The ITPro Podcast

With the generative AI gold rush continuing at speed in enterprise IT. Ranging from chatbots to AI training services, every provider is looking for that killer use case that makes it indispensable for AI. At HPE Discover 2024, the story has been no different. In collaboration with Nvidia, the company believes it has something unique to offer its enterprise customers. In this episode, recorded live...

When Cisco announced it would be buying Splunk, doubts were raised over the company's future within its new home. Splunk .conf24, the company's annual conference, was a proving ground to see if these fears were well founded. According to ITPro's intrepid features editor, however, Splunk's brand is as strong as it ever was, with both Cisco's CEO and Splunk's GM offering reassurances that neither co...

One of the most unexpected things to happen in May was a sudden outage at the Australian pension fund UniSuper. After days of confusion and concern that the fund may have been hit by a cyber attack among its customer base, it emerged that Google Cloud had accidentally deleted UniSuper’s entire cloud subscription. We dive into what lessons businesses can learn from this freak event. Also in May, Op...

As the tech sector creates data at greater rates than ever before, using more cloud and on premise workloads, it’s more important than ever that firms consider their sustainability strategy and carbon footprint. Until the world has achieved net zero energy, every watt that goes into powering hardware and software adds to overall global emissions, with data center growth accounting for more and mor...

As enterprise AI becomes more widely adopted, businesses are being forced to examine whether their architecture is up to the task. The feverish hype around AI in the public cloud that started in November 2022 has given way to greater investment in open ecosystems for AI and smaller models run at a business’s edge. From chatbots stored on a laptop for offline use to AI handling data produced by sen...

The LockBit ransomware group recently suffered another major blow at the hands of international law enforcement, as the UK’s NCA revealed the name and face of the group’s long-sought-after leader. Dmitry Khoroshev, known as ‘LockBitSupp’ on the dark web, was unmasked by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) while the US Department of Justice announced a 26-count indictment against him. While this i...

Some experts will tell you the first step in adopting AI is making sure your data is in order. But what about your skills? When it comes time to put AI in the hands of their workforce, leaders need to know that they’ll be able to hit the ground running and unlock productivity benefits without delay. Achieving this will involve investing in AI skills – but where should businesses begin and how far-...

April has been a month of both highs and lows. At the start of the month, AWS was ordered to pay $525 million in damages, after it was found to have infringed US patent law through some of its core cloud offerings. The month has also seen a high-profile cyber incident – a ransomware attack against Change Healthcare in which personal information was stolen. All of this has unfolded against the back...

As AI initiatives gather steam, the public and private sectors are assessing the level of investment necessary to unlock the value of the new technology. It’s clear that large funds and a strategic approach will be necessary to bring the workforce along with employers. The UK government has announced several billion pounds in collective funding for AI projects and infrastructure deemed necessary f...

The EU’s AI Act has been approved, bringing in sweeping requirements, controls, and regulations for the development and use of AI tools throughout the region. But what are the precise measures it brings in, how can businesses prepare for the new rules, and what are the penalties for non-compliance? In this episode, Rory speaks to Nader Henein, VP Analyst at Garner, to explore the implications of t...

This week has seen Google Cloud’s annual Next conference in full swing, with the hyperscaler having made major announcements on generative AI and the infrastructure necessary to support it. Having spent the past year playing catch-up with Microsoft and OpenAI, Google Cloud is now in a place where it’s ready to press its advantage in AI, years after the company first declared itself “AI first”. But...

March has been a month of concern for those in the cyber security community following revelations of extensive hacking campaigns carried out by state-backed groups. In the latter part of the month, it was reported that APT 31, a Chinese state-backed threat group, had accessed information on tens of millions of UK voters in a breach of the Electoral Commission. Threat actors had also targeted US po...

Is your firm missing out on AI? It’s a question that has weighed heavy on the minds of tech leaders for the past 18 months and as new developments are announced leaders are presented with an ever-increasing buffet of AI products. While the pressure to commit to AI adoption can be intense, it’s essential that leaders integrate AI in a strategic fashion. But what does this mean in a practical sense...

This classic episode of the ITPro Podcast was first published on 9 June 2023. Quantum computing is an inevitable technology, with the private sector and nation-states racing to be the first to unlock its potential. While it can be used for all kinds of good, quantum computing could also be used to unravel critical systems. The UK is one of several nations investing in quantum computing, with its g...

As technological innovations happen, it can be easy to forget that even the most complex systems rely on large networks of basic infrastructure to operate. At the most fundamental level, all tech products rely on effective data storage  But this is easier said than done. Each byte of data has to be stored somewhere, on a rack, disk, tape, or flash device. As the world embraces hardware and so...

The tech sector still has a long way to go when it comes to gender equality. While progress has been made over the years, women in tech face hurdles such as discrimination and outdated hiring processes. All of this works to drive women out of tech and uphold ingrained, sectoral biases. Female founders come up against these same challenges time and time again, which robs the industry of innovative...

February has been an eventful month in the tech sector as ransomware operator LockBit, which has accrued billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains in its approximately four-year history, was taken down by an international task force spearheaded by the UK’s National Crime Agency. Elsewhere, ChatGPT suffered a major setback as users noticed the industry-leading chatbot had taken to answering prompts w...

STEM careers are often touted as those with the best prospects, but when it comes to job satisfaction things may not be quite so rosy. A stark number of workers in the tech industry are currently looking to move jobs – either into a different tech role or into another field entirely. Many more are facing the looming prospect of job cuts, while an increasing number are reporting poor working condit...

As organizations look to integrate AI tools into their business models, key questions will have to be answered around how this fits in with their wider strategy. This doesn’t just mean data analysis or adoption of generative AI tools, but less directly connected initiatives such as sustainability goals. The adoption of AI is also running up against concerns around skills. Many organizations, if no...

It’s becoming something of a tradition for companies to ring in the new year with a wave of layoffs. In 2024, as in 2023, workforce reduction has been a major theme in the tech sector and beyond for January. As technologies such as AI take root, the nature and pace of layoffs is likely to change in the near future. Competing pressures of economic downturns and productivity shortfalls could change...

If you’ve seen Oppenheimer, Dune, or Blade Runner 2049, then you’ve seen the work of DNEG. The British visual effects firm, formerly known as Double Negative, has had to contend with growing compute and data demands in its 26 year history, with thousands of hours of rendering required to bring the latest visuals from servers to the cinema screen. In recent years, DNEG’s legacy infrastructure began...

Computers and technology have well and truly permeated our professional and private lives. While this has led to great strides in efficiency, opened up new opportunities for businesses and individuals, and helped us become more connected than ever before, there are also downsides. As the world becomes more digital and even menial tasks are increasingly outsourced to computer systems, a simultaneou...

Business intelligence tools already help leaders learn more about the data that drives their business and make more informed decisions. BI dashboards, in particular, help business leaders quantify their successes and identify areas for improvement from one central point of access. When it comes to adopting AI effectively, proper oversight and understanding of your data can be of the utmost importa...

This classic episode of the ITPro Podcast was first published on 6 January 2023. Passwords can be tricky at the best of times. Proper password hygiene is one of the most important factors in endpoint security, as it keeps sensitive data secure and prevents threat actors from getting into important systems. Despite the risks, the use of weak or recycled passwords continues to be a problem even amon...

The UK’s data privacy landscape has long come with strict responsibilities for businesses, requiring detailed justifications for all customer data stored and processed. After the UK formally exited the European Union in 2020, the UK retained regulations for controllers and processors via the UK GDPR which sits alongside the Data Protection Act 2018. Businesses have often criticized the red tape pr...