Data quality management and governance

NHS data platform costing £480m to supersede Covid-19 data store underway

NHS England has invited suppliers to tender for a data platform that will supersede the Covid-19 data store controversial for the involvement of data analytics firm Palantir Continue Reading

Top 10 information management stories of 2022

Data for good is a theme of the information management stories of 2022 selected here. From tracking space junk, through medical kits for Ukraine, to professionalising data science to benefit society Continue Reading

Top 10 Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcasts of 2022

The team began with a sombre episode about Ukraine and went on to tackle the more familiar topics of diversity, datacentre sustainability and data. New for 22: Cliff Saran’s interviews with IT thought leaders Continue Reading

CDO interview: Barry Panayi, chief data and insight officer, John Lewis Partnership

Data science and analytics is an increasingly important function across the John Lewis Partnership, covering its retail, grocery and financial services brands Continue Reading

The importance of improving data quality at source

Data replication crises have struck government and scientific data quality efforts. A lack of scrutiny over data being used at source has led to oversights from national statistics to financial auditing Continue Reading

Microsoft and London Stock Exchange agree £2.3bn 10-year cloud deal

The London Stock Exchange is building on its acquisition of financial data provider Refinitiv through a deal with Microsoft Continue Reading

Data leaders bewail employee data illiteracy

Report from data consultancy Carruthers and Jackson finds a significant majority of data function leaders consider their organisations’ employees lack adequate data literacy Continue Reading

How Databricks is easing lakehouse adoption

Databricks is making it easier for organisations to adopt a data lakehouse architecture through support for industry-specific file formats, data sharing and streaming processing, among other areas Continue Reading

Parity AI talks about auditing recruitment algorithms for bias

Algorithmic auditing firm Parity speaks to Computer Weekly about the process of auditing artificial intelligence for bias, following its partnership with AI-powered recruitment platform Beamery Continue Reading

AWS doubles down on data management

Cloud giant Amazon Web Services declares a bold vision to eliminate the need to extract, transform and load data alongside other efforts to address business problems in domains like cyber security and logistics Continue Reading

How to stop data retention from killing the planet

In this week’s Computer Weekly, there’s a hidden environmental cost to the vast volumes of data being generated – we examine what can be done to address it. We talk to the CISO of consumer reviews site Trustpilot, about building trust in IT security. And we look at what IT leaders can do if they inherit a toxic team environment. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Cyber criminals target World Cup Qatar 2022

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the FIFA World Cup opens in Qatar, we examine the cyber security threats from criminals targeting the event. We report from the Gartner Symposium on the latest predictions for enterprise software development. And we talk to the CIO of Kyiv City Council about managing IT in the shadow of war. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Informatica CEO: ‘We’re the Switzerland of data’

Informatica CEO Amit Walia talks up the company’s role as the ‘Switzerland of data’, helping organisations to manage data across different platforms as it transitions into a cloud-first supplier of data management tools Continue Reading

How to protect against ransomware attacks

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how to prepare for and protect against ransomware, and what to do if you’re hit by an attack. We gauge industry reaction to Ofcom’s plan to investigate the big three cloud providers. And we find out how travel giant TUI is implementing self-service analytics. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Met Police removes nearly two-thirds of people from gangs matrix

Legal action by human rights group Liberty forces Met Police to overhaul its gangs violence matrix database Continue Reading

Sadiq Khan launches Data for London Advisory Board

Board will look at how to join up and share data between public and private London organisations in an effort to build a stronger data economy and improve public services Continue Reading

How organisations can right-size their data footprint

More data is not always better, says Gartner, which is calling for organisations to focus on metadata and synthetic data to reduce their data liability and address privacy challenges Continue Reading

How government can capitalise on a revolution in data sharing

Alison Pritchard, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics, says the new government Integrated Data Service enables tackling questions that we don’t yet know we need to answer Continue Reading

How Globe is driving data analytics with Snowflake

The largest telco in the Philippines has moved its on-premise data warehouse to Snowflake to address scalability challenges and improve customer experience Continue Reading

Data-driven decision making will fail – and here is why

Marc Warner, CEO at Faculty, contends that corporate organisations need to go through a cycle similar to the development of scientific thought – from divination, via data deluge to theoretical understanding Continue Reading

Data Summit majors on ethics in data use, demonstrates diversity

The Data Lab’s Data Summit majored on the ethical use of data, and featured Scottish government minister Tom Arthur, science broadcaster Hannah Fry, and Nasa chief science data officer Kevin Murphy Continue Reading

Aiven expands in APAC, builds new capabilities

Managed service provider of open source databases and data platforms Aiven grew its business in Asia-Pacific by over 100% over the past year, and is now building new capabilities in data warehouses and other areas Continue Reading

How Prostate Cancer UK built its own message bus

The cancer charity received funding ring-fenced for modernising its data management – the funds were spent on a solutions architect and an ETL process Continue Reading

Does data need to come from a single source of truth?

This is a guest blogpost by Steve Neat, General Manager, EMEA, at Alation For a long time, the overall objective of any data transformation has been to get all of an organisation’s data into one ... Continue Reading

Scotland’s Data Lab CEO Brian Hills on its ambition to change lives

Brian Hills, chief executive of The Data Lab in Scotland, on why he thinks the organisation’s mission is less about data and more about changing lives by giving people career opportunities Continue Reading

The rise and risks of sovereign data strategies

Data and analytics leaders need to understand what is happening now to mitigate risk and exploit data-driven opportunities Continue Reading

Top 50 women in UK tech, IR35 Truss fiasco – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

The team reflects on the announcement of the Most Influential Women in UK Technology 2022, the IR35 reforms being scrapped, then not, and Dreamforce & Oracle Cloud World in the US Continue Reading

Digital Transformation Week Amsterdam: The growing divide between the haves and have-nots

The most successful companies carefully manage how data is taken in and processed – and they use tools to ensure they squeeze the most they can out of every bit of information Continue Reading

High data quality key to reducing supply chain disruption

What could be the role of data quality enhancement in reducing the supply chain disruption that has beset the UK economy because of Brexit, Covid, and war in Europe? Continue Reading

Tories to replace GDPR

IT industry reacts to the government’s plan to replace the pan-European data protection regulation Continue Reading

How to design a data architecture for business success

To gain business value from data, enterprises need to get their data architecture right – and the right business leadership and culture is critical to that Continue Reading

Interview: Rachel Hilliam, chair, Alliance for Data Science Professionals

Rachel Hilliam talks about the origins, mission and future plans for the Alliance for Data Science Professionals Continue Reading

Data-driven government needs practical steps

We should build data platforms for government with the same techniques used in creating anything digital, argues Jim Stamp, head of data at Made Tech Continue Reading

Growing importance of the data strategist in South Holland

Much has been written about the work of data scientists, but the lesser-known role of data strategist is just as essential – as is being demonstrated in the Netherlands Continue Reading

Data sharing: How can we make sure the UK is a world leader?

The UK government risks missing out on the benefits and opportunities laid out in its National Data Strategy – and could lose international competitiveness as a result Continue Reading

Inside Singapore’s national digital identity journey

Singapore’s national digital identity system has evolved from providing single sign-on to e-government services to pandemic-related and digital document capabilities in recent years Continue Reading

How clean data helps Southern Water identify vulnerable customers

Escalating prices means households around the country are having to tighten spending, with many struggling to pay their bills. Water4All, a consortium led by Southern Water, is using data to identify low-income and vulnerable households so they can be better supported Continue Reading

Department of Health investigates bias in medical devices and algorithms

The government has launched a review to look at the problem of discrimination in medical devices and decision-making software Continue Reading

Eurotunnel’s digital journey for the realities of post-Covid travel

In this week’s Computer Weekly, the travel industry was devastated by the pandemic, but we find out how Eurotunnel is turning to digital to better engage customers in the post-Covid world. We examine the impact of the economic slowdown on the tech giants. And we explain all you need to know about data gravity. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

NAO guide for senior government leaders flags barriers to better data use

A National Audit Office guide for government chiefs on improving data use points to difficulties in achieving data sharing benefits and laments variability in cross-government data quality Continue Reading

CDO interview: Brandon Hootman, director of digital data, Caterpillar

Manufacturing giant is modernising its data management and turning to digital to steal a march on its competitors Continue Reading

SSEN partners with Icebreaker One to break energy data silos

Better access to, and sharing of, energy data will help direct the installation of new electric vehicle charging points, as well as help network operators to better understand the electricity grid’s capacity for the introduction of more renewables Continue Reading

Data and tech platforms helping finance regulator spot problems earlier

The UK financial services regulator is increasingly using data platforms to proactively regulate the finance sector Continue Reading

Inside Sompo Asia’s agile approach to data analytics

Regional insurer takes agile approach to democratise access to data analytics by creating virtual databases and visualising the insights through Tableau Continue Reading

First cohort of data science professionals certified by AfDSP

The Alliance for Data Science Professionals has certified its first cohort, with the imprimatur of the UK’s national statistician, Ian Diamond Continue Reading

Embedded analytics emerges to offer new level of business intelligence

Analytics suppliers are increasingly offering embedded analytics – based inside applications, often real-time, and driven by APIs – as a way to get to the next level of business intelligence Continue Reading

Accountability in algorithmic injustice

Computer Weekly looks at the growing number of injustices involving algorithms and automated decision-making, and what can be done to hold governments and companies accountable for the failures of computer systems they deploy Continue Reading

IBM still breaking new ground at Wimbledon

IBM Watson is playing an increasingly important role in growing the fanbase and relevance of the Wimbledon tennis tournament Continue Reading

Netherlands’ AMdEX seeks to democratise the internet

Last year, five Dutch organisations launched an initiative to set up the Amsterdam Data Exchange to simplify data sharing and help democratise the internet Continue Reading

Tech sector efforts to root out forced labour are failing

Digitally mapping supply chains to identify forced labour and slavery is no longer a technology problem for the IT sector, but a lack of government enforcement and corporate inaction are major barriers to effective change Continue Reading

African health charity integrates digital tools with Cognizant

IT services supplier is working with African health charity to integrate digital tools through a five-month project Continue Reading

Executive interview: Chris Conradi, chief digital officer, FSN Capital

Chris Conradi is taking his learnings at Google into the private equity industry at Norway’s FSN Capital Continue Reading

Government data talk to the fore at London Tech Week

Data figured prominently in the unfolding of the government’s digital strategy at the start of London Tech Week, with privacy-enhancing technologies and anonymous health data sharing notable Continue Reading

Data leaders need to overcome their fears and unlock their creativity

Author and data management consultant Caroline Carruthers argues that data leaders need to tap into their creativity to make their analytical work pay off Continue Reading

Set innovation free and make great ideas a reality

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at Gartner’s call to innovate – and innovation across retail, the circular economy and the automotive sector. We talk to Verastar’s CTO about customer engagement in its small business services. And we examine how poor data quality is frustrating corporate desires to be data driven. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Innovate to battle economic crisis, post-pandemic

In his 18 May speech to the CBI this week, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, urged British businesses to “invest more, train more and innovate more” in return for tax cuts in the autumn ... Continue Reading

Gartner Data & Analytics Summit: Unleash innovation on emergence from pandemic

Analysts at the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in London urged D&A leaders to unleash innovation as their organisations emerge from the shadow of the pandemic Continue Reading

Everyone’s talking about data

Data, as the saying goes, is the new oil. If a business loses its applications, it may cause some serious headaches in the IT department, but ultimately, it should be able to recover. Lose the ... Continue Reading

Totting up a decade of ones and zeros at the ODI

As the Open Data Institute turns 10, managing director Louise Burke reflects on its first decade and what comes next Continue Reading

ODI data literacy report laments technical skills inflation in government data strategy

An Open Data Institute report on data literacy and UK government data strategy sees a lack of clarity in definition, fragmentation of responsibility, and a disconnect between government and citizens Continue Reading

Disney combines digital, data and creativity to win advertising opportunities

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the executive vice-president for client and brand solutions at Disney Advertising Sales about how it is using data to subserve story-telling excellence. We delve into how rising energy costs negatively impacted the UK arm of Sungard Availability Services. And we look at the role of infrastructure as code in edge datacentres. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

MPs and editors sound alarm over threat to Freedom of Information

Government secrecy and trend for departments to block Freedom of Information requests pose a long-term risk to accountability Continue Reading

How data sharing and collaboration can solve great challenges

Daniel Hirst and Arjan Dhaliwal from Ordnance Survey argue for the value of data sharing, collaboration and data skills enhancement to address social, ecological economic problems Continue Reading

Police use of AI needs overhaul to prevent abuse

In this week’s Computer Weekly, a House of Lords inquiry calls for a rethink on how police forces use AI technologies – we examine the issues. Our new buyer’s guide looks into edge datacentres. And the EU and US agree a new data protection deal to replace Privacy Shield, but will it stand up to scrutiny? Read the issue now. Continue Reading

TechUK calls on government to seize post-Brexit data opportunities

Ahead of the government’s reply to its late 2021 consultation about proposed post-Brexit reforms to the data protection regime, TechUK has published a paper declaring six data governance principles Continue Reading

ODI sets up institution to promote public data sharing

The Open Data Institute has set up an institution to support the Open Referral UK data standard geared to promote more sharing of public sector data Continue Reading

Data may save lives but does sharing it inevitably vitiate privacy?

The balance between sharing data for the common good and protecting data to safeguard individual liberty is nowhere more fraught, as a question, than in the field of health data. Under the banner ... Continue Reading

UKISUG: Big majority of SAP users beset by data problems in migrating to S/4 Hana

In a survey prior to its Analytics Symposium, the UK & Ireland SAP User Group finds 61% of SAP customers say data management issues are slowing down process automation and impeding moves to S/4 Hana Continue Reading

Competition watchdog contacts Barclays and Lloyds banks over API failures

Barclays and Lloyds banks have failed to meet some of the open banking rules, says competition watchdog Continue Reading

UCL report projects 5,500 ‘open data’ jobs in Newham by 2035

Report from University College London’s Institute for Global Prosperity says London borough is ‘uniquely placed to seize the data opportunity’ Continue Reading

How data analytics drives wind turbine power generation

Data analytics and related software lies behind the burgeoning wind turbine industry, with predictive maintenance to the fore. We find out how Continue Reading

Police EncroChat cryptophone hacking implant did not work properly and frequently failed

Surveillance operation against EncroChat encrypted phone network had repeated technical failures Continue Reading

CW Innovation Awards: Weikfield bags analytics rewards

The success of Weikfield Food’s analytics initiative is underpinned by small successive deployments to overcome resistance from users and ensure requirements are met Continue Reading

Why some data-driven decisions are not to be trusted

Companies often express the desire to be data-driven – but what if the data isn’t right? Data democratisation could be part of the solution Continue Reading

Using technology to protect human rights

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we investigate how technology is being used to tackle human rights abuses worldwide. We offer a step-by-step guide to disaster recovery in the cloud era. And we examine the vital, and successful, role of digital and data in the UK Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Ban predictive policing systems in EU AI Act, says civil society

A coalition of civil society groups has called on European lawmakers to use the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act as an opportunity to ban predictive policing systems Continue Reading

University of Amsterdam teams up with MIT to use analytics for a better world

Dutch and US universities join forces with tech company to help non-government organisations and the United Nations to harness data analytics to achieve sustainable development goals Continue Reading

Christal Bemont, Talend CEO: Show up as yourself

Christal Bemont, CEO of data management firm Talend, reflects on coming through difficult times in solidarity with co-workers, and how data quality assumes a heightened significance in the digital era Continue Reading

European Commission opens path to a Data Act to stoke digital economy

The European Commission has published a proposal for a Data Act that it hopes will stoke a digital economy, in part by unlocking IoT and other ‘industrial data’ Continue Reading

Attempted burglary exposes risk of NatWest customer data in former worker’s home

Former Royal Bank of Scotland employee offers bank a compromise in her dispute over the return of confidential customer information Continue Reading

On a mission to track space junk

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the space experts tracking orbital debris using graph database technology. We meet the startups taking very different approaches in trying to develop commercial quantum computers. And we ask why it’s so difficult to build a data science team and how to overcome the challenges. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Data strategy highlights geospatial data challenges

A new assessment discusses the importance of data sharing, a lack of standards and the skills gap Continue Reading

Log4Shell, Ukraine and umbrella firm cyber attacks – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

Alex Scroxton joins the team to discuss the Log4j vulnerability and Russian pressure on Ukraine. Also discussed are cyber attacks on umbrella companies, neuro-diversity and junk in space Continue Reading

Data fabric vs. data mesh: who wins?

This is a guest blogpost by John Wills, Field CTO, Alation Arsenal vs Spurs. Federer vs Nadal. Senna vs Prost. Frost vs Nixon. There have been a lot of great rivalries over the years, and now, ... Continue Reading

Porn sites will be legally required to verify users’ ages

Porn sites could be legally obliged to verify that their users are 18 or over under proposed online safety rules, in UK government’s second attempt to prevent children from accessing pornography online Continue Reading

Exploring the metaverse

In this week’s Computer Weekly, the metaverse is set to become a highly competitive commercial playground –profitable markets but also high-profile failures will follow. IT contractors have been hit by cyber attacks on the firms that pay their wages – we examine the impact. And we ask if it’s time to plan for quantum computing. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Space junk revealed by University of Texas graph database

Aerospace engineers, led by space environmentalist Moriba Jah, at The University of Texas at Austin have built a graph database, AstriaGraph, to track space junk that is a threat to life on Earth Continue Reading

Government backs Turing Institute in bid to set global AI technical standards

The DCMS has announced an AI Standards Hub, comprising The Alan Turing Institute, the National Physical Laboratory and the British Standards Institution to set a global bar for AI technical standards Continue Reading

How far has Saudi Arabia come with open data?

While clearly on the right path, Saudi Arabia still has a lot to do before it reaps the full benefits of open data Continue Reading

Finnish government launches digital economy transformation projects

The Finnish government launches two transformation projects as part of the country’s mission to pioneer a digital economy Continue Reading

CDEI research pinpoints barriers to trustworthy AI exploitation

Survey of UK business by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation has disclosed the patchiness of artificial intelligence and data-driven technology adoption across different economic sectors Continue Reading

The rules for a safer internet

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the government publishes the Online Safety Bill, we look at what the laws mean for internet services. A ransomware victim shares the insider story of the trauma of losing their corporate IT systems. And we ask, what happens when quantum computers get too powerful to verify their output? Read the issue now. Continue Reading

How to scale up your AI initiatives

Executive sponsorship, a strong data foundation and having ‘analytics artists’ are among ways to scale up AI initiatives beyond the pilot stage Continue Reading

IT Priorities 2022: ERP gets back on the horse

Automation and going cloud-first have gained significant interest for enterprise software and data management investment in the UK, according to the annual TechTarget/Computer Weekly IT Priorities 2022 survey Continue Reading

Pandora Papers: How journalists mined terabytes of offshore data to expose the world’s elites

Six hundred journalists spent over a year mining 2.94 terabytes of data that revealed offshore companies and the politicians, world leaders and celebrities who secretly owned them Continue Reading

Who are the current generation of Chief Data Officers?

This is a guest blogpost by Peter Jackson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Exasol. The growing mainstream appreciation for quality data and its resulting insights has made the Chief Data ... Continue Reading

Societe Generale accelerates data and artificial intelligence strategy

French investment banking giant increases its focus on data and artificial intelligence as digital transformation matures Continue Reading

Inside Informatica’s cloud journey

Informatica’s chief product officer talks up the company’s journey back to the public market and where Asia-Pacific fits in its growth strategy Continue Reading

Data literacy: more than training

This is a guest blogpost by Adrian Seow, head of product marketing, Yellowfin In the era of self-service analytics, data literacy is an increasing priority, but helping people understand their data ... Continue Reading

Building better data foundations to make the most of AI

The UK government's national artificial intelligence strategy relies on businesses putting in place the foundations for better use of data – EY research highlights the challenges ahead Continue Reading