Security researcher Ian Amit was given a keen insight into the working of the cybercriminal world when he found a way into a database of stolen access credentials. Amit, who is the director of security research at Aladdin Knowledge Systems has since drawn up a report on his research. Computer Weekly’s Warwick Ashford spoke to him on his recent visit to London and asked him to highlight some of the findings in the report.

Microsoft is giving away free development tools and server software to start-ups less than three years old. Cliff Saran find out more about the initiative, called BizSpark, from Dan'l Lewin, corporate vice president responsible for strategic and emerging business development at Microsoft

Computer Weekly’s Warwick Ashford asked MP and EURIM e-Crime Group Alun Michael how Get Safe Online fits in with other e-crime initiatives and what role business has to play. Get Safe Online is a government-private sector initiative aimed at boosting online security, currently running its fourth annual Get Safe Online Awareness Week.

Get Safe Online, a government-private sector initiative aimed at boosting online security, has launched the fourth annual Get Safe Online Week. Computer Weekly’s Warwick Ashford asked Get Safe Oline’s MD Tony Neate to outline the importance of the initiative for small and medium businesses in the UK and detail the role of businesses with Get Safe Online.

Brian McKenna, Editor of Computer Weekly magazine, introduces the first article in a “Next-generation enterprise IT” series, sponsored by IBM. In the article “Optimising data centre operations”, Danny Bradbury looks at how data centre managers can optimise operations for maximum efficiency in the context of the downturn.

SAP's controversial decision to roll out Enterprise Support to all customers dominated the general sessions of the SAP UK & Ireland User Group 2008 conference in London. Computer Weekly’s Warwick Ashford spoke to Forrester Research enterprise applications and strategies vice president Ray Wang about this issue. Wang outlines seven areas the business can look at to assess and improve the value delivered by software and maintenance contracts with suppliers. He also discusses how business organisations can improve their bargaining power with suppliers and the role of user groups in getting better value from suppliers and influencing future directions.

Traditionally CIOs are backroom people but as IT becomes crucial to helping companies respond to market changes they need to get out of the glass room. Ian Grant, senior reporter at Computer Weekly, speaks to Tina Nunno, Gartner senior vice president of research, at Gartner's Symposium in Cannes this week, about what's in it for them if they do.

Steve Prentice, Gartner fellow, tells Computer Weekly's Ian Grant how to sort the hyped from the hot in the current crop of online technology, from cloud computing to web 2.0.

Gartner fellow Steve Prentice talks to Computer Weekly's Ian Grant at the Gartner Symposium / IT Xpo in Cannes, November 2008. Steve discusses what to do when times are hard, from where to cut costs, to where to spend.

In this podcast from the Gartner Symposium in Cannes, Gartner analysts Richard Hunter and Hung LeHong discuss how Google could grow to become one of the biggest companies in the world.

Martin Sadler, director of HP Labs, predicts a 20,000 fold increase in processing power within the next 20 years using nanotechnology to build a new generation of super-computing PCs and mobile devices.

ComputerWeekly.com's Warwick Ashford speaks to Art Coviello, executive vice president of EMC and president of EMC’s security division, RSA, at the RSA Europe 2008 conference in London. Topics covered in the interview include: the effects of economic uncertainty on IT security spending; what strategies businesses should adopt in order to maintain high information security despite the tough economic climate; whether EMC and RSA are planning any cost-cutting measures; and how Coviello views the responsibility of IT security suppliers in the war against data loss and cybercrime.

McKinnon's extradition now unavoidable; the inside track on Specsavers deal for flexible IT procurement with Fujitsu Siemens; the outsourcing dilemma facing today's CIOs - outsourcing to cut costs, or to improve business innovation. All this and more in this week's IT news round-up from ComputerWeekly.com.

IT in the credit crunch, and the future of high-speed broadband in the UK, in the latest UK IT news round-up from ComputerWeekly.com, for the week ending 10 October.

Weekly round-up, 3 October

Tony Collins discusses Labour's poor record on government IT projects and, separately, the current landmark BSkyB / EDS legal dispute with Warwick Ashford of ComputerWeekly.com in this week's IT news round-up for the week ending 26 September.

Shell recently began the first phase of a massive IT infrastructure outsourcing project involving EDS, AT&T and T-Systems. It also has contracts with IBM, Accenture, Logica and Wipro for application development and support services. In this interview recorded at the Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit 2008, Cliff Saran speaks to Johan Kreebers of Shell about the company's IT and the role of its major outsourcing suppliers.

In this week's round-up of IT news affecting the UK, Warwick Ashford talks to Tony Collins about why the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust decided to break away from the £12.7bn National Programme for IT in the NHS. Also: Karl Flinders finds that trading firms are demanding details of the technical problems that brought down certain systems at the London Stock Exchange on Monday.

Sophos CTO Richard Jacobs talks to ComputerWeekly’s Warwick Ashford about tackling the problem of managing IT security in a rapidly changing business technology environment. In this podcast Jacobs discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches that businesses are adopting.

Weekly round-up of IT news from ComputerWeekly.com. This week's highlight include Google Chrome - of course - plus rural broadband access, enterprise resource planning at Irwin's Bakery, and the IT impact of Commerzbank's plans to purchase Dresdner Bank, making savings through headcount reductions post-sale.

ComputerWeekly’s Warwick Ashford talks to Jeremy Hore, Atos Origin’s chief integrator for the Beijing Olympics IT programme, to find out how things went. Hore led Atos Origin's 400-strong team working on IT systems for the Beijing Olympics. The Atos Origin team was responsible for project management, architectural design, IT security, IT operations, and key software systems.

Warwick Ashford presents Computer Weekly's round-up of the latest news in IT with a UK perspective: this week highlights include Ian Grant's investigation into why software producers are getting tougher on users, and Cliff Saran with a look at Google Apps in the enterprise as Google approaches its 10th birthday.

The response of the Financial Services Authority and the Information Commissioner’s Office has been disappointing, says the man who discovered the personal bank details of more than one million people on a computer bought on eBay last week. Andrew Chapman, an IT manager at the University of Oxford, found the details when exploring a second-hand computer he had bought to store music files. ComputerWeekly’s Warwick Ashford spoke to Chapman to get his perspective on the discovery.

Warwick Ashford rounds up the UK IT industry news highlights for ComputerWeekly.com, including a report from Ian Grant on how a recent spate of company mergers has made life “interesting” for the CIOs at British Airways and Iberia, the Co-op and Somerfield, and EDF and British Energy.

Computer Weekly reporter Rebecca Thomson speaks to ten- year-old Shayan Ahmed, who has become one of the youngest students to pass the Computing AS Level in the UK.

In this interview Adam Gowdiak, founder and chief executive officer of Polish security start-up, Security Explorations, speaks to Cliff Saran about the holes he uncovered in the Nokia S40 handset that could be combined with weak security in Mobile Java, to take control of the phone's functions, without the user's consent.

Leading technology industry analyst Richard Holway tells Mark Watts that the IT sector will be hit by the effects of the credit crunch.

My country has disappointed me, says the man accused of the biggest military hack in history, Gary McKinnon. The self-confessed hacker today lost his appeal in Britain’s highest court against extradition to the United States where he faces charges that, if convicted, could lead to him spending the next 60 years in jail. Ian Grant spoke to Gary McKinnon just after the law lords handed down their decision. Here’s what he had to say.

Stories include: Westminster City Council outsources all IT services; how IT suppliers are avoiding the worst effects of the credit crunch; Royal Mail's future IT spending plans.

As the closing date for entering the British Computer Society’s IT Industry Awards approaches, Warwick Ashford talks to two of the moderators of this year's awards, to find out more about the selection process.

In this week's UK IT news round-up from Computer Weekly stories include: Sun Microsystems axes 1,000 staff positions in the US and Canada. The cuts come as the first of 2,500 job losses Sun Microsystems announced in May, which are expected to include further redundancies in Europe and other regions.

The biggest contribution CIOs can make to fighting climate change may not be in the datacentre but by applying IT innovatively to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the business itself. Taking Tesco's current measures to reduce its carbon footprint as an example, we ask can IT really make a contribution to reducing a company's carbon footprint?

Highlights include an exploration of proposed changes to Government data security measures following two recent reports criticising HM Revenue and Customs for its poor handling of data, which resulted in the loss of two computer discs containing 25-million child; and the trend among multinational companies towards outsourcing to single voice and data services suppliers.

Avivah Litan, information and security analyst at research firm Gartner, talks to Computer Weekly's Warwick Ashford about the effectiveness of chip and pin bank card technology in combating fraud and the risks that may result from the introduction of faster payments. Litan’s area of expertise includes financial fraud, authentication, identity theft, and fraud detection and prevention applications.

The internet is running out of addresses. As it stands today the internet can support four billion addresses and Geoff Huston, chief scientist at APNIC estimates that there won't be any left by 2011. In this interview, Cliff Saran speaks to Geoff Huston about how an open market for IPv4 addresses will emerge.

Internet meltdown could follow if you don't make the switch to IPv6, says Cliff Saran in discussion with Warwick Ashford in this week's UK information technology news round-up. Also: is the iPhone 3G enterprise ready?

Computer Sciences Corporation CTO financial services EMEA, Tom Rogerson, talks to Computer Weekly's Warwick Ashford about the consumerisation of IT. Rogerson discusses how businesses are responding to the trend to mitigate the threats and exploit the opportunities it present.

Warwick Ashford charts the most popular IT news stories on Computer Weekly.com in the past week and discusses the new look Computer Weekly magazine, which will debut on Tuesday 17 June 2008, with editor Brian McKenna.

Includes a report from Warwick Ashford that the number of computing students in UK universities and colleges has dropped almost 50% since 2001 to below 1996 levels, confirming that IT departments are on the verge of a new skills shortage unless some action is taken soon.

Accenture CIO Frank Modruson talks to Computer Weekly's Bill Goodwin about Accenture's moves to exploit social networking technology within the business to maximise employees' collaborative potential. Accenture has recently launched an internal social networking platform specifically aimed at aiding internal collaboration, called Accenture Collaboration 2.0, including, among other features, document preview search, a 'people profiles' tool and a fledgling internal company wiki. He explains how such web 2.0 tools can be used to help speed knowledge transfer within a business, and for other benefits.

Stories this week include: reactions to Fujitsu’s withdrawal from the NHS National Programme for Information Technology; Tesco’s plans to centralise IT applications across its stores worldwide, with a single Cable & Wireless network; and the installation of analytics software to report on performance of individual Boots stores following the Boots merger with Alliance Unichem.

How can we be sure that what we read, hear or see on the Internet is real? The Internet has changed the way we work and the way we spend our leisure time. We no longer need to queue in shops. Products can be bought in an online catalogue; dream holiday can be booked from a travel web site. Its supporters say the Internet can cater for almost every human need. We can even find love on the Internet. In this interview, Cliff Saran speaks to Lee Siegel, author of Against the Machine, who believes, there are many things wrong with the way the Internet operates today.

Warwick Ashford rounds up the UK IT news highlights according to Computer Weekly, for the week ending 23 May 2008, together with a look ahead at the news agenda for the coming week. Stories include: London Stock Exchange recoups £40m cost of electronic trading platform in under 12 months; and the UK Identity and Passport Service awards ID card contracts worth 1.5 billion pounds over 10 years.

Cap Gemini CTO Carl Bate explains to Computer Weekly's Karl Flinders why the IT department - at least in its current form - will soon be a thing of the past.

There are many factors that can cause a software development project to run into problems. The most common are imprecise specifications, insufficient planning and analysis, poor project management, continually moving goalposts, unrealistically short timescales, weak quality assurance and underestimated costs. In this podcast Cliff Saran speaks to Paul Michaels, director of consulting at Metri measurement consulting, about how to steer a software development project in the right direction.

BMW is two-thirds of the way through a three year green IT programme to improve the efficiency of its data centres. In Munich BMW’s data data centres are taking ground water from the city council to cool the data centre using a heat exchanger. BMW pumps the water from its Munich data centre back into the water system at a more manageable temperature, which warms up the mains water coming out of household taps in winter. BMW is also using gas from a waste dump, to generate electricity for its data centre in South Carolina. In this interview Cliff Saran speaks to Bennie Vorster, vice president, IT solutions & technology standards at BMW Group about the programme, which is using renewable energy resources to lower cooling costs in its data centres.

Last week, the Internet was buzzing with news some research had been published based on data that was recovered from a hard disc on the Columbia space shuttle which exploded in 2003, killing its seven crew. Data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack recovered data from the mission stored on a 400 Mbyte hard disc that fell to earth. The data on the disc was the result of 370 hours of experiments that cost the US government millions of dollars. In this podcast Cliff Saran interviews Jeff Pederson, manager of data recovery operations at Kroll Ontrack about the task of saving the data from the experiments.

The responsibility for business continuity has to reside at the highest level or any organisation and not just with the IT department. Russell Price of the Continuity Forum talks to Computer Weekly's Warwick Ashford about the issues involved.

As the bid for Yahoo quietens down, Microsoft has revamped its Live Search engine, expanding the types of searches users can run. In this telephone Cliff Saran speaks to Brad Goldberg, general manager, search engine business at Microsoft. Goldberg believs the company is well-positioned to be a strong search engine company. He says Microsoft has been making long term investments in data centres and search technology to become the alternative to Google.

Microsoft hired Kevin Turner to be its Chief Operating Officer and offered him base salary of $570,000 (£285,000) per year and a $7m (£3.5m) up-front payment in 2005. Kevin Turner, previously CIO at Wal-Mart, gives his top tips in six minutes on how IT staff can make the progression to managers and earn the big bucks.

Powering and cooling data centres can be expensive if done incorrectly. Gartner analyst Rakesh Kumar gives the latest advice on how to spot the symptoms of a data centre under stress and how to control and measure power to correct the problem.

Weekly IT news round-up from Warwick Ashford at ComputerWeekly.com. This week: The New York Stock Exchange implementing off the shelf technology to cut time taken to access business critical data; and MPs aks questions about what really went wrong at Heathrow’s Terminal 5: people, processes, or IT?

Oisin Walton of Telecoms Sans Frontières talks to ComputerWeekly.com's Cliff Saran about establishing emergency telecommunations in disaster relief situations, including the technical solutions available, and how volunteers are trained for field work in an emergency situation.

Fabien Doléac has recently returned from Mozambique where he setup a telecommunication centre. Working for Telecoms Sans Frontières, Doléac set up a BGAN satellite phone which was used to allow people affected by severe flooding to talk to relatives and loved ones. Computer Weekly's Cliff Saran interviews Doléac.

Shell’s $4 billion IT outsourcing deal announced earlier this month, will see outsourcer EDS take over the risk and governance of the oil company’s key networks and data centre IT suppliers. In this podcast Cliff Saran speaks to Swee Chen Goh, vice president for IT infrastructure and services for Shell globally, about this innovative contract.

Round-up of UK IT industry news including last week’s top five stories on ComputerWeekly.com and a look at the main stories in this week’s issue. This week’s highlighted stories include: The Royal Bank of Scotland’s plans to roll out a debit card payment system with sophisticated anti-fraud technology; the BT trial of Phorm’s advertising services and the debate over privacy concerns; and the Fujitsu-NHS “contract reset” issue.

Our weekly round-up of UK IT industry news including the top five stories on ComputerWeekly.com last week, and a look ahead to the focus of next week's issue. This week's stories include how tool hire firm Speedy Hire expects to save £2m over the next six years after rationalising the way it licenses Microsoft software.

Weekly round-up of UK IT news. This week, stories include a warning to IBM customers to check they're protected from patent lawsuits by third-party software developers and news that over two-thirds of UK IT workers claim that they have suffered workplace bullying.

In this week's UK IT news round-up, how the government is using old legislation to keep Gateway reviews secret; a report on how Eurostar has attracted record passengers and boosted sales 15.5% after implementing a revenue management software package; and news of share trading exchange Turquoise which is due to complete the implementation of its IT infrastructure in the first week of April, using off the shelf trading applications.

 

Stories around the government’s controversial 5.4 billion pound national identity card scheme feature prominently this week. Ian Grant reports on the findings of the Crosby report into ID cards, while Tony Collins reports that the Office of Government Commerce is determined to keep secret early independent assessments of the ID card scheme by going to court to stop their publication. Other news includes BAA’s rejection of RFID in favour of barcodes for baggage tracking at Heathrow Terminal 5; a change in the way businesses are negotiating outsourcing deals; and how audit software could help you get a better deal on virtualisation licences from software suppliers such as Microsoft, SAP and Oracle.

This week: Computer Weekly’s quarterly survey of the IT jobs market, conducted by SSL, reveals that the demand for IT professionals in financial services is starting to drop, as the credit crunch causes turmoil in the markets; executive editor Tony Collins reports that a new national database of confidential patient records is being opened to access by NHS staff without professional qualifications; and deputy technology editor John-Paul Kamath reports that budget airline EasyJet is redesigning its website using Web 2.0 technologies to allow customers to plan complete holiday itineraries, rather than just book flights.

In this interview Adrian Davey, head of IT at Tubelines, speaks to Cliff Saran about how Tube Lines has made the most from the company's Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. With the availability of Windows Server 2008, Tube Lines has looked at using Windows 2008 Terminal Services to replace an existing Citrix Metaframe server farm. Davey has also used the Home Use Rights option in the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement to give end users the option of buying Office 2007 for home use and gain valuable experience of the new version, in preparation for a company-wide roll-out.

Stories this week include a report from executive editor Tony Collins that the UK government is planning a 'green' strategy for the public sector; news on Barclays Bank's two-year project to link legacy systems to frontline applications using Java-based web services; and Windows Server 2008, implementation plans at General Motors (GM), Tubelines, Newham Borough Council and frozen food supplier Windrus; and an analysis by deputy technology editor John Paul Kamath on how proposed changes to relax the rules covering BT’s wholesale broadband division have met with criticism from industry experts.

Topics this week include revelations that Tony Blair tried to shorten the timetable of the NHS National Programme for IT in order to deliver results in time for a May 2005 general election date, an allegation that executive editor Tony Collins says is a case of "politics interfering with practicalities". Also in this podcast, Cliff Saran discusses a novel approach taken by a number of companies to meet skills shortages by employing people with autism in the field of software testing, helping to meet their special needs while also making the most of their special skills.

Ralph Szygenda, chief information officer and group vice president of General Motors, has used IT to save the company £6 billion in 10 years. In this podcast, Cliff Saran discovers the secrets behind his successful strategy.

Computer Weekly's Warwick Ashford brings you the UK IT news highlights for the week ending 12 February. Stories include a backlog of unpaid invoices at Birmingham City Council following an SAP-system upgrade, a new XML standard for mortgage sales, and details of the latest issue of Computer Weekly.

Computer Weekly reporter Warwick Ashford presents a round-up of the UK IT news for the week ending 5 February 2008. This week's main story concerns the UK government's U-turn decision to release papers first requested by Computer Weekly under the Freedom of Information Act in 2005. The papers are expected to detail how policy decisions were taken at Downing Street prior to the launch of NPfIT, the NHS systems modernisation project which is the world's largest civil IT-based scheme.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), has pioneered the development of civil nuclear energy in the United Kingdom. Harwell was the site of the UK’s first nuclear reactor. Harwell was also a centre of early fusion research in the 1950s. Britain’s original large-scale experimental device, ZETA, was housed in one of the RAF hangars at this site. ComputerWeekly.com has been given exclusive access. In this podcast Cliff Saran speak to Chris Broad, Head of Information Systems and Technology at the Atomic Energy Authority to talk about his decision to migrate from a Novell desktop infrastructure to Windows and the Active Directory.

John-Paul Kamath talks to network managers and the Cisco training director about how to get higher salaries; what trends suppliers think will affect the way the network is run; and how Cisco responds to claims that its third party partners aren’t up to scratch to help customers.

Reporter Warwick Ashford presents the first of Computer Weekly's UK IT news round-up podcasts, for the week ending 29 January, 2008. This week's stories include a report that Fujitsu may withdraw from the NHS NPfIT (National Programme for IT), and news that Accenture and BAE Systems have withdrawn from the bidding process for the UK's national ID card scheme.

Rebecca Thomson talks to senior female figures working in the IT industry about issues including the gender pay gap, the perception of computing as a 'male' profession, the lack of opportunities for older women, and the cultural issues that turn women off taking up a business career in IT.

Green IT is climbing the corporate agenda, generated by the hype around climate change and corporate social responsibility. In this podcast, John-Paul Kamath speaks to Euan Davis, principal analyst at Forrester Research, to get an executive briefing on what green IT is, why IT managers should care and what they can do to go green.

Millions of passengers rely on the London Underground every day. It is one of the busiest subways in the world and technology plays a crucial role in keeping people moving. In this podcast Cliff Saran speaks to Adrian Davey, head of IT at Tube Lines, the company which manages the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines on the London Underground, to find out how Tube Lines uses cutting edge technology to keep everything running smoothly.

Cliff Saran speaks to three experts in Business Process Management (BPM). According to analyst group Gartner, IT directors and CIOs will take more responsibility for business processes over the next five years. There is a growing number of products IT directors can implement for automating business processes in order to improve operational efficiency. Janelle Hill of Gartner feels BPM is the next big thing. Paul Tuffs of Orange talks about his experiences of working on a BPM project and BEA's Martin Percival discusses how BPM is being used in the UK.

Where does a business begin if it wants to install unified communications? How should go about doing it? And how can a network manager make the career jump to CTO? Deputy Technology Editor John-Paul Kamath talks to Nortel’s CTO John Roese who discusses how the growing importance of IP networks is shaping future business trends.

At the Construction Computing Event held in London’s Emirates Stadium, Warwick Ashford interviews Neill Pawsey, strategic alliance manager of Construction Opportunities for Mobile IT (COMIT).

Pfizer is rolling out wide area network optimisation technology for a series of 30-day trials across sites in India, Costa Rica, South Africa, Romania and the US. The numbers of users at these sites range from 75 to 10,000. Feedback from end-users has been key. In this podcast, based on a presentation at the Burton Group Catalyst conference in October, Ron Rapp, associate director in Pfizer's worldwide technology engineering division discusses the approach the company has taken.

As in any successful business, Swedish construction company Skanska needs to balance quality with the need to maintain profitability. At the same time, Skanska is addressing environmental issues and becoming safety conscious. In this interview Peter Thomson, chief information officer of Skanska, discusses how his IT strategy helps the company to minimise the environmental impact of new buildings and to improve safety.

IT security is a problem that won’t go away. No matter what chief information officers and IT directors do, there always seems to be a security problem. In this interview Martin Sadler, director of HP’s Trusted Systems Lab discusses how much should chief information officers and IT directors be expected to spend and how much security is enough. Martin also reveals some of the work the Trusted Systems Lab is doing to secure the desktop PC environment.

In this interview Martin Smith, director of group technology and innovation at Manchester Airports Group discusses how his IT strategy is aligned to business needs. The airport plays a critical role in the prosperity of the North West of the UK and . He is joined by Michael Earl, a professor at Oxford Said Business School and Mark McDonald, a vice president in Gartner’s Executive Programs (EXP), who quiz Martin on how the 240 companies that operate at Manchester airport are able to work together to improve customer service and achieve greater levels of efficiencies.

Technology reporter JP Kamath talks software development with IBM’s director at the Hursley laboratory , Dr Graham Spittle. Research at Hursley is critical to companies around the world and the labs are a hotbed for UK IT graduates looking to further a career in software design. What new software is being developed at the labs and how will businesses put this to task? What role will technologies such as Second Life play? And, how should IT graduates steer a career in software development? Download or listen to this podcast to find out more

Almost 50% of IT outsourcing projects fail. In this interview Cliff Saran speaks to Paul Michaels, senior consultant at Metri Measurement Consulting, who shares some of his experiences of why so many IT outsourcing projects fail. Paul believes there are a number of warning signs IT directors and CIOs should check on a regular basis. These metrics should be used as a dashboard to enable the CIO to work with the outsourcer in order to guide the project through difficult and easier times.

In the past applications were run on their own dedicated server hardware. More applications meant more servers. Virtualisation reduces server sprawl, as IT departments can consolidate several applications on a single box. Virtualisation also has a role in Green IT: it can improve the efficiency of servers and lower the amount of electricity consumed. But, virtualisation comes at a cost. In this podcast, Cliff Saran speaks to Gartner vice president, Alexa Bona, about the licensing costs that can erode any financial savings.

Unlike the field of dreams of the old days of the Web - building an attractive and useful site is no guarantee that it will foster a community. Communities grow organically. In this podcast Cliff Saran interviews Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics - How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Don believes businesses can learn a lot from the growth of web communities like Flickr and peer collaboration such as open source development.

There is a growing concern that the UK is falling behind the skills race, which could mean we do not have people with the right skills for the UK to compete effectively in the 21st century knowledge economy. Cliff Saran speaks to Microsoft's UK managing director, Gordon Frazer and Mike Rodd, Director, Learned Society & External Relations, at the British Computer Society about the IT skills crisis.

Cliff Saran interviews Alan Cox who used to maintain the Linux kernel and now works at Red Hat. Cox discusses what is happening with Linux and open source systems in terms of technical breakthroughs like KVM, a virtualisation device driver. He also covers some of the key challenges facing Linux as it becomes more pervasive. Open source is one of the topics being covered on Cliff Saran's new blog.

In this podcast Cliff Saran speaks to Mark Ridley, who is head of technology at online recruiter, Reed.co.uk, about his assessment. Also this week, Nick McGrath, director of platform strategy at Microsoft UK, reveals whether Microsoft still thinks Linux and open source software is a threat to its Windows Server family. And Gary Barnett, research director at Ovum, gives his appraisal of Windows and open source interoperability.

In an interview with Cliff Saran, Phil Cracknell, president of the Internet Security Systems Association (ISSA), speaks frankly about the challenges in creating applications that balance new functionality with tight security. Phil also discusses the need to develop mentoring to help IT security professionals progress their careers.

In this interview, Cliff Saran speaks to James Gosling, father of Java and chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems. In 1995, when Java 1.0 was released, developing software for websites was quite restrictive and relied mainly on scripts run on the server. Today, in the age of the rich internet client, users can run fully-fledged interactive applications on their web browsers over the internet. In spite of alternative approaches such as interoperability via web services using open source code to develop cross-platform applications Gosling believes Java still has a role to play.

Far from being green, IT equipment such as desktop PC and servers running in data centres, are contributing to global warming. They are putting massive demands on the electricity grid. Worldwide, the cost of electricity is going up, and while some businesses may have the option to relocate their datacentres to areas where there is a cheap and abundant electricity supply, many more will not have that option. Listen to Cliff Saran’s interview with Andrew Fanara, a leading member in the product specifications development team at the US Environmental Protection Agency, on the need for data centre operators, IT directors and CIOs to plan to do tackle green IT issues that are most cost-effective to deliver savings to the business.

CIOs and IT directors should look at inefficient use of power and cooling in all datacentre components, from routers to servers and in other network equipment - across the whole power delivery infrastructure. The US Environment; Protection Agency is working on standards as part of its Energy Star programme to help people buying PCs, servers and data centre equipment identify energy efficient hardware. In the second part of his interview with Andrew Fanara of the product specifications development team at the US Environmental Protection Agency, Cliff Saran finds out about the programme. According to Fanara, "Datacentres represent a great opportunity for companies to cost-effectively reduce energy consumption, particularly during peak times. At the same time, their efforts will contribute towards the global challenge of tackling climate change."

Service oriented architecture, SOA , complements the next version of the web, web 2.0, by allowing people to create applications and applets that can easily be reused. It is easy to see how Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps) can be used to create completely new applications using the idea of a mash-up to embed the Google code. Now imagine the possibility of using a service oriented architecture to develop an application that could be embedded on third-party sites. This code could actually be used as a marketing tool. Those sites that embed it would, in fact, be promoting your brand. Andy Mulholland, global chief technology officer of Capgemini, explores this in the second part of his interview with Computer Weekly (www.computerweekly.com/podcasts).

It is hard to avoid service oriented architecture. SOA is a technology the whole IT industry is talking about. Microsoft, IBM, HP, Sun, Novell, BEA, Tibco and other leading suppliers all have an SOA product line. SOA represents the latest method to link enterprise systems together using EAI (enterprise application integration). The internet and HTML has shown the value of global standards and this has led to the concept of web services. As he explains in this ComputerWeekly.com interview (www.computerweekly.com/podcasts), Andy Mulholland, global chief technology officer of Capgemini believes that SOA makes IT integration easier because it deals in standards.