Microsoft's UK data centres power up cloud services

An interesting development was reported yesterday; here are some extracts:

Microsoft has announced that its first UK cloud computing data centres are up and running.

The facilities are located in London, Durham and Cardiff. They should help the US company sell its online services to the public sector and other bodies that handle sensitive data.

The Ministry of Defence and an NHS trust are among those set to adopt the internet-powered products as a result.

The UK data centres also mean Microsoft is able to offer its online suite of Office 365 productivity apps without sending data overseas. It hopes this will reassure clients that their information is secure.

Interesting ICO document explaining how shops can use your phone to track your every move

Technology has been developed which could allow a store to track your shopping movements using the Wi-Fi on your mobile phone.

This technology, which is starting to be rolled out in shops, allows retailers to use the customer journey to build up a picture as to how people typically use the store. It uses the MAC address of a smartphone which can, in many cases, be linked to a specific individual.

See full article.

Data Capability: a call to action

An interesting report has just been published by the Higher Education Data & Information Improvement Programme (HEDIIP) that reports a self assessment exercise to measure ‘data capability’ in institutes.

The Exec Summary offers a convenient overview. The ‘key findings’ do not sound too unfamiliar…

A toolkit provides a ueful way of measuring digital capability improvement with time.

Chief Digital Officer and Digital Strategy

An interesting article in the Financial Times explains the role of the CDO... 


"It is a very different role from that of the chief information officer, whose job — though complex — is more about following procedures and keeping the company’s IT systems running."

"The digital role, by contrast, is to lead transformation. The job involves looking for business opportunities that have been enabled by the digital revolution. It also involves focusing on customers and how their needs might change because of technological developments."

Gartner recognises that Chief Data Officers (CDOs) are on the rise in regulated industries. Gartner predicts that 50% of all companies in regulated industries will have a CDO by 2017

So - a really interesting question is what does this mean for Higher Education? 

The HE and FE Show 2015 last week offered some interesting insights.  One talk in particular, titled, 'Digital Lancaster' showed how their digital vision is transforming the university, and, even refocussing Lancaster’s strategic objectives.

NewStatesman: The A-Z of cyber security

The NewStatesman has produced, ‘A plain English guide to online risk and resilience’, and actually it is quite a good overview.  Take a look!

IT Leaders Event - Digital Business Transformation 'Step In and Drive IT'

The 'Executive Leaders Network' delivering the 'IT Leaders Event' met last week with over 100 CIO and CTO directors from key UK organisations.   There were keynote presentations mixed with roundtable discussions.

A common theme through the day was digital transformation and the CIO role, with a particular emphasis on CIOs needing to reinvent themselves to stay abreast of new delivery methods, to drive new digital opportunities and to see IT from the customer or user perspective.

Chris Day spoke of 'Addressing the Digital Challenge' at AstraZeneca. He defined six traits of digital ready IT leaders: (a) Delivering strategic vision of how technology will transform business, (b) Relentlessly focusing on innovation, (c) Focusing on driving growth, (d) Ensuring vision is understood, (e) Moving beyond infrastructure and operations, and (f) Embracing smart risk taking.

New IT skills need to be developed to deliver the transformational digital opportunities.

The meeting gave strong support to the view that today's CIO must play a dual role: builder of technology and builder of the business.  A very good article, 'The dual roles of the CIO in the digital age' examines this principle further.

UK businesses ‘number one target for cybercriminals’

welivesecurity reports that new data collected by ThreatMatrix show that UK businesses are more likely to be the victim of cybercrime than their international counterparts.

Financial institutions were found to be the main target, with cybercriminals focusing their efforts on online lenders.

Dr. Stephen Moody, solutions director (EMEA) at ThreatMetrix said, “The more businesses and consumers turn to the digital space to store and manage their financial information, the more fraudsters will be on high alert—ensuring digital identities are effectively protected should be high priority for everyone.”