Month: March 2020

Posted on

New podcast episode: securing home working

In the latest episode of my Security Insights podcast, I speak to Amar Singh about steps organisations can take to secure home working.

Amar is the CEO of the Cyber Management Alliance, a cyber security adviser and crisis management firm. Amar is well-known as a security practitioner, speaker, and former CISO.

The CMA recently issued a free-to-use checklist on the steps security and IT teams can take to ensure working from home isn’t opening up businesses to undue risks. To listen to the interview, go over to the podcast on the Security Insights page.

If you are, or know, an expert in security who’d be a good guest for the podcast, please drop me an email. The podcast sets out to address strategic security issues and thought leadership in both the physical and cyber domains.

Posted on

Upcoming articles: Compliance and Object Storage

I am writing two articles for Computer Weekly’s storage section, one on storage and data compliance for the enterprise, and the other on the growing field of high-performance object storage.

Data compliance

This piece will look at the top 5 UK compliance concerns in 2020.

What are the five key laws/regulations that must be adhered to by UK organisations in 2020, including both current and upcoming legislation. For each we will look at the implications of the law/reg for storage, backup, and archiving.

This could, for example, include legal search and e-discovery, or the Right to be Forgotten under GDPR.

We will also look at how the cloud fits in.

High performance object storage

Object storage has been known as a good way of storing lots of unstructured data, but with less emphasis on performance.

But AI and analytics workloads are prompting storage architects to look at performance too. The feature will cover:

  • Where object storage is heading in performance terms and what’s driving it.
  • Which performance metrics matter
  • How have object storage vendors improved performance?
  • Who are the key object storage vendors that are tackling the challenge of better performance and what do they offer?

The deadline for leads for both articles is Friday 20th March, please contact me by email if you can help.
.

Posted on

Upcoming commission: the environmental impact of tech

I am writing the following piece for a corporate audience – it will appear on the customer portal of a UK-based banking group.

While Big Tech can demonstrate high-profile efforts to promote sustainability, the true cost of the tech sector to the planet is thought to rival the aviation industry’s carbon footprint. With data centres and AI innovation guzzling energy at the present rate, it’s estimated that powering internet technologies creates 2% of global emissions. How and where in its activities is the sector most energy-hungry, and what steps can be taken to reduce its carbon footprint? Who is innovating in this area and how can their efforts be emulated by smaller companies?

Although we’re highlighting the environmental impacts of the tech sector, the piece will be geared towards potential and actual solutions rather than too much finger-pointing. The focus is larger SMEs and smaller corporates.

The deadline for written comment is 1700 London time on Monday 16th March. However if you would like to set up an interview please contact me as soon as possible, by email.