The idea of a Government CIO was first mooted in 2009 by the then Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

However, since then there has been no appointment and the matter hasn't resolved itself since the new Government came to power last year.

The ultimate question is does the State need a CIO?

The real answer to this question appears to be no, because as revealed in December by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin TD a different tack will be taken in relation to the management of the State's IT assets.

As part of a proposed a set of plans that will see the number of people employed in the public sector drop by 37,500 to 282,500 by 2015, Howlin recommended appointing a Public Service CIO Council to assist and drive ICT and e-government initiatives across the public sector, beginning this quarter.

So, no State CIO - instead a Public Service CIO Council.

Time to learn the lessons of PPARS and move on

At the EMC event this afternoon Minister Rabbitte acknowledged that there is a need to break free of the 'silo mentality' that prevents State IT systems between various departments from talking to each other.

He said that plans are afoot to bring forward a Government Cloud Strategy and discussions are underway with various industry leaders. "In tandem with this we are working on a Cloud Computing Research Centre."

Rabbitte said that greater efficiencies are needed in terms of State IT and said that a new post code system that will give homes and businesses a "unique identifier" is about to go out to tender.

In relation to e-government and greater efficiencies that can be gained from cloud computing, Minister Rabbitte says its time to no longer allow the memory of IT failures like PPARS get in the way of progress.

“We hope that the system has learned and in terms of strategy we will be looking for the capacity of the cloud to help resolve issues that were unthinkable when PPARS was on board."

He asked openly was PPARS a system failure in Government or how the project was managed and delivered.

“These questions are being looked at."

Pointing for the need to use IT to ensure greater efficiencies in departments like Social Protection he said: "The investment would be minor given the annual €20bn budget [for that department] and we have to come up to speed to operate the system in a way it was designed rather than allowing waste or fraud to happen.

“A cloud for government could eliminate risk," Rabbitte added.

Firstly, the innovation centre will allow indigenous SMEs and multinationals to test, develop and demonstrate apps that could be used by the public sector.

Secondly, it will provide public-sector departments and agencies with a platform to trial new cloud solutions and avoid costly IT blunders.

The centre will also promote Ireland as a leader in the cloud computing and big data industries and provide entrepreneurs and start-ups with an opportunity to vie for Government contracts that would have been out of reach.

EMC country manager Jason Ward said that big data is undergoing a "hockey stick" curve of growth and organisations need to transform what they do with the large volumes of data that are being generated and derive value.

“Think of the propagation of smartphones, they have outpaced PCs sales for the first time in the last year. Big data and cloud can take credit for a cognitive shift that's happening in organisations that are bringing together previously siloed departments. This is a wake-up call that there's a new type of thinking required. Cloud is driving operational efficiencies and big data will enable people to pick apart information and find the silver lining."

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said that in terms of the major investments by players like EMC, Microsoft, Google, Intel, IBM and others, Ireland is emerging as a global leader for cloud computing. "This can be a driver of innovation and growth.

“We intend to bring forward Government cloud strategies and we're working with industry players and employers."

Big data is a massive opportunity for small countries and small firms

Also present at the announcement was EMC's executive vice-president of human resources, Jack Mollen. "Ireland is a very important part of EMC. The talent Ireland has to offer the world is second to none."

Highlighting the importance of cloud computing and the economies and opportunities that can emerge for start-ups, Mollen said: "Six years ago, there were no consumer apps available via iTunes, for example. Today, there are half a million apps available, mostly built by small companies.

“The same phenomenon will happen to the enterprise and Government sectors.

“There will be platforms where its no longer necessary to have your own data centres, but you can utilise and share other people's platforms."

Mollen said the new innovation centre will facilitate not only the innovation of third-party Irish SME organisations, but will facilitate the testing and proof of integration between legacy and cloud applications.

“Until now in organisations like governments, there were systems that other departments couldn't use, that will change. To prove this point, we will open this up with a new development lab that will allow new software vendors to come in and build and sell software.

“This will be software that will not only be sold in Ireland but around the world, creating new jobs in Ireland," Mollen said.

Speaking today, UCC president Dr Michael Murphy said the aim of the new diploma in cloud strategy would be to equip managers with the expertise to develop cloud strategies that deliver bottom-line value.

And the Government is also making cloud moves. Just today, Ireland's Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte, TD, will be launching a new cloud and big data initiative called Cloud4Gov at Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin. The aim of this initiative will be to give departments and agencies across the public sector the option to store, access, share and analyse their information in a private Government cloud. EMC has worked with the Government to pioneer Cloud4Gov, while IDA Ireland is also supporting the initiative. 

Who is the cloud diploma aimed at?

The cloud course is targeted at technical and non-technical managers, entrepreneurs and graduates with industry experience.

As part of the programme, every participant will develop a "cloud strategy blueprint" for their organisation, said IMI executive chairman Dr Phil Nolan.

The diploma is also the first programme under UCC/IMI's master of business qualification to incorporate an industry partnership.

Senior specialists at Microsoft will be giving workshops, alongside classroom discussion with UCC and IMI experts.

Microsoft Ireland's managing director Paul Rellis spoke about how leveraging cloud-based opportunities requires a new way of thinking about information and its value to any organisation.

The part-time course will begin in April at the IMI's National Management Campus in Sandyford, Co Dublin. The IMI said the diploma can also act as a stepping stone to a full master of business qualification.

Siliconrepublic.com is hosting Skills February, a month dedicated to news, reports, interviews and videos covering a range of topics on the digital skills debate.

The laptop/notebook has emerged as the mostly widely owned mobile communication and computing product among CXOs in Europe, with an impressive 98 percent of the surveyed population using or owning one, finds Frost & Sullivan’s recent survey. More than 75 percent of CXOs surveyed have one tablet computer, while 20 percent report owing two or more tablet computers citing family needs, business/private use, and different locations.

CXOs want their laptop/notebook to work every time they use it and that all other features are secondary compared to reliability and product quality. Dell continues to be the most owned brand of laptop/notebook since 2009; however, European CXOs perceive Apple as the best brand.

PC ownership is declining

“Compared to Frost & Sullivan’s 2009 research, desktop personal computer ownership is declining, while tablet computerownership is rising,” says Christina Alfaro, Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst with Frost & Sullivan’s Customer Research Team.

Nearly all CXOs report owning/using Apple tablet computers, which are largely bought directly from manufacturers. Similar to laptops, the most important attributes in a tablet computer are reliability, overall quality, and screen clarity. The majority of CXOs have e-readers or use tablets as e-readers. More than eight out of ten of them use their e-readers during leisure time or business travel.

According to the survey, there has been a dip in the use of smartphones for purely business purposes in 2011 compared to 2009, as smartphones are also popular for personal purposes. “Overall, European CXOs perceive wireless communication and battery life as the most important smartphone features,” notes Alfaro. “However, most CXOs also rate overall quality and ease-of-use very highly, while security and applications compatibility are viewed as less important.”

In 2011, the most owned brand of smartphones was Apple, while in 2009, it was Blackberry. As ownership increased for Apple, it declined for Nokia, HTC, and Sony Ericsson. Most CXOs perceive Apple smartphones as the overall best brand of smartphones, followed by BlackBerry.

How big is your organisation – how many users across how many sites?

About 440 across 11 locations in Ireland, UK, France, and the Netherlands.

What major business applications do you use at ICG and do you prefer to build or buy?

As a group of companies, we have a multiple line of business systems that report into SAP financials at group level. We prefer to buy where possible.

How would you describe your own approach to IT?

Like any other functional area in business, it won’t work properly without good people, so make sure to hide amongst them!

You're on record as preferring to outsource where possible, so maybe you could explain what are the business benefits to ICG by taking this approach?

Generally, to achieve cost savings, but also to get better access to skills and new technologies, and to improve service levels.

Do you have a preference for using indigenous IT service companies and consultants, or do you opt for the multinational names?

We have plenty of high-quality resources in Ireland and I prefer to use those where possible.

How do you stay on top of developments in IT that could help your organisation, and how much time do you spend on this?

It’s an ongoing process of keeping an eye on tech media, exchange with peer contacts and networks, as well as more formal conferences and vendor events.

Have you have any plans to add to your own skills this year and if so, in what area?

To develop a greater understanding of the standards and frameworks for IT.

Do you see your role primarily as a technical one, or a business one?

Understanding the technical stuff helps, but it’s definitely a business role.

Has your 2012 IT budget increased, decreased, or remained the same as last year?

About the same as last year.

What's your main IT project for this year?

If I had to pick a single project, it would be business continuity.

What IT initiative are you most proud of?

A really complex piece of development that I built early on in my career which convinced me I had found something I could be good at!

What has been the hardest challenge since you took your current role?

There isn’t always a right way of dealing with people who find themselves in difficult situations.

What technology trends are of most interest to you personally and to your own organisation?

Understanding our data, and for our B2C customers, their behaviour.

Cloud computing: vendor hype or business revolution?

Largely vendor hype, we’ve all been building private clouds for years, it’s just a scale/cost argument.

Bring your own device to work: a logistical nightmare or a trend to be embraced?

A trend to be embraced.

The jobs announcement was one of a major raft of job creations announced this afternoon by IDA Ireland, including 325 at Abbot Laboratories in Sligo which is expanding its manufacturing facility and 30 new software engineering jobs at Big Fish Games in Cork.

The new roles will be ranged across a variety of projects where the new worker will build, test and deploy large scale systems using the latest and emerging technologies such as cloud-based infrastructures and multiple delivery channels such as mobile, video and social media.

HP Ireland managing director Martin Murphy explained that HP's operations in Kildare and Galway are considered centres of excellence within HP and Irish engineers are at the forefront of developing cutting edge technologies for the needs of HP customers in the US, Europe, China, India and Asia.
The new recruits, he explained will join teams developing these technologies.

Key factors in winning the investment, he explained were an improvement in Irish competitiveness and the crucial support of IDA Ireland.

“Ultimately the reason why we were successful in bringing these jobs to Ireland is because the teams in Ireland have a proven track-record of delivering quality. They have strong credentials in terms of delivering on projects.

“In addition we have been able to find the skills we were looking for to fill our previous announcements."

Murphy said that HP's Irish operations are cultivating a strong position as one of the core R&D centres for R&D. The Galway operation, for example, is a major cloud centre for HP.

HP generates 1,000 new jobs in last three years

In the last three years, despite the recession, HP in Ireland has been successful in attracting more than 1,000 new jobs to the country. The creation of the Global Services Desk in March 2009 generated 500 jobs, and the expansion of the company's Galway operation in 2010, with the creation of 50 jobs. In addition, the company announced 120 jobs at its Dublin operations in September 2010 and 105 jobs at its Galway operations in December 2010, which were followed by a further 50 new jobs.

"This is great news for Galway, Leixlip and Ireland, with the announcement of 150 high-end R&D jobs as well as approximately 130 related jobs in this world-leading company," the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, TD said.

"In the coming weeks the Government's Action Plan for Jobs will build on announcements like this to deepen the impact of multinational investment here, and target sectors like ICT where we have built substantial strengths in recent years. By setting ambitious targets and implementing reforms across the economy we can achieve the growth and jobs we so badly need," Minister Bruton added.

Barry O'Leary, CEO of IDA Ireland said that HP and IDA Ireland have enjoyed a long and successful business relationship and HP's decision to locate this R&D expansion in Ireland further solidifies the company's integral position in Ireland's  ICT portfolio.

‘'R&D investment is recognised by IDA as playing a key role in Ireland's return to economic growth; embedding existing employment and paving the way for further job growth in the future.

“HP's decision to locate up to 280 new jobs in Ireland over the next three years, 150 of which are supported by IDA Ireland, is most welcome news. I wish HP every success with this operation and offer the company the continued support of IDA Ireland as it continues to grow here.''

The HP recruitment drive will commence immediately.

Chugh himself has extensive experience in tech start-ups, IT and online product development. He previously worked with large multinationals such as O2 Ireland, T-Mobile UK, Bell Canada and LVMH Japan.

Via VideoCrisp, Chugh is pioneering a video creation and editing tool, targeted at SMEs and marketing professionals. The product will be launched in March.

Speaking this morning, Chugh said the company would be targeting start-ups and SMEs with its new video-creation technology.

He said the VideoCrisp tool would allow businesses to create new videos or edit existing videos more cost effectively and to help them drive their sales and marketing agendas.

VideoCrisp is currently participating in the Enterprise Platform Programme at the Synergy Centre, which is based at Institute of Technology, Tallaght. To date, it has raised €100,000 in early-stage funding, including €50,000 from Enterprise Ireland's Competitive Start Fund.

Chugh also indicated today that VideoCrisp will be announcing details of what he termed "cutting-edge technique that will be the first of its kind in the cloud-based video-editing industry".

"This new editing technique will empower end users with amazing video editing capability on both web and mobile," he said.

eMarketer has predicted that online video advertising spending will jump by 40pc to reach US$3.1bn in 2012. YouTube also recently announced that more than 4bn videos are viewed on its website every day, with 60 hours of new video content uploaded on the site every minute.

Organised by Innovation Wexford and The Fuse Initiative, the conference came about after a group of entrepreneurs in the southeast decided to tackle the region's enterprise drive for themselves. They headed over to Silicon Valley and knocked on doors to forge links with the diaspora in Northern California. Their aim was to network and make connections to help develop growth within the Irish SME sector.

"We saw a unique opportunity to develop growth within the Irish SME sector by forging stronger links with the diaspora in Northern California. We simply got on a plane and flew out to see them and were welcomed with open arms," explained Brendan Ennis, founder of Techovate and group chief executive at Innovation Wexford.

And the result? Senior executives from some IT giants, including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Facebook and LinkedIn, will be at the Techovate conference to share with local entrepreneurs how to innovate and survive in the challenging economic climate.

Speakers will include Carlow-born Lorraine Twohill, Google's vice-president of Global Marketing, Colin Brown, director of business operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with Microsoft; Claire Hayes, managing director, Emerging Company Services, PWC; and Conrad Burke, general manager, Innovalight Dupont.

Notable entrepreneurs to emerge from the southeast include Terry Clune of Taxback.com, David Walsh of Netwatch and Fred Karlsson of DoneDeal. They will also be sharing insights from their own entrepreneurial journeys at Techovate.

Business success

One of the highlights of the conference will be a session focusing on how to execute for business success, including top tips from five of the world's largest companies.

Techovate 2012 will use dialogue, seminars and workshops to show businesspeople how they can use technology to grow their business in a fast-moving global marketplace. The 48-hour event will also feature Techovate Interact, where people can experience the latest Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft technologies.

And select Irish companies will also be able to pitch their businesses at the Techovate Showcase.

Ennis said Techovate has had "phenomenal support" from vice-presidents and directors of these global companies. He said they had volunteered their time to address the conference in person or via video link and attend forums and panel discussions. Ennis also cited Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland's support in helping foster relationships between Techovate and the global technology leaders taking part in the conference.

Fred Karlsson, founder of DoneDeal, spoke about how the internet is quickly changing every business. "This creates lots of opportunities for new businesses, but also a lot of challenges for existing businesses," he said. DoneDeal.ie has its office in Wexford Town.

Innovation Wexford itself is a not-for-profit job creation organisation with a community focused approach to enterprise development. Up to now it has helped in the creation of more than 800 jobs and has supported the establishment and development of more than 100 companies. The FUSE Initiative is a group of 250 entrepreneurs and businesspeople aimed at promoting business growth in the southeast.

Citrix has an obvious stake in this trend becoming a reality, as its technology has been designed to put corporate IT applications on a raft of different device types.

However, it’s far from alone in backing the BYO message. Last year, a report from consultants PwC led the way in cheerleading the trend, suggesting it could help organisations improve their productivity and allow their IT to be more flexible.

Bo Parker, head of PwC’s Technology Centre and Innovation Group, said organisations that move to a model of owning fewer hardware assets are more adaptable to changes in the business itself or in the market.

“They’re looking for ways to become asset-light, or asset-on-demand, so what all these trends – the mobile trend, the office trend, the cloud trend – share in common is a way to reduce the asset heaviness of the company so that if it needs to change, it can and it’s not being dragged back by a lot of heavy assets.”

It’s a sea change from the previous IT delivery model, where the user had no say in what hardware platform or software they had to use for their jobs.

Seamus McCarville, head of IT with ferry operator Irish Continental Group, calls BYO “a trend to be embraced”.

Nissan Ireland CIO Rory Donnelly said the development was “good, within reason”. He went on: “If you have a policy that allows certain popular, mainstream devices (eg, iOS and Windows Phone), and you have the infrastructure to support and control them, then it’s not a problem. If you don’t have that infrastructure though, it could be quite costly to get to a position where you can allow BYOD.”

Both were speaking to Siliconrepublic.com as part of a new series beginning this Friday, The Five Minute CIO, which will feature Q&A interviews with Irish IT chiefs.

The package is a combination of Cisco servers and EMC VNXe storage in a virtualised environment.

“This consolidated SME bundle delivers what Irish SMEs require in a highly effective IT infrastructure that will lower their total cost of ownership for IT investments,” said Cisco Ireland country manager Mary Lou Nolan.

EMC country manager Jason Ward added that cloud computing offers Irish SMEs the opportunity to become more efficient and to cut costs while increasing the reliability and speed of their IT infrastructure.

“Through our partnership with Cisco we are helping Irish business to drive productivity by accelerating their journey to cloud computing with best-of-breed solutions and at a lower cost,” Ward said.

An independent report released by CA technologies reveals that European organisations are collectively losing more than €17bn in revenue each year from the time taken to recover from IT downtime.

This lack of disaster recovery planning is consistent with surveys carried out by MJ Flood Technology in 2007 and 2009, indicating an ongoing failure by organisations to protect mission-critical business data from unforeseen events.

The number of companies encountering data-recovery problems has also soared, up from 27pc in 2007 to 41pc in 2011.

Some 44pc of companies experienced downtime or system outages which exceeded their stated tolerance levels. More than one-third of respondents (35pc) said their business can withstand a critical IT system outage for one working day or more.

“An unacceptably high proportion of companies are failing to make adequate provision for data protection and recovery,” said Fergal Hennigan, business development manager with MJ Flood Technology.

“This is supported by the fact that 62pc have no budget spend allocated to disaster recovery. While we are encouraged that almost all organisations are performing daily backups, we believe that directors have a corporate responsibility to ensure that comprehensive risk mitigation is addressed as a matter of urgency.”

When questioned on the lack of disaster recovery planning, 38pc of respondents said disaster recovery plans were currently being drawn up. Fifteen per cent of respondents cited a lack of internal expertise, up from 4pc in 2009, and an equal number cited cost as a prohibiting factor, up from 12pc in 2009.

Incidentally, Andreessen Horowitz looks set to profit from the imminent Facebook IPO. In addition, Marc Andreessen himself has personally invested in Facebook and joined the company's board of directors in 2008.
 
It was back in 2009 that the duo first announced they were setting up the VC firm to fund technology start-ups with investments ranging from $50,000 to $50m. Since Andreessen Horowitz launched, it has raised US$2.7bn.

The third fund announced by Andreessen Horowitz yesterday is valued at U$1.5bn and can be used immediately.

"Software is the catalyst that will remake entire industries during the next decade. We are single-mindedly focused on partnering with the best innovators pursuing the biggest markets," said Andreessen in a statement yesterday.

And Horowitz posted on his blog yesterday about why and how such a new venture capital firm raised so much money.

"We are uniquely positioned to help the greatest technology entrepreneurs in the world build the best technology companies in the world, and that's just what we're going to do," said Horowitz.

Ireland's technology potential

On the Irish front, Irishman John O'Farrell, is also a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Back in November O'Farrell was in Ireland for the Dublin Web Summit. At the time he spoke of Ireland's technology potential.

Said O'Farrell: "I have met some interesting companies ... It is really important, particularly for a small market like Ireland to focus on gigantic markets up front and that usually means the US.

“Having a Silicon Valley and Irish presence is better than being pure Ireland-based, so maybe put your management team or some of them out in the Valley where they can tap into that ecosystem and put their development back here - that would be a model that can work and become very big," he added.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they have a clear understanding of the current legislation around data protection in Ireland. However, the survey also found that over the last 12 months, nearly half of respondents said their companies experienced a data breach.

Fifty-eight per cent of these breaches were caused by a staff member more as a result of internal failure and lack of awareness than from external data theft.

Thirty-four per cent rated their companies as placing too low of a priority on data protection, while 28pc felt that the biggest threat to an organisation’s assets came from negligent employees.

One-third of respondents claimed they didn’t know whether or not their company had a formal data protection policy.

Three per cent believed that more punitive penalties should be put in place for breaches of data protection legislation and more than 50pc felt formal training and awareness programmes should be conducted on a regular basis to educate staff on data protection best practice.

New legislation passed in late January will address the issue. The legislation will require medium and large companies to implement a formalised data protection training programme and to appoint a data protection officer. It will come into effect by 2014.

“Employees might appreciate the importance of data security, but organisations need to instil a culture of compliant data management,” said Hugh Jones, professional services consultant with the ICS.

“Clear policies and procedures are vital, with regular refresher training and timely reviews to ensure that staff are complying with the structures. It is as much a case of protecting the organisation’s commercial reputation, as it is of protecting the individual’s privacy,” he said.

The survey comes prior to the ICS’ fourth annual Data Protection Conference, which looks and the new and upcoming legislation and emerging issues in data protection. It will take place on 9 February at Croke Park, Dublin.

Via the new contract with North Carolina's Raleigh Convention Center, Cylon will centrally monitor and analyse the energy consumption of the centre remotely from its Dublin-based 'Energy Bureau' in Clonshaugh.

Cloud technologies

Sean Giblin, managing director, Cylon Group, said the company's engineers will also use their cloud-based information to determine the efficiency of the building, identify areas for improvement and make recommendations on elevating energy efficiency and delivering energy savings for Raleigh Convention Center.

Giblin said the company is excited about the contract win, as it is starting to ramp up its US focus. He spoke about how the company is capitalising on the cloud to "monitor, analyse and manage the energy consumption of buildings regardless of geographical location".

Seeking tech partners in the US

Parent company Cylon Group has had a presence in the US market for more than 15 years with its building control systems but Giblin asserted there has been little focus on energy management and conservation in the US market up to now.

"This is rapidly changing through increasing cost and regulatory pressures and we believe our unparallelled expertise and unique technology puts us in an ideal position to become a leader in this field in the US, as well as in our other core markets in Europe," said Giblin.  

Giblin said that following this new contract win, Cylon Active Energy will be "actively" seeking technology partners in the US in order to progress its growth plans.

Cylon Active Energy already supplies its energy management services to large corporations and SMEs in the UK, Ireland and across Europe. Last month, the company was awarded the Sustainable Energy Innovation Award at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland 2011 Annual Awards.

Giblin also indicated that Cylon Group will be looking to open an office in the US in 2012. Cylon Group already has offices in the UK, Europe and China.

The two ministers also announced the approval of the first two projects as part of the IERC. In all, €1m in funding will be provided via Enterprise Ireland.

Key research areas

Some of the main research areas that will be pioneered at the IERC include:

• Energy storage in commercial buildings. In particular, such research will look at using wireless networks to control and manage heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
• Redesigning and developing storage heating solutions.

The IERC itself is operating as a type of 'virtual' research centre, with the researchers meeting at Tyndall National Institute in Cork. It is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources working with a co-ordinated agency project team comprising IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Four higher education institutions have also backed the IERC. Contracts have been signed with NUI Galway, University College Cork, Cork Institute of Technology and Dublin Institute of Technology.

The energy research agenda of the IERC is also industry led, with global companies in Ireland collaborating on it. Such firms include United Technologies, Bell Labs, HSG Zander and IBM. Irish unities Bord Gáis Energy and Bord Gáis Networks are also involved.

_{Powering the green economy via targeted research that can be commercialised}

Global clean-tech focus

Rabbitte said the Government's strategy is to position Ireland as a leading-edge location for such energy research developed for global markets.

He said the research carried out at the IERC will complement existing energy research activities in Ireland, including the smart grid and renewable energy integration research at the UCD Electricity Research Centre, where the researchers work in partnership with global companies, as well as EirGrid and ESB Networks.  

"Energy is of fundamental strategic importance to the economy and it is essential that we continue to invest in research to develop energy efficiency technologies which will underpin the Government's energy efficiency objectives and support economic growth in the clean technology sector," said Rabbitte.

Job creation and the green economy

Bruton pointed to how, in getting "out of this crisis" and getting jobs and growth back in the economy, that the focus will have to be on sectors where Ireland as a country has "distinct" advantages.

“The green economy clearly is one of these sectors, as not only do we have unrivalled natural resources in the area, but we have also built up a base of excellent research strength over the past decade."

From research to commercialisation

Bruton said the challenge for Ireland now is to make sure that research is channelled and targeted at commercialisation.

“That is why this centre is led by top-end global and Irish companies operating in the energy field, and will enable them to collaborate with world-leading researchers and institutions in developing cutting-edge solutions."

He said that in the coming weeks, the Government's Action Plan for Jobs will target the green economy.

Bruton pointed to how the clean-tech focus will "build on this good news with further changes to the Irish research sector to create more good ideas and ultimately, good jobs."  

"We are very much an engineering R&D company in that we work with clients to help them develop concepts and prototypes for products and technologies," explains Cullen, who is now CEO of Clear Angle.

The company is a clear example of the way science ideas can morph into commercial ventures. Applied research is one area that Irish Government is planning to increase its focus on, especially via Science Foundation Ireland, when the results of the Research Prioritisation Group are published soon.

University spin-out

O'Toole and Cullen were both doing PhDs in the College of Engineering at DIT, Bolton Street and that's when they decided to pool their resources to start up the venture.

As Cullen explains: "My own research was focused on low-grade heat recovery and energy efficiency in industrial engine systems, whilst Kevin was working in robotics and control systems. We were both interested in the area of domestic energy monitoring and control and we had some know-how built up in that space so we decided to form a company and apply to the DIT Hothouse programme to see about developing the product concept further."

Coincidentally Clear Angle won the Commercialisation of Research award in November 2011 at the annual DIT Hothouse Awards for its patented automotive heat recovery technology.

The company currently employs four people, but Cullen says they often draw upon the expertise of about 10 sub-contract specialists of around 10.

"Our plan to start taking as much of this talent as possible in-house throughout 2012."

According to Cullen, the original plan was to set up with the intention of developing a product using some IP that they had been batting around for a while in the area of domestic energy management technologies.

"In classic start-up fashion, that got blown out of the water about six months later!" he says.

Starting from scratch

While they did abandon their original business idea after six months, and had to go back to the drawing board, O'Toole, who is now CTO, says that himself and Cullen were lucky in that they had built up a name for ourselves through their research contacts in DIT.

"We were able to keep the lights on by doing private consultancy and contracting work for commercial clients. It turned out well for us in the end because our consultancy and contracting work is thriving and we are working with a lot of clients helping to realise next-generation products and technologies," explains O'Toole.

Their current target market includes R&D managers and technology transfer professionals across the academic, entrepreneurial, SME and multinational sectors;

"It's anyone looking to access high-value engineering and technology R&D expertise to help add value to their own R&D and product development initiatives," explains Cullen.

Commericalisation plans for heat recovery device

The company is also actively developing some of its own in-house technologies that Cullen and O'Toole hope to commercialise in 2012.

"The first of these in-house efforts involves a novel heat recovery device for automotive engines. This is really only coming to fruition as we speak, so we may be approaching the investment community to help us move these a bit later in the year.

While Clear Angle has been largely self-financed to date, it has received some grant financing to help get up and running.

"As with most start-ups, the business model has been necessarily fluid throughout the formative stages, so it is only really now that we are converging on the model that works well for us, which is to provide a contracting and consultancy service to external clients whilst also remaining active in our own in-house product and technology development initiatives."

Grant support and mentoring

O'Toole points to how Clear Angle has received support from Dublin City Enterprise Board (DCEB) and Enterprise Ireland.

"We have been approved for a Feasibility Grant through the DCEB which is helping us to develop one of our in-house technologies and to investigate the market. Whilst we were on the Hothouse programme we benefitted from business mentoring too. We have also worked closely with our former colleagues and students in some of the different colleges in DIT who really helped us shape aspects of our strategy and implementation," he says.

Cullen also says that participating in the 2010/2011 Hothouse programme really helped get the company up and running.

And as for winning the Commercialisation of Research award in November 2011 for its patented automotive heat recovery technology, Cullen is optimistic. "We are having some success developing the commercialisation strategy for this as we speak, so watch this space!

Science scope

He is also upbeat about Ireland's science community and applied research.

"There have been a number of great moves in this space in Ireland recently - some of the largest multinationals in the world are setting up their energy and clean-tech R&D labs here with the aim of developing technology that can be commercialised internationally in the short to medium term. The net effect is that Ireland as a whole and Dublin in particular are now becoming synonymous with high-tech research and innovation. I think the scientific and engineering research communities here are really responding to this and realising that there is both commercial and societal value in bringing their ideas from the lab bench to the real world," says Cullen.

And Cullen's and O'Toole's advice for other aspiring tech start-ups out there?

"We had a great experience with an incubation programme, DIT Hothouse, so if you have an idea or are in start-up phase, get talking to your local incubation centre and see about getting into a programme. It's not all about financial support. The buzz and excitement of interacting with other entrepreneurs is hugely rewarding in itself and having a network of fellow start-ups is a great way to trouble-shoot common problems and to hear diverse opinions and advice. They will also keep you up to date on the best options for financing and investment as you develop your business," say the duo.
  

Industry giants Siemens, Alstom and ABB have reportedly backed the Isles project.

It is planning to divine into the €4.6bn fund that the European Investment Bank will be making available, plus the €9.1bn that will be available from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility for the investment in trans-European energy infrastructure.

As part of a deal with Trilogy Technologies, it has implemented a full virtualised disaster recovery and backup solution to reduce business risk, deliver high availability and be better prepared for disaster recovery.

"We had 15 physical servers, many of which needed to be replaced in order for the business to have confidence in the reliability of its IT systems. Additionally, we run a large latch job over the weekend to update our business intelligence database and this was taking some 14 hours to complete," explained Jim Duggan, IS manager at Robert Roberts.

"We needed a solution in place so that if some kind of interruption or disaster occurred, we could get back to work as quickly as possible.

“In addition, we needed a robust infrastructure that would allow increased efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness by effectively connecting resources to business needs."

Trilogy worked with the company to integrate its recovery infrastructure into Robert Roberts' fibre network over a high-speed leased line to its hot site using technology from VMware, HP and Veeam. Using Veeam to replicate servers to a back-up server overnight allows the company to backup to tape the following day.

"This allows us to use instant recovery to recover a server in a couple of minutes should we need to," said Duggan. "This is a big bonus in terms of disaster recovery and business continuity planning and it has created confidence in the reliability of our IT systems."

Robert Roberts' weekend batch job now runs in one hour which means the company can now re-run it easily during the day should it need to.

"We have a secure backup/restore capability in minutes," adds Duggan. "From a DR point of view, we have a complete replication of all of our systems and the data is available on a server in our warehouse."

Last summer Sayers was one of eight who participated in the first ever Kainos App Camp. The aim of the eight-week programme was to teach the students how to design and develop new apps for Apple's iPhone and iPad devices, as well as equipping them with digital skills.

Sayers' Budget Wise app aims to help users track their finances and better manage their budgets. To date over 10,500 people have downloaded it - an average of 150 per day. And at one stage it was listed in Apple's top 10 Apps.

And Sayers' next app adventure? Following his recent success, he has been asked to develop a tourism app for Ballymena in Co Antrim.

“Desktop computer transformation and optimisation on this scale across 100 locations is always a major challenge but particularly so in this most critical of environments - the delivery of healthcare," explained Stephen Stewart, Director of IT, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust.

“SET was the result of two separate organisations and so we had to bring two different IT infrastructures together seamlessly," commented Eleanor Graham, Senior Project Manager, I.T. Alliance Group.

“The goal was to ensure increased business agility, better sharing of information and security and this was achieved against a tight deadline," added Niall Powderly, head of Products and Training, BT.

Capital expenditure was minimised through the recycling and redeployment of over 1,500 existing desktop PCs.

Stephen Stewart of SET added that the benefits included reduced total cost of ownership (including potential to reduce licensing costs); increased user productivity and satisfaction; reduced security risks; improved compliance; eliminating migration headaches in the future and improved IT service management of vital resources.

However, almost 27pc already use or plan to use cloud/SaaS options to augment their BI capabilities for specific lines of business or subject areas in the next 12 months.

“Business users are often frustrated by the deployment cycles, costs, complicated upgrade processes and IT infrastructures demanded by on-premises BI solutions,” said James Richardson, research director at Gartner.

“SaaS- and cloud-based BI is perceived as offering a quicker, potentially lower-cost and easier-to-deploy alternative, though this has yet to be proven. It’s evident that, despite growing interest, the market is confused about what cloud/SaaS BI and analytics are and what they can deliver.”

Gartner has identified three drivers for the adoption of cloud/SaaS offerings for BI, analytics and performance management:

Time to value: The use of SaaS BI may lead to faster deployment, insight and value, particularly where existing work and/or a limited budget constrains IT so it can't respond to information and analysis demands as quickly as the business needs.

Cost concerns: The cost dynamic differs between on-premises and SaaS models. Software purchased as a service can usually be expensed, rather than capitalised, on the balance sheet. Buyers often think SaaS is less expensive, but this is unproven, Gartner said. Gartner's cost models show SaaS can be less expensive over the first five years, but not thereafter. The long-term benefits lie elsewhere in terms of cash flow and reduced IT support costs, for example.

Lack of available expertise: SaaS analytic applications offer prebuilt intellectual property that can help firms work around a lack of the skills needed to build their own analytic solutions.

Instead of disrupting the enterprise BI platform and corporate performance management suite market, a more likely scenario is that SaaS and cloud-based offerings will tap into new opportunities - for instance, with mid-market companies that have yet to invest in BI, or by offering domain-specific analytics, Gartner said.

“If their operational business applications are in the cloud, organisations should consider pursuing cloud BI/analytics for those domains,” said Richardson.

“However, they must assess risks on an ongoing basis and ensure their chosen cloud provider has appropriate business skills to provide a viable outcome. They must also ensure their BI strategy outlines how to ensure that data flows to and from these solutions in order not to become yet more silos of analysis.”

It was one in one of the largest-ever criminal copyright cases ever brought by US authorities.

As well as 38-year-old Schmitz, the other six who were charged include 38-year-old Finn Batato from Germany, 35-year-old Julius Bencko from Slovakia, 39-year-old Sven Echternach from Germany, 40-year-old Mathias Ortmann from Germany, 32-year-old Andrus Nomm from Estonia and 29-year-old Bram van der Kolk from the Netherlands.

Schmitz was arrested at his luxury mansion in Coatesville, Auckland, on 20 January by armed police, who were acting on behalf of the FBI and the US Department of Justice. At the time Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested, while Bencko, Echternach and Nomm were not found. Earlier this week, another man was found in the Netherlands.

The US Justice Department claimed these individuals are responsible for "massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works," generating more than US$175m.

The FBI seized US$50m in assets and law-enforcement authorities executed more than 20 search warrants in the US and eight other countries. The US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered the seizure of 18 domain names associated with Megaupload.

US extradition application

Today, Auckland Judge David McNaughton remanded Schmitz in custody until a US extradition application is formally launched on 22 February.

However, the lawyer acting on behalf of Schmitz said this morning he will appeal today's decision to deny him bail.

Schmitz founded Megaupload in 2005.

EMC's consolidated fourth-quarter revenue from the United States reached an all-time record of US$3bn - an increase of 16pc year-over-year, representing 54pc of consolidated fourth-quarter revenue.

Revenue from EMC's business operations outside of the US reached an all-time record of US$2.6bn - an increase of 12pc year-over-year, representing 46pc of consolidated fourth-quarter revenue.

“As demand for hybrid cloud and big data solutions surges, our rapidly expanding channel and mid-market business is expected to continue growing, driving further expansion through next year," EMC country manager Jason Ward said.

“Here in Ireland and globally, EMC is taking market share, reinvesting for growth and delivering improved earnings as we transform the IT and business environments through innovative cloud and big data solutions," Ward added.

He said new customer signings during the year included Genworth Financial, Concern, Elavon and Boyle Sports.

'Ireland at leading edge of global IT revolution'

EMC employs some 2,500 people in Ireland. Bob Savage, vice-president and managing director of EMC's Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Cork, said the results showed EMC in Ireland is helping to drive a revolution in global IT.

“Through our CoE, which houses EMC's largest manufacturing site outside the US, we are helping customers to discover how cloud and big data can save money and capture greater market share, deliver greater efficiencies, speed and agility for businesses, and position Ireland at the leading edge of a global IT revolution."

Key findings include:

• Some 40pc of organisations expect to raise external IT spend on hardware, software and services, and about 17pc expect external IT spend in 2012 to decline.
• The remainder expect to hold spend steady. Only a quarter of those planning to increase spend in 2012 are planning to raise spend by 5pc or more.
• In 2011, some 43pc of organisations raised their external IT spend over the whole year, according to survey respondents, while around 20pc lowered their spend.
• Western European organisations are therefore heading into 2012 with external IT budgets that tend on average more toward stasis when compared with actual IT spend patterns in 2011.

External IT spend budgets down year-on-year

"These spending plans may seem optimistic at first sight, given the economic environment, but in fact total external IT spend budgets for 2012 are well down on the equivalent budgets for 2011," said report author Douglas Hayward, research director, IDC European services research.

When previously surveyed by IDC in early 2011, 46pc of Western European organisations had expected to raise external IT spend in 2011, and only 14pc had expected to decrease their spend - meaning that European organisations on average cut back their IT spend during 2011 from the levels they had planned at the beginning of the year.

In IDC's view, this reining in of IT spend as 2011 progressed came in response to lowered consumer and business confidence and to the progressively worsening economic outlook during the year.

"Western European organisations are huddling toward the middle in their IT budgets for 2012; their plans are tending more toward stasis. This will be a conservative year in which discretionary spend will be held to a minimum for most organisations," said Hayward.

"The impact is not necessarily dramatic in real terms, however, since 2012 budgets are not significantly down on the actual spend outcomes during 2011. So the bottom line is that 2012 is shaping up to be like late 2011 - only a bit worse."

At the mercy of economic conditions

According to Thomas Meyer, European vice-president for Systems and Infrastructure Solutions at IDC, organisations feel they cut back their spend sufficiently during 2011 in response to worsening conditions, and they are hoping to get by this year on spend levels relatively close to those of 2011.

“For many organisations, there is simply less potential to cut external spend, and they may be locked into contracts that limit their leeway to reduce external IT spend. Current budgets could, however, be significantly revised downward during 2012 if economic conditions were to deteriorate dramatically."

Despite the renewed conservatism and caution, organisations remain interested in a handful of "hot" and sometimes disruptive technologies, including cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) projects, new storage, virtualisation and rationalisation of the IT infrastructure, "consumerisation" of end-user technologies in the workplace, and the rollout of applications that either cut the organisation's running costs or help to generate new revenues.

“This investment will allow us to expand our team of 22 people and significantly enhance our sales and marketing activity in key markets across Europe, the US and Asia," Rainmaker's CEO Pat Byrne said.

“We'll also be undertaking continued product development and are confident we can further grow our international customer base, as airlines increasingly look for fast and effective solutions to reduce the cost of their business operations."

Real-time performance information for airlines

Rainmaker has developed specialist applications which provide airlines with web-based access to real-time information on the performance of flight operations, such as crew utilisation, on-time performance, crew remuneration and fuel management.

Rainmaker's applications are used by a number of regional and point to point airlines in the US and Europe, including Jet Blue, the Pinnacle Airline Group, ASA, Express Jet, Virgin America, Mesa of Arizona, CityJet, Loganair and Wideroe of Norway. Recent customer wins include Aeroflot, Monarch and Spirit Airlines, the fastest-growing airline in the US.  

“Fuel, crew and crew variable costs account for almost 50pc of all costs incurred by airlines," Byrne explained.

“Rainmaker addresses these specific major cost areas which puts us in a very strong competitive position at a time when achieving real savings is a high priority for all major carriers."

Those who use Green Button via the three utilities will be able to download the past 13 months of their energy data, so they can analyse their energy usage. The move by the California utilities is a first of its kind in the US, with PG&E and SDG&E already providing Green Button data to about 6m consumers in California and SCE planning to roll out the button to its 4m customers later this year. Consumers will be able to upload their data on GreenButtonConnect.com for analysis.

Opportunities for green app developers

The technology itself uses a cloud platform that has been developed by a Colorado-based company called Tendril.

The utilities also believe there will be opportunities for developers in the energy app marketplace to create tools to help people control their home energy use, cut waste and lower their bills.

Smart grid

It was just this past September that the Obama Administration's chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra made a Green Button challenge in a blog about the start grid. At the time, Chopra wrote: "Why can't the same common-sense concept be applied to the energy industry with a 'Green Button'? Consumers should have access to their energy usage information. It should be easily downloadable and in an easy-to-read format offered by their utility or retail energy service provider."

Speaking yesterday, Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck said the company's cloud-based platform was designed to connect utilities and energy service providers, consumers and app developers to achieve smarter energy usage.

Social energy app

The Californian-based online gaming platform Simple Energy has already integrated with Green Button. Simple Energy has developed a social energy application to allow customers to compete for energy savings to win prizes. The application is now available to over 15 million homes in California and Texas and is available as a web app, by email and on Facebook. A mobile app will also go live this month, said Simple Energy CEO Yoav Lurie today.

“Irish companies need to develop a new defence doctrine for combating advanced threats and intelligence-driven information security is emerging as the clear pathway to protect IT infrastructure.

“That means collecting reliable cyber security data and researching prospective cyber adversaries to better understand risk and learn about why and how attacks occur.

“It means developing new skills in the IT team to produce and analyse intelligence and identify normal and abnormal system and end-user behaviour in the IT environment.

“There is a need to share useful threat information such as attack indicators between organisations so that we can build comprehensive defence networks against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks," Ward said.

Increase in tempo of attacks

His comments come as SBIC published its ninth report based on the real-world experiences of 17 top information security leaders.

The SBIC is a group of top security leaders from Global 1000 enterprises convened by RSA to discuss top-of-mind security concerns and opportunities.

“Cyber risk intelligence is no longer just for government agencies - it is a required competency for corporate survival,' said Art Coviello, RSA's executive chairman.

“The tempo of recent attacks calls for urgent and bold counter measures that position organisations not only to detect advanced threats but also to predict how attacks may occur so they can take preventative steps," Coviello said.

RSA itself came under a sophisticated cyber attack almost a year ago when hackers attempted to compromise the company's SecureID authentication service. In August, RSA launched the RSA CyberCrime Intelligence Service.

The tablet explosion has shown little sign of slowing down since the format hit the market in 2010 and it is set to take the mantle of the most rapid 'multi-anything' market penetration in history, according to Deloitte's Technology, Media and Telecommunications forecast for 2012.

Roughly 5m tablets will be sold to people that already owned one in 2012, generating up to US$2bn in revenue. However, the tablet market will diversify around size, processing power, price and operating system in 2012, as was the case with smartphones.

Firms are also likely to require tablets with greater security and ruggedness. That presents a challenge for content owners, network operators and retailers that need to prepare to respond to the rise in the multi-tablet household.  

The rise of big data

Other predictions contained in Deloitte's forecast include the rise and rise of big data in 2012 - it says 90pc of Fortune 500 companies will kick off a big data initiative, triggering industry revenues of US$1bn.

The death of TV, or the TV schedule, is still a long way off, as 95pc of all TV programmes watched in 2012 will be live or within a day of the original broadcast.

In fact, rather than diminishing the appeal of the TV schedule, social media has actually enhanced it - heck, it gives us all something to heckle about on Twitter and Facebook, adding to the entertainment value.

In terms of mobile commerce and new ways of buying goods, near field communications technologies that convert smartphones into 'contactless' digital wallets is set to soar to 300m users by 2013.

In Ireland, NFC may run into road blocks. Ireland is already a laggard when it comes to electronic payments and only 10pc of CIOs surveyed by Deloitte feel m-commerce or m-payments will be relevant to their organisations.

Pillai, who was formerly vice-president of the energy and utilities industry at IBM's India/South Asia unit, is currently president of the India Smart Grid Forum.

Magnetar itself says the aim is to nurture innovation in clean-tech for sustainable development. 

It says it is seeking to invest in teams with "breakthrough technologies" in clean-tech domains that can significantly reduce carbon emissions.
Focus areas of the clean-tech venture capital fund include: renewable energy, energy storage technologies, advanced fuels, energy efficiency, smart grids, smarter appliances, electric and hybrid vehicles, water and waste management, next generation ICT and mobility solutions, surface transportation systems, logistics and supply chain optimisation.

The event will feature such speakers as Joyent co-founder and CTO Jason Hoffman and Matt LeMay, platform manager at Bitly.

“There are already any number of conferences for entrepreneurs out there, but we wanted to give developers a voice," explained James Governor from RedMonk.

“That's the key to conference. So we're relevant to architects, developers, development managers - but also innovation managers at corporations, because the developers we're featuring are changing industries."

The new kingmakers

Governor says that unlike most tech conferences today, which focus on entrepreneurship and start-ups, this conference is for founders with software on their minds.

"Sure, many are company founders, but that's not the focus. The reason 'our' founders are speaking is because they are engineers. Software developers are the new kingmakers, in an age where we're beginning to appreciate the primacy of practitioner talent in development and operations."

Governor said that going through the Eventbrite billing engine for the conference he was stunned to notice the significant - and talented - Irish contingent that signed up for the event, including Oisin Hurley, co-founder of Vigill; Darach Ennis, chief solutions architect at Push Technology and Tara Simpson, CEO of Instil.

“My business partner is called Stephen O'Grady. One of our first hires is called Tom Raftery. My gran was Irish. You get the picture. More seriously - there are tremendous developers and architects in Ireland - it's a hotbed of talent, in Dublin, sure, but also Cork and other areas. A highly skilled, highly motivated workforce, and yes, call it national stereotyping but the Irish tend to be great communicators and storytellers. Which is perhaps why they gravitated to us, and us to them."

Governor said he believes we're at a tipping point in terms of governance and how software is built.

“Open source is now so commonplace, that some younger developers argue we don't even need open source governance anymore - just throw your code onto Github, and away we go.

“The rise of Github does change everything, but we still need governance - that's likely to come through clearly at Monki Gras. Technical architectures for development and ops don't replace social architectures, they augment them.

“Open source contributions are increasing massively from all sides, and increasingly the value of companies is in the data, not the code. We'll home in on that," Governor said.