Back-up options 'necessary'

Back-up options 'necessary'

Organisations must ensure they have back-up options to access their data in case of technological trouble, Get Safe Online has said.

Tony Neate, managing director of the government-backed initiative, said that businesses and consumers were becoming increasingly reliant on the internet and online applications.

He added that back-up arrangements were essential for users to be able to access their data in case their computers go on the blink.

Read the rest of the article here.

-Ken

Budget 2009: How does it affect Tech

Budget 2009: How does it affect Tech

The hi-tech green industry got attention in this year's budget, with £405m for advanced green manufacturing and £750m for emerging technologies.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said, "Green technology will be one of the big growth areas in next few years. We need thousands of high-tech companies and skilled high-tech jobs."

Not only is it important for the environment, he said, but it will play a part in getting Britain out of the recession.

Read the rest of the article here.

-Ken

Government should provide staff training tax breaks, say IT managers

Government should provide staff training tax breaks, say IT managers

With the budget just a matter of hours away the wish list from UK businesses continues to grow with tax breaks for skills investment the latest to be added to the list.

Managers quizzed by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) said that unless the government steps in then companies will not be able to support staff development.

The silver lining in the CMI's latest half yearly Economic Outlook is that 13% of those operating in the IT sector expect the recession to have a beneficial impact as they help customers control costs and improve efficiencies.

"Business managers are convinced that a skilled workforce will be an integral part of the recovery process, and are recommending that, especially in these difficult times, government should provide further financial support for skills development and training," said Lord John Eatwell, chief economist at the CMI.

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Sun rises for Oracle in $7bn deal

Not able to post this in News as I don't have the rights, but thought you would like to know:

Oracle Corporation is to buy Sun Microsystems in a deal worth $9.50 a share, valuing Sun at over $7 billion.

The deal comes a fortnight after talks between IBM and Sun collapsed, following IBM's decision to significantly lower its offer.

It will give Oracle access to Sun's strategically important Java and Solaris technologies, which underpin the Oracle database.

"Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit, as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

Read more here

Tiscali users left screaming by lack of e-mail

Tiscali users left screaming by lack of e-mail

Some of Tiscali's users have been left screaming by a lack of e-mail for a week due to Tiscali's failure to renew a domain name used by some customers- screaming.net. Screaming.net used to provide unmetered Internet access back in dial-up Internet days and was gobbled up by Tiscali through the merger with World Online in 2000.

Full story : here

Microsoft will/won't provide a public beta for Office 2010

Microsoft will/won't provide a public beta for Office 2010

Over the past couple of days, Microsoft has indicated that they will and will not be providing a public beta for the upcoming Office 2010 suite. Is this an example of a misinformed public relations person at Microsoft spouting misinformation, an example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, another backtrack on Microsoft's part, or just a simple mistake?

Regardless of why the initial information indicating that there would be no public beta for Office 14 was retracted with the news that Microsoft will, in fact, follow a similar development cycle as was used with Office 2007, I think Microsoft has made the right decision by including a public beta in the cycle. While the initial Technology Preview, which will be by invite-only, will include thousands of testers, those testers tend to be hard core technologists. Although the public beta is not likely to draw...

Insiders Leak Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Roadmap

Insiders Leak Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Roadmap

Apple said to prepare 'key' beta builds of Snow Leopard before final unveiling and official release

After being tipped off on Apple's pushing developers to deliver 64-bit support with a new Snow Leopard beta, AppleInsider has gained knowledge on the actual pre-release build cycles for Snow Leopard. Citing people familiar with the software, the source claims that final OS X 10.6 tests will span three 'key' build releases.

Those familiar with Apple's ongoing development of Mac OS X 10.6 have told the site that “Apple's roadmap for the final stretch of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard development currently calls for the release of three 'key' builds through the company's high-membership Apple Developer Connection.” Reportedly, “each of the builds will carry a significance in its own right, the first of which is scheduled to appear between now and the start of WWDC 2009 during the second week of June. This...

Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year

Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year

Microsoft may need to keep its Windows XP operating system around a little longer—at least for its deep-pocketed corporate customers.

Mainstream support for XP ends Tuesday but, in news that bodes ill for Redmond and the broader PC industry, new data first obtained by InformationWeek indicates that only a small percentage of businesses plan to migrate to Windows 7 in its first year of availability.

Economic concerns and worries about compatibility—the bugbear that doomed Vista in the corporate market—will keep Windows 7 on the shelf for all but a handful of enterprises until at least 12 months after the OS becomes available later this year or early next, depending on Microsoft's release schedule.

"Early beta testers are providing many glowing reports about the functionality and performance of Windows 7, especially compared to Windows Vista," note market watchers at Dimensional Research, in a...

Exchange 14 Announced

Exchange 14 Announced

It's always hard to make generalizations about large organizations, and this is particularly true of Microsoft, where business units often make decisions that seem completely at odds with one another. However, as a whole, Microsoft has recently been much more tight-lipped than usual about forthcoming products. Take Windows 7 as an example; Microsoft did a great job of playing its cards close to the vest until the Professional Developers Conference last November. And you haven't seen much about the next version of Office, either, I bet! Microsoft is still nowhere near as secretive as Apple, but the company is definitely making strides in that direction—which is why you might be surprised to know that Microsoft is well into development of the next release of Exchange Server, code-named Exchange 14.

Anyway, Exchange 14 was announced this week by the release of a video on the...

IT Job seekers going nowhere

IT Job Seekers going nowhere

The economic gloom has well and truly hit the IT job market, with fewer ICT jobs advertised, fewer job seekers and a lack of interest in training, according to new research.

During the third quarter of last year, overall demand for staff in the UK fell by five per cent quarter-on-quarter, a report by IT skills body e-skills UK found. For IT, however, the picture is even bleaker: the number of positions on offer declined by 10 per cent.

Falling demand was recorded for both permanent and contract posts, with vacancy numbers dropping by nine per cent and 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter respectively.

Alex Farrell, managing director of The IT Job Board, has also noted a drop in IT jobs advertised, with both contract and permanent positions feeling the pinch.

Read the full story : Here