Microsoft Office 2013 Preview

31 July - 6 August 2012 | computerweekly.com

Virtual testing We look at how Nationwide has Microsoft Office reduced development time and cut costs with virtual testing page 4 2013 preview World trading London stock exchange CIO Antoine we explore the features and functionality of the Shagoury on delivering technology software giant’s latest Office applications page 18 services worldwide page 8 Highlights from the week online

most popular photo story premium content

First look: Microsoft Office > IT in Europe – July 2012 1 2013 – in pictures Innovations with business intelligence (BI) couldn’t be happening Will Microsoft turn things at a better time, with more and more 2 around for Nokia? decisions being made outside of the boardroom. Understanding best Apple ordered to advertise: practice in BI and analytics could 3 ‘Samsung did not copy iPad’ turn out to be the best decision your business ever makes. This July UK ISP says block on Pirate edition of IT in Europe explores 4 Bay site proving ineffective innovations with BI, what you need to succeed, and how to use them to Steve Ballmer launches aid business decisions. 5 Microsoft Office 2013 > An holistic approach to Online identity theft up 300% > First look: Microsoft Office 2013 managing datacentres 6 on 2010, warns Experian Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the Office 2013 suite earlier this month in For many organisations, IT is split San Francisco, describing it: “The biggest, most ambitious release in our history.” between two groups. The datacen- Microsoft reveals 26 October He claimed Office 2013 will provide consumers and businesses with unparalleled tre facility is provided and managed 7 launch for Windows 8 productivity and flexibility. “It is a cloud service and will fully light up when paired by facilities management, while the with Windows 8,” Ballmer said. IT equipment within the facility is PayPal buys mobile payment provisioned and managed by the IT 8 company Card.io department. The trend is towards a Guide blended mix of datacentre facilities BP rolls out first global cloud – yet each datacentre needs to be a 9 for workforce cohesive mix of facility and the equipment housed within it. iCity wins datacentre bid 10 for Olympics media centre > Women in technology Female IT experts pursue careers just as rewarding as men, but the sector’s image is deterring female recruits, exclusive research from Computer Weekly and Mortimer Spinks reveals. Three-quarters of women believe technology careers > Next-generation firewalls > CW500: The future of software are less attractive to potential For many years the firewall kept the development female recruits because of bad guys out of the corporate network In this CW500 Club event, IT leaders at concerns about the “macho” nature and your data safe. Now, the phrase on the forefront of software development of technology teams, and a fear of Get the latest IT news via RSS feed the lips of networking professionals is strategy explained their approach and being the sole woman in a male- computerweekly.com/RSSFeeds.htm next-generation firewall, where the shared their experiences of the future dominated department. safety of the application is king. of software development.

opinion blogs

> To be or not to be open – > Mark Ballard: Europe’s doomed plan to avoid Microsoft lock-in that is the question The European Commission (EC) has been trying – and failing – to avoid being locked into proprietary The normal hullabaloo of consumer- Microsoft technical standards since 1992, it has been revealed in official documents released to isation, social media, big data and Computer Weekly. Its failure then led directly to the decision last year that ensured the EC will in 2013 cloud computing are all driven by an have been buying Microsoft software for 20 years without a competition. underlying cycle of change, but individually these subjects barely > Karl Flinders: What makes a convincing cloud service? scratch the surface of what is going on. I interviewed the Imperial ICT service centre manager at London’s Imperial College recently about the In a shift from competition to a fight for college’s move to a cloud-based IT service management (ITSM) service. What I found most interest- survival, swathes of companies face ing was his comments about unconvincing cloud offerings. He told me the college initially looked at seismic upheavals in their industry. 15 ITSM systems and narrowed it down to four. Of these, three were cloud-based.

> Are you up to speed with business > David Lacey: One size should not fit all relationship management? I spend a lot of time working with big and small enterprises, helping with information security or risk Over the course of the past year there management issues. What continues to amaze me is how much they differ in their security gover- has been an increased discussion nance style and control requirements, but how similar they are in security initiatives and solutions. around business relationship Where is the appetite for innovation and diversity? management. While this was a “new” process in last year’s ITIL 2011 edition, > Philip Virgo: Does IT have an image problem? No more than the Taliban it is certainly not new to many others. In On one of the LinkedIn groups to which I subscribe I came across the question “Does IT have a bit of fact, as a concept at the very least, it’s an image problem?” There are many possible answers but over the years I have come to the been about for a long time across conclusion that IT has the image it deserves. Many IT professionals who whinge about the image of IT many different parts of any business. have mindsets akin to those of the introverted tribes who have taken Islam back to the middle ages.

2 | 31 July-6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com the week in IT

Outsourcing Hackers & cyber crime prevention Customers urged to boycott CSC Government invites universities to over CIA ‘torture flights’ train cyber spooks CSC customers are being urged to The government is hoping to shore boycott the supplier over allegations up its defences against cyber crime that it took part in illegal CIA rendi- through post-graduate training, and tion flights in the US “war on terror”. has asked universities to apply for CSC has been linked in court docu- funding to run training courses for ments to the rendition of German post-graduates. Through the Engi- citizen Khaled El-Masri, whose case neering and Physical Sciences Re- against alleged CIA collaborators in search Council (EPSRC), universities the Macedonian intelligence services have been invited to apply for grants. is pending at the European Court of Human Rights. Mobile networks Orange offers connectivity under Financial services the English Channel NatWest customers hit by further Orange has announced it will online banking issues provide 2G and 3G services in the NatWest suffered a significant outage, Akamai on its marks to stream Channel Tunnel, for Eurostar foot leaving customers unable to access passengers and Eurotunnel drivers to their online banking or use their Olympics coverage across Europe use mobile phones. The 53km stretch debit cards. Customers have been of rail between Calais and Folkestone complaining about the problems at Akamai has signed deals with 15 European broadcasters to stream live in the south tunnel runs 100m below NatWest, with a number of readers footage of the London 2012 Olympic Games across its network. the surface of the English Channel contacting Computer Weekly to high- The company will use its existing content delivery cloud platform to provide and takes about 30 minutes to travel. light the issue. both live and on-demand videos for viewers who, in addition to TV coverage Now, passengers will be able to make of the Olympics, are expected to seek content via their mobiles, tablets, phone calls or surf the internet. Cloud computing laptops and PCs. Windows Azure ‘availability The growing adoption rates of mobile devices mean these Olympic Games Risk management issues’ hit users in Europe could be the most viewed in history, due to the ability to watch them wherever BlackHat 2012: UK firm reveals Users of Microsoft’s cloud-based the viewer may be. This puts extra pressure on Akamai, which has to provide chip and PIN vulnerability Azure computing platform have been the best experience for the broadcasters’ users. Retail chip and PIN devices can be affected by an availability issue. The “Consumers are much more discerning now, and expect an experience attacked easily, exposing banks, service was down for 2.5 hours. Mi- online that matches that of traditional TV,” said a company spokeswoman. retailers and customers to fraud. crosoft said the service interruption Researchers from Basingstoke-based in western Europe has been resolved. MWR InfoSecurity demonstrated at “Customers who have questions re- the 2012 Black Hat conference in Las garding this incident are encouraged Income from IT management Vegas that it is possible to attack chip to contact Customer Service and Sup- and PIN devices using a specially port,” said a Microsoft spokesman. consulting 2011 (by sector) prepared chip-based credit card.

Network hardware Hackers & cyber crime prevention n Alcatel-Lucent slashes 5,000 jobs 10% Public sector SQL injection attacks rise sharply following substantial loss 20% n Resources/ in second quarter of 2012 Telecoms kit maker Alcatel-Lucent energy SQL injection (SQLi) attacks rose 13% is to cut 5,000 jobs as part of a move n Manufacturing 69% in the second quarter of 2012 to save €750m (£588m) amid results compared with the previous quar- 3% n Construction/ which saw the company haemor- ter, according to cloud hosting firm transportation rhaging profits for the second quarter. 5% FireHost. The company said that, 8% For the three months to June, the n Financial between April and June, it blocked company lost €254m, compared services nearly 500,000 attacks by SQLi, a with profit gains of €43m in the same n popular method used by cyber crimi- 11% Telecoms/ period last year. The Paris-based high-tech/media nals to steal data and among the most company saw sales fall by 7.1% to 30% n Services malicious and dangerous web-based €3.5bn, compared with the same pe- attacks, which involves entering riod last year. n Other malicious commands into URLs and text fields on vulnerable websites Source: Management Consultancies Association Unified communications Cisco loses 1,300 jobs in another Social media technology round of cost-cutting Black Hat conference Facebook on the hunt for Cisco Systems is to cut around 1,300 London-based engineering team jobs – 2% of its workforce – in con- “The lack of chip and Facebook is on the hunt for 22 new tinued efforts to cut costs and stream- PIN security is putting recruits to make up its new London- line decision making. The company based engineering team. The team said in a statement: “We routinely millions of businesses will be led by software engineer review our business to determine Philip Su and has so far advertised where we need to align investment around the globe at risk” for 22 jobs including positions in based on growth opportunities. We sales, monetisation, developer rela- continue to evaluate our organisations, software engineering, datacen- tional structure as part of our plan to Ian Shaw, managing director, tre design and operations, platform drive simplicity, speed of decisions MWR InfoSecurity product marketing, recruitment and and agility across Cisco.” growth, engagement and mobile.

3 | 31 July - 6 august 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com news analysis software testing Major milestone Nationwide banks on virtual in Nationwide IT testing of online services transformation Nationwide has reached a major milestone in its five-year transfor- The bank has cut development time and costs with virtual testing, writes Karl Flinders mation project, with the roll-out of a mortgage application system to some 740 branches. ationwide uses a virtual- The migration to a new mortgage ised environment to test its As part of its £1bn IT system, known as MSO, which internet banking system to transformation programme, cost more than £100m to com- Ncut costs and development Nationwide is using a virtualised plete, was the second largest time for new online services. environment to test its online single project within Nationwide’s The building society is using CA’s banking system and has rolled £1bn technology transformation. Lisa Virtualise software to create cop- out a mortgage application The MSO system takes paper ies of its 36 back-end systems to ena- system to its branches out of the mortgage application ble testers to try out software in a vir- process, reduces the time an tual live environment. application takes and, because it is It is working towards becoming a based on commercial technology, full service bank and is currently makes future support and undergoing a £1bn IT transforma- development easier. tion project. The virtualisation of Nationwide has now completed testing is part of that project, ac- the implementation of its .Net- cording to the firm’s testing best based mortgage origination and practice manager, Andy Armstrong. sales platform into its retail Nationwide, which launched branches. The service will be the first online bank 12 years ago, available to customers via the had added functionality over the internet early next year, according years. “About two years ago, we to Nationwide director of business realised we needed do something transformation Martin Boyle. because it had become clunky,” said The MSO system was developed Armstrong. by software development company Avelo, in conjunction with Nation- Virtual performance testing wide. The previous system, which The bank hired a third party to was developed in-house, was create and test the system. When difficult to support because the it came to performance testing, it the database is an extreme case, there person who developed it had left sought a quicker and less costly are 35 other systems that have to be The cost savings the company, leaving it with a skills method than building a copy of the recreated for a live test,” he said. issue. “We moved to a commercial live environment. Using CA’s software, Nationwide on hardware, technology where skills are Nationwide’s internet banking was able to provide a virtual copy of available,” said Boyle. platform links to 36 systems, includ- the systems for its third-party suppli- processing power The platform had to be integrat- ing its Unisys mainframe-based cus- er to link to for the final testing. ed into 77 different interfaces to tomer database, which holds 16 mil- While the cost savings on hard- and human automate the mortgage application lion records. All these systems link to ware, processing power and human process. Once a customer’s details the internet bank, so each of them has resources are huge, the speed at resources are huge are scanned in, everything else can to be recreated to enable testing. which new services can be rolled out be automated – with no more Armstrong said to create a live ver- is as important. “If, for example, you paper required. sion of the database would require can put a new current account out Previously, it took 15 days from specialist skills, making it expensive before your competitors, it is an ad- was being proposed. “The technolo- application to mortgage offer, but and time consuming. “To roll out a vantage,” said Armstrong. gy is only one part of the challenge – now about 60% of applications are copy of the customer database would the people are more difficult. The dealt with in five days, with over 5% cost a seven-figure sum. Although Building on initial success project was a bit scary for a company completed in one day. The success of the internet banking as old as Nationwide,” he said. Nationwide has also automated testing project has raised the likeli- Since Nationwide’s rebuilt internet the process of keeping customers hood of the virtualised testing being bank went live in October 2011, there up to date with their applications more online used on other projects. Armstrong have been no failures, said Armstrong. via SMS messages. said the bank usually has more than According to research from soft- Boyle said the business has › Nationwide redevelops online 100 projects running at any one time, ware quality tester Cast, which used been transformed by the removal banking platform and Lisa is currently used in 6% to automated analysis tools to analyse of paper documentation required 10% of software projects. 365 million lines of code within 745 throughout the mortgage origina- › CIO interview: Tony Prestedge, “We are probably on the second large software applications belonging tion process. COO, Nationwide rung of the ladder and will use this to to 160 companies in 10 countries, the The importance of the system to test other projects,” he said. average big application costs an extra Nationwide is underlined by the › Nationwide IT transformation is Armstrong said winning over £2.23m as a result of problems with fact that about 40 people tested it taking shape stakeholders was more of a challenge the code that need to be fixed after full-time for at least seven months. than the technology when the project software goes live. ■

4 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com news analysis

Mobile software Will Microsoft’s push for Windows 8 prove enough to save Nokia’s skin? Nokia is banking on Microsoft's campaign but it may not be sufficient to save the handset maker, writes Jennifer Scott

okia has announced its launch of Surface, its own hardware second quarter results for the tablet version of Windows 8, for 2012 – and they don’t and the desire to get the operating N make pleasant reading. system on as many laptops and PCs A 19% drop in sales, a 39% fall in as possible, Nokia will not be Micro- smartphone shipments and just four soft’s top priority. million Lumia devices shipped – compare with Apple, which sold 35 Boost for competitors million iPhones in its last quarter – And Nokia won’t be the only manu- left the company’s CFO admitting the facturer creating handsets running performance was not acceptable. Windows Phone software. Even But CEO Stephen Elop has taken a with its special relationship with forward-looking approach to the fig- Microsoft, the likes of HTC and other ures, still hopeful his former employ- manufacturers will be just as impor- er, Microsoft, will be the answer to tant – in making sales and spreading Nokia’s woes. the word of Windows 8 – as Nokia, as “We established a preferred posi- “We established well as receiving the same boost from tion with Microsoft right from the be- Microsoft’s marketing campaign. ginning and we have a very close and a preferred One of the few glimmers in Nokia’s very communicative relationship,” results was its steady feature-phone Elop said. position with business, which grew 2% year on year and shipped 73.52 million de- The Windows 8 halo effect Microsoft right vices. While having much lower mar- As a follow-up to Nokia’s commit- gins than high-end smartphones, the ment to Microsoft’s Windows Phone from the feature-phone market still keeps the 7 operating system (OS), for which high shipment volumes Nokia needs it ditched its Symbian platform last beginning” to keep its head above water. year, Elop now believes the release of As smartphone prices come down the Windows Phone 8 mobile operat- and emerging markets look to bigger, ing system, and the accompanying Stephen Elop, Nokia brighter handsets, feature phones Windows 8 tablet and PC versions, may start to dwindle. But, while the will be the ticket to big sales and a market is still there, should this not resurgence of popularity for the Finn- be something to invest heavily in, ish handset manufacturer. lets and PCs will certainly help raise the third ecosystem both companies rather than throwing money at high- The idea is that, as customers get awareness of Metro [the user inter- were planning on in the mobile mar- end iPhone competitors that rarely excited by the Windows 8 launch in face used by Windows Phone and ket, to take on the might of Apple and win the battle? Or maybe the focus October, they will want to spread that Windows 8] among consumers and Google’s Android OS. Instead it has should be on Nokia’s low-end smart- experience across all their devices, be the marketing push on Windows 8 been a costly investment that has far phones and making them a competi- it the Xbox or laptop at home, to the will rub off on Windows Phone 8, from paid off, with relatively limited tive alternative to feature phones. smartphone on the move. both in awareness with consumers interest from consumers. Elop should beware of putting all “Windows Phone 8 will become and appeal to developers,” she said. When Elop took charge of Nokia in his eggs in the Microsoft basket. It familiar to people because of Micro- “Right now Nokia has to be fo- 2010, the company sold 28 million might pay off in the end, but it is a soft’s huge advertising campaign,” cused. Working with Microsoft gives smartphones and was the largest risk Nokia might not want to take if said Elop. “It will have a halo effect them financial support on platform phone manufacturer in the world, the manufacturer wants to see many for Nokia.” evolution and marketing.” based on device shipments. more second quarters. ■ Carolina Milanese, research vice- But smartphone sales have fallen president at analyst organisation Misplaced faith in Microsoft by almost two thirds since the com- Gartner, agreed it could have the de- But Nokia has misplaced its faith in mitment to Windows Phone and sired effect. Microsoft before. The dedication to Samsung is now topping the table as more online “The roll-out of Windows 8 on tab- Windows Phone 7 hasn’t yet led to the highest-selling phone maker. As Milanesi said, the added mar- › Nokia smartphones bomb as keting dollars and focus that Micro- sales drop 27% soft will bring Nokia could prove a “Windows Phone 8 will become familiar massive boost while it tries to make › Nokia loses €3bn as Windows savings internally – including 10,000 Phone partnership struggles to people because of Microsoft’s huge job cuts and the closure of an R&D centre and a factory in Finland. › Nokia mulls exclusive partnership advertising campaign” But Microsoft will be thinking with European operators about number one and with the

5 | 31 July-6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com Quantum is a proven global expert in data protection and Big Data management that provides a unique combination of intelligent storage solutions and unmatched value for traditional, virtual and cloud environments.

Tel: 01344 353500 or visit www.quantum.com news analysis risk management Network security controls struggle to keep pace with wireless devices The march of wireless technology means CIOs must review their network security measures, writes Warwick Ashford

etwork security controls voice-over-IP (VoIP) instead, and run and practices are among a peer-to-peer call manager software the most mature, but can to encrypt the traffic, according to N businesses be sure that Jirasek. This enables all traffic to be some network traffic is not sneaking encrypted over an untrusted net- past traditional controls, especially work, he said. with the proliferation of mobile wire- Another potential avenue of data less and other IP-enabled devices? leakage is the increasing number of With the rise of mobile enterprise IP-enabled devices in the enterprise, applications and related trends such including printers, CCTV cameras, as the consumerisation of IT and point-of-sale (POS) systems, building bring your own device (BYOD), an access and other control systems. increasing number of enterprise em- “Encrypt That most devices can operate on ployees are looking to access corpo- an IP network, coupled with most rate networks through Wi-Fi hot- CCTV footage corporations’ need to save money spots, internally and externally. today, inevitably means increasing Whether or not these Wi-Fi hot- between the use of the corporate network as a spots increase the potential of data communications backbone for more leakage depends mainly on an organ- camera and than just file and print servers. isation’s strategy for network security. In light of this and the need to If organisations continue to rely on the recorder” block as many avenues for data leak- network security as a key control in age as possible, organisations need to the protection of their data, Wi-Fi is a Matthew Lord, treat their internal networks as hos- potential avenue for data leakage, ac- tile and implement the right level of cording to Matthew Lord, chief infor- Steria UK security on all networked devices. mation security officer at business “A good example would be to en- services supplier Steria UK. crypt CCTV footage between the “An attacker could just sit in an or- camera and the recorder or imple- ganisation’s car park and try to force ment a hardened factory control serv- their way into the network by trying a er with a firewall on your network, combination of IDs and passwords rather than an unprotected worksta- until they gain access,” he said. means any wireless sniffer or rogue really check the consistency of the tion running system control soft- If enterprises are to use Wi-Fi safe- wireless access point can get all the computer. SMEs are a real problem – ware,” said Steria’s Lord. ly, they must follow two data leakage traffic because all the data packets they need to be educated and shown Again, best practice is to segregate prevention strategies: set them up as are open. Therefore, data leakage pre- how easy in many cases it is to secure different types of devices and apply an internet hotspot with no access to vention depends on how the mobile remote access,” said Vladimir Jirasek, different security controls according- internal systems; and use a stronger device accessing the network is pro- security professional and member of ly, said Jirasek. form of authentication such as client- tected and configured. Cloud Security Alliance, UK chapter. “You don’t want to put IP devices side certificate authentication. Best practice would be for public on the same domain or network as Internal Wi-Fi hotspots – where hotspots to move to WPA2 to encrypt 3G and 4G hotspot security your computers. If they don’t need to there are separate corporate and guest each session and for businesses to Although kits do exist for setting up talk to each other, they should not be networks, and the corporate network allow access to internal networks rogue base stations capable of inter- able to,” he said. ■ has tight controls, including device only through a virtual private net- cepting 3G traffic, rogue Wi-Fi hot- authentication – are therefore gener- work (VPN) client, which means all a spots are a much more likely target, This is an edited excerpt. Click here to read ally not an issue for network traffic traffic sniffer would see is a stream of according to William Beer, director the full article online slipping past controls. encrypted data packets. This also of information and cyber security at However, corporate users could be prevents traffic redirection and man- consultancy PricewaterhouseCoop- tempted to switch to the guest net- in-the middle attacks associated with ers (PwC). work where there are fewer or no web access over https. While there are vulnerabilities in more online controls, and that is where leakage Small and medium enterprises wireless mobile communication could occur. Best practice would be (SMEs) are typically at highest risk of channels, Wi-Fi is easier to target be- › Network perimeter security: How to set up a guest network that re- data leakage through public Wi-Fi cause of all the built-in safeguards in to audit remote access services quires temporary credentials to ena- hotspots because they do not com- 3G, which require more specific ex- ble connections. monly use VPNs. pertise and advanced hardware to in- › Enforcing endpoint security: “SMEs often just open connections tercept, representing a lower return Creating a network security policy Public Wi-Fi hotspot dangers on the firewall to the mail server, on investment for hackers, he said. Public Wi-Fi hotspots, such as those maybe even the remote desktop pro- Best practice for mobile devices › Network technology trends for commonly provided by coffee shops, tocol (RDP) server, requiring only a that support 3G, high-speed packet 2012: Network security are typically unencrypted, which username and password. They don’t access (HSPA) and Wi-Fi is to use

7 | 31 July-6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com interview financial services London Stock Exchange IT platform leads the world in trading services CIO Antoine Shagoury is adding services to the LSE platform for exchanges all around the world, writes Karl Flinders

such as those that collect and distrib- ute data. It is hoped this will protect the market from risk-laden volatility. Other ongoing developments include the introduction of common market and data access and embed- ding intelligence in hardware. he London Stock Exchange is using its core technology Industrialising technology to become an investment At the same time, the company’s T industry service provider, software supplies business, Millen- offering industrialised trading tech- niumIT – which grew about 10% last nology and direct trading services. year – is focused on industrialising Antoine Shagoury joined the Lon- “We are trading technology. don Stock Exchange (LSE) in Febru- Shagoury says the business wants ary 2010 as CIO. His first job was to improving to create systems that do not always oversee the replacement of legacy have to be bespoke, but are flexible trading platform, Tradelect, with the latency all enough to be off-the-shelf. system the LSE acquired when it took “We can ask customers what bits over Sri Lankan trading software the time” they want and we put them together,” maker MillenniumIT for £18m in says Shagoury. But he says systems September 2009. for the trading sector must enable ex- He was recently appointed COO Antoine Shagoury, changes to customise. but retained his CIO role. His under- London Stock “We can provide a common solu- standing of the technology will ena- tion and exchanges can customise it, ble him to manage the integration of Exchange so they don’t lose their identity.” the exchange’s different businesses, The business is picking up new which rely heavily on technology. customers all the time and, as more The CIO component of Shagoury’s exchanges start using the Millenniu- role is split in two. On one hand he mIT platform, the better the exchange manages the technology that keeps Trading platform performance A few years ago, when new ex- becomes at migrations. the business running. Here he focus- In contrast, heading up technology at changes appeared known as Multilat- This is largely down to the indus- es on efficiencies. He spends 15% of the exchange puts him in charge of eral Trading Facilities (MTF), there trialised nature of the software. As his time on this and has about 70 IT customer-facing systems, none more was a race to be the fastest. well as moving its own trading ven- staff globally working on projects important than the core trading plat- Reducing trading times is an im- ues onto MillenniumIT, such as Mi- such as the introduction of business form. Since the LSE migrated to the portant differentiator to investment lan-based exchange Borsa Italiana, it intelligence tools and cloud-based MillenniumIT platform in February firms that automate substantial vol- has also recently moved the Johan- CRM and collaboration software. 2011, it has run smoothly. In the last umes of trades. Milliseconds can nesburg Stock Exchange and Mongo- On the other hand he is in charge 12 months it has had no downtime. make a sizable difference. lian Stock Exchange to the platform. of the systems that drive the busi- The certainty is in stark contrast to Today, after reducing latency to “We are getting faster and faster de- ness, to which he dedicates consider- the last couple of years of the .Net- about 100 microseconds, from Trade- livering systems because it is indus- ably more of his time. He has about based Tradelect system, which expe- lect’s 3.7 milliseconds, there is less trialised,” adds Shagoury. ■ 1,000 staff in this part of the business rienced numerous high-profile outag- focus on speed. But the exchange’s – which includes the provision of es. When LSE management realised software teams are busier than ever This is an edited excerpt. Click here to read software to other trading venues – of Tradelect had reached the end of its developing software to give custom- the full interview online which 200 staff have been added life, it acted quickly to replace it. ers more services and confidence. only in the last two years. Most are Shagoury says the new trading “We are improving latency all the Sri Lanka-based software developers. platform provides certainty, continui- time – but it is not about speed, but Shagoury says less time is required ty and capacity to customers. He is better risk control, reporting and more online for corporate IT, because it is more now looking to add services, using data,” says Shagoury. stable. As his operational role in- the same platform, to give customers The exchange uses agile software › London Stock Exchange creases, he is looking to reduce his industrialised packages adapted to fit development techniques to introduce averages 100 microsecond trades time spent on his corporate IT role, their requirements. services to its customers in days rath- helping management in different di- “All of this is possible now the er than months: “Over the last year › London Stock Exchange visions take on more responsibility. right technology is in place. In the we have created tighter working technology adopted in New Delhi “We will empower the leaders of past we were limiting the business groups and teams,” says Shagoury. different pillars of the business to that could be done,” says Shagoury. Much of the focus is to push the › London Stock Exchange take on a more strategic technology Today the Millennium software pro- technical capability of the core sys- tackles malware problem role,” says Shagoury. vides an extensible platform. tem to the periphery to improve tools

8 | 31 July-6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com Built for Business. Engineered for Security.

The 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ vPro™ Processors Deliver Unprecedented Protection for Business

UNIQUE MAlwARE 75,000,000 SAMPlES1

AddEd PROTECTION AgAINST MAlwARE ANd ROOTkITS PROTECTS dATA INTEl® TRUSTEd ExECUTION TEChNOlOgy (INTEl TxT) FOR wORkERS INTEl VIRTUAlIzATION TEChNOlOgy (INTEl VT) ONSITE/ON-ThE-gO

TwO-FACTOR UP TO 400 OFFERS AUThENTICATION PERCENT FASTER BUIlT-IN dATA ENCRyPTION SECURITy4

INTEl IdENTITy PROTECTION INTEl AdVANCEd ENCRyPTION • VIRUS PROTECTION TEChNOlOgy (IPT) wITh PUBlIC STANdARd NEw INSTRUCTIONS • MAlwARE PREVENTION kEy INFRASTRUCTURE (PkI)2 (INTEl AES-NI)3 • SECURE ACCESS • dATA PROTECTION

Learn more at intel.co.uk/pcsecurity.

1 The cumulative number of unique malware samples in the McAfee* collection exceeded the 75 million mark at the end of 2011. Source: “McAfee Threats Report: Fourth Quarter 2011,” available at www.mcafee.com (http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-quarterly-threat-q4-2011.pdf). 2 No system can provide absolute security under all conditions. Requires an Intel Identity Protection Technology–enabled system, including a 2nd or 3rd Gen Intel Core™ processor, enabled chipset, Àrmware, software, and participating website. Consult your system manufacturer. Intel assumes no liability for lost or stolen data and/or systems or any resulting damages. For more information, visit http://ipt.intel.com. 3 Intel AES-NI requires a computer system with an AES-NI-enabled processor, as well as non-Intel software to execute the instructions in the correct sequence. AES-NI is available on select Intel Core processors. For availability, consult your system manufacturer. For more information, see http:///software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-advanced-encryption-standard-instructions-aes-ni. 4 No computer system can provide absolute security under all conditions. Built-in security features available on select Intel Core processors may require additional software, hardware, services, and/or an Internet connection. Results may vary depending upon conÀguration. Consult your PC manufacturer for more details. Copyright 2012 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, and Intel vPro are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. ©

10.05.2012 20:50 Twist 235 community

Bryan Glick leader James Hallahan opinion Recession-hit Addressing the IT gender UK gets major imbalance with courage IT investment ender balance, equality, What is more pertinent and more diversity – these all feel worrying – but potentially the solu- s the Olympic Games finally opens like themes that you have tion to the skills gap – is the fact that in London this week, there are 300 G to discuss with some the figures around women pursuing or so highly skilled IT experts about trepidation, the sort of subjects that it computer science are even lower. So to be put out of a job. Thanks to is far easier to avoid than to discuss, low, it is fair to say we are only tap- A let alone act on. ping into 50% of the potential talent. some of the leading lights of the new technology economy, they might not have far to In October 2011, Mortimer Spinks So where does all this take us? ran its annual technology event in Well, as a business it takes us to a look for a new employer. Soho, with 136 external guests, all number of different destinations Those 300 IT experts, currently employed technology professionals in senior united under the bracket of effecting in the IT department of London 2012 organ- management. The next day, some of change. We’re working with female iser Locog, will of course be rather busy over them blogged about the event: school students on projects that try to the next few weeks, part of a 5,000-strong “Technology needs more women, inspire 11-14-year-old girls to realise technology team that includes 2,500 volun- not only to address the talent short- the possibilities technology could teers plus staff from the key Games IT sup- age, but because FTSE 100 compa- offer. We’re working with Microsoft nies with more women board direc- to get some “bullet-proof” data on the pliers, such as Atos, BT, Samsung and Acer. tors are proven to perform better. tech skills gap that we can use to in- Perhaps Amazon and Facebook should Some 97% of the Mortimer Spinks fluence a change in the education es- give them a call – the two US giants have technology event attendees were tablishments across the country. announced major investments in London. male, white and 30 to 50 years old.” Mortimer Spinks conducted a sur- The social media firm is opening its first One comment following the blog vey into the gender imbalance in IT software engineering centre outside the US – read: “There are not enough women as a quick, short, real-time piece of in technology – the event was a sau- market research (click here for the re- a major coup for the UK’s IT skills base. sage fest and it spells trouble for the sults). We wanted insights into the “London is a perfect fit for Facebook engi- sector in the next five years.” ratio in industry, whether it is an neering — it’s a global hub, and it has a Is it natural to feel responsible in issue people in the industry feel pas- vibrant local start-up community with lots of some way for the fact that there was sionately about, what benefits would great technical talent,” said Philip Su, who an imbalance at the event? To feel, in come from a more balanced industry, will head up the London team. some way, that the event was actually and why people who work in tech Amazon, meanwhile, is opening an eight- compounding the problem? feel that the imbalance exists. Mortimer Spinks helps pure tech Women identified the top two rea- floor development centre, a move described businesses find technology profes- sons technology jobs are less attrac- as “a splendid feather in our cap” by London sionals – the best technology profes- tive to them than they are to men as major Boris Johnson. sionals in the world. We work with a the “masculine/macho culture”, and “London is a hotbed of tech talent, and mix of global e-commerce power- that “being the only female in the testament to that fact is Amazon choosing team” puts them off. the capital as the location for its new global So what are people (predominant- digital media development centre,” said the “There are not enough women in ly male) doing to try to make their teams a welcoming and attractive site’s managing director, Paula Byrne. IT – the event was a sausage place for women to work? What can But Amazon and Facebook may find they do? How high is “address the recruitment competition closer to the Olym- fest and that spells trouble” gender balance” on CIO/CTOs’ agen- pics home, with the news that the media da when they’re growing their teams? centre in the Olympic Park will be turned into How high should it be? How are we a datacentre and digital incubator after the houses, small tech start-ups and marketing our industry to our school pure-tech SMEs. They all demand students? Who is marketing our in- Games, exploiting 600km of fibre and cop- the very best talent in the market. dustry? If there is constantly rising per cabling in the building. The winning bid- We asked all our consultants how youth unemployment and a rising der, iCity, will create up to 6,600 jobs. many women they had placed in the number of technology vacancies in Elsewhere, the UK’s recession has deep- past six months. Responses varied the UK, who is working to match ened, with the latest GDP figures showing a between “none” and “hardly any”. these two together? further 0.7% contraction in the economy. When asked why, the response was, While the survey does not try to Given all these developments, if you were “there aren’t any”. answer these questions, it certainly The technology skills gap is the provokes them and many more. a government in desperate need of private- next theme or point that has led us to When approaching a subject like this, sector growth, what industry sector and where we are now – a potentially trepidation is wrong – what is right is which in-demand professional skills would massive hindrance to the IT industry. courage and collaboration; with both, you invest in? ■ It is true that not enough people are we hope the answers will come. ■ choosing science, technology, engi- Editor’s blog neering and maths subjects for fur- James Hallahan is managing director of computerweekly.com/editor ther education and related work. Mortimer Spinks

10 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com Make your documents mobile with

Scan Scan ?! to App to E-Mail Scan to pdf Scan to Word/Excel Scan to cloud

I need to carry my work with me, Ah! There‘s a ScanSnap. It‘s so ... how easy! Just press the blue Now I have my documents ready that includes all these documents! small and fast! Let me try... button and scan to… everywhere! whenever or wherever I need them.

On my notebook when in a meeting on my Android® tablet or iPad® at and even on my smartphone thanks Interested? Have a look at or at my desk from my home office, lunch break or on the airplane, to the ScanSnap App*! I just love it! www.ScanSnapit.com/cw1

All names, manufacturer names, brand and product designations are subject to special trademark rights and are manufacturer‘s trademarks and/or registered brands of their respective owners. All indications are non-binding. Technical data is subject to change without prior notification. Apple, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., Google, Google Docs and Android are registered trademarks or trademarks of Google Inc. * Available for iPad®, iPhone® and Android® 2.2 or later; details on our website.

buyer’s guide

How to make sense of the big data universe

The prospect of analysing big data can appear daunting, so here Clive Longbottom looks at what data you need, where to find it and how to break it down into manageable, meaningful chunks Im a ge: hubbles i te.org

play big data as purely having a lot of ployed to monitor their brands – actually the one that is the least im- data in one or more databases. But pushed the idea that big data was portant. Big data is not about peta- CW Buyer’s guide that is not big data, it’s large data – a moving towards the field of social bytes of data – it can be down to rela- Big data problem that can be handled with da- networking. They said big data was tively small volumes that need to be part 1 of 3 tabase federation, standard business all about using the wisdom of the dealt with in a manner that requires a intelligence and analytics. crowd and identifying the sentiment big-data approach. Next, it was said to be a mix of data of the masses. However, for most organisations, s is the way with IT, as soon held in the organisation that needed But social networking has not big data will involve bringing togeth- as one bandwagon begins to be brought together so decision usurped much that went before, so er many different data and informa- to be understood by the makers could see everything the or- any solution still has to include all tion sources which, by their nature, a general public, another one ganisation held around a specific the information feeds such as e-mail, will tend to result in the overall has to be rolled out. In this case, as topic to make better informed deci- call recordings, customer relation- amount of data under consideration cloud computing starts to become sions – but only through whatever in- ship management (CRM) records, being big. Therefore, volume is not more of a reality, big data is rearing its formation the organisation was al- scanned documents and so on. something that is under the direct head as – depending on the commen- ready aware of. So if the organisation All the approaches cover some as- control of the organisation – what has tator – the next greatest opportunity wasn’t already aware of something, pect of big data, but they all miss the to be considered is how the volume or threat to the organisation. that was to be excluded from the re- point as well. The best, simple defini- of data that ends up being analysed is As there was with cloud, there’s a sults – see the problem here? tion of big data comes down to vol- minimised, (more on this later). lot of confusion out about big data. Many technology companies – ume, velocity and variety. Again, the velocity aspect of big data Many of the database vendors tried to aided by the PR organisations em- The volume aspect of big data is may well be a moot point – everyone »

12 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com buyer’s guide

» wants results against their analysis of Even the largest organisations will The key for buyers is to treat big available data in as short a period as have little control over anything be- data as a journey. Set short possible. However, everything is rela- yond a small percentage of the total and medium-term targets tive – for example, every millisecond available data. The two-edged sword of what is required added to providing results to a finan- of the internet raises its ugly head in cial market trader can cost millions of that it does provide massive extra in- pounds, whereas someone tracking formation resources – but then again, variations in the global movement of it also includes a massive amount of tectonic plates may not be that wor- dross that doesn’t add anything to the ried if results take a few seconds to sum knowledge of an organisation. come through. So how are we to deal with this The one aspect that really matters real big data challenge, without run- is the variety of the information. Big ning into Dilbert’s pointy-haired data is all about the mix of data and boss’s dictat, “Just run me off a copy where it is held at any time. Here, for- of the internet”? mal databases under the organisation’s direct control are only a very Storage and structure small component of the overall mix. Storage needs must be fully consid- There are all the office documents ered. EMC, NetApp and Dell are now held as files across the organisation talking about object, block and file and you may need to include voice storage, rather than focusing purely

and video files as well. on high-performance database object Im a ge: hubbles i te.org Then there’s the information held storage to cover the various types of in the value chain of suppliers and big data that needs to be controlled. customers – information that is criti- Other storage vendors, such as cal to the process or service being Nutanix, Coraid, Amplidata and adds to the value of the information open standards, look for suppliers provided, yet isn’t under the organi- FusionIO provide systems that focus stored. Once the information is held who espouse heterogeneity in storage sation’s direct control. Then, there on one aspect of big data, partnering in a recognised form, it is then down systems and in tooling, as well as an may well be a requirement to include where necessary to cover others. to being able to apply the right form approach that covers a hybrid mix of information from the various social The need for structure around of data analysis against it to provide private and public clouds. networks out there – and whatever semi- or unstructured data is leading suitable feeds to the decision maker. Don’t fall for any supplier who approach is taken has to be inclusive. to an explosion in interest in noSQL- This is where the main problems says that the world is moving to or based databases, such as Apache Cas- still reside, but much work is being from “standard” SQL-based databas- Inclusivity of data sources sandra, 10gen MongoDB, CouchDB carried out. Unsurprisingly, a lot of es – the move is to a mixed environ- For example, it is pointless construct- and so on. Systems such as Apache’s this is coming from the incumbent ment of a Hadoop-style system ing something that is Facebook-spe- Hadoop, (which enables a massively business intelligence suppliers, such paired with SQL and noSQL-based cific, if most comments are appearing scaled-out platform for providing dis- as SAS Institute, QlikTech, JasperSoft systems. Look for business analytics as hashtags in Twitter. tributed processing for large amounts as well as those who have gained packages that enable links to be made Further, it’s a waste of time writing of data), can use MapReduce, (the use entry to the market through acquisi- to data sources of any kind that reside multiple connectors to cover all of to- of “chunking” data analysis into tion such as IBM (Cognos, SPSS), anywhere on the internet, and that day’s social networks – remember packets of work that can be dealt SAP (Business Objects) and Oracle can link into semi-structured systems MySpace, Bebo and Second Life? with in a parallel manner across a (Hyperion, Endeca). such as social networking sites in a They were all the darlings of their large resource pool), approaches to The storage suppliers are also mak- meaningful manner. day, but have faded to a withered ex- minimise the amount of information ing plays in the space – EMC ac- Big data may appear to be just an- istence or almost non-existence as that needs to be dealt with. quired GreenPlum and Dell contin- other bandwagon at this stage – but it newer players have taken over. What is being aimed for here is to ues to acquire companies that will is important, and needs to be ad- Sites such as Pinterest are showing take the seemingly infinite amount of help it create a more cohesive and dressed carefully and sensibly, rather signs of major interest – yet this was available data and filter it down into complete big data approach. than in a bull-in-a-china-shop man- also the case with Google+, which manageable chunks. Standard inter- ner that seems to be pushed by many more resembles a Western desert net searches can feed into a Hadoop- Buyer dos and don’ts vendors. The journey can be carried than a viable, active social network, based system, which can then act as a The key for buyers is to treat big data out at a measured pace, leveraging after just a short time. feed into either standard SQL-based as a journey. Set short- and medium- existing systems in conjunction with Any social network solution has to database or into a noSQL-based one, term targets of what is required and new systems. It just needs a strategic be able to embrace new platforms at depending on the type of information then put in place solutions that help plan built from careful planning – minimal cost, so new networks that being dealt with. to move towards these targets. and an eye to the long-term future. ■ are just “spikes” on the continuum Extra information can be added au- Don’t put in place anything that do not use up lots of money in creat- tomatically via rules engines or man- could result in a need for major fork- Clive Longbottom is a director of analyst ing connectors specifically for them. ually, as required, as metadata that lift upgrades at a later date – embrace organisation Quocirca more online › Decision makers plan to spend big on big data projects

› Security Think Tank: Using big data for intelligence-led security

› Making sense of big data in the petabyte age Im a ge: hubbles i te.org

13 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com only the smart survive.

Your IT people need reliable answers—fast. Whether they’re managing your next big project, preparing for certification exams, or solving problems on the go, they need information you can trust. Like learning content from SkillSoft. Search books from leading IT publishers for just-in-time answers. Learn new technologies with courses, virtual instructor-led training, and mentoring from certified experts. When you partner with SkillSoft, you can expect current, authoritative content and unparalleled service. You’ll benefit from our experience developing award-winning IT learning content and programs. See for yourself. Click here for a sample Live Learning™ class, The Modern Approach to Cisco CCNA Subnetting.

Make better decisions with big data Rob Toguri considers the issues CIOs need to address to ask direct questions of big data and get meaningful answers

consumer goods and retail, where is a quick way to identify shifting possibly forestalling customer defec- point-of-sale data is deemed the most views towards drugs and other tion to rival mobile operators. CW Buyer’s guide important (cited by 71% of respond- healthcare products. But not all unstructured data is as Big data ents). Retailers and consumer goods easy to understand as social media. part 1 of 3 firms are arguably under more pres- Social media Indeed, 42% of survey respondents sure than other industries to keep Over 40% of respondents agree that say unstructured content – which in- their prices competitive. With smart- using social media data for decision- cludes audio, video, e-mails and web here is near-consensus phone apps such as RedLaser and making has become increasingly pages – is too difficult to interpret. across industries as to which Amazon’s Price Check, customers important, possibly because they A possible reason for this is that to- big data sets are most valu- can scan a product’s barcode in-store have made organisations vulnerable day’s business intelligence tools are T able. The Economist Intel- and immediately find out if the prod- to “brand damage”. good at aggregating and analysing ligence Unit conducted a survey, uct is available elsewhere for less. Social media are often used as an structured data while tools for un- completed in February 2012, of 607 Office documentation (e-mails, early warning system to alert firms structured data are predominantly executives. Participants hailed from document stores, etc) is the second when customers are turning against targeted at providing access to indi- across the globe, with 38% based in most valued data set overall, fa- them. In December 2011 it took Veri- vidual documents (for example, Europe, 28% in North America, 25% voured by 32% of respondents. Of zon Wireless just one day to make the search and content management). It in Asia-Pacific and the remainder the other major industries in the sur- decision to withdraw a $2 “conveni- may be a while before the more ad- coming from Latin America and the vey, only healthcare, pharmaceuti- ence charge” for paying bills with a vanced unstructured data tools – Middle East and Africa. cals and biotechnology differ on their smartphone, following a social me- such as text analytics and sentiment Fully 69% of survey respondents second choice. Here social media are dia-led consumer backlash. analysis – which can aggregate and agree business activity data (for ex- viewed as the second most valuable Customers used Twitter and other summarise unstructured content, be- ample, sales, purchases, costs) adds data set, possibly because reputation social media to express their anger at come mass market. the greatest value to their organisa- is vitally important in this sector and the charge. Verizon Wireless was This could be why 40% of re- tion. The only notable exception is “sentiment analysis” of social media prompt in responding to the outcry, spondents say they have too much »

15 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com buyer’s guide

failures. The more sophisticated the 18,000 schools; it will be offered to tools become, the more decisions that UK schools, for free, from March can be automated. 2012. SAS has also developed ad- Decision automation, however, can vanced analytics courses with a num- introduce unnecessary rigidity into ber of universities, including Centen- business processes. At times of high nial College, Canada, North Carolina instability – such as the current eco- State University and Saint Joseph’s nomic climate – companies need to University, Philadelphia, to provide be nimble to adapt to changing con- the next generation of data analysts. ditions. Hard-coded decisions can be The time it takes to analyse large costly and take time to change. data sets is seen as another major im- Respondents’ reports of the bene- pediment to more effective use of big fits of harnessing big data for deci- data in decision-making. sion-making are many and varied. “I think big data is going to stimu- The road to these riches, however, is late the need for more CPU power, laced with potholes. because people are going to get very The biggest impediment to effec- creative and they’re going to invent tive decision-making using big data – new algorithms, and we’re going to cited by 56% of survey respondents – say ‘My God, everything’s slow is “organisational silos”. This again’,” says Ruh of GE. appears especially the case for larger “We are going to have to redo our organisations with annual revenue compute and storage architectures, over $10bn, whose executives are because they will not work where all more likely to cite silos as a problem this is going.” (72%) than smaller firms with less than $500m in revenue (43%). The future of big data Alex Pentland, director of the Human Mind the skills gap Dynamics Laboratory at MIT, says

» unstructured data to support deci- ther corrected through a control A big impediment to making better big data is turning the process of sion-making, next to just 7% who say mechanism (decision automation) or decisions with big data is the dearth decision-making inside out. Instead they have too much structured data. through human intervention (deci- of skilled staff to analyse it, an issue of starting with a question or hypoth- Structured or unstructured, most sion support). mentioned by 51% of respondents. esis, people mine data to see what executives feel they don’t have “We’re trying to get to what we For consumer goods and retail patterns they can find. If the patterns enough data to support their deci- would call ‘zero unplanned outages’ firms, it is the single toughest obsta- reveal a business opportunity or a sion-making. In fact, 40% of respond- on everything we sell,” says Ruh. cle, cited by two-thirds of respond- threat, then a decision is made about ents overall believe the decisions Across all industries and regions, ents from those sectors. how to act on the information. they have made in the past three most survey respondents concur Some experts Capgemini spoke to This is certainly true, but improve- years would have been significantly there is scope for further decision au- believe that, in terms of modelling, ments in computing power and artifi- better if they’d had all of the struc- tomation at their organisation. Over there will be a considerable shortage cial intelligence systems mean that tured and unstructured data they 60% of respondents dispute the of specialists, especially in the ana- asking direct questions of big data needed to make their decision. And, proposition that most operational/ lyst domain. and getting an answer, in real time, is despite the fact that respondents tactical decisions that can be auto- According to Ruh of GE: “There is now a reality. from the financial services and ener- mated, have been automated. going to be a war for this kind of tal- Although these systems are still gy sectors are more likely than aver- This view is fairly consistent ent in the next five years.” very costly and not widely deployed, age to describe their firm as data- across industries, although fewer Aside from a master’s degree or this research suggests that the appe- driven, they are also more likely than healthcare and pharmaceuticals com- PhD in economics, mathematics, tite for real-time decision-making is the average (46% from financial ser- panies agree with the statement physics or other relevant field of sci- huge. And when there is a business vices, and 48% from energy) to feel (52%) than manufacturing compa- ence, analysts are expected to have demand, it is only a matter of time they could have made better deci- nies (68%). (Respondents from the in-depth domain knowledge, which before the need if fulfilled. ■ sions if the needed data was to hand. education sector also appear less cer- usually takes years to acquire. On first appearance, this may seem tain than peers elsewhere that there Interviewees for the report say the Rob Toguri is vice-president of business contradictory, given the surfeit of is much still to be automated.) ideal analyst should have an ability information management at Capgemini data and the difficulty organisations There is some regional variation, to communicate complex ideas in a face in managing it, but Bill Ruh, too. No more than 54% of executives simple manner and should be cus- This is an edited excerpt. Click here to read vice-president of software at GE sees in Asia-Pacific believe the job of au- tomer-focused. Finding people with the full report no contradiction. tomation is incomplete, compared all of these abilities is never going to “Because the problems we address with 71% in Western Europe. be easy and retaining them is going to Click here to see the full The Computer are going to get more and more com- Ruh says: “One reason is that many be even harder, as the benefits of big Weekly research library archive plex, we’re going to solve more com- of the environments we operate in data become apparent to more firms. plex problems as a result,” he says. are highly regulated, so we have to Technology companies recognise “What we find is the more data we move at a speed that makes sense the problem and are working with have, the more we get innovation in within the regulation,” he says. schools and universities to develop more online those analytics and we begin to do “The second is because the sensors these much-needed skills. For exam- things we didn’t think we could do.” and the data weren’t really there to ple, SAS, a business analytics soft- › Big data roundtable webcast: automate anything.” ware firm based in Cary, North Caro- Gaining value from big data Decision automation Certainly decision-automation lina, developed Curriculum For Ruh, the journey to data fulfil- tools have evolved from simple “if Pathways, a web-based tool for teach- › Using semantic technology to ment will be over when he can put a then else” programmable statements ing data analytics to high school stu- turn big data into smart data sensor on every component GE sells (for example: “If credit rating = AAA, dents. The course, aimed at science, and monitor it in real time. then approve loan, else reject”) to so- technology, engineering and mathe- › Dealing with big data: The In this way, any aberrant behaviour phisticated artificial intelligence pro- matics students, has been running for storage implications of big data can be immediately identified and ei- grams that learn from successes and 12 years in the US and is used in

16 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com

Microsoft Office 2013

Exploring touch, cloud and social enterprise in Microsoft Office 2013 Tim Anderson delves into the features and functionality of Microsoft's latest Office software

icrosoft CEO Steve addition, Microsoft has developed When users download an applica- Word 2013 Ballmer unveiled the native Windows 8 Metro-style apps tion, there is an option to do so using Word 2013, like the other Office 2013 new Office on 16 July for OneNote and Lync. Some editions click-to-run application virtualisa- applications, has a redesigned rib- M2012 in San Francisco, do not include all applications. tion instead of a standard full install. bon control inspired by Metro, even describing it at the “biggest, most This speeds deployment and should though it is a desktop application. ambitious release in our history”. Office 365 also reduce potential application One of the goals is to be easier to use It is a multi-faceted release. The Another key piece of the Office fam- conflicts. with touch, though in this case some look and feel of the user interface has ily is SharePoint, deployed either on- of the icons are still too small to hit been redone in the Metro style of premise or in the cloud. Office 365 is OneNote on Metro easily on a tablet with a small screen, Windows Phone and Windows 8, Microsoft’s own implementation of The migration of Office to the Win- such as the Samsung 11.6in Slate, on though most of the applications still hosted SharePoint and Exchange. dows 8 platform is a process, not an which Microsoft often demonstrates run on the traditional Windows desk- Customers who subscribe to an event, and Microsoft is further ahead Windows 8 and Office 2013. That top. Links to the cloud have been Office 365 bundle which includes with some applications than others. said, it is an improvement over Of- increased, with a focus on social col- Office 2013 will be able to download A favoured application is OneNote, fice 2010 for touch users. Microsoft’s laboration as well as internet storage. the desktop applications from the which has a true native Windows 8 dilemma is that if it removes more Microsoft is also trying to shift busi- web. Microsoft has announced four app as well as a desktop version. controls from the ribbon then there nesses to a subscription model for new bundles. Home Premium has The Metro version of OneNote would be more to learn for users with Office, with a generous limit of up to 20GB of storage and includes Word, includes what Microsoft calls a radial Office 2007 or 2010. five installations per user, including PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, menu for applying formatting to text. The Insert tab in the ribbon both Windows and Mac versions if OneNote, Access and Publisher. This is a sophisticated control that is includes a new option, called Apps required. Small Business Premium adds Info- designed for touch, and demonstrates for Office. This is for applications Office 2013 is a suite of 11 applica- Path and Lync, for up to 10 users. the value of a native Windows 8 written to a JavaScript application tions – Access, Excel, InfoPath, ProPlus is similar, but covers up to 25 application. Microsoft is not programming interface (API) that is OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Pro- users. Enterprise Premium has the announcing any specific plans, but it new in this version. Such apps can ject, Lync, Publisher, Visio and Word same applications, but adds archiv- seems plausible that more native be embedded as content in a docu- – all of which have been reworked ing and legal hold support, as well as Metro apps will be included in sub- ment, or run alongside the document with a Metro-style user interface. In unlimited users. sequent Office releases. in a task pane. They are written in »

18 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com Microsoft Office 2013

HTML» and JavaScript, and use Inter- net Explorer embedded as an iFrame to render their content.

Excel 2013 Excel 2013 has several new features. Flash Fill attempts to learn the pattern when you add a new column based on one or more existing col- umns, and will fill the column auto- matically according to that pattern. Spreadsheet Inquire and Compare is an add-in that scans spreadsheets for errors such as broken links. Rec- ommended Charts is where Excel will suggest a chart that is suitable for the current data.

Outlook 2013 Outlook 2013 has a new pop-up “peek” option using a menu at the bot- tom left of the application window. The mail application also connects to the internet to show forecasted Microsoft’s 2013 versions of Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word weather for calendar dates, an example of using a web service to enhance a desktop product. signed into an online account. This interface similar to that of the public In this it has only partially suc- Another new feature is MailTips, a enables presentations to be shared by SkyDrive service. A key feature of ceeded. Although the user interface is notification that appears when Out- sending out the link, subject to the SkyDrive Pro is that users can syn- better than previous versions of Office look detects a potential error, such as assigned permissions. chronise files with a PC for offline for touch control, it remains awkward forgetting to attach a file, but referring support. This synchronisation is at times. Operations such as format- to an attachment in the message. Touchscreen operation based on an Explorer add-in, so that ting text in Word are easier with a Users testing Outlook 2013 can install During the demo event, Micro- it appears as a folder on the PC, rather mouse. The Metro-style OneNote it side by side with earlier versions. soft corporate vice-president Kirk than using the SharePoint Workspace shows that Microsoft has the ability to Koenigsbauer showed Office 2013 feature first introduced in Office find innovative solutions to these PowerPoint 2013 on an 82in touchscreen made by 2010. SharePoint Workspace is also issues, but it has not yet been able to PowerPoint 2013 has more changes Perceptive Pixel, a company recently present in the preview, suggesting do this across the whole suite. than most of the Office applications. acquired by Microsoft. that these different approaches to Another key aspect of Office 2013 The Presenter View, designed for Perceptive screens support 10 offline support will co-exist. is as the client for Office 365. Users multi-screen set-ups where the user points of multi-touch, enabling rich now sign into Office, and this along- can use a separate display to manage gesture support. With such a screen, Office web apps side the new internet-based Apps for a slide show, now includes the ability users can operate Windows 8 and The web apps for Office, a feature Office extension model opens the to zoom in and out of specific parts Office 2013 standing up, using effects of SharePoint, are enhanced in the way for some compelling solutions. of the screen, a navigation grid for such as pinch and zoom to highlight 2013 wave. As with the desktop ap- The integration of SkyDrive Pro with slides, and a one-click option to swap key points or enlarge image details. It plications, the ribbon user interface is Explorer for offline documents is displays between Presenter View and can also be used collaboratively, add- optimised for touch input. A button another strong point. the presentation itself. ing annotations with touch. The near the top left lets users move the It is unfortunate, however, that users There is a new start screen for set- screens are expensive, but the com- ribbon icons further apart to offer a of other operating systems, including ting up documents, with themes and pany is promising to bring the price bigger target for fingers. Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and templates, enhanced alignment down when possible. The web apps play a key role in even Microsoft’s own Windows XP guides, the ability to merge two enabling document sharing on non- and Vista, get an inferior experience. shapes into one, and the option to Social enterprise Microsoft devices such as those run- The company’s dilemma is that it add pictures direct from internet ser- The SharePoint Newsfeed is an ac- ning Apple iOS or Google Android. cannot improve Office on other plat- vices such as Flickr. tivity feed in SharePoint team sites. Although the company is rumoured forms without undermining the In common with other Office 2013 Users can post messages, “Like” to be working on iOS apps for Office, advantage it gives to Windows. Even applications, PowerPoint saves by posts, and follow contacts or docu- nothing was announced at the press so, Office 2013 represents a strong default to the cloud, if the user is ments. They can get e-mail alerts launch in San Francisco. Rather, move towards a system that works when there is new activity on a sub- Microsoft points to the web apps as a well across cloud and mobile, though ject to which they have subscribed. way to access and edit documents in Windows 8 users will benefit most. ■ This is where Microsoft is bringing the Safari browser. The dominance of elements familiar from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ into Microsoft ambitions Office in business SharePoint, a private, managed envi- Office 2013 is critically important for more online ronment. Microsoft’s acquisition of Microsoft. The dominance of Office is Microsoft’s Yammer and Skype is behind some in business is its strategic asset in the › Try Office 2013 Preview of the social networking and commu- battle with iOS and Android. Micro- strategic asset in nication features in Office 2013. soft’s goal is to take on the iPad with › Steve Ballmer launches cloud- Users can integrate Lync with Skype devices that are equally convenient based Microsoft Office 2013 the battle with iOS and aggregate existing contacts. and easy to use, but without compro- SkyDrive Pro is a new feature of mising capability – the ability to run › Microsoft reveals 26 October and Android SharePoint which gives each user full Office addresses the second part launch for Windows 8 their own storage area with a user of that ambition.

19 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com Reduce your IT recruitment costs by up to 75% You could recruit two or three QA Apprentices for the cost of one graduate salary

One of the reasons that we justified “our second apprentice was the speed that the first apprentice was useful to the business, and that we could start covering the costs of employing and training them.

Rupert Squires – Operations” Director, Perspicuity

Find out more at apprenticeships.qa.com/it

t: 0845 074 7825 e: [email protected]

QA Apprenticeships work for your business

Microsoft – IT Systems & Networking Software & Web Development – .NET, Java and more

Apprenticeships

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All third-party trademark rights acknowledged. downtime

iPhone can really pack a punch Smartphones already provide a vast toolkit in your pocket, and soon that arsenal could include the ability to take down a violent attacker. No, not a new app, but a cunningly crafted case, initially designed for the iP- hone 4, which includes a 650,000- volt stun gun. Named Yellow Jacket after a spe- cies of predatory wasp, the case has its own external battery, capable of giving the smartphone up to 20 additional hours of standby capacity. Inventor Seth Froom was inspired by an armed robbery at his home, during which he was caught unarmed and unable to fight back. He came up with the idea for Yellow Jacket because most people have their mobile Heard something amusing or exasperating on the industry grapevine? E-mail [email protected] phones with them, wherever they are, whatever they are doing. While the Yellow Jacket may not Stun guns are legal in the US, but Elvis lives on planet football It also emerged that a similar go down well with ultra style-con- there is a fairly long list of countries Downtime was delighted to learn that string, “0x0B00B135” or “boobies”, scious iPhone users, it does provide where they are not, and yes, you telecommunications analyst Windsor appeared in an earlier version of the desperately needed battery life and guessed it, the UK is on that list. Holden has a secret second life. By same code. could be a lifesaver too. Elsewhere, Yellow Jacket’s devel- day, Windsor writes about near-field The revelation has prompted wide- That’s assuming, of course, users opers are looking for funding and are communications and mobile pay- spread criticism of Microsoft and de- will have time to release the safety offering early bird specials for iPhone ments for analyst company Juniper bate over whether a “boys club” cul- catch and a rotating electrode-cap that 4 and 4S owners. Versions for other Research. On evenings and week- ture deters women from entering the have been added to prevent misfires. models of smartphone will follow. ends, he writes, er, books about Elvis software industry. ■ Presley and aliens. Windsor has just published his Read more on the Downtime blog first novel, Elvis lives on planet foot- computerweekly.com/downtime ball. It’s the story of two 20-some- things with an appetite for beer and contacts women, and an aversion to house- work. Needless to say, they get tan- Computer Weekly/ComputerWeekly.com 1st Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street, gled up in a plot featuring Leeds London W1W 7JB United, a clandestine government General enquiries agency, and the king of rock and roll, 020 7186 1400 evidently still alive and hanging out in Yorkshire. Editorial e sy of tyl ringr a m/flickr p h oto court Think it wouldn’t happen? Well, I Editor in chief: Bryan Glick have it on good authority that Jerry 020 7186 1424 [email protected] Lee Lewis is working as a parking at- Managing editor (technology): Cliff Saran tendant in Brighton. Makes you think. 020 7186 1421 [email protected] Services editor: Karl Flinders Microsoft red-faced over ‘big 020 7186 1423 [email protected] boobs’ in software code Head of premium content: Bill Goodwin Microsoft has been hit by another em- 020 7186 1418 [email protected] barrassing disclosure that highlights a Microsoft holds hottest party in town Security editor: Warwick Ashford “boys club” culture at the firm. 020 7186 1419 [email protected] With the Olympics well underway, not only is London flooded with athletes, Last year, the High Court heard Senior reporter: Kathleen Hall but also the rich and famous, who somehow managed to score tickets in claims that male executives had sex- 020 7186 1426 [email protected] the lottery – convenient hey? ually harassed female colleagues, And where there are celebrities, there are parties – and the hotspots of and this June the firm was forced to Networking editor: Jennifer Scott 020 7186 1404 [email protected] the capital will no doubt be rolling out the red carpet to squeeze them all in. apologise for promoting its cloud But it seems the hottest ticket in town is not for Mahiki or a table at The computing services at a conference Special projects editor: Kayleigh Bateman Ivy, it is on a yacht in Canary Wharf, owned by none other than Microsoft with an all-female song and dance 020 7186 1415 [email protected] co-founder Paul Allen. routine it admitted was “vulgar” and Content assistant: Caroline Baldwin Yes, even The Sun is reporting on the exclusive shindig, which claims “inappropriate”. 020 7186 1425 [email protected] to have Brad and Angelina on the list, as well as the lesser photographed This time, Microsoft has had to Production editor: Claire Cormack Bill Gates. apologise after developers uncovered 020 7186 1417 [email protected] We wonder whether Steve Ballmer will show up and make a show of a reference to “big boobs” hidden in Senior sub-editor: Jason Foster himself. With that bellow you would be able to hear him from the Olympic software code written by the firm, ac- 020 7186 1420 [email protected] park if he had one too many Pimms in the sunshine. cording to the Telegraph. DISPLAY ADVERTISING But, whoever does turn up, we are just glad the tech geeks are showing The controversial string they don’t just know how to code, they can party too. Expect copies of Sales director: Brent Boswell “0xB16B00B5”, a hexadecimal value, 07584 311889 [email protected] Windows 8 in the goodie bags, and perhaps one of the many left over was found in software that allows Nokia Lumias. Microsoft programs to work with Group events manager: Chris Hepple 07826 511161 [email protected] open source operating system Linux.

21 | 31 July - 6 August 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com The #1 mistake made by #2 companies? Ignoring their machine data.

Our software turns your raw machine data into refined business insights by making sense of the systems that run your company—servers, website clickstreams, mobile devices and more. It’s what we call real-time operational intelligence—and why over half of the Fortune 100 use Splunk® software and have the business results to prove it. © 2012 Splunk Inc. All Rights Reserved. Rights All Inc. Splunk © 2012