8-14 April 2014 | ComputerWeekly.

com

HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?

Cloud wars
CLOUD USERS SET TO BENEFIT FROM
LOWER-COST SERVICES AS GOOGLE AND
AMAZON WHIP UP A PRICE WAR

IBM CLOUD HELPS

GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING

computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 1

JAMES THEW/FOTOLIA

DOWNTIME

THE WEEK IN IT
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Financial services

Government & public sector

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) IT head

Mike Errington is to retire, after months of
speculation. News of Erringtons retirement spread on RBSs Insite intranet. The
bank said: Mike will be leaving RBS, but
there is no timescale at this stage.
Errington is a long-serving employee at
RBS and has survived several cost-cutting
exercises and major IT problems.

Barking and Dagenham council has

switched to Google
access the latest
Chromebooks to migrate
it news via rss feed
from Windows XP, which
Microsoft will no longer
support after today (8 April 2014). The
laptops will provide access to Windowsbased applications through Citrix.

RBS IT head Mike Errington retires

Barking and Dagenham Council swaps

XP desktops for Chromebooks

Legislation & regulation

Retail & logistics

UK financial services regulators are investigating IT at banks following a number of

high-profile outages that left customers
unable to access their money. The
Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential
Regulation Authority and Bank of England
will review how finance firms manage
their exposure to IT risks; how engaged
boards at banks are with IT resilience; and
if they have the requisite IT expertise.

Outgoing Marks & Spencer IT director

Darrell Stein is to join consumer goods
giant Reckitt Benckiser Group in the
summer. Stein will replace Gareth Hill as
senior vice-president for information
services when Hill departs. He has been
IT chief at M&S since 2006, but the
retailer said last month that his role had
significantly changed recently.

Regulators probe banking IT

Marks & Spencer IT chief moves to

Reckitt Benckiser after role change

Legislation & regulation

Broadband communications

The UK is to update its 1988 copyright

law in line with recommendations from a
review of the legislation in the light of new
digital formats for content, such as CDs,
DVDs and e-books. In May 2011, the
Hargreaves Review recommended
changes to copyright law, noting that the
law had started to act as a regulatory
barrier to the creation of certain kinds of
new, internet-based businesses.

The government failed to promote competitive tendering for the rural broadband
roll-out, according to the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC). Margaret Hodge MP,
chair of the PAC, said: The government
failed to deliver meaningful competition in
the procurement of its 1.2bn rural broadband programme, leaving BT effectively in
a monopoly position.

UK updates copyright law

Government failed to promote

competition in BDUK tenders, say MPs

GOVERNMENT SIGNS 5.5M DEAL TO

EXTEND WINDOWS XP SUPPORT
The government has signed Microsoft to provide Windows XP
support and security updates across the whole UK public sector
for 12 months after regular support for the operating system
ended on 8 April 2014.
The agreement is worth 5.5m, and covers critical and
important security updates for Windows XP, Office 2003 and
Exchange 2003, which have all reached their end of life in
Microsofts product cycles. The deal was negotiated by the
Crown Commercial Service (CCS), set up by the Cabinet Office
to act as a single public sector purchasing operation.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 2

THE WEEK IN IT
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Government & public sector

Government & public sector

The Ministry of Justice has announced a

five-year programme to update and
replace technology in UK courts and
tribunals. HM Courts & Tribunals Service
will invest 75m a year over five years
from 2015/16 to deliver more efficient
and effective administration in courts and
tribunals, with the aim of saving more
than 100m a year by 2019.

A computer crash hit Parliament 90

minutes after its IT department assured
MPs and peers that the system had been
fixed. It is the latest problem for its systems, used by thousands of staff at the
parliamentary estate. An email from IT
chief Joan Miller said an outside contractor, brought in to improve systems, had
made them much worse.

Ministry of Justice invests 375m in

court and tribunal technology reform

Parliamentary computers crash 90

minutes after IT assurances

Risk management

Outsourcing

The government has launched the first

national computer emergency response
team, CERT-UK, to raise national awareness of cyber incidents and improve
response capabilities. Announced in
December 2012 as a key element of
governments 650m cyber security
strategy, CERT-UK was initially set to
launch in 2013, but rescheduled for 2014.

IT services giant Accenture will hire

2,000 workers in the UK
access the latest
this year in roles that
it news via rss feed
span the business. The
positions based in
London, Manchester, Newcastle,
Edinburgh and Aberdeen range from
entry-level to senior jobs.

UK launches cyber emergency team

Accenture plans to hire 2,000 staff

across England and Scotland in 2014

Education & training

Privacy & data protection

British girls studying computer science

head to Silicon Valley because UK technology businesses fail to invite them in, a
grammar school head teacher has said.
Desmond Deehan, head teacher at
Townley Grammar School for girls in Kent,
said UK businesses are slower to introducing young people to role models, so
the school takes students to the US.

On the day that Microsoft ends support

for Windows XP (8 April 2014), Gartner is
advising businesses to ditch the operating
system (OS) quickly because of the
security risks. Microsoft has extended
security updates by 15 months, but many
businesses, charities and other organisations will be on their own after that. In
February 2014, Microsoft warned that
running unsupported software was risky. n

Female students head to Silicon Valley

as UK companies fail to open doors

Gartner: Get rid of Windows XP quick

FORECAST GROWTH IN WORLDWIDE IT SPENDING

6.9%

2013 spending ($bn)

1,633 1,655

2014 spending ($bn)

4.6%
922

964

% growth

4.4%
660

299
Software

689

2.3%
140

320
IT services

Devices

143

Datacentre systems

1.3%
Telecoms services
Source: Gartner

computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 3

ANALYSIS

NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Google introduces flat per-gigabyte

rate to compete against cloud rivals
New price structure of Googles cloud service could spell the end for confusing
pricing options still common among other providers. Jim Mortleman reports

oogle has aggressively cut and

simplified the pricing of its business
cloud offerings in a move that is likely
to spark a major price war among public
cloud providers.
At the Google Cloud Platform Live event
in San Francisco last week, the companys
senior vice-president Urs Hlzle announced
reductions of 32% across the board in all
regions for use of its infrastructure as a
service (IaaS) offering Google Compute
Engine. He also introduced a flat pergigabyte rate for storage that represents a
cut of 68% for most users.
Further discounts of up to 53% kick in
when a virtual machine is used for more than
a quarter of the month, without any upfront
payment orcommitment.

New price structure

Besides laying down the gauntlet to rivals

in terms of pricing levels, the new structure
could spell an end to the confusing pricing
options common among cloud providers,
such as the practice of only offering substantial discounts to users prepared to commit to a certain level of usage.

Were resetting
the price of cloud to
whereit should be
Why cloud
is not reigning
in the
enterprise
Application
development
on Microsofts
hybrid cloud

Urs Hlzle, Google

By undercutting rivals reserve instance
pricing with its flexible on-demand options,
Google is hoping to woo customers by
delivering a simple, flexible resource where
you only pay for what you use and the cost is
attractive and predictable.

GOOGLE

HOME

New Google Cloud features were announced last week

The industry hasnt evolved towards that

simple concept. You have to guess how
much you are going use a virtual machine
for the next year or three. Thats not simple,
on-demand, elastic computing it requires
a degree in finance to get right, said Hlzle,
noting that prices for the same resource from
the same provider can vary by as much as a
factor of ten.
The problem was highlighted by analyst
451 Research in December last year, with
the release of its Cloud Pricing Codex.
Comparing like for like or weighing the
pros and cons of different methods is
a nightmarish task, with each provider
using confusing terminology and differing
language, the analyst said.
There is little doubt Google wants to
change the game. Having allowed rival
Amazon Web Services (AWS) to gain a
huge head start in the market AWSs share
is larger than that of its four largest rivals
combined Google is seeking an all-out
assault on the latters territory.
According to Hlzle, last months
announcements are only the first salvo
in its battle for cloud dominance. Were
really resetting the price of cloud to where
it should be. And this isnt a one-time step
its a philosophy. The price trend of virtual
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 4

ANALYSIS
HOME
NEWS

Owen Rogers, 451 Research: Google is essentially saying

to AWS and the rest of the market that its here, its ready
and its serious about competing in the cloud market

GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?

THINKSTOCK

IBM CLOUD HELPS

GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING

hardware should follow the price trend of real

hardware. It should follow Moores law.
Amazon responded days later with price
cuts of between 7% and 40% for many
of its own cloud offerings, but it will take
moretime for the public cloud supremo to
simplify its complicated pricing structure to
match Googles.

Developing new features

In the meantime, Google hopes to make

further inroads into the market with the
DOWNTIME
introduction of compelling new features for
customers. It is embarking on a roadshow to
promote its cloud platform worldwide, and
major announcements are promised at the
Google I/O conference in June.
Hlzle said: Were laying the groundwork
for years and years of improvement and
innovation. While we already have a strong
platform, you
can expect
Hybrid cloud storage: What data goes where?
a lot more.
Cloud supplier lock-in: our experience
We see a
Top 10 cloud computing stories of 2013
clear path
for making
developers phenomenally more productive
and making it easy to build applications that
really take advantage of our platform and
all the services it has to offer be it storage,
compute or higher level things like maps,
speech recognition and translation.

Owen Rogers, senior analyst for digital

economics, at 451 Research, said: Google
is essentially saying to AWS and the rest of
the market that its here, its ready and its
serious about competing in the cloud market.
The price cuts are a way of demonstrating
that its going to address customers
concerns over cost.
Particularly interesting is the fact it has
come up with a pricing model that means
CIOs can carry on using virtual machines
on demand yet automatically be rewarded
with a discount for sustained use, rather than
having to risk committing resources up front.
Thats a really compelling proposition and
somewhat of a threat to AWS and all the
other providers that use reserve instance
pricing. At the moment theres no equivalent
in the market.
As a result, he thinks Google may start to
pull away from Amazons other public cloud
rivals and begin to close the gap on AWSs
lead in the public cloud market.
I suspect the likes of Google, Amazon and
Microsoft Azure will become the standard
providers for basic cloud infrastructure
services, which may push other providers
such as IBM to focus on more value-added
cloud services. But whether these two
sides of the market will eventually merge or
whether they will differentiate further isnt
yet clear, said Rogers. n
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 5

ANALYSIS

NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Immigration
laws prevent
UK from
attracting
world-class
developers
Boris
Johnson calls
for London
Visa to
attract tech
experts from
around the
world

Can Home Office visa rule overhaul

address the skills gap for startups?
The government has revised immigration rules to make it easier to hire talent
from overseas but technology firms remain sceptical, reports Caroline Baldwin

he Home Office has changed immigration rules to help UK businesses

employ skilled workers from overseas,
altering the process by which to apply for the
Exceptional Talent visa and opening routes
into the UK for overseas digital workers.
Tech City UK has become involved in the
process and will vet visa applicants to choose
whether or not to endorse applications. The
Home Office said that, through the endorsement process, top digital innovators and
professionals will be able to come to the UK
without a sponsoring employer.
In September 2013, Computer Weekly
spoke to startup technology companies that
said they found it increasingly difficult to hire
employees from outside the UK, because of
the lengthy and complicated visa application
and sponsoring process.
Victoria Sharkey, managing partner at the
immigration law firm MediVisas, said:
Startups have had to jump through many
hoops to get a sponsorship licence so they
can hire from abroad. The startup has to
collect and submit original documentation
and, if there is a problem and it is rejected,
the employer has to start the process again.
This all takes time, even when no mistakes
are made, and of course startups are subject
to closer scrutiny.
We have seen companies apply for sponsor licences and wait for four, five, even six
months to get the approval. Often, by the
time it comes, the applicant has either had to
leave the UK or has got fed up waiting and
taken a different job.
The immigration rule changes took effect
on 6 April 2014, and technology workers
from overseas can now apply directly to Tech
City UK for review. If the individuals case
meets certain criteria, Tech City will then
endorse their visa application and recommend it to the Home Office.

THINKSTOCK

HOME

Technology companies say the reviewed process for

applying for Exceptional Talent visas will not help them

Replacing company ties

But the Home Office told Computer Weekly

that the visa process had been reviewed
with the individual in mind, not the company. This will mean the worker will not
necessarily have to go to one particular
company, as would be the case in going
down the sponsorship route.
Tech London Advocates (TLA), the private
sector-led coalition of technology experts,
has been working with the Home Office to
grow the UK technology community and
liberalise restrictive immigration law.
Leslie Sarma, associate at Penningtons and
immigration working group lead for the TLA,
welcomed the change to the Exceptional
Talent visa and said she thought it will help
the UK technology sector to grow.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 6

ANALYSIS

NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION

But she said the Tech City endorsements

are limited in number and picked up on the
point that successful applicants will not be
tied to a specific employer.
For this reason, we believe there is still
work to be done in assisting rapid growth
startups looking to employ staff quickly, as
well as established technology sector companies requiring volume hiring on a projectby-project basis, said Sarma.

No difference to startups

But Sharkey said she did not think the

changes to the immigration process will
make any difference to startups.
It may benefit a handful of highly skilled
entrepreneurs who want to move to the UK
or relocate their companies, but the category
is still very restrictive, she said, emphasising
the point that requirements for the
Exceptional Talent visa are very restrictive.

The government

BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS

is being somewhat

HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING

it says this is going

DOWNTIME

disingenuous when
to help the
technology sector

Victoria Sharkey,
MediVisas
There is no indication that this is going to
be any different for this group of theoretically
eligible people, she said.
Alastair Paterson, CEO of data security
specialist Digital Shadows, said the criteria
for the Exceptional Talent visa is directed
towards
UK tech startups face hiring roadblock
academics and
UK startups: Essential Guide
researchers
Video UK startups: The highs and lows
with a PhD or
equivalent.
How many of the founders, CEOs and
CTOs of the top Silicon Valley technology
firms have PhDs? Not many, he said.

THINKSTOCK

HOME

Johnson: London Visas for overseas technology talent

We must attract and retain the top software engineering and entrepreneurial talent
from around the world, that may not have
won a prestigious, internationally recognised
prize or have a PhD, but does provide the
engine room of the startup community.
As such, the new measures make no
difference to us as a startup, since the people
we are trying to hire from overseas will not
be eligible for this new arrangement.
Sharkey agreed, adding: Most startups
who want a regular, decent, qualified programmer are not going to be in a position to
recruit Exceptional Talent candidates.

The Exceptional Talent visa

The Exceptional Talent visa comprises 1,000

visas per year, given to world-class scientists, artists and performers. The Tech City
visa will amount to 200 of these.
In September 2013, London mayor Boris
Johnson announced the debut of London
Visas, to make it easier for talented technologists from around the world to take jobs
in the city. This will comprise 100 visas from
the Exceptional Talent allocation.
As the total number of people on the,
Exceptional Talent visa is still restricted to
1,000 per year, this 200 will result in a
decrease in the numbers of Exceptional
Talent engineers and scientists who can
come to the UK, said Sharkey.
The government is being somewhat
disingenuous when it says this is going to
help the technology sector. n
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 7

CASE STUDY

NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Uni boosts students job prospects

with IBM Academic Skills Cloud
Cloud-delivered software resources help London Metropolitan University
students acquire practical workplace skills, says Archana Venkatraman

ondon Metropolitan University was the

first UK university to implement IBM
Academic Skills Cloud a cloud computing technology that is designed to help
focus the academic faculty, students and
business on developing workplace skills in an
educational environment.
Having implemented the academic cloud
technology in 2012, the university is now
training the third batch of third-year and
postgraduate students on the cloud platform.
IBM Academic Skills Cloud is the blue-chip
companys lab initiative, launched in 2010.
IBM uses it to make key parts of its software
portfolio available in a cloud computing
environment to allow academic institutions
to incorporate technology into their curricula.
It runs on IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.
We became aware of this solution and
wanted to take advantage of it, said Tim
Cleary, senior lecturer in information systems
in the business and law faculty at London
Metropolitan University.

Empower students

Why
computing
curriculum
fails to light
academics
flame of
inspiration
Study finds
cloud
computing the
most valued
enterprise
IT skill

London Met is the only university in the

Moorgate area near the silicon roundabout home to many financial and technology companies. This means the university understands potential employers
expectations of graduates and so decided
to implement the IBM cloud solution to
empower its students with workforce skills,
its dean, Professor Stephen Perkins, told
Computer Weekly.
The cloud resources give the universitys
business and law faculty students the opportunity to experience IBM products first hand
and the IBM business culture, so they have
the tools and confidence to compete in a
competitive global environment and, in turn,
provide greater value to future employers.
The academic institute has taken

THINKSTOCK

HOME

advantage of the platform to integrate new IT

courses and facilitate long-distance student
learning more easily.
The IBM cloud platform gives academic
institutes an opportunity to use IBM software
at no charge and without having to install or
maintain it themselves.
Although the software was free, London
Mets IT team had to make alterations to its
infrastructure to install the cloud system.
While we cannot reveal the actual figures,
we have made a substantial investment in
the project and we expect huge benefits for
our student community, said Perkins.

Steep learning curve

Cleary added: It took the IT team six

months to make our IT ready to implement
the IBM cloud and involved tasks such
as building tunnels to our servers. It was
a steep learning curve and the computing
team had to work in collaboration with IBMs
team to overcome the technical and firewallrelated challenges.
After readying its infrastructure for the
cloud, the universitys IT team decided to
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 8

CASE STUDY
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

host the cloud software in a dedicated room

and not within its own datacentre.
We have made provision for a separate
room that can, at a single time, accommodate 20 to 25 students for a single class
spanning two hours, said Cleary.
Perkins added: Over the past two years,
we have undergone a major rethink on what
we need to do to help students realise their
potential and the significant investment that
has gone into the project is proof that we are
serious about our graduates skills.

DB2 database

The university uses DB2 database, which is

a family of relational database management
systems (RDBMS) from IBM that serves
various operating system platforms.
Kevin Farrar, IBMs UK Academic Initiative
lead , says that through the IBM Academic
Skills Cloud, London Met students are learning technology skills such as DB2 database software development, as well as the
practical use of information management
and how this technology can be applied to
decision-making.
We focus on teaching students how to use
DB2 database and also teach them SQL lan-

Enterprises are in
real need of graduates
who can understand
compliance

Tim Cleary, London

Metropolitan University
guage, said Cleary. SQL is a standard interactive and programming language for getting
information from and updating a database.
Using the cloud system, students can create databases and Excel sheets, experiment,
upload to the cloud and even reverse the
entire process. This improves their IT skills
and database understanding and increases
their job prospects, said Cleary.
Another area where the project has helped
London Mets business and law department

students, is around compliance, said Cleary.

Enterprises are in real need of graduates
who can understand compliance and help
businesses satisfy the authorities.
Cleary says 70% of enterprise ITs time is
spent understanding Sarbanes Oxley certification and complying with it.
Business leaders and CIOs are not techies
but they understand the importance of compliance, he said. Using the IBM Academic
Skills Cloud, the university can build web
pages of business objects that will help
students develop compliance skills. Students
can extract reports, analyse them and offer
businesses help to comply, he said.

Strategic information

Perkins added: With the training they

receive in the Academic Skills Cloud platform, students as employees can convert
raw data into strategic information that
their enterprises can use in practical applications and meet their business objectives.
The faculty can also use cloud-delivered
skills resources to integrate new IT courses in
their curriculum, facilitate group and longdistance learning programmes for students,
and free up existing technology infrastructure resources at the university.
Our objective is to produce graduates who
can add value to their employers right from
the onset of their career, said Perkins.
IBMs Farrar said that, since the technology
was launched, participating students have
been increasing their employment opportunities. For example, one student said her
ability to manipulate data gained through
the initiative had helped her get a job as a
business analyst with one of the worlds top
integrated energy companies. n
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 9

INTERVIEW
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Interview:
Peter
ORourke,
University
Campus
Suffolk
Interview:
David
Matthewman,
Open
University

Cloud lends City & Guilds flexibility

for comms and identity management
CIO Ian Turfrey takes a pragmatic view of delivering IT at the training body
but says cloud offerings have yet to fully reach maturity, writes Jim Mortleman

CW500

ity & Guilds is

one of the worlds
foremost enablers
of vocational education.
Founded in 1878 by 16
of Londons livery companies, its aim was to
ensure a steady flow of skilled professionals
into the countrys technical trades.
The organisations essential mission has
changed little since. But it now boasts around
two million students working towards 500
different qualifications a year, in more than
20 sectors, delivered through 8,500 training
partners in over 80 countries.
A pragmatic, business-led focus still
pervades the culture of City & Guilds today,
and is ably embodied by CIO Ian Turfreys
approach to sourcing IT systems and services. Turfrey has no belief-led bias that any
one form of delivering what the business
needs is intrinsically better than any other.
IT just needs to work, he says.
What he does understand, however, is that
the cloud when packaged and delivered
in the right way can significantly improve
business outcomes in cost and agility. A case
in point is his recent decision to switch from
an in-house telephony system to a managed,
cloud-based unified communications and
contact centre system (Icon Communicate)
from service provider Azzurri.
As well as saving the business more than
150,000 on managed voice services over
three years (plus the considerable cost of
supporting an on-premise system), Turfrey
says the system is boosting the organisations business operations.
For example, its given our contact centre operatives who handle around 10,000
enquiries a month the ability to work
remotely. Desktop-based softphones give
people access to all of the systems features
wherever they are, he says.

interview

Turfrey: I just want the best technology in place to be

as efficient as possible

City & Guilds is also making increasing use of Microsofts cloud services for
such functions as identity and access
management, email, intranet and desktop
video-conferencing.
Were using a lot of the cloud functionality offered by Office 365, as well as doing a
fair bit of stuff with Azure to augment some
of our business applications, he says. I just
look at it as an extension of my infrastructure
that I can use securely.
Turfrey is also using a software as a service
(SaaS) system to digitise all of City & Guilds
previously paper-based content.

Weighing up the risk of cloud

Nonetheless, only around 20% of the

companys IT is currently cloud-based.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 10

INTERVIEW
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE

THINKSTOCK

CAN VISA RULE

OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

I have to consider the level of business

risk when deciding whether or not to migrate
an application to the cloud. For example, if
Microsoft has a bad day with my email, thats
manageable because I have a good archiving
and backup solution. But if Im looking at key
line-of-business applications that are processing revenue, for example, Im not going
to move those into the cloud until its reliable
enough which often it isnt, he says.
Turfrey believes the industry needs to do
more to address businesses cloud concerns.
For example, pricing needs to be simpler and
more predictable, he says.
Today, if you move workloads to the cloud
and your level of data or throughput grows,
it can actually be a lot more expensive than
a traditional on-premise solution. To be more
cost-effective, you need to be able to turn the
cloud on and off as you need, and only pay
for what you use, says Turfrey.

Help to navigate the fog

He would also welcome more independent

help and advice when it comes to choosing
between different suppliers cloud solutions,
ensuring they are optimised and getting
them to interoperate effectively.
We need more agnostic, independent
experts who
can under Analytics make the grade for education CIO
stand and
Education technology a valuable investment
benchmark
Stafford Murray, English Institute of Sport
different offerings. People
are still finding their feet in terms of how, say,
Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure
work, says Turfrey.

Its not as easy to understand as you might

think. Cloud needs to be fully commoditised.
Its getting there, but theres still a way to go.
That said, he understands that cloud computing in all its guises is likely to play an ever
larger role in his business. He notes that even
critical business applications such as SAP
which have traditionally always been run inhouse are moving inexorably to the cloud.

The IT department
should no longer be
the nuts and bolts

of the organisation.

Instead it should

unburden the business

to do bigger and
better things

Its probably where well all be going over

the next 10 years, he says.
The IT department should no longer be
the nuts and bolts of the organisation.
Instead it should be the service provider that
uses technology to unburden the business
to do bigger and better things. I just want to
ensure the business has the best technology
solutions in place to be as efficient as possible, while minimising risk and downtime. n
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 11

EDITORS COMMENT
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Farewell to XP and
to the era of supplier
dictated obsolescence

nd so the most popular PC operating system of

all time reaches the final winter of its years.
Windows XP went out of regular support on 8
April 2014, but it is testament to its enduring success
that Microsoft has been forced to provide anti-malware
updates for another year, and millions of users will
remain covered by extended support agreements taken
out by their employers.
According to web statistics company Netmarketshare.
com, as many as 27% of all PCs still use XP.
We dont know how many UK government PCs still
rely on XP there are 650,000 in the NHS alone but
the Cabinet Office has paid out 5.5m to keep its XP
estate covered for another 12 months. Most of the UKs
ATM networks run on versions of XP too, with many of
the high street banks signing up for extended support.
We have all become used to the idea that old software
ceases to be, but the lingering reliance on XP does raise
questions about whether users really want a constant
stream of new versions for every application.
XP has continued because it works it does a job, it
does it well and, for many applications, it could have
happily kept going for a long time yet. It is only the fear
of security vulnerabilities driving laggards to migrate.
Many observers have been critical of organisations
that have failed to move off a system that has been
flagged for its end of life for a few years. But that criticism is to assume that an endless cycle of version
releases is always going to be the state of play.
Microsofts rivals, such as Apple and Google, have
already dispensed with the concept moving instead to
constant, free version updates that are either applied
automatically in the cloud or pushed to user devices.
Microsoft struggles with that concept, because its
Windows and Office business models are predicated on
licence fees for every new version.
But if we are really moving into the age of user need,
with the balance of power in the hands of users, not
suppliers, much greater flexibility and choice is inevitable. In a different climate, XP might have continued
safely on as a legacy operating system for many years. n

Computer Weekly/ComputerWeekly.com
1st Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street, London
W1W 7JB
GENERAL ENQUIRIES
020 7186 1400
EDITORIAL
Editor in chief: Bryan Glick
020 7186 1424
bglick@techtarget.com
Managing editor (technology): Cliff Saran
020 7186 1421
csaran@techtarget.com
Head of premium content: Bill Goodwin
020 7186 1418
wgoodwin@techtarget.com
Services editor: Karl Flinders
020 7186 1423
kflinders@techtarget.com
Security editor: Warwick Ashford
020 7186 1419
washford@techtarget.com
Networking editor: Jennifer Scott
020 7186 1404
jscott@techtarget.com
Special projects editor: Kayleigh Bateman
020 7186 1415
kbateman@techtarget.com
Datacentre editor: Archana Venkatraman
020 7186 1411
avenkatraman@techtarget.com
Storage editor: Antony Adshead
07779 038528
aadshead@techtarget.com
Business applications editor: Brian McKenna
020 7186 1414
bmckenna@techtarget.com
Business editor: Caroline Baldwin
020 7186 1425
cbaldwin@techtarget.com
Editorial content assistant: Clare McDonald
020 7186 1426
cmcdonald@techtarget.com
Production editor: Claire Cormack
020 7186 1417
ccormack@techtarget.com
Senior sub-editor: Jason Foster
020 7186 1420
jfoster@techtarget.com
Senior sub-editor: Craig Harris
020 7186 1416
charris@techtarget.com
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Sales director: Brent Boswell
07584 311889
bboswell@techtarget.com
Group events manager: Tom Walker
0207 186 1430
twalker@techtarget.com

Bryan Glick
Editor in chief
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 12

OPINION
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Government
predicts 2013 IT
savings will
exceed 500m
OFT tells
government
how to improve
IT procurement

Government wants suppliers to be

more transparent and competitive
There is a long way to go in the reform of government IT, and getting there will
require the help of efficient and approachable suppliers, says Chris Chant

n the months leading up to my

retirement from the civil service two
years ago, I was able to make a few
public pronouncements about the state of
government IT that I would never have got
away with before.
I said the way government IT was being run
was unacceptable. I said Whitehall CIOs and
systems integrators (SIs) must stop hiding
beneath a comfort blanket, and that some
of them could not see through the changes
needed in public sector IT.
We spend about 16bn a year on IT in
government. How many hospitals or schools
would that buy? It was unacceptable but
things are changing.
I helped set up the Government Digital
Service (GDS), and launched the G-Cloud
framework, and it is great to see the
progress they have made. Both have been
recent targets of criticism and whispering
campaigns a fact I am delighted about. It
means they are being taken seriously, and
are shaking up the people who needed to
beshaken up.

largest Whitehall departments turned to

the biggest IT supplier to government for a
hosting service and was quoted 8m, only to
find that an identical service was available on
G-Cloud for 1m, I think that at last people
are starting to get it.
Even better, that big IT supplier was
suddenly able to match that 1m price how
did it manage that, you have to wonder.
I and others still in Whitehall, such as
government CTO Liam Maxwell, have been
accused of exaggerating the problems with
the big SIs the oligopoly as they have come
to be known. We have been accused of bias
against them. But that just is not true.
What we want is for those suppliers
to change. We want them to be more
transparent, more competitive, and to deliver
better services. We want to no longer be
locked into them because they support
genuine open standards. Most of all we want
them to listen, and understand the changes
that still need to be made. Because there is
a long way to go to complete the reform of
government IT, and we need their help.
The civil service has to change too. One
The problem with suppliers
of the best things to happen since I retired
When I hear people say: But there are more is the re-skilling of IT, with GDS bringing
than 1,000 suppliers on G-Cloud, how am
in talented IT developers, designers and
I meant to know which one to buy from?,
projectmanagers. Government needs to take
I say: Would you rather choose from eight
back ownership of IT strategy, architecture
big SIs, with no transparency of pricing, no
and design, and understand how and when
innovative SMEs to turn to, and go through
to use suppliers. Everyone will be better off
a lengthy procurement exercise?
as aresult. n
When people complain that GDS has tried
to change too much, too fast, I say: Thank
goodness they have!
And in particular, when I hear big suppliers
Chris Chant was the original
bleat about the way they are dealt with by
programme director for G-Cloud,
government IT buyers, I will happily list the
and government digital director.
projects they screwed up, and count the
money we wasted with them for years.
This is an edited excerpt. Click here
By contrast, when I hear that one of the
to read the full article online.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 13

BUYERS GUIDE

NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?

Check the state of network

security and stay safe
Many organisations are planning to increase their investment in proactive
security controls and threat intelligence measures, says Heidi Shey
THINKSTOCK

HOME

IBM CLOUD HELPS

GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS

BUYERS GUIDE

security analytics part 2 of 3

HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

IT security
analytics: the
before, during
and after
Networkbased security
tops European
agenda
for 2014

rganisations are investing in proactive controls and threat intelligence to stay

ahead of emerging threats. Security services, wireless security, next-generation
firewalls and advanced malware detection capability will see the most investment
growth from a technology perspective, according to analysis of B2B survey data
from Forresters Forrsights Security Survey, Q2 2013.
The survey looked at budgeting and spending, security group responsibilities, network
security technology and services adoption in North American and European organisations for
2013 to 2014 and revealed that 46% of organisations expect to increase their spending on
network security in that period.
Network security typically involves significant investment once organisations factor in the
cost of equipment plus maintenance and value-added services.

As-a-service investments

As-a-service investments are focusing on firewalls and threat intelligence. Network firewall
monitoring or management and web application firewalls are the top two growth categories of network security technologies that organisations would like to have as a service,
with 28% saying they plan to invest in either adoption or expansion in both technologies.
Threat intelligence as a service is also a high-growth category, with 26% of organisations
saying investment in this service is in their adoption plans. Threat intelligence has emerged
as a means by which security professionals can finally proactively prepare for, and respond
to, attacks. According to the survey, 63% of security decision-makers say establishing or
improving threat intelligence capabilities is a top priority for their organisation.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 14

BUYERS GUIDE
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

The top growth categories for 2013/14 network security technology adoption are wireless
security, next-generation firewalls and advanced malware detection capabilities. Also, 35%
of organisations expect to either adopt measures to address wireless security in the next 12
months or expand or upgrade an existing implementation, while 32% expect to do the same
for next-generation firewalls and 29% for advanced malware detection capabilities.
When asked how they would prefer to source network security technologies or services,
57% of organisations said they prefer to source from a single vendors portfolio. Security pros
are no longer looking for more point solutions to add to their already bloated security infrastructure; they want to simplify integration and management.

Zero trust network

Security analytics and network analysis and visibility (NAV)

tools are key components of a zero-trust network. Business
executives demand data for decision-making, and security
ake
professionals want situational awareness. Security informameasures
tion management (SIM) tools are seen as a solution to fulfil
both needs but SIM is not being used to its full potential. Big
to embed
data and NAV tools for security analytics will provide the
extra ingredients to overhaul SIM and move it from merely
security
compliance reporting to providing situational awareness for
mindedness
both the business and IT security.
Almost 30% of organisations plan to invest (by expanding
in the entire
or upgrading a current implementation or by implementing a
new system in the next 12 months) in security analytics, and
company
23% say the same for NAV.
Using a zero-trust model as the basis for a data-centric
security approach can help organisations to foster growth
and break down organisational silos around the teams
responsible for security, infrastructure and operations, enterprise architecture, and so on.
Take measures to embed security-mindedness in the entire company, from individual security contributors to the security team to all staff, to ensure the organisation is alert, astute
and prepared for any situation.
Security technologies and tools are important, but they are not the only defence. In most
organisations, the human aspect of security does not get the attention it deserves. Almost
half of firms see the unavailability of security staff with the right skills as a major challenge,
citing lack of security operation skills as the biggest problem. It is not easy to hire security
staff with the right skills, and the demand for them continues to increase.

Security skills training

Regardless of the background or seniority of individual security contributors, there is a

strong desire for continued personal development and growth. Some 45% of organisations
plan to increase their security skills training, and this number is likely to grow.
Based on the survey data, IT security professionals are in a state of transition. Spending
appears to be business as usual, but there are rumblings of change on the horizon for network technology adoption. As firms embrace zero trust, investments will support these
security architecture and operations initiatives. The data in this Forrester survey offers a view
of what North American and European enterprises are doing about network security.
But while it is helpful to see what other companies are doing, it is critical not to become a
slave to the data. Consider this benchmark as a guide, using the trends revealed as a starting
point for analysing your own budget and technology adoption plans for network security. n
Heidi Shey is a security and risk analyst at Forrester Research. This article is an extract from her report,
Understand the state of network security: 2013 to 2014 (January 2014).
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 15

MAINFRAME MODERNISATION
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?

How the mainframe remains

relevant in the cloud era
IBMs mainframe has remained largely unfashionable, but even today around
80% of the worlds corporate data is still managed on one. Cliff Saran reports

IBM CLOUD HELPS

GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS

DOWNTIME

Making
mainframe
technology
hipagain
Mainframe
at 50: Why the
mainframe
keeps on going

WIKIPEDIA

HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING

ccording to IBM, computers running the Customer Information Control System

(CICS) application server, which runs on the IBM mainframe, process in excess
of one million transactions per second significantly more than the number
of Google searches, Twitter tweets and Facebook likes put together. Yet the
mainframe has remained largelyunfashionable.
On 7 April 1964, IBM unveiled its first mainframe, the System/360. Today, around 80%
of the worlds corporate data is managed by mainframes. There are about 6,900 tweets,
30,000 Facebook likes and 60,000 Google searches per second, according to IBM Hursley
laboratory director Rob Lamb. In comparison, all CICS-based mainframes put together run 1.1
million transactions per second or 10 billion a day. These numbers illustrate the prevalence
of the IBM mainframe, which for the last half a century has been the technological workhorse
enabling government policy and business processes.
It has also kept up with the times, supporting modern programming environments based on
Java and C++. More than a quarter of the mainframe processing capacity IBM ships is used
to run Linux. In fact, server consolidation has been one of the big drivers for the mainframe,
especially given the latest zEnterprise mainframe can run 100,000 virtual Linux servers.
We have perpetually managed to continue to reduce the cost of computing associated
with running the mainframe, says Lamb.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 16

MAINFRAME MODERNISATION
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Behind the zEnterprises two sleek black doors sit four processing units configured with a
total of 3TB of shared RAM, two laptop workstations for admin use, uninterruptible power
supplies (UPSs) and networking. Only the storage area network (SAN) is external. There
are multiple levels of redundancy and the mainframe can be configured while it is running.
Applications, or workloads, run in logical partitions IBMs term for virtualisation, which it
introduced on the System/370 mainframe in 1973.

A platform for modern times

Lamb says the mainframe has kept up with shifts in computing paradigms and application
systems. If youre using a mobile application that runs a transaction to check your bank
balance or transfer money from one account to another, theres a four in five chance that a
mainframe is behind that transaction, says Lamb.
Applications developed 50 years ago can still run
on the latest zEnterprise, says Lamb. This is quite a
ccording
feat, given that 27 years ago, when Lamb joined IBM,
the Hursley mainframe facility would have taken up
to artner
an entire large machine room. The machines would
have been water-cooled and there would have been an
of the
on-site plumber to fix the cooling system.
As long as the application is running effectively,
largest banks
why would you change it? Lamb says. One IBM
in the world
customer in the finance industry has been running a
credit card-authorisation application on the mainframe
use ystem z
continuously for 12 years, he says. In that time, the
application has never been taken down for planned or
mainframes
unplanned maintenance. It has kept running testimony
to the inherent stability of the mainframe platform. It
has also enabled customers to evolve legacy applications to modern computing. Take a
CICS application developed in Cobol, which was accessed from a green-screen terminal on
a laptop, says Lamb. Now that the mainframe supports cloud, you can have a nice, modern
user interface for the same applications.

92

100
S

The challenges

According to analyst Gartner, of the 100 largest banks in the world, 92 use System z
mainframes. But since the dawn of the client-server era of computing, IT departments have
been trying to migrate away from mainframe systems. Last year, Irish Life migrated 97%
of its mainframe workload to a Windows Server environment to save costs and help expand
its business. At the time, Irish Lifes chief technical architect, Barry Ryan, said: We looked at
how to reduce cost and felt we could get an 80% cost saving in operational expenditure by
moving out of the mainframe environment.
The insurer migrated 250 mainframe millions of instructions per second (MIPS) of
processing on to three 30,000 HP servers, achieving considerable savings. But the biggest
threat to the mainframe is hyperscale computing, favoured by the big internet companies.
New age web-scale IT organisations such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and PayPal do not
choose to run their applications on mainframes, says Gartner.
A 2012 study from WinterGreen Research demonstrated the savings of an IBM zEnterprise
114 mainframe over a VMware setup using HP ProLiant DL685. WinterGreen Research
calculated that a suite of Linux web services applications running on 80 HP blade servers
with VMware would cost $127,225 a year, while the same application configuration on the
zEnterprise 114 would cost $67,787. The zEnterprise 114 (or z196) server is cost efficient
because it uses less power and fewer software licences, the study said.
Such savings make the mainframe a logical choice for running public cloud services, yet
major hardware firms, including IBM, have failed to gain traction here. Jose Castano, director
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 17

MAINFRAME MODERNISATION
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE

of IBM System z workloads and initiatives, says: Its an uphill battle with tier one cloud
service providers because they grew their own IT capabilities, and take a custom approach
with white boxes. Instead, IBM has positioned the mainframe as a cloud in a box for tier
two cloud service providers, which are looking for off-the-shelf products.

The software ecosystem

Platforms live and die by their software partners, and Gartner says IBM has attracted
more than 1,300 software companies to develop for the mainframe. One of those firms is
CAN VISA RULE
Micro Focus, which, during the 1990s, made a tidy profit from helping companies perform
OVERHAUL TACKLE
mainframe Y2K coding on Windows machines.
THE SKILLS GAP?
Derek Britton, director at Micro Focus, says: The IBM
mainframe is an enterprise-class server, and we have
has
IBM CLOUD HELPS
invested heavily to support it. The mainframe is the
GRADUATES
united with
lifeblood of the worlds biggest enterprises.
JOB PROSPECTS
Micro Focus want to help its customers grow IT
academia to
services by leveraging their mainframe infrastructure.
CLOUD LENDS
What enterprises are trying to do today is a far cry
develop talent
CITY & GUILDS
from what they were doing years ago, says Britton.
FLEXIBILITY
to potentially
We need to streamline the mainframe environment to
enable rapid development of applications.
EDITORS
work on the
IT departments are struggling to meet the pace of
COMMENT
change. The mainframe is regarded as a system that
mainframe
is slow to change. The checks that keep it running at
OPINION
sometimes greater than five nines of availability
(99.999% uptime) may be used by its detractors as a failing of the mainframes process.
BUYERS GUIDE
A survey by Micro Focus highlighted the growing level of IT debt effectively, the cost of
TO SECURITY
legacy
systems with IT departments unable to meet changes required by the business. It
ANALYTICS
said IT debt has risen by a third in the past 18 months.
Automated tools, such as the software that Micro Focus develops, can be used by IT
HOW IBMS
administrators to analyse the complex interdependencies in mainframe environments,
MAINFRAME IS
allowing staff to speed up the process of making changes, says Britton. Mainframe
MODERNISING
languages, such as Cobol and PL/1, can run within the Eclipse environment, allowing the
quality assurance step in mainframe software development to run on Windows, rather than
DOWNTIME
consume costly mainframe MIPs.
In the Gartner paper Assessing the next 50 years for the IBM Mainframe, analyst Mike Chuba
noted that IBM has united with academia to develop next-generation talent to potentially
work on the mainframe, and replace the baby-boomer generation associated with it. IBM
now has over 1,000 schools part of the programme, Chuba wrote in the paper. It has
supplemented this with the creation of a System z jobs board, an initiative to match up
employers in need of mainframe talent with individuals looking
for mainframe jobs.
Cloud creates opportunity for mainframes

IBM

Mainframe modernisation takes on urgency

Trends in mainframe legacy modernisation

Fashions come and go, but style is a constant

The IT industry is shifting emphasis towards systems of

engagement so firms can understand customers better. IBMs
Castano says social, analytics and mobile applications go hand in hand with the mainframe,
which offers a strong system of record it can scale and is always available.
In 1963, Porsche introduced the 901 sports car, which would become the 911. Like the 911,
the mainframe, at 50, represents the pinnacle of high performance and reliability. It may
never turn heads or stir the soul like its rivals or the Porsche but, like the 911, it will loyally
serve its owner. Micro Focuss Britton adds: The Porsche 911 is 50 years old and, in 2014,
people still want one. Business leaders may not consider the mainframe fashionable but, 50
years on, it is very much a constant factor in running a successful enterprise. n
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 18

DOWNTIME
HOME
NEWS
GOOGLE REVEALS
NEW PRICING FOR
CLOUDSERVICE
CAN VISA RULE
OVERHAUL TACKLE
THE SKILLS GAP?
IBM CLOUD HELPS
GRADUATES
JOB PROSPECTS
CLOUD LENDS
CITY & GUILDS
FLEXIBILITY
EDITORS
COMMENT
OPINION
BUYERS GUIDE
TO SECURITY
ANALYTICS
HOW IBMS
MAINFRAME IS
MODERNISING
DOWNTIME

Oracle wants Workday to get on its bike

Oracle appears to be a little riled by the
sudden appearance of cloud computing
upstart Workday in London last week.
Workday may not be making money
yet, and may not yet have quite
the customer base of Oracle or
SAP, but its cloud technology
is causing ripples.
That may be why
visitors to Workdays first
European conference in
London this week found
themselves having to walk
past strategically positioned
Oracle tricycles on Westminster
Bridge.
There were at least a dozen of them
tethered to railings opposite the Park
Plaza hotel, each with a sandwich board
proclaiming that Oracle is number one in
talent management.

That might have come as a surprise to

Aneel Bhurisi, CEO and co-founder of
Workday, who was busy telling IT and
HRleaders at Workday Rising Europe that
his company was in fact number one in
talent management.
By what can only be
coincidence, SAPs HR
technology division, bought
the entire advertising
space on a website for
UK HR professionals for
the duration of Workdays
conference. Talk about
luckytiming.
But the best prize for overthe-top promotion must go to
Oracle. The company hired a posse of
actors to pose as Star Wars characters to
wow HR and IT directors during another
London HR technology conference.
May the workforce be with you, Luke. n

POLITICAL PARTIES GET PROGRAMMING

Read
more on the
Downtime blog

Code Club, a volunteer network that runs after-school groups to teach

programming to kids, dropped by Westminster last week to pass on
scripting skills to those bigger, rowdier kids in Parliament. This set
us wondering what programming styles might suit each political party. Conservatives would
probably focus on cutting their code down to the bare minimum. That might make for efficient
running, but eliminating unnecessary services such as help functions could leave poor users
in the lurch. Labour geeks, conversely, might attempt to cram in as many features as possible,
with a friendly user interface. But running bloatware on an outdated system is a no-no and by
promising too much for their program they might inadvertently cause it to grind to a halt. Liberal
Democrats, meanwhile, would insert so many if...else clauses and nested subroutines into
their programs that no one could ever fathom what they were actually meant to be doing.
computerweekly.com 8-14 April 2014 19