Technology plays a vital role in helping government and public sector organisations respond to challenges and deliver services to the public, and in increased use of digital tools can unlock new capabilities and efficiencies. One somewhat unique example of this is the Welsh government, which must meet certain standards to ensure that the Welsh language is treated equally to English. As well as providing Welsh-language options in its apps and services, this also includes supporting Welsh speakers...
Sep 30, 2022•34 min
The technological arsenal available to cyber criminals is already enough to give any security professional nightmares, but there’s another emerging threat on the horizon that may keep them up at night: bio-augmented hackers. Implantable chips and other modifications are growing in capability and sophistication, and there are a variety of creative ways that attackers can use them to carry out both physical and device-based attacks - This is made all the more concerning by the fact that these impl...
Sep 23, 2022•41 min
The global energy market is currently experiencing some extreme turmoil, with low availability resulting in steep price increases. The turbulence is particularly pronounced in the UK, where spiralling power bills are raising concerns for both consumers and businesses alike over whether or not they’ll be able to afford them. The IT industry isn’t exempt from these challenges; in fact, thanks to the extreme power usage that data centre infrastructure requires, the risk of further price rises shoul...
Sep 16, 2022•31 min
Phishing remains one of the oldest and most persistent attack methods for hackers trying to break into an organisation, and potential targets continue to use simulated phishing attacks as one of the primary ways to ensure their staff are ready to defend against it. However, these spoof attacks aren’t always well-recieved, and employees can frequently feel unfairly trapped or caught out by these tests. Appearing on this week’s podcast to discuss why phishing simulations are often so poorly receiv...
Sep 09, 2022•39 min
Five years ago, the security world was rocked by one of the most sudden and widespread ransomware outbreaks in history. Even now, organisations are still recovering from the damage done by WannaCry, and its shadow still looms large over the industry. While ransomware has remained a major threat for organisations over the last half-decade, we haven’t seen anything as globally impactful as WannaCry since then - so what (if anything) has the industry learned from the incident, and are we likely to ...
Sep 02, 2022•35 min
The tech industry has been forced to weather more than its fair share of storms over the past few years, but one of the most troublesome to navigate has been the ongoing issues in the semiconductor supply chain. The situation has resulted in delays, shortages and missed revenue targets for companies across a range of industries, and has prompted government intervention across the globe. There are a number of factors behind the disruptions to the chip supply chain, and although measures are being...
Aug 26, 2022•24 min
There is a vast universe of threats facing modern businesses, from opportunistic lone hackers and organised criminal gangs, to state-backed intelligence units working for nations such as Russia and China. Attempting to divine which of these groups is behind a given cyber attack has almost become an industry in and of itself, with numerous tools being leveraged by analysts and researchers to assign blame. But is there any actual value for businesses in knowing exactly which individuals are respon...
Aug 19, 2022•35 min
AI is increasingly working its way into organisations’ main IT environments, and as a cutting-edge field that relies heavily on technology infrastructure to run effectively, you might assume that IT would be enthusiastic supporters - but this isn’t always the case. In fact, far from being bosom buddies, in many instances IT and AI practitioners can find themselves locked in turf wars and disputes over support and resourcing. In this episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we sit down with Nvidia’s direct...
Aug 12, 2022•28 min
Collaboration is a fundamental part of success in modern business, but while most (although not all) businesses are well-versed in the ways of collaborating within their teams, not all organisations are as confident when it comes to sharing knowledge and ideas with their peers in other organisations. One group that has absolutely nailed this, however, is developers and IT professionals. These workers have a long history of collective problem-solving and cooperation, enabled by tools like StackOv...
Aug 05, 2022•32 min
Five years can be a very long time in the world of technology, and looking back the changes to our hardware over that period can be stark. In this podcast, presented in association with Dell Technologies, we will compare new laptops to those we were using half a decade before, exploring the development in functionality, speed, battery life and more, and how those are supporting and enabling the way businesses operate today and tomorrow.
Jun 14, 2022•31 min
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May 27, 2022•1 min
Singapore’s dominance in the data centre market, helped in no small part by the country’s keen investment in technology, is undeniable. But, for one of the smallest countries in the world, what are the ramifications of such a large investment and what can businesses learn from Singapore’s approach to tech? This week, Adam Shepherd is joined by IT Pro Staff Writer and our resident APAC specialist Zach Marzouk, who explains exactly why Singapore is such an interesting case study for national tech ...
May 20, 2022•28 min
Running a small business has always been a demanding task, but recent circumstances - from the coronavirus pandemic to the advent of Brexit - have come together to make it more challenging than ever before. An increasing number of SMBs, however, are turning to technologies such as cloud and AI to help address these issues. This week, we’re joined by Aaron Harris, CTO for UK-based cloud financial software firm Sage, to talk about the state of the UK’s small-business market, the role technology pl...
May 13, 2022•33 min
Building an application from scratch isn’t exactly easy. Startups wishing to create a digital platform for their business will need to contend with technical recruitment, infrastructure choices and the numerous headaches inherent in the development process. However, even once your platform has been built, the struggle still isn’t over. As your business grows, your platform will need to scale too, and managing this process without reinventing your architecture from the ground up can be challengin...
May 06, 2022•32 min
Technologies like IoT, AI and big data analytics have been forecast to have enormous impacts across a variety of sectors, and one industry that's particularly ripe for transformation is the manufacturing sector. With a huge amount of operational and IT complexity to manage, factories and supply chains can benefit from digitisation in a number of ways. The process of transforming a factory through digital technology is a complex one, with many moving parts, but the combination of modern cloud pla...
Apr 29, 2022•22 min
The spectre of so-called ‘planned obsolescence’ has been hovering around the tech industry for years, with quasi-conspiracy theories claiming that manufacturers intentionally cripple their own products after a certain period in order to coax customers into purchasing an upgrade. However, while the comparatively short lifespan of most tech products remains a bone of contention among users, this may be less sinister plot and more a natural result of the industry’s relentless pursuit of better spec...
Apr 22, 2022•32 min
The question of whether we need to go back to the office has a polarising one, and one of the main arguments for reopening traditional workspaces has been that some employees aren’t equipped for efficient or comfortable home working. Hybrid working isn’t going anywhere though, and just a few minor tweaks can make your home environment much more suitable for remote working. This week, we’re discussing our dream remote working setups, including our top tips for maximising the productivity of your ...
Apr 15, 2022•35 min
At this point, it should be clear that remote working is here to stay, but while we've all hopefully sorted out proper working spaces with all the laptops, keyboards, monitors and video conferencing equipment that we need to work effectively from home, one element that often gets overlooked is networking. With cloud and SaaS platforms becoming more vital than ever for modern business, a robust network infrastructure is now just as vital for the home as it is for the office. This week, we're talk...
Apr 08, 2022•36 min
In the modern world, AI is everywhere, powering a variety of applications from enterprise business intelligence tools to sorting through photos of our pets. But as the technology becomes more and more widespread, concerns have been raised about the potential dangers that could be posed by unrestrained AI development. Calls have been intensifying from campaigners seeking guardrails on how AI systems are developed, and the kind of use-cases they’re applied to, with opponents arguing that legislati...
Apr 01, 2022•30 min
Transforming a business isn’t an easy task at the best of times; organisational inertia, complicated project timelines and budgetary constraints are all among the obstacles that an incoming IT leader will have to deal with when trying to enact their vision. It’s even more challenging, however, when that business is still using technology that’s several decades out of date. This week, we’re talking to Rita Bullivant, director of IT and change for Melton Building Society, about her experiences wit...
Mar 25, 2022•25 min
The lucrative rewards of the tech industry are enticing a growing number of people into the industry, but while degrees in computer science and software engineering remain widely popular, there are many different ways to prove your credentials as a budding developer - and spending three to four years being taught the fundamentals in the classroom may not necessarily be the most effective. In fact, for those wanting to make a career for themselves as a developer, the best strategy may be to learn...
Mar 18, 2022•32 min
MWC is back; after a few years in hibernation, the trade show has once again opened its doors to the mobile industry, with thousands of exhibitors and attendees flocking to Barcelona to check out the latest products and technologies. This year’s show saw everything from new laptops and smartphones, to developments in network infrastructure and wireless standards. Bobby Hellard and Sabina Weston join us this week to share some of the most interesting things they saw at the show, including Qualcom...
Mar 11, 2022•34 min
Climate change is one of the greatest threats that humanity faces, and it’s important for each of us to do what we can in fighting its impact. However, while pledging to use our cars less and turn off our appliances overnight is all very well, organisations and industries also need to enact policies to limit and manage their own carbon footprints. One of the biggest sources of energy consumption within the modern business world is data centres, estimated to contribute as much as the global air t...
Mar 04, 2022•32 min
When you’re working on a large-scale software development project - especially as part of a sizable enterprise business - it’s easy for the project’s original goals to become muddied over time. As the goalposts shift further and further from their starting point, timelines can slip and the efficiency of the project can be undermined. This kind of scope creep can be seriously damaging for organisations, but thankfully the software engineering community has been hard at work for years on strategie...
Feb 25, 2022•34 min
It seems that in the world of modern IT, you can’t swing a cat-6 cable without hitting four or five cloud-based platforms that are trying to revolutionise business communication. Despite the rise of platforms like Slack, Teams, Zoom and more, however, emails remain by far the most widely-used method of professional communication. In this week’s episode, we take a look at why this comparatively ancient technology still persists so widely, as well as the advantages that it offers over newer platfo...
Feb 18, 2022•32 min
Ocado’s colourful delivery vans are a common sight on the streets of Britain, but what’s slightly less well-known is that the company’s deliveries are powered by some of the most cutting-edge technology in the retail and logistics sector, including advanced AI, robotics, and data analytics. Joining us for this week’s episode is James Donkin, CTO of Ocado Technology, to discuss how the company deploys microservices and cloud infrastructure to help its clients deliver faster and more accurate orde...
Feb 11, 2022•29 min
Automation has been a trend in business for decades, but with the advent of cloud-powered low-code no-code tools, the benefits are now within reach of even the smallest organisations. Businesses are increasingly making use of the tools to reduce their reliance on paper processes, speed up manual tasks through intelligent workflows, and extract more value from their data. In this episode, we hear from Paul McFarlane, CTO of Glasgow Credit Union, to find out how deploying business automation tools...
Feb 04, 2022•34 min
Cyber attacks are something that every business worries about on a near-constant basis - but while DDoS attacks may not make it onto many CISOs lists of the most worrying threats, they remain one of the most prevalent types of attack - partly because they’re dangerously easy to launch. The scale and speed with which DDoS attacks can be launched is lowering all the time, too, thanks to the spread of IoT-driven botnets and the rise of DDoS-as-a-service vendors. One of the companies on the front li...
Jan 28, 2022•31 min
We've all been guilty of taking the odd shortcut to get things done a bit faster at work, but while these time-saving tactics can sometimes introduce risk into organisations, they're also a fundamental part of human nature. With this in mind, organisations must define an acceptable level of risk for their operations, and use the right tools to ensure that the corners staff are cutting aren't in potentially problematic areas. In this IT Pro Podcast Special Edition, brought to you in association w...
Jan 25, 2022•28 min
CES is one of the highlights of the tech calendar, kicking off every year with a cavalcade of new products, interesting announcements and innovative startups all vying to get noticed. While the spectre of COVID continued to loom over this year’s proceedings, there was still a veritable buffet of things to see at the show. This week, we’re joined by PC Pro editor in chief and co-host of the PC Pro Podcast Tim Danton, who was on the ground in Las Vegas for CES 2022. We discuss some of the most int...
Jan 21, 2022•34 min
