Top 10 IT news stories of the week: Microsoft and HMRC look at past errors while smaller database providers look to big future
This week's stop stories, as judged by Computing readers
In a week when much of the focus was on Guy Fawkes' historic attempts to blow up the Houses of Parliament, it's strangely appropriate that government - or at least its IT systems - was a key focal point for Computing readers. Microsoft, cyber fraud and an important Google executive left the company. It's this week's Computing Top 10 IT news stories of the week
10. Android creator Andy Rubin leaves Google, switching robotics for startups
Andy Rubin, the man who co-founded the Android mobile operating system before it was acquired by Google, has left the web giant. Where is he going, we hear you ask? Well, he's leaving in order to focus on development of technology hardware for startups.
Previously head of Google's robotics division, Rubin is leaving to start an incubator to assist new businesses in building technology hardware. Given that he's the man who turned a startup into a mobile platform that dominates much of the world's smartphone operating systems, it's likely to be considered a beneficial move for all involved. Good luck, Andy!
The Airwave emergency services communication system is costing taxpayers more than six times the price of a more modern system, government chief technology officer Liam Maxwell has said.
Maxwell argued that the system, which costs £450m a year, could be replaced by more modern technology providing the same service for "just" £70m. Maxwell made the admission while giving evidence before the Public Accounts Committee and has promised to provide a cheaper system based on 4G or LTE technology.
8. 'We've saved more than £14bn over the last year,' claims government CTO Liam Maxwell
Mr Maxwell has proved popular with Computing readers this week, with website visitors keen to read his claims that the government has saved over £14bn in the past year on IT procurement.
He blamed previous high costs of IT on 25 years of outsourcing that have seen government departments "buy IT at very high cost and at very high margin without any reference, peer review, understanding or spending control".
However, one suspects that Maxwell would always make positive claims about government savings, having previously served as a Conservative councillor at Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council.
Speaking to Computing, Microsoft VP of the operating systems group, Joe Belfiore, described why he thinks CIOs should buy into the Microsoft Windows Phone.
"I think, right now, probably most CIOs are heavily influenced in their perspective of phones by what the end users are looking for," he said, suggesting that it's those pesky employees who are demanding iPhones.
But, he told Computing, those who get given Windows phones are impressed with that they see.
"We have heard from a lot of people that get Windows phones, that they're satisfied," he said.
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Top 10 IT news stories of the week: Microsoft and HMRC look at past errors while smaller database providers look to big future
This week's stop stories, as judged by Computing readers
6. Contactless Visa credit and debit cards open to £1m theft flaw
Another week, another cyber security alert. This time it was revealed that Visa credit and debit cards have a built-in flaw that thieves could potentially use to steal £999,999.99, €999,999.99 or $999,999.99 - provided that they do it in a foreign currency.
The flaw was found by security researchers at Newcastle University and demonstrated in a proof of concept. Furthermore, attackers could potentially remove funds from people's accounts using rogue mobile terminals that can make contact with cards through their bags without the victims even knowing that money is being lifted from their accounts.
Basically, it's another example of how technology may indeed be making our lives easier, while at the same time providing new avenues for ne'er-do-wells to commit cyber fraud.
However, Visa Europe, which developed the system, claimed that the theoretical attack demonstrated by Newcastle University would not work in the real world.
"We do not believe the findings to be a cause for concern, as it would be very difficult to complete a fraudulent payment of this kind outside a laboratory environment," Visa said in a statement.
Former HMRC CIO Phil Pavitt resorted to colourful language when he criticised Whitehall IT policy this week.
Pavitt claimed that many government departments are likely to fail in their quest to be truly digital because they are still reliant on legacy systems.
"Where the UK government has played it wrong in many of its departments, is that it has pimped out its front-end, but it has not changed its legacy engines - that is not truly digital," said Pavitt.
"That will fundamentally catch them out as it has caught out many companies in the UK and Europe already," he added, before going on to explain that digital doesn't mean necessarily mean heavy investment.
"Most organisations say that you have to spend a whole pile of money to do this, and I've personally never had that experience; I believe it's a fundamental lie from the IT supplier industry in that space," he said
4. HMRC to scrap Aspire outsourcing contract in 2017 - 25 per cent savings expected
Sticking with HMRC, everybody's favourite government department, it revealed plans to scrap the Aspire outsourcing deal when the contract comes up for renewal in June 2017, in a move that should save taxpayers £200m.
That's what HMRC chief digital and information officer, Mark Dearnley, told the Public Accounts Committee.
HMRC CEO and permanent secretary Lin Homer warned that any future IT contracts are likely to be much shorter in length than the one currently signed with Aspire.
"Large contracts of this nature are not the right way to run the business in the future," admitted Homer. She also admitted that the Aspire contract had been "a fairly expensive contract", but added: "It has given us high quality and stability, and those were the things that were asked for when this contract was set."
[Please turn to page 3 for the top 3 stories of the week]
Top 10 IT news stories of the week: Microsoft and HMRC look at past errors while smaller database providers look to big future
This week's stop stories, as judged by Computing readers
3. The Microsoft sweet spot: Where Joe Belfiore feels Windows 8 missed the mark
Computing readers were very interested to hear from Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president of the operating system group, especially with regards to his comments on Windows 8.
It's no secret that Microsoft's most recent operating system wasn't met with a good reaction from users - which probably goes some way to explaining why the firm has already revealed Windows 10.
Speaking to Computing in Barecelona, Belfiore was candid about what he considered to be Windows 8's shortcomings, while enthusing about the operating system's follow-up - Windows 10.
"If you look at Windows 8 - where I think we got a lot of technology pieces built that are strong and compelling - it wasn't all aligned. There wasn't that wave of hardware that supported the software at the right time, at the right price point, so that software developers can [support the OS]," he said.
Belfiore believes Microsoft's "recipe for Windows 10 is much better so far".
2. Capgemini revenues to drop by almost one-tenth when HMRC contract expires in 2017
HMRC really has been at the forefront of IT news this week, as it was revealed that Capgemini, the giant French IT outsourcing company, is set to lose almost one-tenth of its global revenues when the Aspire outsourcing deal with HMRC is scrapped in June 2017.
But while good old British taxpayers are set to benefit from a cheaper deal, poor old Capgemini are set to lose out on just under nine per cent of its global revenues - and a whopping 60 per cent of its UK public sector revenues.
The admission was made by Andrew Levitt, chief executive officer of Aspire, Capgemini, in evidence before the UK Public Accounts Committee.
1. Looking beyond Oracle: two high-end SQL databases you may never have heard of
And the most popular Computing article this week is about selecting databases! With Oracle seen by many as the top dog - or at least the biggest and most aggressive one - in the field, many businesses will automatically plump for them.
But with the arrival of new processing and storage platforms, in particular Hadoop, there are now more jobs, and hence the database toolbox has expanded dramatically, and in this extensive article, Computing research editor John Leonard examined how two firms are using less well known SQL databases.
Blue Yonder, which uses the in-memory analytics database EXASolution, and Harte Hanks, a company which is moving off of Oracle RAC and on to newcomer Splice Machine, both spoke to Computing about their decisions to go off-piste. EXASOL AG CTO Mathias Golombek also chipped into the discussion.
"Customers aren't running everything on Oracle any more, he said, "They don't believe in that story. Instead they pick out the best-of-breed solutions."
"We are positioned as a high-end German-engineered product for companies that make money out of data, where the performance and real-time capabilities are very important," he added.