Silicon Republic - CIO

Macs given clean bill of health

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:34:00 +0000

It seems the recent hoohah over an Apple security document recommending that users install multiple antivirus programmes was much ado about nothing. The document itself was nothing new because it had existed on the Apple site for over a year, and besides which, it was out of date and inaccurate, said an official spokesperson.

Intel and Hitachi join forces to make solid-state drives

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Chip giant Intel and Japan's Hitatchi Global Storage Technologies have entered into a joint venture to develop serial attached SCSI (SAS) and fibre channel enterprise-class solid-state drives (SSDs) for servers, workstations and storage systems.

Worldwide server revenues fall 5pc in Q3

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:15:00 +0000

Although shipments of servers worldwide increased 4.4pc, revenues were down 5.4pc year-on-year in the third quarter to US$12.7bn, according to Gartner.

SMEs can use tech to fight climate change

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

BT Business has launched an 'Understanding Green Business Practices' to help Irish SMEs understand how sustainable business practices and ICT can help the world and their bottom line.

IT Force turnover up 30pc to €4.5m

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Irish IT consulting firm IT Force reported a 30pc increase in year-end turnover to €4.5m, which was driven by its managed services and managed resources businesses.

Ireland must boost tech skills to stay in the game

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

In May, Texan billionaire Ross Perot's IT services firm, Perot Systems Consulting, acquired Irish software company Original Solutions for an undisclosed sum. Jim Champy is chairman of Perot Systems

Ireland 2.0: Now is the time to rethink Ireland's software sector

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

The earliest Irish software companies can be found as far back as the Sixties, but it was over the past 20 years that the industry gathered momentum, scaling dizzy heights but also familiarising itself with the harsh realities of industry downturns.

Tech employers are using downturn to retrain staff

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Technology companies in Ireland are using the current economic downturn as an opportunity to redeploy and retrain staff in preparation for better times ahead, a survey has found.

Data Electronics in €3m co-lo deal with ProStrategy

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:13:00 +0000

Data-centre player Data Electronics has struck a €3m partnership deal with business software and service firm ProStrategy to allow it to deploy software as a service (SaaS) and managed services locally and globally.

30pc of investments in CRM will be via SaaS by 2012

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Some 30pc of new customer service and support application investments will be in the software as a service (SaaS) model by 2012, according to new research.

Queen's gets �25m sterling to counter malicious cyber attacks

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Queen's University Belfast is to become the UK's leading centre for the developing technology to counter malicious cyber attacks, after receiving a �25m sterling funding boost from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

BT's new home phones to cut costs and CO2 emissions

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

BT has introduced new home-phone handsets whose power units are designed specifically to consume around half the power of previous units. This will mean lower electricity bills for homeowners and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions.

65pc of Irish websites put consumers at risk

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:02:00 +0000

According to an analysis from Enterprise Risk Services at Deloitte, some 65pc of Irish websites put consumers at risk of fraud.

The world is running out of mainframe engineers

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:01:00 +0000

Mainframes never went away and in fact account for the large majority of servers in the world today. But mainframe personnel are ageing and approaching retirement, leading to a big human resources problem for the enterprise computing world.

Feelings clouded on the future of computing

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:56:00 +0000

Irish firms are divided on cloud computing technology, with nearly half of executives (46pc) admitting they have no plan to deploy the technology in their organisations.

Microsoft to release free security software to tackle growing malware threat

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Microsoft is planning to release free security software for download from the internet to address the growing market of new PC form factors like netbooks, but also what it sees as a worrying increase in malware coming from developing nations.

Generation Y will bring their own technology to work

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Generation Y or that generation of 14 to 27 year-olds called the 'Millennials' will prefer to bring their own technology into the workplace, said Accenture, creating a challenge for CIOs intent on containing potential data leaks.

Bad IT decisions can 'kill a company', warns CA

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

CEOs are under increased pressure as the recession bites, and run the risk of making wrong IT investments that could be fatal for their businesses.

Firms with no open source usage policies face legal battles

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:36:00 +0000

Although more than 85pc of companies use open source software (OSS) in their enterprises, moving to 100pc of businesses in the next 12 months, few have policies around the use of open source.

Hosting365 takes a €3m walk in the clouds

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:10:00 +0000

Dublin data centre firm Hosting365 has revealed it has signed €3m worth of cloud computing deals with a number of prominent Irish-based companies, including Viridian, Carphone Warehouse, Tesco Mobile, Webtrade, TV3 and CityJet.

Spam falls 75pc after Californian ISP put out of action

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:56:00 +0000

A massive drop of 75pc in the number of spam emails has been reported by MXSweep in the aftermath of the shut-down of a controversial Californian ISP (internet service provider).

Businesses must watch out for gremlins in the machine

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Firms tightening their belts will need to ensure existing IT systems are bug-free say Declan Kavanagh, managing director of Sogeti, and Phil Codd, managing director of SQS Ireland.

SharePoint is the uniting force behind Microsoft's new biz server strategy

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:17:00 +0000

The SharePoint collaborative working technology is to feature right across Microsoft's new family of server products for small- and medium-sized businesses, siliconrepublic.com has learned.

Major data breaches predicted as firms cut IT spending

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:48:00 +0000

As the recession continues to bite and firms look at ways of cutting corners on spending, it is vital companies don't scrimp on protecting their data assets.

Storage as a service could be a hot small biz and consumer app

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

The storage as a service market, which will act as a precursor to cloud computing for many businesses, is tipped to have a disruptive effect on the traditional storage industry.

SOA rollouts create security headaches for organisations

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Almost half of senior IT executives perceive security threats as the most critical issue in the implementation of software oriented architecture (SOA) and web services-based applications.

Software audits on the rise as times get tough

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Businesses have been warned that the current credit crunch will lead to an increase in the number of software audits being performed on organisations as software vendors look to safeguard revenue streams

IT giants could do better to tackle greenhouse emissions

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

IT giants including IBM, BT, Intel and Fujitsu have performed well in a Gartner and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) study investigating climate change strategies, while Lenovo, Nortel and China Mobile need to do better.

Volume of cyber security threats on the rise, warns Microsoft

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0000

The volume of threats in the online world is increasing and the distribution of these threats continues to evolve, Microsoft has warned in its Security Intelligence Report on the first half of 2008.

Facebook and Amazon embrace the Force

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:05:00 +0000

Social networking site Facebook's 120 million users worldwide will now be able to access next-generation business applications following a deal between the company and Salesforce.com.