Latest Articlesby Derek du Preez

Relate UK considers cloud due to demand for online chat counselling

The largest provider of relationship support in the UK, Relate, is considering migrating some web-based services to an external private cloud environment following the success of a government-based project to implement online chat for people in need of discreet counselling. read more »

4G winners announced, but auction worth less than expected

Communications regulator Ofcom has announced five winners at the much anticipated 4G spectrum auction, which will allow for the widespread rollout of next generation mobile broadband services across the UK. read more »

G-Cloud celebrates one year anniversary

The government’s G-Cloud project is celebrating its one year anniversary this week, having undergone many changes and attracted a lot of attention from both the public and private sector. read more »

Tesco calls the police as online Clubcard accounts compromised

Tesco has confirmed that it has called in the police to investigate a possible data breach after a number of complaints from Clubcard members who claim to have had their online accounts compromised. read more »

SAP User Group: Its a shame Sapphire cancelled in Europe

Craig Dale, chief executive of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group, has said that it is a shame that SAP has decided not to host its annual Sapphire Now event in Europe this year. read more »

Major Projects chief put in charge of Universal Credit

The Major Projects Authority’s (MPA) executive director, David Pitchford, has been appointed as the temporary lead on the development of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) high profile universal credit system following the death of Philip Langsdale at Christmas. read more »

Job reports present mixed view of tech employment

Two job reports released this week highlight the growing uncertainty in the technology employment market, with one painting a positive picture of candidates feeling increasingly secure in their positions, and the other pointing to the swindling availability of job vacancies. read more »

Government introduces new rules to ban tax avoiding suppliers

The government has announced new rules that will not only allow departments to ban suppliers from bidding for public sector contracts if they are found to be guilty of tax avoidance, but to also cancel contracts if a supplier tries to avoid tax after being signed up for work. read more »

Health watchdog: G-Cloud was our Plan B, but it beat Plan A

The Care Quality Commission (CQC), an organisation that regulates over 40,000 health organisation in the UK, has revealed that prior to selecting an open source CMS tool via the government’s G-Cloud framework, it had also been running a traditional commercial tender process to find a vendor as its Plan A. read more »

VFX for Oscar nominated film created using Amazon cloud

Atomic Fiction is leading the way for Hollywood visual effects (VFX) studios that are looking to cut costs on production, whilst maintaining a high level of artistic quality, by rendering images in Amazon’s EC2 cloud. read more »