24-30 April 2012 | computerweekly.com

CIO credibility on the line in the boardroom chief executives want to invest in IT but see CIO role in a technical not strategic capacity page 4

Shared IT services save millions Pooled IT resources offer route for public sector CIOs to cut costs page 5 Cloud-scaled database management Microsoft catches up with competitors With the release of SQL Server 2012 page 14 Highlights from the week online

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Oracle sues Google for $1bn > Making the cloud work for UK 1 over Android OS enterprises Cloud computing offers businesses Apple criticised for slow a revolutionary model of pay-as- 2 response to Flashback Trojan you-go, on-demand IT services, helping organisations meet growing Scott Thompson and unpredictable capacity and 3 restructures Yahoo performance needs. Discover how IT leaders can weigh the risks and Apple takes novel approach benefits of cloud computing, and 4 to killing Flashback Trojan take steps to engage a reliable and secure cloud services provider in HP losing grip of EDS’s this exclusive resource. Access a 5 Ministry of Defence contract practical six-point plan that helps you easily migrate to the cloud. Schools must replace ICT 6 lessons with business IT > CW500: HMRC CIO Phil Pavitt on IT transformation > Special report on IBM HM Revenue & Customs CIO Phil Pavitt introduced a strategy to reduce the IT IBM is transforming its business to Chant slams CIOs ‘hiding budget by £161m – a target he is well on the way to achieving. In this CW500 take advantage of shifts in the way 7 behind comfort blanket’ video, Pavitt talks to Computer Weekly editor in chief Bryan Glick about HMRC’s technology is used. Strong IT Transformation Programme and the benefits it is delivering for UK taxpayers. globalisation is propelled by a faster Denise McDonagh takes flow of information, making it easier 8 over G-Cloud for businesses to collaborate. The Photo story computerisation of everything from The top seven mistakes IT kitchen appliances to power lines is 9 executives make making the planet smarter. And customers seek to innovate more HMRC saves £50m with than ever before with technology. 10 SME IE6 upgrade contract > Accelerate time to revenue with infrastructure test optimisation Network infrastructure is the foundation for all applications and services, even in virtualised and cloud computing environments. Today’s businesses rely on that infrastructure in some way for nearly every business objective they have. This creates the need for the entire > Test drive: SQL Server 2012 > Transforming IT at HMRC network infrastructure to have high Get the latest IT news via RSS feed Tim Anderson looks at the enterprise HMRC CIO Phil Pavitt talked to the levels of performance, availability, computerweekly.com/RSSFeeds.htm features in Microsoft’s latest relational CW500 club about IT transformation, scalability and security. database management server. take a look at his slides here.

opinion blogs

> BATS software bug hits business > Adrian Bridgwater: Hybrid cloud’s big question: will it blend? A software glitch hit the market debut California-based Eucalyptus Systems has coined a new term to describe part of the developer’s of BATS Global Markets, leading the imperative to now help move and migrate (some) cloud computing-driven applications from public company to completely withdraw its cloud infrastructures to new hybrid models. “Blending Clouds” is the firm’s take on emerging usage initial public offering of shares – an patterns and the architectural principals behind this approach. extremely rare and embarrassing event. The software bug that hit BATS > Philip Virgo: Is EURIM about to become the Digital Single Market champion? is just one example of public-facing The draft Data Protection Regulation contains “necessary ambiguities” in order to achieve agreement glitches and outages that negatively on “harmonisation”. Those ambiguities create yet more legal and regulatory uncertainty confusion of impact millions of customers and the type that make it easier to organise cross-border transactions via services based in the USA. The brand confidence. consequences get in the way of the Digital Single Market.

> The implications of identity > Kayleigh Bateman: Dear Mr Zuckerberg... where are all the women? assurance for public services Facebook’s all-male board of directors has been the recent target of women’s group Ultraviolet, which The government’s approach to recently launched an anti-sexism campaign against the social media giant. The group, which identity should be based on a trust describes itself as “a new women’s group fighting to expand women’s rights and combat sexism” is framework in which the citizen will be pressuring Facebook to place at least one woman on its board of directors before its IPO. able to choose their identity provider from an open and competitive > Mark Ballard: Proprietary lobby triumphs in first open standards showdown marketplace. In return, government Software patent heavyweights piled into the first public meeting of the Cabinet Office consultation on organisations will be mandated to open standards on 4 April, conquering the meeting ballot with a resounding call to scrap the accept assurances of identity from government’s policy on open standards. Open source and open standards campaigners complained appropriately accredited providers. they hadn’t been invited to the roundtable event.

2 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com the week in IT

IT services & outsourcing Privacy & data protection Home Office IT director Denise GCHQ releases Alan Turing McDonagh takes over G-Cloud code-breaking papers Home Office IT director Denise Government intelligence agency McDonagh is to take over the govern- GCHQ has released two 70-year-old ment’s G-Cloud programme when papers by Alan Turing on the theory current incumbent Chris Chant of code breaking. Turing is best retires. McDonagh will combine the known as the father of modern com- two roles at the end of April, ready puter science and his work at Bletch- for the next release of the CloudStore ley Park on the Turing-Welchman online cloud services catalogue Bombe to mechanise the process of launched by Chant in February. breaking the German Enigma cipher. McDonagh is seen as a reformer in The papers discuss mathematical ap- Whitehall IT and is likely to pursue a proaches to code breaking. similar drive as her predecessor. IT technical skills Business applications IT skills shortage a global issue HP losing grip of EDS’s Ministry of Sensor sticker for NFC payments says recruitment firm Hays Defence contract A lack of IT talent is a global issue, HP’s grip on a flagship Ministry of Barclaycard is providing contactless payment on mobile phones using a according to recruitment group Hays Defence deal (MoD) could be weak- stick-on sensor, which it hopes will familiarise consumers with making Information Technology. The recruit- ening after rival CSC took over the contactless payments using near-field communications (NFC) technology. ment specialist has compiled a list of pay and pensions administration The company already offers embedded mobile payment technology through top 10 skills that are lacking globally, services of the Service Personnel and a deal with Orange but believes the free card, known as PayTag, will drive the with IT pinpointed as one of the top Veterans Agency (SPVA). The SPVA take-up of contactless payments. “hard skills” in demand. Hays said contract is part of the Defence Infor- Tom Gregory, head of digital payments at Barclaycard, said PayTag will candidates with knowledge of Java, mation Infrastructure (DII) deal that accelerate the take up of mobile payments because of its simplicity. .Net and C++, as well as IT skills EDS, since acquired by HP, has held specific to individual industries, are since 2005. The overall DII deal is particularly hard to come by. worth about £1bn a year and includes a wide range of services, including IT vacancies in February by sector Cloud computing services training for military personnel. Banks and SAP collaborate on Sector breakdown of permanent and contract IT vacancies in February 2012 cloud platform operating systems software Citibank and the Royal Bank of Scot- Microsoft beats analyst Q3 Sector % change on 2011 land are working with SAP to de- estimates with $17.41bn revenues velop a cloud platform that will en- Microsoft has reported $17.41bn in Banking, 1,528 +0.2% able businesses to link their systems revenue for the third quarter of its insurance directly to their banks. SAP’s busi- 772 -1.28% fiscal year, up 7% on the previous and finance ness software expertise and cloud year and beating analyst estimates of technology will harness the business 691 +5.98% $17.16bn. According to the software Retail expertise of the banks as well as their firm, this is a record for third-quarter 78 -3.7% global networks to enable businesses revenue, up 6% from the same pe- to integrate ERP and finance systems riod last year. Operating income was 514 +7.31% directly to banks. up 12% to $6.37bn. Telecoms 95 +1.06% Smartphone technology Database software Mobile e-commerce soars 254% Media, 445 +11.81% Financial companies leading race new media in the UK to digitisation and creative 152 -0.65% The number of customers using Financial services companies are smartphones to make purchases has significantly ahead of other sectors of Public 165 +27.91% soared by 254% since March 2011, the economy in their take-up of digi- according to research for the IMRG sector 194 -10.19% tal technology, according to research Capgemini e-Retail Sales index. Mo- from Booz&Co. Banks and insurance bile retail has so far averaged 300% companies are investing heavily in Permanent Contract year-on-year growth for the first quar- big data analytics, mobile payments, ter of 2012. However, the conversion Source: Computer People and electronic trading and e-com- rate of shoppers that visit a retailer’s merce systems, to digitise virtually site via a mobile device and make a every aspect of retail banking. IT hardware purchase remains low at 0.7%. “The driving force for mobile apps & software IT for financial services Nokia loses €3bn as Windows supercomputers is Royal Bank of Scotland CIO Ian Phone partnership struggles Alderton steps down Nokia has reported a €3bn loss due to stay competitive Ian Alderton, chief information of- to what it describes as greater than ficer at the corporate division of expected competitive challenges and as a nation” Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has seasonality. Its Q1 2012 sales after left the bank this month, Computer tax was €7.4bn compared to €10.4bn Hans Werner Meuer, Weekly has learned. Since joining for the same quarter in 2011. The the part taxpayer-owned bank in No- troubled phone maker said the losses supercomputer Top 500 vember 2010, Alderton managed its were primarily due to charges related initiative co-founder 400-strong corporate banking tech- to restructuring activities. nology division under a global remit.

3 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com news analysis

IT Strategy the time many traditional businesses first started using IT to improve busi- Gartner: CEOs want to use ness processes and optimise supply chains. Raskino said CEOs today should be worried about issues such as the demise of Kodak because of digital IT to boost business growth photography, as it showed how a business that sticks to its core values Growth is the number one priority for CEOs surveyed by Gartner, writes Cliff Saran can fail to adapt to changing business conditions. Kodak not only pio- neered low-cost, convenient film y more than a two-to-one photography, it also invented the ratio, CEOs are inclined to CEOs are inclined world’s first digital camera. He increase IT spending this warned, “It is not good enough to B year rather than to reduce to increase IT make one small part of your com- it, according to analyst Gartner. pany innovative.” Growth is the number one priority spending this year Part of the problem for companies for the 229 CEOs Gartner surveyed in is that they lack true innovation pro- its CEO Survey 2012. CRM is the grammes, said Raskino: “The finance technology of choice to help busi- director is closest to the CEO on strat- nesses leaders achieve this objective, growth is slowing. There is a lot more egy. But it is not the CIO or CFO who according to Gartner. The firm urged headwind, and this will impact the leads innovation programmes.” CIOs to improve IT-related competi- propensity to increase IT invest- In the Gartner survey, 30% of CEOs tor intelligence to help the business ment,” he said. said they were primarily responsible navigate the difficult economic “CIOs and CEOs should discuss for innovation programmes. Other climate ahead. with each other what new informa- directors, senior management and Gartner analyst Mark Raskino said tion would help them manage the business unit heads took on some of the 2:1 ratio reflects IT’s resilience to business better through uncertain this responsibility. However, only change. “During the boom we did not Growth is slowing economic times. We know most com- 4% of CEOs directly mention CIOs, see people throwing money at IT, and He expects 2012 will be a slower year panies have weak management for- while CFOs were never mentioned, during the recession, they did not for growth. “Things might get better, malism over information strategy and Raskino said. shut down datacentres, but they did but the gut feeling among business governance; however, information close factories.” leaders is that Chinese and Indian variety, complexity and volume are Under-investment in CIOs rising exponentially. Muddling In the survey, most CEOs said their through without discipline will soon CIOs do not report to them. The rea- start to leave major companies vul- sons given for reporting lines to the CIOs ‘not cut out for the board’ nerable to new entrant competition.” CFO and COO were things such as The perception that there is a slow- cutting the cost of IT or because it is Company bosses view CIOs as itinerant technology specialists, rather than down in growth is reflected in the lat- not seen as strategic, Gartner stated candidates for the boardroom, writes Bill Goodwin. est Ernst & Young ITEM Club study. in the report. In an age of such digital Most CEOs believe CIOs lack what it takes to move on to business roles, The ITEM Club forecasts that UK disruption to business, and when according to Gartner’s survey of 229 CEOs worldwide. GDP growth will be 0.4% this year, six of the world’s 10 most power- The findings will put pressure on CIOs to rethink their roles, to build before rising to 1.5% in 2013 and ful brands are technology firms, we credibility with business leaders and influence business strategy. 2.6% in 2014. According to the are left wondering why the CIO role The survey shows that CEOs do not regard CIOs as key contributors to Club’s spring forecast, it is now up to remains so under-invested, said the innovation or board-level strategy. Most view CIOs as technical specialists UK plc to drive the recovery forward analyst. Perhaps it’s because many who are more likely to move to another CIO role than a business role. and prevent any relapses. of today’s CIOs are not perceived as But, Gartner warned, the CIOs’ lack of credibility with CEOs is likely to According to the Gartner report, capable of general business leader- damage businesses at a time when digital technology is a key business any paranoia CEOs have about a ship, Gartner stated (see box). differentiator. Developments such as the internet of things, will have profound company such as Google or Amazon Raskino blames the industry for implications for businesses, which will need the input of a CIO into company coming after their industry one day hyping IT: “In every airport in the strategy, said Gartner analyst Mark Raskino. probably has some validity. “CIOs world there are banner adverts for “As soon as devices start reporting their status, it changes the dynamics of should spearhead the development cloud computing.” ■ an industry,” he said. “The money companies make starts to come from of an information strategy for their services as well as the product.” firms, concentrating, in particular, on This is an edited excerpt of the original article. Without the input of their CIOs into top-level strategy, companies risk new kinds of information that might Click here to read the full version online missing out on digital technology, he argued. lead to industry disruptions and “When I see the results of the survey, I am not surprised that Kodak went transformations,” it said. out of business. The people with the technology insights were not close to the top,” he said. “There are going to be a lot more Kodaks.” Innovative use of IT more online Gartner advised CEOs to invest in coaching and mentoring their CIOs, to While there are plenty of individual develop them into more of a business role. “We found CEOs have a high examples of smart use of IT – such as › Gartner: $44bn less spending on expectation for what technology will bring to their business, this decade and the pay-per-use financing of aircraft IT in 2012 the next. If they believe that, they need good technology leadership,” he said. engines pioneered by Rolls-Royce And CIOs should switch their focus away from technology to focus on the – Raskino said CEOs had very few › Gartner BI Summit: Time to get wider information needs of the business, said Raskino. examples of businesses that have back to basics with analytics “CIOs should start focusing on, and talking about, information. I don’t changed through the innovative use mean talking about big data and analytics, because those are tools. I am of IT. › Business process optimisation talking about understanding the information set of the firm,” he said. “There are far less case studies and the CIO role converge than in the 1990s,” he said. This was

4 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com news analysis

Government & public sector How public sector can save millions with standardised shared IT services Government CIOs must be discerning in how they invest to get the best out of shared IT services, writes Kathleen Hall

he prize for public sector rather than making the most of the ef- savings through shared ser- ficiencies,” she said. vices is substantial. Some re- It is not uncommon for organisa- T ports estimate it could slash tions to drop out of shared services budgets by hundreds of millions of arrangements before they even start. pounds. With such significant cost “There are certainly economies to reductions to be made, what makes be made if organisations get it right. these projects work? But the arrangement must be flexible Shared services can take various instead of being a heavy machine. forms, including projects delivered Rather than starting from scratch entirely by third parties; single au- with a new service, it may be worth- thorities leading arrangements; each while for an organisation to join an- organisation taking responsibility for “We will be other that is successfully running that one particular function; or even mu- same service,” she said. tualised arrangements. looking at In future, shared services need not But despite the sizeable estimated necessarily take the form of long-term savings, central government’s recent more contracts, said Burnett, but delivered £1.4bn purpose-built shared services on a utility basis, with more elasticity centres have failed to achieve value standardised built in through using cloud services. for money, according to a report from “The cloud makes it easier for a the National Audit Office (NAO). solutions” more standardised and commod- John Collington, the Cabinet Of- itised model. They could be more fice’s chief procurement officer, is flexible and cheaper through pre-ne- overseeing the government’s next- John Collington gotiated prices,” she said. generation shared services strategy. chief procurement officer TechMarketView’s Sargeant agrees, He said central government is learn- adding that a compelling business ing from previous mistakes in imple- case is a prerequisite for success, par- menting shared services. ticularly where adoption is not man- “We have taken on board the rec- dated: “Where shared services pro- ommendations of the NAO, over-cus- with some departments retaining the success because of the strong com- jects have succeeded in the past, tomisation being one of the central uniqueness of their IT, said Sargeant: mitment from all partners, he said. they’ve had strong leadership with criticisms,” he said. “We will be look- “There remains work to be done to “The political priority is that we all good buy-in from all the organisa- ing at more standardised solutions.” standardise and simplify corporate have resources for front-line services, tions involved, including private sec- This will include creating two in- processes for finance, HR and pro- and things are done collectively.” tor partners.” dependent shared services centres: curement across government.” Although headcount reduction is a Public sector austerity means more “This will include the introduction likely consequence, in the long term organisations will have to team up of tier two suppliers,” he said. Localised arrangements it could result in more IT jobs, as au- and share services and systems to Tola Sargeant, analyst at TechMar- Outside central government, shared thorities already outsourcing services save money to protect frontline ser- ketView, said the uptake of shared services are expected to grow faster, might choose to buy from a London vices. However, it is crucial arrange- services has been disappointing to with local authorities encouraging consortium, once their contracts are ments are not made in haste. Organi- date, but central government depart- other public sector organisations to up for renewal: “It could lead to a sations must take time to fully ments are coming under increasing piggy-back on their back-office and growth in jobs as demand for our consider the various solutions on pressure to adopt the model. IT outsourcing deals, said Sargent. shared services increases. We’ve al- offer. But in the current climate, ig- “Larger departments may well be Ed Garcez, CIO at Lambeth County ready had approaches from authori- noring the savings available through able to justify setting up their own Council, is doing exactly that with an ties outside of London.” shared services is not an option. ■ shared services offering but smaller ERP shared-services deal set to in- entities will increasingly be obliged clude six London authorities. This is Flexible approaches to tag on to an existing shared servic- expected to grow to a total of 10 au- Sarah Burnett, public sector out- es arrangement,” she said. thorities, but Garcez said even more sourcing director at consultancy firm more online One major central project is the De- could eventually join Project Athena. NelsonHall, said setting up shared partment for Transport’s £750m deal The key will be to take an iterative services is complicated because of › Cabinet Office calls for move to for a shared services centre expected approach, he said: “The aspiration is differing cultural requirements. shared services model this year. The centre will provide HR, to move to shared services to trans- “Organisations really need deter- finance, payroll and procurement form the ERP performance. Original- mination to push them through and › London NHS trusts sign £4m services to the DfT and its four agen- ly three authorities committed to the not let a bigger, dominant partner in shared services deal cies. The idea is that it will become project, and at the time we estimated another organisation fit requirements one of a handful of shared services £12m in savings, but across six local to their needs, as opposed to finding › Government’s shared services centres used across government. authorities this could rise to £20m.” a mutual solution. They can often strategy failing, says NAO But there remain cultural barriers, The project has a good chance of end up with an in-between solution,

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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 notifi cation. news analysis education & training Risk-averse schools must be inspired with IT success stories, say experts Businesses fear shortage of IT-literate school-leavers as budget concerns limit school equipment, writes Karl Flinders

isk-averse schools must when it comes to spending their lim- share their experiences ited budgets and fear the unknown. of IT if they are to benefit “They need good evidence of what “The iPods R from the opportunities it works and examples of where it has offers, according to an expert panel at worked. We need to educate them a recent roundtable discussion held with really good examples of schools personalise by IT industry body Intellect. like them that have done it,” he said. While higher education organisa- learning” tions are harnessing technology to Students’ success stories support teaching, schools are cau- The panel of technology and educa- Stephen Fahey, tious in investing in IT equipment. tion experts gave examples of schools The experts agreed that, while IT successfully embedding technology education publisher Pearson should be harnessed by teachers of across the curriculum. all subjects, there remain challenges Stephen Fahey, learning technolo- ahead in allaying schools’ anxieties. gies director at education publisher Peter Twining, programme director Pearson, cited Essa Academy in Bol- at the Open University’s Vital pro- ton, which converted to academy sta- gramme, said schools are risk-averse tus three years ago.

The academy’s head of IT provided The case for IT investment The business perspective each student with an iPod Touch: Twining pointed out that more ex- “The iPods have benefits for person- amples like these must be brought to An influential group of UK IT directors is calling on the government to replace alising student learning,” said Fahey. light to encourage schools to embrace ICT education with “IT in business” lessons, writes Cliff Saran. The school had become a top per- technology to support their teaching. The Corporate IT Forum’s Education and Skills Commission said it could former, with 100% of students “Schools are typically risk-averse harm the UK if the now-defunct ICT curriculum is not replaced. achieving an A* to C grade in GCSE and that is damaging their results. Joanna Poplawska, spokeswoman for the commission, said it is worried ICT. He said the use of iPods had a di- Schools lack evidence that investing the government lacks a grasp of business computing and is more interested rect impact on student achievement. in cloud is worth it. Instead they in creating the next Facebook or Google, leaving a gap in business IT skills. “Students found free GCSE revi- view students having their own de- “Over 50% of IT professionals work in end-users’ organisations – IT does sion podcasts, downloading and lis- vice as dangerous and may encourage not necessarily mean working for Microsoft or Google,” she said. “Computing tening to them in their spare time,” stealing or bad behaviour,” he said. devices and basic programming skills need to be accommodated in said Fahey. Cloud computing is a good exam- education. But we also need experts who can apply IT for business.” “This appeared to be a reason for ple. It offers schools the opportunity While schools teach business and economics, Poplawska wants to see boys outperforming girls in ICT to cut costs and unite into groups to these correlated with IT to show school children how IT drives business. GCSE, because they could revise pool resources. David Roberts, director at The Corporate IT Forum, said: “So much of a without drawing attention to it.” “Cloud computing helps schools modern business depends on good IT, but it is not being taught at schools.” Michelle Selinger, director of edu- reduce the cost of providing the ser- John Harris, chair of The Corporate IT Forum and chief architect and head cation practice at Cisco, cited the case vices they need,” said Selinger. of IT strategy at pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, said: “Technology is of Silverton Primary School in Aus- “It allows students to work across a such an important component of business competitiveness, the UK must tralia. Silverton is a multicultural network of schools – cloud allows provide a workforce with in-depth knowledge of computer science and school where English is a second lan- freedom and collaborative learning.” technical skills, at both a strategic management level and in the form of guage for many, but it gets the best re- But Twining said schools need to specialist technicians. sults in the state of Victoria. see evidence of what cloud comput- “If we do not, businesses will locate their IT centres elsewhere, where they She said technology is embedded ing had done to benefit others. ■ can get the staff, and we will reduce the number of IT innovators and for students: “Interactive white- entrepreneurs produced in the UK.” boards were installed at child height. The commission is worried schools may provide no ICT education at all, as Students make choices about what the subject is non-mandatory, leaving a shortage of IT-literate school-leavers. technology they use and have a TV more online Speaking at a recent Intellect event, Kevin McLaughlin, an ICT teacher, and radio studio available to them.” said: “Any IT curriculum should recognise all the great work that has been Twining said that, while technolo- › Government scraps ICT going on throughout schools in the UK, particularly among those innovative gy is important, schools must change curriculum for GCSE IT teachers who have been using things such as animation, blogging, their approach to teaching if they are film-making, podcasting, website-building even collaborating through social to fully benefit from it. › A-level IT curriculum needs media and programming. “These schools are not succeeding urgent review to prevent skills gap “So really an IT curriculum in the future has to build on what is already in purely because of technology. While place, use that as its foundation and ask innovative IT teachers in schools this is a facilitator, change in schools › Teach cybercrime at GCSE, what they think the new curriculum should be.” and results come from an attitude says Symantec and a vision for education,” he said.

7 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com interview

IT leadership Digital overhaul boosts efficiency at UK criminal justice system agencies CPS CIO David Jones tells Angelica Mari how his IT streamlining project is transforming six public sector departments

done. But I am not underestimating that we have to press to ensure that we finish this job off.” He says “all of the chunky pro- jects” should be concluded in a year.

Tablets of testimony rown Prosecution Service More than 1,700 tablet computers (CPS) chief information have been provided to prosecutors so officer David Jones has a far, under a programme carried out C lot on. As well as leading a by supplier Logica. The plan is to roll comprehensive technology revamp at “Last year we out 3,500 HP tablets running Adobe the CPS, there is also an IT-led trans- software by the end of May. The formation aimed at streamlining and printed around move will cost the CPS about £4m. modernising operations across the “The tablet roll out will enable entire criminal justice system (CJS). 330 million court personnel to work in a remote Criminal justice in the UK encom- fashion, meaning they will no longer passes six agencies, with core depart- sheets of paper carry vast quantities of paper. Last ments including the police, the year we printed around 330 million courts, the National Offender Man- – that will go sheets of paper and that will go down agement Service, the Youth Justice rapidly as we move to digital servic- Board and the CPS itself. These bod- down rapidly” es,” Jones says. ies are engaged in a project named A focus on usability means the CJS Efficiency Programme, which new technology has not taken a great undergoes its first review this month. David Jones deal of training. Jones was appointed director of “Prosecutors now have the ability technology transformation for the CJS to work with digital files which feel project last September, with a brief to and act very similar to how you reorganise the system’s operations to use the technology in CJS in areas made, says Jones. For example, 38 of would use a manila file. From the and overhaul the use of digital and such as police-to-court links. This 43 police forces will be interacting in outset we brought all the disciplines video technologies. would allow staff to take part in court a predominantly digital manner. In- together – policy, process, training, The programme was prompted by proceedings via video link and, for formation exchange standards be- people, technology,” Jones says. the realisation that the various agen- cases where physical presence is not tween the CPS and Magistrates “I am not underestimating the cies work towards similar aims and mandatory, individuals at remand Courts will be assimilated and work amount of cultural change and staff carrying out the work under a single centres could also attend court ses- on video links is well underway. commitment that was necessary for plan would be far more efficient. sions using video links. About 60% of CPS prosecutors this programme. “The CJS, up to the door of the But Jones remains tight-lipped on will work on tablet computers by the “But they have embraced it, court, has been largely digitised and how much the CJS bodies are invest- end of April. Many are already using worked through the issues with IT the aim is to be fully digital by April ing in video-based technologies: “We electronic preparation of evidence for and were very pragmatic all along. 2013. It is still work in progress but are taking an agile approach to this complex cases under an agreement to Without that type of commitment, there’s been significant advance- and are not putting huge amounts of allow evidence to be presented and help, direction and learning we ment,” says Jones. money in. We haven’t worked out the shared digitally and coherently would have struggled.” ■ According to the CIO, the project full monetary significance but we are across the various agencies. has been a success in moving the CJS testing what appear to be obvious ca- “We are moving pretty well, but This is an edited excerpt of the original article. from a paper-based system to a pre- pabilities. We are not talking about a there is still an awful lot to do. We Click here to read the full interview online dominantly digital service. massive investment.” have got to embed the technologies There is a wide range of projects in and ensure we don’t slip backwards, CJS bodies such as the police, with Strict deadlines which happens too often in change the aim of modernising key process- The initial meeting of ministers, programmes – once it’s over, people more online es, from taking statements to using senior government officials and the retrench too quickly and we are not CCTV-based evidence and exchang- judiciary that originated the CJS Ef- allowing that to happen,” says Jones. › CIO interview: John Linwood, ing information between forces. ficiency Programme in December “We have gone as fast as we possi- chief technology officer, BBC “Nearly all police caseload is being 2010 set “a very strong guideline” to bly could and will find out whether served digitally to the CPS and on- get the initiative as far as possible by that is good enough for those who set › CIO interview: Gerry Pennell, CIO, wards to the magistrates’ court, with April 2012, says Jones. the targets when they take a review London 2012 Olympics detailed plans in place to increase to Given the number of different CJS towards the end of April. full digital working over the coming agencies and the various technolo- “But I would hope they would › CIO interview: Steve Townsend, months,” Jones says. gies and investment cycles governing look fondly upon us and not be too CIO, Transport for London With the work on video, the goal is them, significant progress has been harsh about what still needs to be

8 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com What happens to your unwanted IT?

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Bryan Glick leader jerry fishenden opinion Open standards Identity assurance design lobby must for online public services find its voice s chairman of the govern- the Government Gateway. Others, ment’s Identity Assurance such as the Student Loans Company here is a debate taking place in UK Programme privacy and and DVLA, have gone their own way, IT that has huge significance for A consumer stakeholder but in future all public sector organi- almost everyone who buys IT. group, I recently blogged about some sations will be required to play by the It’s about open standards and, in of the draft principles that we hope same rules and place the citizen at T will underpin the government’s ap- the centre of their services rather than particular, what definition the government will use for the open standards policy that proach to identity. These principles their own self-interests. are an important cornerstone of the For “digital by default” to be suc- will determine much future public sector IT work to rebuild trust between govern- cessful, government must remove the procurement. This isn’t just an issue for IT ment and citizens and demonstrate historic complexity and duplication chiefs in government - the implications will how far thinking has matured fol- of everyone doing their own thing be- affect every IT leader in every sector. lowing the failed and costly national lieving that they are somehow “dif- It’s a complex and often emotional debate. identity card programme. They place ferent” or “special” and don’t need to Senior IT people in government want to the citizen, rather than government, adhere to a common set of standards. free themselves from the perceived lock-in at the centre of the design. The private sector will draw on its The new approach to identity is own experience of technical integra- associated with proprietary software - to cut based on a trust framework in which tion with government services. The costs, increase choice, and open up the the citizen can choose their identity early days of the Government Gate- market to a wider range of products and provider from an open and competi- way saw third parties integrate their suppliers; to ensure a “level playing field” tive marketplace. In return, govern- digital certificates with online public between large and small, proprietary and ment organisations will be mandated services to enable users to authenti- open source; to spend taxpayers’ money on to accept assurances of identity from cate using credentials of their own appropriately accredited providers. choosing. That initiative waned the best outcomes, not the only product that The system will use open technical when digital certificates failed in the is compatible. Few could argue that is not a standards and make smart re-use of marketplace, although more recently good thing. what already exists, rather than at- EMV cards – better known to con- There is a consultation underway, led by tempting to impose government re- sumers in their use as chip-and-PIN the Cabinet Office, which is rigorous in quirements on the market. If success- cards – have successfully been used ensuring it is open to, and seen to be open ful, it will touch every part of the on a small scale with online services. to, every side of the debate. technical ecosystem spanning the de- There is a more pervasive cultural livery of online digital services. change explicit in the new approach Nonetheless, there is a polarisation form- Since government first attempted that will have a significant impact on ing around the open lobby and the proprie- to put an integrated portal of public government organisations. The old tary lobby. And there is a feeling that the pro- services online in the mid 1990s, model that placed government at its prietary lobby, with its greater resources, there has been significant progress in centre is obsolete and in its place is a lobbying experience and its business mod- model that places citizens and busi- els at stake, is dominating the argument. nesses at the centre. This has been the case for many years. The old identity assurance There is an assumption that citi- zens should have control over their Unfortunately, the open lobby spend too model that placed government own data and of data minimisation – much time in the corner, huddled together that the minimum amount of data saying to each other, “This is awful, dreadful, at its centre is obsolete should be acquired and used. This is don’t they understand?” a significant departure from the old Too many of them are not vocal enough in model that assumed the department this debate. They can say they are right until tackling problems of identity, notably owned the data – an assumption re- in the private sector. Online banking flected in a technical approach that they are blue in the face, but “right” does not and retail services have developed a captured and held citizen data in mean they will win. This isn’t about being range of ways of tackling identifica- multiple places, leading to problems wrong or right. It is a complex and highly tion, verification and authentication, with information management, data nuanced topic. But there is no doubt the and even government’s own previous quality, privacy and security. open lobby needs to mobilise and organise attempts, with for example the Gov- Publishing the draft principles for as effectively as its perceived opponents. ernment Gateway, have supported review and comment is only one part There is only one community that should the use of third-party credentials. of an iterative and inclusive ap- Designing and operating online proach to designing public services. be the winner here - and that’s IT buyers. But public services will need to integrate It’s another practical demonstration we need every part of the supply side to be with this new model. Some of that of how government IT is changing – equally involved if that is going to happen. ■ discipline already exists in the public from placing its own interests first, to sector, with departments such as HM those it is there to serve. ■ Revenue & Customs and the Depart- Editor’s blog ment for Work and Pensions using Jerry Fishenden is co-founder and director of computerweekly.com/editor older technical specifications around the Centre for Technology Policy Research

10 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com buyer’s guide risk management The issues businesses must consider to comply with EU data regulation Data-rich companies must assess how the EU data privacy regulation will affect them, writes Jane Finlayson-Brown

whether your contractual documen- “Ensure you have a legitimate tation is adequate and, for existing CW Buyer’s guide contracts, check who bears the cost of data security basis for transferring personal making changes to the services as a result of the changes in laws or regu- part 3 of 3 data to jurisdictions lations. If you obtain data processing services from a third party, it is very he European Commission’s unrecognised as important to determine and docu- proposal for a General Data ment your respective responsibilities. Protection Regulation rep- having adequate T resents the most significant Cross-border data transfers global development in data protec- data protection As with intra-group international tion law since the EU Data Protection data transfers, it will be important to Directive, a legal framework which regulation” ensure you have a legitimate basis has struggled to remain relevant in an for transferring personal data to ju- age of mass information sharing. risdictions unrecognised as having A regulation – unlike a directive – adequate data protection regulation. will be directly applicable in all EU This is not a new issue but, as fail- member states without the need for ure to comply with the proposed reg- national implementing legislation. ulation’s requirements in this respect The Commission’s aim is to harmo- could attract a fine of up to 2% of an- nise data protection law across those nual worldwide turnover, the conse- member states. quences of non-compliance could be The legislative process is likely to severe. The official line is that this is take up to two years to complete. intended to be “effective, proportion- With any proposed regulation then ate” and, pointedly, “dissuasive”. taking a further two years to come tory authorities (for instance towards to apply where the data has been ren- While the proposed regulation is into effect, it is unlikely that it will be enforcement). This may well lead to dered “unintelligible” to persons likely to undergo fairly extensive ne- in force before 2015. “forum shopping”, where companies who are not authorised to use it. gotiation and amendment, we expect While some of the current propos- centralise their decision-making in Analyse the legal basis on which the main concepts mentioned above als will undoubtedly be amended in more business-friendly jurisdictions. you use personal data. Do you rely on to remain. Compliance with obliga- the course of this lengthy process, data subject consent to process per- tions such as accountability take time there are some practical steps compa- Accountability sonal data or can you show that you to become part of a company’s DNA. nies could usefully consider now. One of the key themes of the pro- have a legitimate interest in process- Given that the proposed financial posed regulation is accountability ing that data, that is not overridden penalties for non-compliance are se- Move towards compliance (broadly, taking responsibility for by the interests of the data subject? vere, companies that start to take One of the main benefits of the pro- your data processing). What data transfers do you under- steps to address the proposed chang- posed regulation is that companies This concept is likely to remain a take and how do you ensure that the es will be in a stronger position. ■ should have only one regulatory key theme. In practice, it will entail transfer of data to countries that are authority that supervises its activities establishing a culture of monitoring, not recognised as having adequate Jane Finlayson-Brown is a partner in across all EU member states. reviewing and assessing your data data protection regulations are none- the corporate department of law firm This is justice commissioner Vivi- processing procedures; aiming to theless safeguarded in a way that is Allen & Overy ane Reding’s “one-stop shop” idea. minimise data processing and reten- compliant with legislation? Should Businesses with a presence across tion of data; and building in safe- you consider adopting binding cor- This is an edited excerpt. Click here to read several European countries should guards to all data processing activi- porate rules to facilitate intragroup the full article consider which regulatory authority ties. Auditable data impact transfers of data? would be its supervisor. It is likely to assessments will need to be conduct- be where the main decisions as to the ed to review any risky processing ac- Third-party data processors purposes, conditions and means of tivities and steps taken to address If you provide data processing ser- more online processing of personal data are taken. specific concerns. vices to third parties, you are likely In theory, this should lead to a har- Many data-rich companies are at- to find your customers will wish to › EC publishes proposed data monised approach, as the proposed tempting to de-risk their personal ensure your services are compatible protection reforms regulation is directly applicable in all data processing activities by limiting with the enhanced requirements of member states and contains a “con- employee access to data on a much the proposed regulation, whether › Proposed EC data protection sistency mechanism” to try to ensure tighter “need to use” basis and, that is in relation to data minimisa- rules help cloud adoption a consistent approach is taken by su- where possible, anonymising and en- tion, helping them to comply with pervisory authorities. In practice, crypting data. As an added incentive, the right to be forgotten or reporting a › EC data regulation will disrupt UK however, there may well be diver- the obligation to notify data subjects data security breach. e-economy, warn lawyers gences of attitude of national regula- of a data security breach is unlikely You should therefore consider

11 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com green networks

Cut costs with a green network Antony Savvas looks at how CIOs can make savings by reducing the carbon footprint of their networks and servers

nsuring your network and ments to cut energy consumption. Salmon says: “It can be easy for or- also a big challenge for outsourcers. datacentre are running ef- Businesses that can afford it can re- ganisations to claim improved ‘IT In one case, a KPMG client wanted ficiently as part of a green place network routers and switches greenness’ but how many are achiev- to understand the carbon impact of E networking strategy can cut with more power-efficient hardware. ing this by outsourcing the problem? procuring wide area network (WAN) hardware and software costs, save on Steve Salmon, principal advisor at “In many cases current reporting services from an international telco, power and contribute to corporate KPMG’s CIO advisory practice, says requirements do not require this to be and how that organisation planned to environmental policies. green IT must make financial sense factored into the equation, but this is reduce impact over time. Organisations can improve their for organisations. He says legacy en- likely to change. If and when it does, This was a virtual environment, power efficiency through taking out vironments are already being made organisations may find themselves with networks being shared by multi- redundant networking equipment as efficient as possible through virtu- back to square one.” ple clients across a number of provid- that draws power. There is also the alisation, for example in increasing Supply chain transparency is a key ers. “It was a tough ask that couldn’t, option of turning to cloud-based ap- server processing capacity use from element in evaluating true green IT at the time, be answered by the ven- plications and networking deploy- below 10% up to 75% and over. credentials, says Salmon, which is dor,” says Salmon. »

12 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com green networks

» Monitor energy consumption Brian Murray, principal consultant Consolidating network switches: Case study at IT consultancy 2e2, says firms must first monitor and understand Charles Darwin School is the largest secondary school in give wired and wireless access in almost every class- their energy use if they want to better Kent and it was looking to replace its aging network with room. These switches were up to nine years old and very manage costs and performance when a more robust energy efficient one. inefficient. “We have replaced all these switches and moving towards green networking. It chose D-Link kit for its new network. “One of the installed 38 new D-Link Green switches, which were up However, research from 2e2 shows things we were looking at was saving money by to 66% more energy-efficient,” says Garrett. 70% of IT departments don’t know becoming more energy-efficient,” says Paul Garrett, He says the new switches can control power levels to how much energy their datacentre network manager at the school. each port – turning unused ports off – and have 48 ports uses. “Without this knowledge actu- The school buildings had over 55 24-port switches to per switch. ally attempting to reduce energy bills and become greener will be difficult, if not futile,” says Murray. Once organisations have a full Five tips to improve network energy efficiency overview of where energy is being used, from switches to servers, and 1. Remove large amounts of unnecessary data from your open plan offices. how much it is costing them, they network. Using data compression, de-duplication and 4. Consolidate server rooms and datacentres with larger need to find ways to bring it under releasing unused storage can help reduce energy switches when appropriate for data demand. control. But Murray warns that im- consumption. With a 10 Gigabit switch, for instance, fewer switches mediately ripping out existing equip- 2. Measure how much power is used by your servers and are needed to aggregate the same bandwidth to servers, ment may not be the most energy-ef- identify inefficient hardware through monitoring the which would otherwise be provided by teaming network ficient way to proceed. useful activity across physical and virtual servers. cards in a server. Organisations should first make Most servers are estimated to be used less than 15% 5. Consider power over Ethernet (PoE) networking sure they are using the datacentre of the time they are powered on, with idle hardware using deployments. PoE devices enable the IT manager to management resources they already as much as 90% of operating power consumption. decide power-rationing centrally for all PoE devices, by have to their best potential. They Virtualisation allows a business to power off any physical configuring the application through the switches to give should then manage their assets so servers that are not in use. greater control over energy consumption. that equipment is replaced with more 3. Consider fanless switches when used in open smaller PoE can be used for voice over IP (VoIP), CCTV, entry environmentally-friendly alternatives scale deployments such as classrooms, retail outlets and systems, intercoms and a number of other applications. as it is retired. “This ensures a smooth and affordable progression without affecting the datacentre’s performance,” he says. case for not implementing huge alternative network routes planned computer infrastructure within it, amounts of back-up equipment.” for their customers’ data if a connec- after taking account of cooling, light- Cost of redundancy In the BlackBerry outage it wasn’t tion failure happens. ing and other energy factors. PUE is Murray Sherwood, managing direc- so much the failure of the back-up “Cloud can reduce carbon con- expressed as a ratio, with overall effi- tor for worldwide professional ser- equipment that was the problem, but sumption because applications are ciency improving as the value de- vices at Fusion Business Solutions, the fact BlackBerry network owner run in a dedicated environment and creases towards 1. says that, until recently, many organi- RIM did not have an alternative net- with a more sophisticated datacentre The current PUE industry average sations emphasised redundancy to work route for the international data infrastructure,” says Sherwood. is around 1.8, according to some esti- improve network availability in the traffic stuck in its UK datacentre. KPMG’s Salmon agrees, up to a mates, so there remains a way to go event of component failures, through Although network kit is now more point. He says: “On the surface, out- for some datacentres. PUE was creat- back-up equipment. reliable, firms must make sure they sourcing appropriate infrastructure ed by industry body Green Grid, Such equipment uses large have an alternative traffic route to and application services to cloud which focuses on finding energy-effi- amounts of energy even while not in avoid outages. providers can provide consumers cient datacentre systems. use and in some cases fails anyway – with an optimal green IT footprint.” Sentrum, a datacentre operator, re- just as it did in last year’s worldwide Cloud cuts power If the providers’ services meet the cently published a survey of 100 sen- BlackBerry network outage. Organisations using the cloud should cloud characteristics of pay-per-use ior IT executives involved in their Sherwood says: “Now, with the be able to benefit from more efficient and on-demand capacity, then the firm’s datacentres. Most say PUE is availability of more robust networks, and greener network equipment used consumer will only pay for the stor- now an important factor in running redundancy has become built-in to by their suppliers, while at the same age, compute and application service their own datacentre or choosing ex- such an extent that there is a good time those providers will often have provision they use. Their carbon foot- ternal datacentre capacity. print should be reduced accordingly. The survey found 62% of compa- But Salmon says efficiency comes nies are now measuring the PUE of down to the design and operation of their datacentre projects, with 72% cloud datacentres and suppliers’ ca- setting targets for power usage and pability to provide this level of detail associated power cost reductions. ■ in reporting to consumers. “The cloud providers are lagging behind in many cases,” warns Salmon. more online Power usage effectiveness Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a › Green technology offers network metric used to determine the energy managers cost-reduction efficiency of a datacentre. It is in- creasingly considered by firms look- › Free tool measures how green ing to improve their own datacentres your datacentre is or finding an outsourced facility. PUE is determined by dividing the › Green IT tutorial: Offering green total amount of power used in a data- networking services centre by the power used to run the

13 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com review

New Filestream options let you publish a database table as a Windows file share

SQL Server 2012 is a suite of products, as the feature selection during setup demonstrates An Azure deployment wizard simplifies moving a database to Microsoft’s cloud platform

Cloud-scaled database management With the release of SQL Server 2012, has Microsoft now caught up with its key competitors, asks Tim Anderson

icrosoft has released SQL version, although that scalability advantage of its services, while main- 10-fold improvements in cases where Server 2012, the name work benefits both scenarios. “We are taining compatibility with applica- the working set does fit in RAM. suggesting that this is the deploying and maintaining database tions designed to work with files. Microsoft has partnered with M biggest update since SQL clusters of thousands of nodes,” said Hortonworks to enable connectivity Server 2008. The product has a long Microsoft’s technical fellow Dave Enterprise scale between SQL Server and Hadoop history; its first release was in 1989 (a Campbell at an SQL Server 2012 SQL Server 2012’s biggest new databases. The open source Hadoop joint project with Sybase and Ashton press workshop. SQL Server 2012 feature for enterprises is called can also now be installed on Azure, Tate) and this is about the eighth includes a Deploy to Azure wizard, AlwaysOn and is a new approach Microsoft’s cloud platform. Hadoop major edition, depending on how as well as high availability features to high availability. You can specify is excellent for big data storage, but you count the versions. aimed at private cloud deployments. up to four secondary replicas within weak for reporting, so the advantage Although not the most advanced SQL Server also scales down to an availability group, which can be is that you can use SQL Server’s database manager, SQL Server has a small local deployments. LocalDB is within a datacentre or across data- business intelligence features to good track record and its scope and a new feature that replaces the old centres. Secondary replicas are not mine Hadoop data. “Microsoft is scalability have steadily improved. user instances, which are now depre- idle, but can be used for backup, taking a more realistic approach by Performance is good, it is reliable, it cated. A LocalDB deployment does reporting and queries in order to embracing rather than resisting is well integrated with Microsoft’s not require an SQL Server service. make efficient use of hardware. Hadoop. With their relationship with platform and development tools, and Instead, the process is started on Another scalability enhancement Hortonworks, they are ensuring that its business intelligence features are demand by the SQL Server native is ColumnStore indexes. This is for Windows won’t concede the market particularly strong. SQL Server has client and closed when no longer data warehouses, and indexes each for Big Data processing to Linux become a multi-faceted product, or required. Database files are attached column in a separate set of disk pages without a fight,” says Ovum analyst family of products, and with new fea- at runtime as specified by a connec- rather than storing multiple rows per Tony Baer. tures and enhancements across every tion string sent to the client. page. If your query requests only a SQL Server 2012 can now be area, this is a significant release. An intriguing new feature in SQL few columns from a table, this is far installed on Server Core, a configura- Microsoft’s recent efforts with SQL Server 2012 is the ability to publish more efficient, and Microsoft claims tion of Windows Server without a Server have been focused as much on tables as Windows file shares. The performance improvements of graphical user interface. This is in re-engineering it for the Azure cloud idea is to allow existing file shares to hundreds-fold for large datasets that tune with Microsoft’s new emphasis as on enhancing the on-premise be migrated to SQL Server, to take do not fit in RAM, and from six to on scripting and command-line »

14 | 24-30 April 2012 Daily news for IT professionals at ComputerWeekly.com review

Above left: Power View is a rich web reporting client which Above: Part of the new AlwaysOn feature is runs on SharePoint. Above right: PowerPivot, enhanced in simplified database mirroring via a SQL Server 2012, enables data analysis in Excel management tools wizard

Right: New Data Tools let you design a schema in Visual Studio, with schema compare and refactoring support. Far right: Data Quality Services lets you perform data cleansing using a specialised knowledge base as a reference

» support, and is complemented by comparing your data against a Data 10GB maximum database size. tion Clusters] for a clustered server improved PowerShell support. Quality Knowledge Base, such as a list There are some key changes for vir- environment. Finally, although SQL of valid city name