Quotes of the Week - 19 November 2010

Find out what got industry tongues wagging this week and read some of the top comments from our readers

"Regulators such as Ofgem and Ofcom should have people on their staff who understand IT, and can take a modern view of the risks that industries are sleepwalking into."

Ross Anderson from the University of Cambridge thinks regulators need more IT expertise in their organisations.

"I make a distinction between cloud and G-Cloud. I don't subscribe to a government version of the cloud. Why have two or more when private clouds are perfectly adequate for sensitive data and public cloud services are fine for transactional activity?"

David Wilde, chief information officer at the City of Westminster has his doubts about the value of the G-cloud.

"I am immensely proud of the way we have supported the new coalition government in its first six months and have greatly enjoyed working with Francis Maude and his team."

Government CIO John Suffolk announces he is stepping down from his role.

"We'd long suspected that he would prefer not to spend another four years in the role and might take the opportunity to hand the baton to someone new once the coalition government had bedded in."

Tola Sargeant, research director with analyst group TechMarketView, is unsurprised by Suffolk's departure.

"Way back when, AOL let us know we, in fact, had mail. Yahoo! and Hotmail made it global and free. Microsoft made it work for business with Exchange and Outlook. BlackBerry made it portable. And Gmail took off the storage limits. Facebook announced that it intends to make two more contributions. They will make messaging social and, undeterred by Google Wave, more real-time."

Jeff Bonforte, CEO of Xobni claims Facebook is taking email to the next stage.

"The days of idle machines sitting on the datacentre floor during off-peak hours will be a thing of the past. At current energy rates a 40kW rack could cost upward of £3,300 per server, per year."

Dave Cappuccio, chief of infrastructure research at Gartner says that organisations need to realise that innovation in datacentre design will yield both reduced capital and operating expenditure.

"Lightly regulated internet is good for business, good for the economy and good for people."

Communication minister Ed Vaizey attempts to justify scrapping the principle of net neutrality.

"If you absolutely need superior quality of service as a business to either deliver or consume a service, you should be able to pay an incremental fee to get it."

Dale Vile, managing director of analyst group Freeform Dynamics backs Vaizey, despite the BBC warning it will alert customers of any ISPs that restrict their ability to use its online video service iPlayer.

Top reader comments

Reader Roger Richards backs TalkTalk in the Digital Economy Act debate.

"I think TalkTalk is right in its endeavours to get the government to rethink on this matter. Rushing in is never any good. As this has proven."

Chris Measures is sceptical of Facebook's ambitions but acknowledges the site's increasing power in the world of IT.

"I think Facebook's prediction of the end of the phone is a way off yet – what the new email functions do is increase the pressure on Google in its ongoing battle to be King of the Web."

Following HMRC issuing a phishing scam warning last year, Louise Neale passes on advice to other readers from her own experiences.

"I got this today 16/11/10. Form asked for credit card details as they appear for card holder plus mothers maiden name ! As it happens I am in the process of sorting out a overpayment of tax for my husband but no name appeared on this email - so beware and ignore. Forward to HMRC then delete."

VeriSign's Joseph A'Deo comments on the site to impart advice to Christmas shoppers after Symantec announced that global spam messages have declined by almost 50 per cent since August this year.

"Shoppers should make sure all the online stores they buy from are protected with extended validation ssl's green url bar. EV SSL also requires a much more thorough background check than regular certs, so the "fake" sites of course can't get them. It's likely that these trends will continue through February yet again, so staying safe is key."