Home News Making digital delivery 3-9 MAY 2016 of public services standard practice DevOps advocates bust myths around enterprise agile software development HS2 accelerates innovation Interview: HS2 CIO James Findlay juggles The high-speed rail project aims to connect industry, today’s planning and the skills and the technology of the future technology of tomorrow Editor’s comment Buyer’s guide to graph databases CW@50: British innovation in the fight against cyber threats Downtime HS2/GRIMSHAW COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM 3-9 MAY 2016 1 NEWS IN BRIEF Home News DDoS attacks hit three-quarters HMRC weighs up desktop of global brands in 2015 services and cloud collaboration Making digital delivery More than seven in 10 global HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of public services standard practice brands were hit by distributed has issued two prior information denial of service (DDoS) attacks notices worth a total of £215m. VODAFONEGROUP DevOps advocates in 2015. Few organisations were HMRC is looking for management bust myths around spared DDoS attacks, according to and support for user devices worth enterprise agile software development a survey by communications and £200m, and an integrated cloud- analysis organisation Neustar. The based collaboration system worth Interview: HS2 CIO survey of 1,000 IT professionals £15m. The larger of the two con- James Findlay juggles revealed that 73% reported DDoS tracts includes the build, deploy- today’s planning and the technology of tomorrow attacks in 2015, with 82% suffering ment, maintenance and support of repeated attacks and 57% suffering user devices such as Blackberrys Editor’s comment subsequent theft. and managed desktop services. Buyer’s guide to Lloyds Bank offshores IT roles Barnet Council audit finds graph databases to India in cost-cutting plan Capita services lacking Lloyds Banking group is reducing its Barnet Council’s audit reports show CW@50: British innovation in the fight UK IT workforce by 80 people, with failings in IT disaster recovery and against cyber threats half moving to India as part of a cull IT change management, run by of more than 600 jobs at the bank. Capita. The internal audit is the British Library puts Downtime John Morgan-Evans, regional officer first review of the services Capita Shakespeare on phone at union Unite, said the move to provides to the council since it offshore IT jobs to cut costs was signed the contract in 2013. The The British Library is enabling people to alarming. The cuts are part of a 10-year contract, worth £32m a download digital facsimiles of first edi- three-year plan announced in 2014, year, transferred IT and back-office tion Shakespeare plays to their devices when the bank said it would cut functions such as human resources using “digital wallpaper”. 9,000 jobs and close 150 branches. (HR) and payroll to Capita. ❯Catch up with the latest IT news online COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM 3-9 MAY 2016 2 NEWS IN BRIEF Home News Banks’ mainstream adoption OpenStack Foundation calls for of Blockchain 10 years away enterprise open source input Apple CEO looks to Making digital delivery Financial services firms should treat The OpenStack Foundation is call- of public services services as device standard practice blockchain as a lab project and pre- ing on enterprises to step up their pare for another decade before the involvement with the open source revenues fall DevOps advocates technology hits the mainstream, community to ensure its work Apple chief executive Tim Cook is look- bust myths around according to Forrester Research. It keeps pace with the rate of inno- ing to the company’s services division enterprise agile software development predicted a three-phase evolution vation occurring in the internet of as revenue from device sales fell for the of blockchain deployments. things and big data era. first time in 13 years. Despite warnings Interview: HS2 CIO from Apple in January 2016, shares fell James Findlay juggles IPv6 alone will not secure IoT Business fail to learn the 8% in after-hours trading in reaction to today’s planning and the technology of tomorrow Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) lessons of past cyber attacks quarterly revenue of $50.6bn, alone will not make internet of Organisations are failing to learn down 13% compared with the Editor’s comment things (IoT) communications the lessons of past cyber attacks, three months ending secure, warned Hanns Proenen, the latest Verizon Data Breach 26 March the year Buyer’s guide to chief information security officer Investigations Report reveals. before. Apple had graph databases (CISO) at GE Europe. Although IPv6 The analysis shows they are not forecast a decline is essential to IoT he said IPv6 is addressing basic issues and well- of between 9% CW@50: British innovation in the fight not more secure than IPv4. known attack methods. and 14%. against cyber threats Volvo tests self-driving cars Spike in outsourcing in 2016 Downtime Volvo will trial autonomous driv- Restructured deals fuelled a sharp ing in 2017, with 100 self-driving increase in IT and business process ❯ Mobilised workforces drive performance and productivity Volvo vehicles taking to the streets outsourcing in Europe, the Middle ❯ UFO broadband network sees promising pilot results of London. Participants in the Drive East and Africa during the first ❯ Government accepts data ethics council proposal Me London programme will be real three months of 2016. ISG said the ❯ Apple Pay signs up a million users a week families using their cars in their value of deals was €2.25bn, 19% usual day-to-day situations. higher than Q1 2015. n ❯Catch up with the latest IT news online COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM 3-9 MAY 2016 3 INTERVIEW Home News Accelerating government’s digital Making digital delivery of public services standard practice transformation with passion and drive DevOps advocates bust myths around The government’s minister for digital reform, Matt Hancock, talks to Lis Evenstad about creating a Digital enterprise agile software development Leadership Academy, learning valuable lessons in how to run digital services and his love for open data Interview: HS2 CIO James Findlay juggles ith a larger budget than ever before, the Government today’s planning and the technology of tomorrow Digital Service (GDS) is on a mission to transform Wgovernment services and departments from analogue Editor’s comment to digital, something Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock is “incredibly excited about”. Buyer’s guide to Speaking to Computer Weekly at GDS’s annual event, Sprint 16, graph databases Hancock says he wants to break down the silos and change the way government operates, not just focusing on “a few transac- CW@50: British innovation in the fight tions, but using digital, technology and data to improve all of the against cyber threats services we provide”. “We’re on a journey,” he says, from a government that was behind Downtime the times to one increasingly using digital services. He hopes that by the end of this parliament, we will have a government where “digital delivery of public services is standard practice”. Matt Hancock: “There “The job of GDS is to provide thought leadership, but also to chal- are big lessons for how to run lenge and support all parts of government, so that people know digital services from the about the best technology, the best standards and techniques, and past 20 years” also so the questions are asked of where we can do better.” COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM 3-9 MAY 2016 4 INTERVIEW Home News GDS’s £450m budget over the course of this parliament will Hancock says the government is “constantly learning lessons in have to deliver efficiency savings ahead of its funding. how to do these things better”. Making digital delivery Computer Weekly revealed last year that savings of £3.5bn “There are big lessons for how to run digital services from the of public services standard practice are expected in return, with the money mainly being spent on past 20 years,” he says. “One lesson is don’t let huge, long con- common technology services (CTS), where it hopes for savings tracts and then forget about them; instead, let more smaller con- DevOps advocates of £1.1bn; government-as-a-platform (GaaP), delivering £1.3bn tracts and manage them actively. Another lesson is don’t put bust myths around in savings; and the Gov.uk Verify identity scheme, saving GDS an unnatural deadline on a project; rather keep iterating it and enterprise agile software development another £1.1bn. improving it. Another is to design something in an agile way from While the funding is welcome, Hancock understands that the the start so you can alter it when it interacts with reality in the Interview: HS2 CIO task ahead is not an easy job. With GDS aiming to turn up the delivery. Always focus on the user need.” James Findlay juggles pace and the volume of digital services, there are many hurdles Hancock calls these his four key principles, and adds that there today’s planning and the technology of tomorrow that need jumping. is no easy answer. “We try to keep a state of mind of constantly learning and improving,” he says. Editor’s comment CLOSING THE SKILLS GAP One of the biggest challenges, highlighted by a National Audit DIGITAL LEADERSHIP Buyer’s guide to Office report late last year, is that there is abig digital skills gap In fact, Hancock is working hard to tackle the skills gap. Last graph databases in government. year, he launched lunchtime coding clubs for civil servants to The NAO survey found that funding, cultural issues, career develop opportunities for “civil servants to roll up their sleeves CW@50: British innovation in the fight paths and cross-government competition “are all perceived to and get stuck into data”.