2013

Tech Club: ‘We’re Not Talking About Something As Straightforward As Money’

Nigel Painter, associate director at business consultancy MEMEology, thinks the government procurement frameworks are tough for a reason

Broadband

BT Openreach CEO Liv Garfield Leaves For Severn Trent

Garfield will leave in the spring after overseeing BT fibre deployment

Edinburgh Carlton Hill Scotland © Keattikorn Shutterstock

Workspace

Edinburgh Plans To Dump BT For New £1bn Services Deal

Edinburgh Council wants to give more business to local SMBs when its long-term deal with BT runs out in 2016

Collaboration Suites

Twitter Signs Up 56 British Organisations To Its Emergency Alerts Programme

Users who want to receive emergency notifications via Twitter have to register with relevant accounts

Marketing

Tech Club: ‘People Need To Focus On Making Revenue, Not Securing The Business’

David Shearmon, CEO at Cryptic, says businesses need to focus on money, and let the experts handle the security

Mobility

Linux Foundation: Open Source Tizen Is Alive And Well

The Linux Foundation's Brian Warner says Tizen 'scratches an itch' unaddressed by smartphone market

Marketing

Tech Club: ‘The Threat Landscape Is Too Big – You Have To Pick Your Battles’

Sat Birdi, CEO at vzInternet, says we need to protect authenticity of online transactions in order to stop fraud

Security

vBulletin Forum Passwords Taken, Thousands Of Sites May be Affected

Hackers breach vBulletin site in a threat to all vBulletin-based forums

london finance stock exchange gherkin © QQ7 Shutterstock city

Regulation

‘.London’ gTLD Invites Businesses To Associate Themselves With The Capital

London will launch city-specific gTLD next summer, promising that businesses can benefit by association

Green-IT

Raspberry Pi Sales Hit Two Million

Raspberry Pi Foundation says popularity of the device comes as “a bit of a shock”

Marketing

Microsoft, Google To Block 100,000 Child Abuse Search Terms

In response to government pressure, Google and Microsoft's Bing will introduce new measures to make child abuse content more difficult to find

China mobile phone communication © Norebbo Shutterstock

Mobility

China Mobile Offers Users Cheap Phone Calls To China With Jego App

VoIP app give free incoming calls to users with an existing or rented Chinese or Hong Kong mobile number

Networks

Mitel Targets Unified Communications With Aastra Merger

The merger of Mitel and Aastra will create a $1bn company focused on the unified communications market

Browsers

Google Adds Form Autofill To Mobile Chrome Browser

Google's additions ot the Chrome browser are intended to speed up shopping and form-filling on mobile devices ahead of the Christmas season

Projects

Nvidia’s CUDA Platform Gets Unified Memory

Nvidia has added unified memory support to CUDA 6, making it easier for programmers to write code for systems that include GPU accelerators

MakerBot Streamlines Windows 8.1 3D Printing

MakerBot has released software that simplifies 3D printing under Windows

Security

Tech Club – David Shearmon, CEO at Cryptic

David Shearmon, CEO at Cryptic, says businesses need to focus on making money, and let the experts handle the security

Cloud

Tech Club – Sat Birdi, CEO at vzInternet

Sat Birdi, CEO at vzInternet, talks about the need to protect authenticity of online transactions in order to stop fraud

Green-IT

Canadian Scientists Claim A Major Breakthrough In Quantum Computing

A team of researchers has managed to keep quantum memory ‘coherent’ for 39 minutes at room temperature

solar panel power plant field © Vaclav Volrab Shutterstock

Green-IT

Google And Friends Invest £250 Million In Solar Projects

Finance firm KKR and Google buy six solar plants of Sharp's Recurrent division

Cloud

IBM Opens Up Watson AI Computer System To Developers

IBM launches cloud-based development platform as it looks to establish itself as leader of cognitive computing

Mac

BlackBerry Adds BBM iPad Support In New Update

BBM iPad support is the headline feature of iOS and Android upgrade

Chromebooks

HP Pulls Chromebook 11 Amid Reports Of Overheating

Sales of the HP Chromebook 11 have been suspended after reports of overheating power supplies

Regulation

‘Russian Silicon Valley’ Skolkovo Misused £620 Million, Executives Implicated

The Skolkovo Foundation has been hemorrhaging money, but that will not stop the Russian government from investing another £2.55 billion by 2020

Charles Bligh TalkTalk Business me / Company / Years in IT / Areas of expertise? I have been the Managing Director at TalkTalk Business since 2011 and have been in the IT industry for 22 years, starting at IBM as an Engineer. From there I held a number of senior project management, sales and senior leadership roles in professional services and product related businesses. I have worked across Asia for 4 years (based in Tokyo) and have spent the last 5 years in the UK. What has been your favourite project so far? This one! Joining TalkTalk Business and working over the past two years to further improve the customer experience has been both fulfilling and rewarding, but the best is yet to come. I like to say TalkTalk Business is the best kept secret in the industry. We are just at the beginning. What tech were you involved with ten years ago? Ten years ago, back in early 2000, I was working with companies to help them view the web as a revenue generating opportunity, not just to reduce costs. It all sounds incredibly naive now when you think about how far we’ve come. What tech do you expect to be using in ten years' time? In ten years’ time I would expect to be using, flexible (bendable) touch screen devices integrated into all aspects of my life, at home, on the move and at work. Who's your tech hero? My tech hero is Gordon Moore, the man who came up with Moore Law, which says that everything doubles in performance every two years. The law challenges us to drive innovation while relying on the idea that everything will be smaller, faster and more connected. Who's your tech villain? This is a tough one, I am not sure I would single out one person. I’ve always been a very ambitious person, so when it comes to technology, I think it would have to be any kind of person who says it can’t be done. What's your favourite technology ever made? Which do you use most? The web is my favourite technology and my favourite gadget is my tablet (iPad!), which I use for all kinds of things, to stream movies, surf the web and listen to music. What is your budget outlook going forward? Flat? Growing? Substantial growth! We’ve had a strong first quarter of our financial year and we’re seeing increased demand for our data and carrier services. Apart from your own, which company do you admire most and why? Companies that provide excellent customer service on a sustained basis. At TalkTalk Business we put good customer service at the heart of everything we do, so I value that trait when I see it in other organisations. Barclays, who won an award for Best Customer Experience Centre of the Year last year, is a great example. What’s the greatest challenge for an IT company/department today? One of the greatest challenges the technology industry is facing today is managing the fast growth of mobility and how to harness it in the workplace. The need for mobility to drive business objectives, now combined with the added device-driven dimension of BYOD, presents quite a network and security challenge for businesses of all sizes. To Cloud or not to Cloud? For me, the answer is undoubtedly to Cloud. But which cloud? Your own private or public or hybrid? Businesses are moving into a world where the cloud is used for almost all enterprise applications. The cloud allows companies to use a shared environment, makes it easier to tap into common interest data and provides access to the computing power of hundreds of servers, without the expense. That isn’t to say working in the cloud doesn’t present its own challenges, but with the right technology choices, secure flexible network and ICT partners, they’re not insurmountable. What did you want to be when you were a child? It wasn’t what I wanted to be, but more of where I wanted to be. I wanted to live and work around the world.Name / Company / Years in IT / Areas of expertise? I have been the Managing Director at TalkTalk Business since 2011 and have been in the IT industry for 22 years, starting at IBM as an Engineer. From there I held a number of senior project management, sales and senior leadership roles in professional services and product related businesses. I have worked across Asia for 4 years (based in Tokyo) and have spent the last 5 years in the UK. What has been your favourite project so far? This one! Joining TalkTalk Business and working over the past two years to further improve the customer experience has been both fulfilling and rewarding, but the best is yet to come. I like to say TalkTalk Business is the best kept secret in the industry. We are just at the beginning. What tech were you involved with ten years ago? Ten years ago, back in early 2000, I was working with companies to help them view the web as a revenue generating opportunity, not just to reduce costs. It all sounds incredibly naive now when you think about how far we’ve come. What tech do you expect to be using in ten years' time? In ten years’ time I would expect to be using, flexible (bendable) touch screen devices integrated into all aspects of my life, at home, on the move and at work. Who's your tech hero? My tech hero is Gordon Moore, the man who came up with Moore Law, which says that everything doubles in performance every two years. The law challenges us to drive innovation while relying on the idea that everything will be smaller, faster and more connected. Who's your tech villain? This is a tough one, I am not sure I would single out one person. I’ve always been a very ambitious person, so when it comes to technology, I think it would have to be any kind of person who says it can’t be done. What's your favourite technology ever made? Which do you use most? The web is my favourite technology and my favourite gadget is my tablet (iPad!), which I use for all kinds of things, to stream movies, surf the web and listen to music. What is your budget outlook going forward? Flat? Growing? Substantial growth! We’ve had a strong first quarter of our financial year and we’re seeing increased demand for our data and carrier services. Apart from your own, which company do you admire most and why? Companies that provide excellent customer service on a sustained basis. At TalkTalk Business we put good customer service at the heart of everything we do, so I value that trait when I see it in other organisations. Barclays, who won an award for Best Customer Experience Centre of the Year last year, is a great example. What’s the greatest challenge for an IT company/department today? One of the greatest challenges the technology industry is facing today is managing the fast growth of mobility and how to harness it in the workplace. The need for mobility to drive business objectives, now combined with the added device-driven dimension of BYOD, presents quite a network and security challenge for businesses of all sizes. To Cloud or not to Cloud? For me, the answer is undoubtedly to Cloud. But which cloud? Your own private or public or hybrid? Businesses are moving into a world where the cloud is used for almost all enterprise applications. The cloud allows companies to use a shared environment, makes it easier to tap into common interest data and provides access to the computing power of hundreds of servers, without the expense. That isn’t to say working in the cloud doesn’t present its own challenges, but with the right technology choices, secure flexible network and ICT partners, they’re not insurmountable. What did you want to be when you were a child? It wasn’t what I wanted to be, but more of where I wanted to be. I wanted to live and work around the world.

Cloud

IT Life: Talking With TalkTalk’s Business Head

Charles Bligh loves the cloud, the web and his iPad

Flights delay plane - Shutterstock - © Oleg V. Ivanov

EC Approves In-Flight 3G And 4G As EASA Relaxes Take-off Rules

Europe approves mobile use above 3,000 metres as EASA says tablets and smartphones can be used during take-off and landing

Legal

John McAfee To Testify About The Murder That Sent Him On The Run

McAfee is back in the public eye to clear his name

Cloud

BlackBerry Looks To The Future, Says New CEO Chen

Interim CEO John Chen used a public letter to warn of tough choices, but says the company is looking to the future

Mobility

Workers Prefer Smartphones To Office Phones

The office phone is being increasingly ignored, as workers opt rather to use their own personal smartphones