Computing readers' top 10 stories of 2014
Here are the homegrown articles that grabbed IT leaders' attention this year
We already know about the biggest hacks, the most outrageous public-sector scandals and the most engaging enterprise mobility stories. But what about homegrown stories from Computing itself? After a year of interviews, research, conferences and summits, here's your top 10 most read stories, covering the gamut of real IT leader issues.
Controversial, but Computing asked this question by way of contrasting two differing case studies - a company which was learning to rely on application development platforms with a mind to cutting down dependence on coders, and a company determined to steadfastly remain a code shop.
Both arguments were sound and reasonable, but as the debate spilled over into the comments section, it became clear that this is an issue that's just not going away as technology becomes more consumerised.
9. Microsoft's VP of operating systems on Windows 8's failure to "align"
We caught excellently media-trained Joe Belfiore slightly off guard at TechEd in Barcelona a few months back, where the Microsoft VP of operating systems admitted Windows 8 wasn't "all aligned" and suffered primarily from a failure in hardware support.
We took his comments as being a roundabout way of saying that Windows 10 is going to be better, so watch this space for further coverage as the new OS's 2015 release draws ever closer.
8. The Exceptional CIO - Computing exclusive report
As part of our IT Leaders Summit and reveal of our Top 100 CIOs list, Computing asked a group of leading CIOs about what they thought made an exceptional CIO.
We learned that an ability to keep and open mind, embrace change and keep a careful eye on budgets are only the beginning of what makes a perfect CIO.
7. IT Leaders Summit - will the CIO ever replace the CMO?
It's becoming a standard trope to discuss the fear that, as the CIO and CMO begin to work closer together and technology consumerises and outsources, perhaps the CMO could replace the CIO altogether.
But speaking at the IT Leaders Conference, global director of technology at MEC Trevor Attridge said he believes the opposite.
"I think the CMO needs to possibly watch out, because someone who's reasonably savvy with a passing background in business could cross over into that role, especially if they had a data background," he said.
6. Computing interviews Santa's CIO, and learns a surprising amount about BI and big data
This was an Influence video with a difference, as Computing editor Stuart Sumner travelled to Lapland to interview one of the most unique CIOs in the industry.
This sideways look at being Santa's CIO touched on some increasingly important industry issues such as data privacy and loss (leaving naughty lists on the train, anyone?), converting unwilling (elven) employees to mobility, and using BI and big data responsibly as a company with a huge amount of legal and ethical responsibility.
5. Personal data should become private property, not Google's or GCHQ's, says David Davis MP
In an exclusive interview with former shadow home secretary David Davis, Computing came away satisfied that at least there is somebody in Westminster who truly understands the value of personal data, and how to keep it in the control of individuals, and not corporations or other shadowy forces.
"The deal will be, 'I lend you my identity to use for the period that I use your services, but the moment I want them back, you [Google] have got to delete everything, and make sure that any onward use of that data is deleted too," Davis told us, in an interview that throughout maintained an impressively fresh and frank tone.
4. It's easier to learn to code than to learn soft skills, says eBay's head of EU analytics
Davide Cervellin, head of EU analytics for eBay, has no doubt that learning to code is difficult, but he suspects learning the soft skills required to work with senior, non-IT employees is tougher still.
In a panel debate at Computing's Big Data Summit in March 2014, which slotted neatly into the ongoing ‘data science skills gap' discussion, Cervellin said:
"I look for the ability to tell a story, not just to pull out data because when you receive a request from a business partner it can be very vague, and the ability to understand the problem that needs fixing isn't always there, so the only way to make this efficient is for an analyst to understand what they are doing."
3. Tough Love: How BG Group's HR boss binned SAP and passed over Workday to embrace Oracle HCM
It's not often you'd see a huge international business leave SAP, reject something as trendy as Workday, and then choose Oracle for an HR platform.
But that's exactly what BG Group's head of HR shared services, Luci Love, decided to do after ditching an "over-engineered" legacy SAP system of 10 years.
With Love having no IT background, perhaps this story goes to prove that putting IT purchasing decisions in the hands of the end user rather than the often-sniffy IT department can provide different results.
2. Viber explains why it ditched MongoDB and Redis in favour of Couchbase
It's not very trendy to toss the popular and fast-growing open source database MongoDB on the scrapheap, but mobile messaging firm Viber did it anyway, preferring the more capable caching capabilities of Couchbase - also an open-source, SQL-based offering, just without the particular indie darling appeal MongoDB is experiencing right now.
"We needed a single robust database solution that could perform millions of operations per second with consistent low latency on huge data sets; a database that can scale easily without any performance impact and is easy to monitor," Amir Ish-Shalom, system architect at Viber, told Computing.
1. Too many IT workers not willing to up-skill, says Moneysupermarket.com CIO
Moneysupermarket.com's CIO Tim Jones whipped the gauntlet across the face of the industry in this interview, suggesting a level of attrition is working its way into the IT industry simply because IT workers aren't willing to continually pick up new skills.
"You need to ask which ones of your staff are going to pick up skills in testing, development, cloud and big data, and which ones are going to say they have expertise in using Windows Server and don't want to learn anything new."
The comments section went predictably insane with comments from angry coders, with even Jones himself wading in to continue the conversation. It's the sort of community debate we love and encourage at Computing, and if 2014 has taught us anything, it's that there's never a ‘right' or ‘wrong' answer in any of these high-level arguments. What's important is everybody gets a platform for discussion, and we're proud to continue offering it.
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all at Computing.