Top tips for greening your data center
Data center operators, and those that use them, are under increasing pressure to go green. Demand for data center capacity is being driven up by a number of factors that make driving efficiency through green principles a complex process. But, the introduction of new emissions laws, such as the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme makes the greening of the data center inevitable. The CRC has been causing great concern for data center professionals, who also need to save money on energy

European agency details cloud security recommendations
The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) turned its focus to cloud computing, and in particular how businesses can reap the benefits without putting themselves at risk. It has published a report titled "Cloud Computing: Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security".The paper examines the technical, policy and legal implications of cloud computing and makes "concrete recommendations" on how to address the risks while maximising the benefits for end users. It describes the cloud as "both a friend and a foe" from a security point of vi

Economy changing ICT focus among CEE governments
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said that "the financial crisis has forced governments in Central and Eastern Europe to make tough decisions about their information and communications technology spending priorities", causing concern over whether the region can maintain its lead over other emerging markets in the "international e-readiness rankings".The study said that the economy in the region is expected to contract by 5.7% in 2009, being affected more than the 4.1% decline anticipated in the Euro region, and the 2.5% contraction expected worldwide. Most CEE countries have also been cautious when

The car is the star
Back in September, I was in Geneva talking to Romain Jourdan, an Orange expert in in-car telematics. It's a really fascinating area of technology development, with different strands of activity that are really beginning to catch fire. In-car tech, in the past, seems to have only focussed on being able to book hotels en-route or, indeed, just direct you to where you are going. But what will be really interesting, is the impact that M2M in-car telematics will have on road safety, on reducing environmental impacts, on easing congestion on the roads. I love the idea that my car will direct me away from congestion, that it can automatically book in service or  steer me away from immine

Moving data to the cloud: it's a batch
Information Management magazine published an interesting article dealing with the implications of moving data to the cloud, but rather than following the usual themes of security and reliability, it looked at the physical process of getting the data there in the first place.Following on from an earlier blog post by Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer of Amazon, it was noted that transferring 1TB of data to the cloud would take between 13 and 82 days when using T1 or 10Mbps connection, even taking tw