business activities, IT finds itself evolving from having a supporting role to having a more central and crucial one. Even for startups, it's important to effectively define IT's place in the organization given the new realities created by the changing landscapes of technology and commerce.
Consider how dramatically this role has changed. Just over a decade ago, IT leaders were concerned with improving connectivity within the workplace and bringing their organizations online. More recently, they’ve had to worry about things like mobile tunneling, GDPR compliance and optimizing real-time business intelligence dashboards.
The art of workplace motivation: How to keep IT staff engaged under high-growth pressure
IT teams, particularly in the tech and health tech worlds, face a high level of pressure in today’s environment -- whether it is supporting first-to-market launches or ensuring the highest level of security to prevent data breaches. But how do you keep an IT team engaged, motivated while ensuring they are "always on?"
According to a recent Gallup poll, only 2 in 10 employees strongly agree their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. That frustration can lead to serious retention issues. In fact, LinkedIn’s most recent talent turnover report indicated the tech software sector saw a 13.2 percent turnover rate, the highest in comparison to the other major categories (media and professional services). Here are 5 tips to keep IT staff focused and driven.
What does IT performance really mean?
IT is moving into the future, growing beyond its traditional role to become a center of innovation -- so then why are conversations about IT performance stuck in the past?
Too often, the discussion starts with the hard numbers of quantitative performance, what I call "speeds and feeds": details like what kind of processor, memory size, disk I/O or throughput. The problem is that using these metrics to evaluate the performance of your IT -- whether solutions, service providers or the organization itself -- comes hopelessly short of determining the value that IT is bringing to its new task of leading digital transformation.
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