Here’s a comment you won’t hear too often from me. I was having a chat with Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne the other day… When asked if he was happy with how our banks had performed over the last twelve months, he seemed surprisingly open and forthcoming. He wasn’t happy with them, not happy at all. He outlined plans for a major restructure of the banks along with the removal of the failed 3-way FSA/Bank of England/Treasury regulatory quango – where no one mak... Read Full Story

As we emerge from this recession, what do you feel offers the greatest potential to drive your business forward? Looking back, you’ll see that technology is key to moving from where we were to where we want to be. But rarely can this be done immediately. Big bangs can do more damage than good. On my way home from the gym last week I was listening to Radio 4’s The Bottom Line. Particularly to Nani Beccalli-Falco, CEO and president of General Electric International. He sees technolo... Read Full Story

No question. iPhones are an amazing design. Google’s Android is a powerful, open source mobile operating system. Two things coming at you from different angles. I bet a lot of people are waiting for a phone as great looking as an iPhone but using the innovative Android 2 operating system with all its open development possibilities… Well, wait no more. OK, just until November, anyway… Read Full Story

Virtualisation, green data centres, high-density server blades, Microsoft Server 2007, 10Gb networks, 3.5G, high-speed wireless. What a list. What a cost. Why no benefits? Pick a word for the last five years and for many, that word is consolidation. computer power moving to (expensive) data centres, even more (expensive) software upgrades. Companies merging, even our banks are joining up with each other. Yet when you cut through the hype and marketing-speak, there is little or nothing to show... Read Full Story

Its funny how we’ll make assumptions about things. Like PC’s crashing. but phones, well, they’re just always on, right? Err, no. If the back-end’s built on a Microsoft infrastructure, think again. T-Mobile’s Cloud-based Sidekick phone customers had to when their entire infrastructure crashed, losing all their phone data. Ouch! Microsoft upgraded it’s Danger Infrastructure last weekend, but the flaky platform fell over. And now all T-Mobile’s Sidekick ... Read Full Story

So Ken’s calling it a day. Will whoever takes his place fill his shoes and walk the extra mile or simply quake in his shadow? Ken Lewis was part of Wall Street’s old guard. Odd, considering BofA is from Charlotte, North Carolina, not New York. But talent’s thin on the ground on Wall Street, so they have to take what they can get. Some might say given the events of recent time, talent was never a commodity in banking. And you’d find the majority agreeing with you. So he... Read Full Story

OK, now here’s a strange question designed to really get you thinking. What do ATMs, contraceptive machines and Tesco have in common? The answer is, they turn up in unexpected – but ultimately useful places. ATMs are in convenience stores and corner shops, condom machines are in toilets and Tesco could soon be on every website. It’s all about putting what you need where you don’t expect it and it finding it really useful. Its about Open Source API’s. Or what you ... Read Full Story

Just how fast is that new PC or Mac under your desk, was that wad of money laid out on Intel’s latest and greatest processor well spent? Probably not. Despite the quad core, multi-pipelining caching capabilities pushed at you, your software won’t be using it. It just doesn’t know how. That’s the dummy you’ve been sold, that’s the con-trick. The big software players just want to sell you interface gimmicks and ill-conceived features you’ll never use. T... Read Full Story

There’s probably no bigger critic of Steve Balmer’s Microsoft than me. Its customer as a cow to be milked dry attitude angers me almost daily. But even I’m prepared to lift my hat to it for this particular announcement. It shows that in a commercial and financial world driven by greed, deception and quite frankly, confidence tricks, some good still prevails. Like everyone, Microsoft’s suffered in the current climate. The double-whammy of fiscal disaster and the growth ... Read Full Story

You know, I’m mightily impressed with the Obama administration so far. He possesses that one great quality for a leader. Vision. I don’t pretend to like all his policies, nor to even understand as a UK citizen what logic may lie behind them, but he’s doing some things right. His IT decisions, for example. President Obama has appointed one shrewd guy in Vivek Kundra to fill the vital role of Federal CIO. This guy knows his way around IT. Quite a novelty for your average CIO. ... Read Full Story