As you head east from the city of London the change in surroundings is stark. The glass towers of commercialism are soon replaced by bleak, high-rise blocks and the endless sprawl of greater London.
One east end borough, Newham, is an area with a history of deprivation and has in recent years seen some of the highest crime rates in the country. But improvements are beginning to show and, as the home of the 2012 Olympics, its future looks far more rosy.
Richard Steel took that journey from the powerhouse banks of the city to the streets of Newham in 1989 and it's a decision he has never regretted, talking about his career as a local government CIO at Newham Borough Council with real passion. And this year he will take on a new challenge as president of the UK Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), with a raft of changes to push though in his one year in post.
By the end of March Steel will be incumbent, and he really is taking the hot seat. "We have been going through a lot of restructuring. My main ambition is to see Socitm re-established for all who work in IT in the public sector," he says of its positioning. "We need to embrace what is happening in the wider public sector. Services are joining up."
To do this Steel plans to reorganize the professionalism agenda and membership services at Socitm. He has bold ideas of how to achieve this, ideas that show his experience as a CIO in local government. In effect he is looking at moving Socitm ahead using a shared services model. Talks are already underway with similar organizations, including the BCS, on how they can work together and how some of the administrative burden of running Socitm could be outsourced to the computer society to reduce costs.
The changes at Socitm reflect two issues. IT in government is changing and Steel is honest enough to admit the organization has lost its way. That honesty is something that anybody who has a conversation with Steel soon comes to recognize. There is little management speak or use of vendor-led acronyms, just the facts laid bare. Steel describes the increasing join between local and central government as difficult for "two very different animals", and this presents an opportunity to Socitm.
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Tax office IT projects to ease compliance 24 January, 2008 15:00:24
New portals facilitate online data interchangeIn a rare showing of future developments, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced a roadmap for its public-facing applications - from new portals to digital certificates - aimed at helping businesses and individuals fulfil their payment and compliance obligations. - +
Microsoft pushes IT in Siberia 27 November, 2007 11:29:01
Microsoft said it plans to help support government use of IT in a city in Russia.Microsoft is working with one local government in Siberia on improving the use of IT by the government in the region, the software giant said this week.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. - White PaperJoin industry expert Martin Tuip to discover best practice strategy for the archival and removal of .PST files using email archiving. Learn how to ensure long-term email records are there when needed, and reduce the risk to your business and clients.
- White PaperJoin Lee Benjamin, a Microsoft Exchange MVP and Ryan Shipkowski, network administrator for Matthews, to discuss the process and ROI of implementing an email archiving solution, with emphasis on a case study from Matthews International.
- White PaperWhat you don’t know can destroy your business. It’s hard to imagine modern business without the internet but in the last few years it has become fraught with danger. Read on to discover how internet security can give your business a competitive advantage.
Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.
Attend and learn:
- How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
- Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
- The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid
Click here for more information.
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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Chris Hoff on Virtualization and Cloud Computing 20 November, 2008 10:55:00
Chris Hoff, chief security architect for the systems and technology division at Unisys and an advisor on the Skybox Security customer advisory board, is one of the biggest critics of virtualization security out there. Not because it isn't important - but rather because it is vital and needs to mature rapidly. - +
Cybersecurity is focus of new start-up incubator 20 November, 2008 07:19:00
Texas uni announces the Institute for Cyber Security.The University of Texas at San Antonio Tuesday announced a technology incubator aimed at fostering IT security-based start-ups within the state. - +
Dilip Sarangan on Physical Security M&A 20 November, 2008 11:18:00
Dilip Sarangan tracks physical security companies for Frost & Sullivan. He expects the industry's "need to have" products to weather the economic storm well, with the big players (now including IBM and Cisco) looking for value-priced acquisitions. - +
International Challenges in PCI Security 20 November, 2008 09:15:00
In a country that's seen many regulatory compliance challenges this decade, the headaches of PCI security tend to be analyzed from a largely American perspective. - +
PCI council sharpens oversight of security auditors 19 November, 2008 10:53:00
Quality assurance plan targets security assessors and scanning vendorsThe PCI Security Standards Council Monday unveiled a plan to sharpen oversight of the hundreds of security-service providers now authorized to evaluate merchant networks under the organization's Payment Card Industry data standards.
Vignette Announces 2008 Excellence Awards 21 November, 2008 10:50:00
PGP and Ponemon Institute Unveil Inaugural Australian Data Breach Study 2008 20 November, 2008 17:34:00
Symantec Cloud Services Transform Data Centre Operations Through Proactive Management 20 November, 2008 12:06:00
Verizon Business Offers Tips to Building a Successful Unified Communications and Collaboration Plan 20 November, 2008 12:04:00
AARNet Brings 4K Digital Cinema to Australia: First 4K HD Video Signal delivered into Australia by AARNet 20 November, 2008 12:02:00
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Security Inside Out
A security breach has the potential to impact your bottom line, damaging reputation, customer loyalty and profitability. Managing security risks in today's environment requires a framework that extends beyond traditional network perimeter measures to protect applications, middleware, and data infrastructures. Read on to discover how you can create an enterprise security framework to protect your business.
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