As technological innovations happen, it can be easy to forget that even the most complex systems rely on large networks of basic infrastructure to operate. At the most fundamental level, all tech products rely on effective data storage But this is easier said than done. Each byte of data has to be stored somewhere, on a rack, disk, tape, or flash device. As the world embraces hardware and software that creates data at an even faster rate, businesses will be forced to push the frontiers of ...
Mar 15, 2024•33 min
The tech sector still has a long way to go when it comes to gender equality. While progress has been made over the years, women in tech face hurdles such as discrimination and outdated hiring processes. All of this works to drive women out of tech and uphold ingrained, sectoral biases. Female founders come up against these same challenges time and time again, which robs the industry of innovative firms and stems the flow of progress. For a more diverse sector, more work needs to be done on initi...
Mar 08, 2024•30 min
February has been an eventful month in the tech sector as ransomware operator LockBit, which has accrued billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains in its approximately four-year history, was taken down by an international task force spearheaded by the UK’s National Crime Agency. Elsewhere, ChatGPT suffered a major setback as users noticed the industry-leading chatbot had taken to answering prompts with complete gibberish. Though the issue was fixed within a day of being reported, it has raised imp...
Mar 01, 2024•22 min
STEM careers are often touted as those with the best prospects, but when it comes to job satisfaction things may not be quite so rosy. A stark number of workers in the tech industry are currently looking to move jobs – either into a different tech role or into another field entirely. Many more are facing the looming prospect of job cuts, while an increasing number are reporting poor working conditions. All this adds up to a disaffected and disengaged workforce – something leaders need to fix or ...
Feb 23, 2024•24 min
As organizations look to integrate AI tools into their business models, key questions will have to be answered around how this fits in with their wider strategy. This doesn’t just mean data analysis or adoption of generative AI tools, but less directly connected initiatives such as sustainability goals. The adoption of AI is also running up against concerns around skills. Many organizations, if not most, are yet to truly determine which roles and tasks can be augmented and improved by AI service...
Feb 16, 2024•31 min
It’s becoming something of a tradition for companies to ring in the new year with a wave of layoffs. In 2024, as in 2023, workforce reduction has been a major theme in the tech sector and beyond for January. As technologies such as AI take root, the nature and pace of layoffs is likely to change in the near future. Competing pressures of economic downturns and productivity shortfalls could change the tech workforce dramatically. In this episode, Jane and Rory are joined by Ross Kelly, ITPro’s ne...
Feb 09, 2024•26 min
If you’ve seen Oppenheimer, Dune, or Blade Runner 2049, then you’ve seen the work of DNEG. The British visual effects firm, formerly known as Double Negative, has had to contend with growing compute and data demands in its 26 year history, with thousands of hours of rendering required to bring the latest visuals from servers to the cinema screen. In recent years, DNEG’s legacy infrastructure began to feel the strain of this task, leading the firm to work with Red Hat to adopt a cloud-native appr...
Feb 02, 2024•41 min
Computers and technology have well and truly permeated our professional and private lives. While this has led to great strides in efficiency, opened up new opportunities for businesses and individuals, and helped us become more connected than ever before, there are also downsides. As the world becomes more digital and even menial tasks are increasingly outsourced to computer systems, a simultaneous shift in accountability and oversight needs to take place. Trust in computers is all too often aut...
Jan 26, 2024•33 min
Business intelligence tools already help leaders learn more about the data that drives their business and make more informed decisions. BI dashboards, in particular, help business leaders quantify their successes and identify areas for improvement from one central point of access. When it comes to adopting AI effectively, proper oversight and understanding of your data can be of the utmost importance. On paper, there could be a strong role for a combination of BI and AI, with intelligent identif...
Jan 19, 2024•34 min
This classic episode of the ITPro Podcast was first published on 6 January 2023. Passwords can be tricky at the best of times. Proper password hygiene is one of the most important factors in endpoint security, as it keeps sensitive data secure and prevents threat actors from getting into important systems. Despite the risks, the use of weak or recycled passwords continues to be a problem even amongst IT professionals and remembering too many unique passwords is a strain. While systems such as mu...
Jan 12, 2024•31 min
The UK’s data privacy landscape has long come with strict responsibilities for businesses, requiring detailed justifications for all customer data stored and processed. After the UK formally exited the European Union in 2020, the UK retained regulations for controllers and processors via the UK GDPR which sits alongside the Data Protection Act 2018. Businesses have often criticized the red tape present within GDPR, arguing that it holds them back from carrying out the core functions of their bus...
Jan 05, 2024•29 min
As business leaders reflect on the past 12 months and look forward to what the next might hold, a number of trends and technologies stand out. While AI is dead set to continue its large role in 2024, the impact of high-performance computing (HPC), the spread of new 5G technologies, and the pernicious role that increasingly sophisticated fraud tech will play is also worth exploring. For this new year’s edition of the podcast, Jane and Rory eschew predictions to focus on the top trends from this y...
Dec 29, 2023•38 min
So much has happened this year, not least in the areas of AI and social media, but at the same time some events have been some notable omissions. While generative AI has taken the world by storm, there is still much to prove about its business use cases and how it should be regulated. Security and hardware are also in a similar place to previous years, with the same threats and designs coming to the surface in 2023 in place of any revolutionary shifts. For this festive episode of the podcast, Ja...
Dec 22, 2023•37 min
Machine learning (ML) has been a field of research for more than 50 years, and as a subset of artificial intelligence has also been the focus of great innovation in that time. Many businesses use machine learning throughout their stack and some will have relied upon ML frameworks without realizing it. With the rise in popularity of newer forms of AI developments such as generative AI, however, some have questioned the extent to which traditional approaches such as machine learning algorithms sti...
Dec 15, 2023•26 min
The promise of algorithms and AI has always been simple at its core. Workers can automate manual and laborious tasks, to free up their time for more complex or meaningful activities. This comes under scrutiny in some fields more than others. For example, the use of algorithmic processing in HR and hiring has had some very public horror stories in the past few years. While one could theoretically use the perfect algorithm to quickly pick the best hires out of a stack of applications according to ...
Dec 08, 2023•21 min
It’s been a whirlwind month, and not in the way that one might have predicted. Opening with the UK’s AI Safety Summit and ending with the anniversary of ChatGPT, November was already set to be a big month for the field of AI, particularly when it came to global legislation. As the month progressed, it turned out that November had even more planned, in the form of a huge upheaval at OpenAI. In this episode, Jane and Rory look at some of the standout moments of November 2023 and draw a line betwee...
Dec 01, 2023•30 min
It’s now been four years since the ITPro Podcast’s first episode and so much has changed in that time. Across almost every sector, we're working in different ways, in different places, and through the use of different hardware and software. Remote work and AI have unsettled our idea of the office and the working day, while promises such as the metaverse have flared and burned. In this special 200th episode, Jane and Rory take a look back at how far we've come since 2019. Read more: CEOs are livi...
Nov 24, 2023•44 min
Not so long ago, the public cloud boom was in full swing and businesses were moving workloads in numbers thanks to its reputation for low costs and scalability. Today, many businesses have reassessed the size or scope of their public cloud investment. While the benefits of the public cloud remain clear, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud have their attractive qualities with some organizations choosing to entirely repatriate to a private cloud or on-premises infrastructure. The moves come as businesses...
Nov 17, 2023•26 min
Generative AI has powerful applications as a source for knowledge acquisition, as it can be used quickly and coherently to produce text outputs on almost any subject. Many generative AI models are also capable of producing efficient code in the programming language of a user’s choice or assessing the viability of pre-written code. The wide availability of these models is something with which academic institutions have already had to grapple in the past year alone. Tools such as ChatGPT put tradi...
Nov 10, 2023•36 min
Getting data in order can have a huge effect on whether businesses can harness the power of AI. Where your data is stored, in what form, as well as where and how it is processed, really can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful implementations of the technology. At NetApp Insight, these challenges were placed front and center, with a strong focus on the concerns of customers regarding data in the cloud and how it can be best harnessed by firms to power and provide context to th...
Nov 03, 2023•27 min
Automation and localization can both lighten the load for businesses in different ways. Without proper localization, a company may find one of its subsidiaries in breach of a regional tax code or data competency requirement. Without automation, businesses can languish with manual tasks and find themselves unable to expand and achieve the kind of worldwide growth for which they are aiming. The onset of AI has also changed this equation dramatically, crossing over with both automation and localiza...
Oct 27, 2023•25 min
AI is not a new technology, but recent advancements have put it in the spotlight. Among all the tangible benefits the technology can bring, it’s also surrounded by a substantial amount of hype. The tech sector is no stranger to hype, with virtual reality and the blockchain also having been subject to strong hype cycles. In 2022, someone may have earnestly told you the metaverse was the next big trend in business tech, and yet now Meta is the last vestige of a technology the world has moved on fr...
Oct 20, 2023•29 min
Cyber security has grown from a preoccupation of the IT department alone to something that can also keep CFOs, CEOs and others in the boardroom up at night. There was once a time when a computer virus might have been seen as an annoyance or inconvenience that was contained to at most a handful of computers. Now, however, most companies – and would-be attackers – realize a successful ransomware campaign, for example, could bring down their business. In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, i...
Oct 18, 2023•25 min
The role of chief information security officer is among the most important in any firm. CISOs shoulder a heavy burden, with responsibility for protecting their company’s data, infrastructure, and associated assets. As the tech stack has grown, so too has the pressure on those in the role. CISOs have to shepherd technologies including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and edge computing. Gartner predicts that nearly half of all IT leaders could leave their roles by 2025, and CISOs are su...
Oct 13, 2023•39 min
While the tech sector has suffered globally from a skills gap in recent years, the UK landscape in particular has come to be defined by roles unfilled, churn, and middling productivity. The Office for National Statistics found that in 2021, the UK generated £46.92 per hour worked, versus £58.88 per hour worked in the United States. Across 2022, output across the UK remained flat. Brain drain is also a serious issue, as workers who feel their skills are underused leave their firms for greener pas...
Oct 06, 2023•25 min
Google is one of the most recognizable names in tech, most famous for its search tech and later reinventing itself as an AI firm. As the company turns 25, it’s a moment to look at its origin, list some of its most infamous product cancellations, and consider its lasting legacy. In this episode, Jane and Rory are joined by Bobby Hellard, ITPro's Reviews Editor, to discuss all things Google. For more information, read the show notes here ....
Sep 29, 2023•31 min
The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to enforce a safer digital space, protecting users’ rights and establishing a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness. It’s hoped the legislation will help reduce trade in illegal goods and content online and curb algorithm-driven content. In practical terms, it will have wide-reaching impacts on the biggest names in tech, as well as the advertising and marketing industries. In this episode, Jane is joined by Alex Hazell, head ...
Sep 22, 2023•46 min
Through digital transformation, organizations can slash time spent on manual processes and work more efficiently to address pressing issues. In healthcare, speeding processes up can improve and even save lives. Across the UK, NHS trusts are identifying a number of ways in which the 7.7 million-person waiting list can be tackled, and digital transformation has a clear role to play. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is among the UK’s largest NHS trusts, with seven hospitals and 18,000 staff. Sinc...
Sep 15, 2023•40 min
Anyone who works in IT will have stories of technical debt – those times you have to tape software together to get it released by the deadline, or a cheap solution staves off a more costly overhaul of old systems. No matter how far you push it down the line, though, everyone has to pay up eventually. Ignoring technical debt only compounds the eventual problem of addressing it and IT teams around the world are saddled with technical debt that bites into their yearly budget. In this episode, Rory ...
Sep 08, 2023•31 min
Many businesses in the tech sector are currently facing economic headwinds, with rising costs and enduring skill shortages stymying growth plans. In response, some companies – including a number of notable large firms – have announced sweeping staff cuts. This is one way to cut costs, but it can end up placing an undue burden on the remaining staff. Small businesses in particular may struggle to reduce their employee numbers without forcing their staff to assume extra responsibilities, or having...
Sep 01, 2023•37 min
