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Tech braced for Brexit UK IT industry prepares for tumultuous ride after prime minister triggers Article 50

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1,000 sub-postmasters apply to join legal action against Post OfficeThe high court has approved a group litigation order brought against the Post Office by sub-postmasters who allege they have been wrongly punished for computer errors. About 1,000 people have now applied to take part in the action, which was granted by a high court judge in January and has now been approved by the president of the Queen’s bench division of the high court.

GDS digital transformation delivers mixed results, says NAOThe Government Digital Service (GDS) must be clear about its role if it is to succeed in helping the government adopt digital services, said the National Audit Office (NAO) in a report. The Digital transformation in government report, published last week, called on GDS to work with the rest of government to “establish common principles for balancing departmental and cross-government priorities”.

Cyber attacks cost financial firms up to £1.6m a timeFinancial firms face losses of £742,000 on average for each cyber security incident they face, a survey of finance professionals by secu-rity firm Kaspersky Lab and market researcher B2B International has revealed. The most costly threats for financial organisations are those that exploit vulnerabilities in point-of-sale systems, which typically result in losses of around £1.6m.

KPMG launches campaign to encourage women into techIndustry research has led profes-sional services firm KPMG to launch a campaign to encourage more women to pursue technology roles. The company’s “IT’s her future” campaign will help develop initia-tives such as inclusive job descrip-tions, targeted advertising, mentor-ing for junior team members and a more inclusive interview process to help encourage more women into the firm’s technology remit.

IATA: Find alternative to in-flight electronics banThe International Air Transport Association (IATA), a transnational body representing 265 airlines worldwide, has called for governments to urgently find ways to allow passengers to continue to take large electronic items such as laptops and tablets aboard aircraft in their carry-on baggage. The announce-ment came a week after the US and UK governments banned such items from the cabin on flights departing certain Middle Eastern and North African countries.

❯Catch up with the latest IT news online.

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Microsoft facing $5m class action over Windows 10 upgradesThree Windows users in the US are attempting to bring a class action against Microsoft to claim more than $5m in compensation for allegedly faulty upgrades to Windows 10 that resulted in data loss and computer damage.

Consumers want to use retail apps in-store to improve experienceConsumers are increasingly expect-ing to be able to use technology such as mobile applications in a store environment to speed up checkout and gain a personalised experience, according to a study by app developer Apadmi.

ISPs to automatically compensate customers for broadband faultsConsumers will be entitled to auto-matic compensation for delayed repairs to a faulty broadband service, missed engineer appointments and delays to the start of a new service, if Ofcom plans get the go-ahead.

Automation to erode jobs marketThe UK Economic Outlook report from PwC has called on government to reshape education and vocational training to help workers adapt to the rapidly evolving technological world, brought on by automation, estimating that 30% of UK jobs could be at high risk of automation by the early 2030s.

PAC: Crown Commercial Service has failed to achieve potential,The Crown Commercial Service, set up to centralise purchasing and elimi-nate duplication for central govern-ment procurement, has “consistently” failed to deliver quality services and cost savings, according to a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report.

FBI director reiterates call for action on encryptionFBI director James Comey has reit-erated his call for technology firms to find a way to balance privacy with public safety. He believes sur-veillance is necessary for effective law enforcement. n

NAO: Government needs 2,000 more digital staffThe digital skills gap in the UK civil service means the government needs an extra 2,000 digital staff within five years, costing up to £244m annually, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

❯ US internet users’ browsing history may soon be for sale.

❯ Nearly a third of malware attacks are zero-day exploits.

❯ Girls compete in cyber skills event to promote tech careers.

❯ 27% of SME staff lack cyber threat training.

❯Catch up with the latest IT news online.

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Article 50 triggers uncertainty for IT sectorThe technology industry is preparing to move into uncharted territory after prime minister Theresa May formally notified the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw its membership last week. Lis Evenstad reports

Two years of uncertainty began last Wednesday, when prime minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 and launched the formal process to exit the European Union

(EU). For the UK’s tech industry this means it’s time to officially begin to prepare for Brexit.

Earlier this year, industry body TechUK outlined its views on key Brexit negotiation priorities, highlighting access to the EU market, skills and cross-border data transfer. Having that access could be key in ensuring the UK continues to be a digital leader. TechUK CEO Julian David described the triggering of Article 50

as the start of a “historic process that will shape the future of the UK and Europe for generations to come”.

“The EU and the UK government now have a responsibility to work together to secure a deal that supports the jobs and liveli-hoods of citizens across the UK and the EU,” he said.

The UK is already facing a skills shortage. In fact, the digital skills gap costs the UK economy £63bn a year, according to a report published last year by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.

James Parsons, CEO and founder of digital solutions company Arrows Group, said many of the implications of Brexit are still unclear. However, he added: “From a digital skills perspective, we’re already seeing how Brexit is making top digital talent reluc-tant to come to the UK and flock elsewhere instead.”

According to the company’s own community data, there has already been a 10% reduction of skilled workers from within the EU relocating to the UK. At the same time, UK talent is moving elsewhere.

“If this trend continues, it could lead to a brain drain of top UK talent, as generally they will want to work where the exciting projects are. We’re already seeing an increase in best-in-class

ANALYSIS

“Brexit is making top digital talent reluctant to come to the uk and flock

elsewhere instead”James Parsons, arrows GrouP

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developers taking roles in Switzerland which continues to be a fast-growing hub for tech innovation,” said Parsons. “Of course, this isn’t welcome news to UK companies at a time when the UK digital skills gap is already large, and where a significant amount of tech talent comes from abroad. As the government takes these next steps, it’s critical that it puts the right laws and incentives in place to keep top tech talent firmly on UK shores to enable innovation.”

Within government, the skills gap is also evident. An NAO report, published last month, showed that the government needs an extra 2,000 digital staff within five years, costing up to £244m annually if it’s to keep up with digital projects.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Tech City UK’s annual report, pub-lished in March, heralds the UK’s digital sector. The report found that the collective annual turnover of digital tech industries was £170bn in 2015, and £6.8bn was invested by private equity firms and venture capitalists in UK technology companies in 2016 – more than twice as much as France, with £2.4bn.

The government’s own plans, as set out in several strategies in recent months, are also preparing for a post-Brexit Britain. May’s industrial strategy aims to create a prosperous post-Brexit Britain by developing science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) skills, investing in science and innovation, and upgrading the infrastructure.

Access to the marketOne thing that could alleviate the industry’s fear and uncertainty would be confirmation that UK businesses would still have

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The pool of local tech talent could shrink when the UK drops out of the EU

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access to the EU single market. In its Brexit priorities, TechUK highlighted that it wants the government to ensure maximum access to the single market for digital products and services, and to make sure leaving the customs union doesn’t leave UK trade bound up in red tape.

However, May made it clear that it would be “impossible” to leave the EU and remain part of the single market.

TechUK CEO Julian David said the tech industry wants a trade agreement that will ensure the industry continues to grow, includ-ing continued market access, frictionless movement of talent and a robust legal process for cross-border data flows.

“Both sides must remember that a good deal for tech is a good deal for everyone. A new relationship must be forged that not only works for today’s economy, but for tomorrow’s digitally-enabled world,” he said. “We urge all parties to enter into the negotiations committed to achieving an outcome that supports the strong mutual interests of both the UK and the EU. These negotiations will be complex and arduous, but must be conducted in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect if they are to achieve the out-come that works for tech, the public and the future.”

Small companies deterred by tariffResearch from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that one in four smaller companies “would be genuinely deterred from trading with the EU should any tariff – no matter how low – be introduced”, and one in three businesses would stop trading with the EU should a tariff rate of between 2% and 4% be introduced.

Ross Mason, founder of MuleSoft, said Brexit has “thrown UK involvement in the EU digital single market into chaos”.

“With Article 50 being triggered, it is clearer than ever to me that being outside of a digital single market would damage eco-nomic growth in the UK,” he said. “A post-Brexit UK needs to be

able to flourish in the global digital economy. Yet if Europe sim-plifies the rules of digital business and the UK is left out, busi-nesses across the country will be at a disadvantage – not just those in the UK digital sector, but also all those companies that do business online.

“Whether you are selling goods online or providing a service made up of technology components that reside in different coun-tries, the cost overhead will only increase if the UK sits outside of an EU digital single market.” n

“a good deal for tech is a good deal for everyone. a new

relationship must Be forged that not only works for today’s

economy, But for tomorrow’s digitally-enaBled world”

Julian DaviD, TechuK

ANALYSIS

❯Netherlands aims to benefit from Brexit in IT talent search.

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NSPCC deploys hybrid cloud and managed services to ensure Childline is ready to helpRay Bilsby, CIO of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, tells Caroline Donnelly how the charity is boosting the resilience of its flagship services, helped by its managed services partners

For children and adults across the UK who have experienced or witnessed abuse, the telephone support services of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

(NSPCC) offer round-the-clock confidential advice and support.It is hard to predict when someone might work up the courage to

make a call to the charity, which is why the NSPCC is focused on increasing the resiliency of its services to ensure there is always a listening ear on the other end of the phone when people need one.

Mission-critical servicesAs such, the organisation is in the process of updating the range of providers from which it sources its infrastructure services, with a view to expanding its use of cloud while ramping up the support available for its mission-critical services.

“The one-size-fits-all mentality, when it comes to hosting, [is something] we’re challenging,” said NSPCC CIO Ray Bilsby. “We are trying to take a bit of a mentality that says, let’s pay slightly more for the services proportionately and the things that are

mission-critical, while for the things that we deem to be more standard services, we can accept a lesser SLA [service-level agreement] if we can derive better value for money.”

Investment in the infrastructure underpinning the NSPCC’s flagship telephone support services, Childline and Adult Helpline, would fall into the former category, said Bilsby. “Our account-ing systems and other back-office services are things we don’t want to spend so much money on, as we would prefer to focus on Childline and the back-office services for that,” he said.

The more money the organisation invests in its back-office ser-vices, the less it has available to spend on frontline services, such as Childline, said Bilsby. “With that in mind, we have to recognise that flagship services deserve a higher proportion of the spend and the support, from an IT point of view, compared to other ser-vices – such as our accounting system.

“If the truth be known, if the accounting system is down for a few hours, it’s not as big a risk to the reputation of the business, compared to if Childline is down.”

ANALYSIS

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The charity has a history of outsourcing its IT requirements to managed service providers, and has a team of about 20 people in-house responsible for delivering services to a 2,000-strong work-force, as well as a sizeable number of volunteers.

“We employ business analysts and project managers, and have a service management team to keep a watching brief on our man-aged service providers,” said Bilsby.

“What’s increasingly important to us is having a technical archi-tect team who can keep an oversight of how this technology from different providers hangs together so we can make informed decisions when we want to make changes about what the impact might be on the existing infrastructure.”

Networking infrastructureSince joining the organisation as CIO five years ago, Bilsby has made a concerted effort to simplify and address the shortcom-ings of the charity’s networking setup. “One of the big things we’ve focused on is getting the plumbing right and making sure the networking infrastructure delivers a service, which, when I first came here, was pretty flaky, to say the least,” he said.

This has seen the organisation invest heavily in shoring up its networking infrastructure through a partnership with Telefonica, while taking stock of its managed services contract with Capita to ensure the provider continues to supply the quality and range of services the charity needs.

“Prior to Telefonica coming in, Capita [or Northgate] tended to deliver voice services that were a bit of a mismatch of differ-ent solutions, depending on who was specifying them, and we

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The NSPCC’s Childline and Adult Helpline services

need resilient IT systems to ensure they are always

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had a plethora of PBXs, the networking equipment was ageing, there was a lack of bandwidth, and so on,” he said. “We’ve tried to flatten all that out and take a more consistent approach to the investigation of each site from a telecoms point of view, so we can provide more resilience to the Childline and Adult Helpline sites.”

The Capita deal, originally signed in 2009, was taken over by the firm when it acquired Northgate Managed Services in 2013, and has served the NSPCC well in the past, said Bilsby.

“The agreement and service we’ve had from Capita has been significantly better than what we had previously, but the market has moved on, so we are taking a good, hard look at the value proposition associated with the delivery of infrastructure services and trying to take advantage of some of the more competitive ways to deliver services,” he said.

Doing More For ChildrenThe project is part of the charity’s Doing More For Children push, which is geared towards improving the way flagship NSPCC ser-vices, such as Childline and Adult Helpline, are delivered from a technological and organisational standpoint.

All the back-office systems underpinning these two telephone advice lines are set to be replaced by a suite of supporting tools and technologies in the managed cloud environment hosted by London-based provider Adapt. These include the case manage-ment and contact centre systems that the charity uses to log and place calls from service users.

Meanwhile, the legacy versions of these services will continue to be hosted in Capita’s (previously Northgate’s) datacentres

until the migration is complete. “When we go live, we will switch off and decommission the services in Capita’s facility,” said Bilsby.

The decision to bring in a new provider was a strategic one, as the organisation is exploring the possibility of adopting a multi-cloud approach to IT consumption in future. “We can source Azure or Amazon Web Services [AWS] offerings through Adapt, and what that potentially allows us to do is mix and match our IT service offerings,” said Bilsby.

There were also a number of business agility considerations that prompted the charity to explore other options in the man-aged services world, he said. “Northgate had run datacentres on our behalf and they deliver a job, but they’ve been in place a long time and the difference between what they and Adapt can offer is agility. They are a newer organisation and can provide more of a tiered approach to the delivery of services, whereas many of the larger organisations are carrying a lot of baggage with them.”

“if the accounting system is down for a few hours, it’s not as Big a risk to the reputation of the Business, compared to if

childline is down”ray BilsBy, nsPcc

ANALYSIS

❯RSPCA CIO Billie Laidlaw explains the charity’s cloud-first IT procurement.

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For example, Bilsby cited the tools and technologies that its incumbent provider has previously invested in. “To a certain extent, these dictate to some degree how they deliver services, and that is sometimes reflected in the price point,” he said.

When it comes to embracing cloud, the organisation looks set to favour the hybrid approach, for reasons of resilience and control, said Bilsby. “There is always going to be stuff that has to remain on-premise because, at the end of the day, some of the services will be subject to periods of maintenance and patching activities that are not going to be totally in our control,” he said.

“With things like Childline, we can’t afford for one of the pieces of technology underpinning it to be patched at a time that coin-cides with some of the peak periods of demand for it.”

These periods tend to coincide with the exam season, the end of the school day and into the evening, which for many cloud

providers might coincide with their prime-time patching activities.“That is why we need to be in charge of our own destiny with

changes and applying patches and upgrades,” said Bilsby.The role Capita will continue to play in delivering the organisa-

tion’s IT services in years to come is yet to be decided, he said, as it weighs up the infrastructure needs of the charity with what other providers in the market have to offer.

“Many organisations are in a similar sort of boat, because gone are the days when you can build an infrastructure and deliver a service that offers best value for the full range of services that your company wants to use,” he said. “There is now always a tiered approach to infrastructure services delivery, so partnering with organisations that can give you that tiered approach, and for that to be reflected in the SLAs and price points, will always be something IT directors and CIOs are attracted to.” n

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Yoox Net-a-Porter bags digital advantageThe biggest trends no longer only happen on the catwalk. You need look no further than technology to see what drives fashion today, says Alex Alexander, CIO of online retail giant Yoox Net-a-Porter Group. Cliff Saran reports

Internet fashion retailers Yoox Group and Net-a-Porter merged in October 2015, creating a €1.3bn business. Previously, Yoox ran an e-commerce site and provided a managed service for

several leading fashion houses, while Net-a-Porter operated its own luxury fashion e-commerce stores for high-worth individuals.

CIO Alex Alexander believes the merger has created a great opportunity to use IT both to build a common platform across the Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) group and also apply digital tech-niques to the world of fashion retail.

Along with its own sites, namely Net-a-Porter, Mr Porter, The OutNet and Yoox, the combined company manages websites including Jimmy Choo, Emporio Armani, Diesel and Valentino, among others.

Its services include customisation services, e-commerce, web design, user experience, digital production, customer care and web marketing.

Through a joint venture in 2013, Yoox Group also manages the e-commerce sites for Kering luxury brands, which include fashion houses Gucci, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, among others.

INTERVIEW

Alex Alexander: “The physicalbusiness of fashion is not growingas much as the e-commerce part”

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The merger has involved combining the teams of Yoox and Net-a-Porter, and developing a common platform for the new business.

“The physical business of fashion with the major retailers is not growing as much as the e-commerce part, and all the fashion and luxury retailers realise the future is there,” says Alexander. “This is a growth business that has a lot of potential.”

Trend-setting cognitive commerceThrough a technology partnership signed in April 2016, YNAP is combining IBM’s commerce technology products with its in-house developed platform.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the big trends Alexander believes will define retail in 2017, and it is an area IBM is keen to support. The ways retail could benefit have yet to be explored, but YNAP has just held a global hackathon challenge, supported by IBM, to investigate how the company could benefit from AI, through what is now being called cognitive commerce.

From his own experience, there is a lot of opportunity for IT peo-ple in fashion retail. Alexander claims it is the best job around.

“I am enjoying every minute of it. Luxury and fashion is going through a transformation in how technology is used to reach out to the customer,” he says.

“What’s special is that we are in a unique period in the history of the combined company. Technology is going through a shift in innovation. The convergence of mobile, the emergence of artifi-cial intelligence, the greater use of cloud and in-the-moment pro-cessing offers flexibility to get closer to the customer.”

Networking for IT inspirationAlexander has been at YNAP for 18 months, and previously ran e-commerce for retail giant Walmart in San Francisco, where he connected technology to business priorities for the UK market.

He finds IT inspiration externally and internally to ensure he is up to date with information.

“Whether it is the Gartner reports, other industry reports or spending time with industry leaders such as companies that are leading in a particular technology, I make the most of the network of connections I have.”

Over the past 20 years, Alexander has worked in many large organisations. “You make lots of contacts – people you respect and who move on to other industries. I spend a lot of time getting their point of view on where they see the industry going.”

He has also spent a lot of time in the US and in China. “Unlike 10 years ago, when China was copying everything from the US, I see China setting the pace in certain areas, and am fascinated by their use of technology and how they use it differently.”

INTERVIEW

“we are in a unique

period in the history of

the comBined company”alex alexanDer, yoox neT-a-PorTer GrouP

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An open and inclusive environmentAlexander regards YNAP as a very open organisation. “Unlike other organisations I have worked for, Yoox Group is very much an engaging one,” he says. “Part of this is cultural in terms of peo-ple wanting to have a discussion about trends. The DNA of the organisation is very inclusive.”

YNAP wants to attract the best technology talent, but it is in a jobs market competing with the likes of Apple, Google and

Facebook. Alexander has had some experience of this, having worked at Walmart’s Sunnyvale office in Silicon Valley.

“Our neighbours were exactly those sorts of companies,“ he says. “There is always competition for talent, and we must find the right environment to ensure it is motivating to stay with the company.

“The moment you step in, there is a feeling of a technology company,” says Alexander, recalling his time at Walmart. “It is the open spaces, the way the desks are organised and the placement

INTERVIEW

❯ Bigger mobile phone screens lead to more consumers shopping on their devices.

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Participants of YNAP’sglobal hackathon challenge

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of agile boards. I want to create an environment where the moment you walk through the door in the morning, it’s shouting technology and innovation.”

This layout is apparent in YNAP’s Bologna campus, where more than 200 technology staff work. The people who handle e-commerce development for the fashion brands are organ-ised as agile teams, each responsible for a group of clients. Each team has a whiteboard littered with coloured sticky notes, showing the progress of project requests from clients. Different coloured notes denote the criticality of these requests.

YNAP offers flexible hours for its developers so they can work when they want, encouraging innovation and creativity by offer-ing flexibility.

This may cause some friction, particularly when dealing with clients. “We have to be part of the business and we happen to work in tech,” says Alexander. Given development is split across London and Bologna, YNAP’s video conferencing is part of day-to-day operations for the developer teams.

Keeping a close eye on Brexit implicationsEmployees can choose to live in England or Italy, and regularly fly to the sister site to stay over for a few weeks at a time.

This raises questions of Brexit and the issue of freedom of move-ment. “Colocation and travel is what we do,” says Alexander.

He believes there is no shortcut for YNAP as it builds a European team that spans the UK and Italy. “It is a retracted process, and over the next two years we will closely monitor Brexit, its implica-tions and freedom of movement.”

The idea of freedom of movement is a crucial part of the compa-ny’s plans, as YNAP is investing in a new tech hub for April 2017, which fits into Alexander’s grand vision. “We are going to create an environment that appeals to the technology folk.”

Looking around the tech centres in the UK and Italy, the teams are made up of bright 20 and 30-something men and women. The average age is 31.

“We are making great progress addressing gender imbalance,” he says. “My goal is to increase the number of women in tech.”

Having attended a women in technology event at the end of January, his aim is to go further and have winners at the event. “We have a huge opportunity with artificial intelligence and cogni-tive commerce for women to lead and push the agenda forward.”

It is said that fashion never stands still, and Alexander believes the same could be said of IT.

“If I am not learning something new every day, I am not getting the most out of my interactions both inside and outside the com-pany,” he says. n

“we must find the right

environment to ensure talent

is motivated to stay”alex alexanDer, yoox neT-a-PorTer GrouP

INTERVIEW

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Brexit won’t stop the digital revolution

The UK tech community overwhelmingly wanted to stay in the European Union, and remains in a state of uncertainty and confu-sion about what its future may be outside the EU. But we’re leaving – and that’s that. Brexiteers tell us to look on the invoking of Article 50 as an opportunity, but until we see the outcome of the divorce negotiations, it’s impossible to say one way or the other.

The tech sector wants easy access to skilled workers, open data flows, no tariffs, minimum red tape, common technical and data standards, access to the Digital Single Market, shared research and development, agreements on data protection, copyright and patents – and more. Basically, what we have now. If you believe the prime minister can deliver all that – then Brexit is an opportunity, not to be feared. If she can’t – we have a problem.

Few of those leading the Brexit charge understand the context of the digital revolution and what it means long-term for the UK socially, culturally and economically. The past 20 years have given us a glimpse of how digital breaks down borders, ignores nation states, creates new global relationships and collaboration, empowers and enables education, generates innovation, delivers transparency and brings people of different cultures together around the world.

The societal change introduced by the digital revolution is in its very early days; it is unstoppable and inevitable, just as it was in the industrial revolution. Importantly, it is bigger than politics, and will be resisted – ferociously at times – by the vested interests it threatens.

Brexit’s impact on the UK could last 10, 20 years or more – a generation. The impact of the digital revolution will last far longer and be more profound – a century, perhaps more. For all the amazing and life-changing innovations technology has delivered across the last generation, we are still at a point equivalent to walking in front of a new-fangled motor car waving a red flag to warn passers-by.

The UK faces two years of uncertainty and division. At its end, we will know whether Brexit is an opportunity or a disaster. But there is a bigger, longer game at play here, driven by the digital revolution – and it is unstoppable. At worst, Brexit will delay the inevitable. At best, it could accelerate it. We can but hope. n

Bryan Glick, editor in chief

❯Read the latest Computer Weekly blogs

EDITOR’S COMMENTHOME

there is a Bigger, longer game at play here, driven By the digital

revolution – and it is unstoppaBle

computerweekly.com 4-10 April 2017 16

The new technology required to run SAP Hana will force sourcing executives to rethink their options for hosting SAP software where Hana-based systems are needed.

Hana technology introduces some major differences from the traditional SAP architecture. The Hana architecture only runs on the Hana in-memory database management system (IMDBMS), not the traditional DBMSs from other suppliers.

This requires much larger amounts of server main memory because the entire database operates in main memory. However, the good news is that Hana databases are much smaller than tra-ditional architecture, due to their high levels of data compression.

The Hana IMDBMS includes its own data replication features, which affect high availability and disaster recovery operations. Hana also needs new software tools to manage it, and server vir-tualisation is much less commonly deployed with Hana technol-ogy today than with traditional SAP architecture.

More expensiveClient feedback consistently shows that larger Hana appliances are more expensive than traditional servers.

If running on-premise Hana will be too complex or costly, sourc-ing executives can also evaluate Hana hosted services or consider public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) deployments.

Third-party SAP hosting providers face substantial engineer-ing costs in designing new platforms for Hana. SAP applications run very differently on Hana compared with traditional architec-ture. Existing hosting offerings must be redesigned to provide the large memory operating system (OS) instances that Hana

How Hana is disrupting SAP hosting services

Derek Prior explains the differences from traditional SAP architecture that are introduced by the software supplier’s Hana technology

BUYER’S GUIDE TO SAP HANA DEPLOYMENT | PART 1 OF 3

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needs. Virtualisation technologies must also be re-evaluated against using Hana’s core capabilities.

Also, SAP’s Hana Enterprise Cloud (HEC) offers a managed private cloud. In this model, SAP pro-vides the entire IaaS hosting and Basis managed service model for all layers of the stack, except for any custom ABAP code, which is still maintained by the customer.

For providers, this is another challenge. Already-fierce competi-tion has been made worse by the existence of SAP’s HEC, against which all other hosting providers will be compared. Gartner expects a number of smaller SAP hosting providers will find their businesses no longer viable and will exit the market, although there may be an opportunity for some to partner with SAP to deliver HEC as a white-label hosting arrangement.

Another issue for SAP customers is that there are very few ref-erence customers anywhere that are live on Hana systems, for either S/4 Hana or Business Suite on Hana (BSoH), and have proven disaster recovery capabilities.

SAP S/4 Hana cloud editions are new and very different because they are multitenant software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings that are availa-ble only directly from SAP. SaaS systems are very different from general IaaS SAP hosting technology options.

The market for Hana hosting is grow-ing as more of SAP’s customer base migrates. A 2016 Gartner survey

identified more than 170 suppliers offering SAP hosting. The advent of new, competitive public cloud-based hosting models will create opportuni-ties for sourcing leaders to deliver cost savings for SAP Hana hosting.

During the same period when SAP introduced Hana technology, there has been huge client inter-est in both private and public IaaS for all IT pro-

jects, including SAP infrastructure Amazon Web Services (AWS) was the first public cloud IaaS

provider to offer Hana systems. Its 2013 SAP partnership offered Hana One database as a service, which allowed a complete Hana instance to be provisioned on AWS public cloud IaaS in less than an hour. This enabled customers and SAP partners of all types to quickly and cost-effectively acquire Hana technology for evalua-tions, software development and proof-of-concept trials, and pay for it on an hourly basis.

SAP has certified the AWS public cloud IaaS service to run full production systems of Hana-based applications, starting with SAP BSoH, followed by SAP Business Warehouse (BW) powered

by SAP Hana and then S/4 Hana.In September 2016, SAP and AWS

announced support for the new SAP BW/4 Hana data warehouse system. The X1 AWS server “instance types” are optimised for high memory, and two new types have been introduced recently to provide support for Hana.

gartner expects a numBer of smaller sap hosting providers will find their

Businesses no longer viaBle

BUYER’S GUIDE

❯Cleaning up data in Business Warehouse before

implementing BW on Hana will make migration easier, save

money and reduce downtime.

computerweekly.com 4-10 April 2017 18

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The x1.32xlarge instance type provides 2TB of RAM backed by the requisite storage, while the x1.16xlarge instance provides 1TB of RAM.

The second major public cloud IaaS provider, Microsoft Azure, also supports SAP Hana. In May 2016, Microsoft announced that SAP had certified Azure for Hana workloads up to 3TB in size, and also certified scale-out to support Hana BW workloads up to 32TB in size. Again, these deployments are limited to certain regions, but Microsoft will extend these over time. It is also likely that the range of SAP systems supported by Azure will continue to expand because Microsoft has a track record of catching up in other late-entry marketplaces

Lower three layersNeither AWS nor Azure directly supports the full layers of the SAP technical stack. Rather, they focus on the lower three layers, including the hypervisor, but excluding the OS. This means that other new service providers have partnered with these cloud providers to deliver the remaining top layers in the technical stack, without providing their own Hana-ready infrastructure.

But because multiple providers are now involved, SAP cus-tomers must take care when planning or operating any hosting arrangements involving IaaS. When comparing the total cost of ownership of public cloud proposals, sourcing executives must look at the cost of not just the cloud platforms, but also these middleware service providers. The operational service and man-agement of multiple suppliers must be tied in from the start, pos-sibly using a multisourcing service integrator to provide them.

As well as providing large-scale infrastructure optimised for Hana, both AWS and Azure deliver flexible charging options. Most clients usually start off with a pay-as-you-go model for indi-vidual servers, where savings can be made initially by using the cloud in new ways — for example, by turning off unused develop-ment and test environments.

In the longer term, clients can save more money with prepaid options. AWS’s Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offers the concept of “reserved instances,” where, by booking server usage and paying partially or completely up front, clients can achieve discounts of up to 75%, compared with pay-as-you-go.

Prepaid modelsLikewise, Azure also offers prepaid models, but has the option for smaller businesses to buy through their existing resellers, and for larger businesses to enter into an enterprise agreement. Both of these options provide substantial discounts.

Both cloud providers are competing on price, and have offered regular price cuts. AWS will pass a series of public cloud IaaS cost reductions on to its customers by focusing on scale of deploy-ment and increased automation. Azure matches this.

AWS and Azure are both popular choices for midsize organisa-tions because costs can be spread over multiple years and match business demand, rather than having to make regular expenditure on capital upgrade programmes. n

This is an extract from the Gartner research note “The Impact of SAP Hana on the SAP

infrastructure utility services marketplace”. Derek Prior is a research director at Gartner.

BUYER’S GUIDE

computerweekly.com 4-10 April 2017 19

How do we view the current and ever-changing plethora of ideas and models that fill our inboxes every day? The current big idea is “digital transformation”, which often gets used in different situations to mean a num-

ber of quite different things.If we are developers or work in service management/operations,

we get bombarded with imperatives around “digital transforma-tion”, as well as many flavours of agile, lean and supply chain memes, in addition, of course, to the regular technical/enterprise themes, such as ITSM/ITIL, business relationship management (BRM) and service integration and management (SIAM). What we thought we knew – about enterprise architecture or ITSM or Cobit, Prince2 and TOGAF – a few years back, all seems to be lost now in a morass of “ologies”, “isms” and other new shiny things.

New ways of workingSo how can we make sense of this – do we simply ignore new ideas until they start to impact or bite us? What criteria do we use to decide when a new thing is important and relevant for us? How, in particular, can we absorb new ways of working into our existing models?

One thing to be aware of is context – your view and level of interest in the need to “transform” will depend on what sort of organisation you are currently in and where you sit within it. It can be easy in a large, process-driven organisation to simply shrug off new ideas as being too difficult or “not done here”. Also, your view of, say, SIAM will depend on your situation, whether you use a managed service provider or have a retained IT operation.

There is more to digital than ones and zeros

These days, no business strategy

seems complete unless it is called “digital”,

says Barclay Rae

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

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What do CIOs think about blockchain?

Downtime

For many new initiatives, there are no right or wrong absolutes – only relevant opportunities and threats. We hear so much about “digital” trans-formation, but what we really need to focus on is “organisational” and “people” transformation. In technology, we need to develop our skills in people management, communications and organisational change in order to understand and achieve value.

One aspect of leadership is about being aware of new ideas and being able to quickly “see the wood for the trees” in terms of see-ing what is important. This requires us, as practitioners, to keep up with new developments and innovations. This takes time, but delivers huge value to teams and individuals alike.

Also, as technology advances and we implement more auto-mated systems, the opportunity for human interaction is reduced. These rare interactions must therefore be of a high quality if we

are to maintain good PR and relationship manage-ment. “Leadership” must be encouraged from all staff, not just “leaders” or managers – where this means taking ownership and responsibility, and demonstrating/leading, through action, how to do things successfully.

Digital transformation is currently the outcome and hype around a “perfect storm” of trends,

demands and activities – but what does it really mean?Digital transformation is a term of convenience, although in

reality it means so much more – organisational and cultural trans-formation, people and sociological transformation. We are in the grip of a revolution driven by the demands and potential of tech-nology, which has created a new generation of people (millenni-als) who have a completely different way of thinking and working, as well as different expectations from technology and work.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

❯Analytics technology can help to transform the customer experience, but to achieve its full potential, IT and marketing

must work together.

Making a success of digital: what goes into creating a winning strategy

n DevOps – using automated provisioning and continuous testing and integration, DevOps provides a new cultural palette for IT collaboration.

n Customer experience – now taken seriously as an approach for technology, it can simplify and clarify the key areas for tech teams to focus on for performance and measurement.

n Cloud – allows reduced cost and increased time to market for new services.

n Omni-channel – the plurality of interactive channels for using IT services demands high standards of technical capability and resilience, as well as opening up how people use technology.

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What do CIOs think about blockchain?

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The term digital transformation is used loosely to describe the convergence of a number of technologies, ways of working and business expectations. These include using big data, the internet of things (IoT), automation, cloud, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), mobile and other technologies in a co-ordinated way to improve efficiency, capability and customer experience.

This is also combined with business demands for greater speed and flexibility in delivering new solutions, so agile, DevOps, lean and other new techniques are employed to build and deliver tech-nology solutions faster, better and with fewer obstructions.

In addition, other models and frameworks such as BRM, ESM and SIAM are helping to expand the com-mercial and cultural use of existing models such as ITIL/ITSM, COBIT and BRM, broadening the scope of service management beyond IT and across organisations. Social media is also in there as a new culture and way of communicating and collaborating.

It is a perfect storm of opportunity, demand and change, driven and supported by a profusion of models and frameworks, tools and techniques. The possibilities are endless, the demands are high and the potential for chaos and disruption huge.

There is no single element of digital transformation that can be singled out as an autonomous entity. Digital transformation does not just mean doing cloud, DevOps, and so on, or being more

customer-focused, or working in an agile way. It means being able to combine all or most of these elements to meet business and customer needs. This is the true realisation of the “outside-in” marketing approach, where customer experience and expecta-tion is the starting point and all else is subservient to that.

Going “digital” really means finally joining up the dots of how technology can be made to work for business and not against or as a separate part of it. This approach calls on various new

or refreshed ideas. What is new is that this is driven totally by busi-ness expectations and not simply by financial or technical constraints. The driver, more often than not, is now very much around collaboration and working to shared goals.

So digital transformation is not a single “thing”, but current times demand a “digital” approach – a con-solidated and collaborative way of

working that is focused on the customer and uses leading-edge and contemporary technology.

Digital leadership is required to see the way through the maze of technologies and methodologies, to pick the best “bundle” for your organisation, and lead the change and disruption that is needed to achieve it. All that requires excellent people, communi-cation and change management skills – so don’t call it “digital”. n

Barclay Rae is CEO of ITSMF UK.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

digital leadership is required to see the way through the

maze of technologies and methodologies, to pick the Best

“Bundle” for your organisation

computerweekly.com 4-10 April 2017 22

Blockchain is the latest, greatest hype to hit the IT indus-try. The concept might be tough to explain, but that hasn’t stopped the technology marketing machine going into overdrive, with assorted experts suggesting block-

chain will have a huge impact on business operations and infor-mation security techniques.

At its simplest level, blockchain is the technology that under-pins the digital currency bitcoin. It is a digital ledger that can be programmed to record financial transactions and data from vari-ous sources and objects. The ledger is produced through mass collaboration and represents a single version of the truth.

Huge market interestGartner suggests the ability to store multiple transactions in one centralised ledger will transform business, and blockchain’s potential is helping to generate huge market interest. The tech-nology is near the peak of Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, despite the analyst suggesting it is still five to 10 years from mainstream adoption.

So what do CIOs think about blockchain, how are they analys-ing the technology and how will it affect their organisations going forward? Computer Weekly spoke to six CIOs, who gave their opinion on how to approach blockchain and its potential impact on their businesses, both now and in the longer term.

Capital One CIO Rob Harding says he has undertaken a fair amount of personal research into the impact of blockchain, and departments of his bank around the world are also analys-ing the potential role of the technology. “I think blockchain is

What do CIOs think about blockchain?

Six CIOs share their views with Mark Samuels on the rise of blockchain and how to take advantage of this emerging technology

BLOCKCHAIN

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There is more to digital than ones and zeros

What do CIOs think about blockchain?

Downtime

very interesting,” he says. “I think it will have a big impact in certain parts of the banking industry. But I also think it’s one of those things that is currently at the peak of its hype cycle.

“Blockchain needs to be deflated a bit and come down to a level where people can take sensible action. You probably need a few more partnerships to help get the technology really up and running in a successful way.”

Application within the enterpriseBlockchain is often used to create a shared resource layer across multiple parties. While the potential for external organisations to share and check information represents one potential use case for blockchain, Harding says he wonders whether businesses could benefit greatly from applying the technology within the enterprise, rather than across firewalls.

“Like many other organisations, we have a range of disparate systems – some are well integrated, others are not,” he says. “When you are trying to create a single customer view, it can be easy in some areas and hard in others. I am intrigued about how executives can use block-chain within an organisation.

“I wonder if it is possible to create a system where all your systems both contribute to and access a single

ledger. If blockchain was used in this way, it could help to solve a lot of the problems CIOs find when they try to create a single view of the customer.”

Mark Ridley, group technology officer at venture builder Blenheim Chalcot Accelerate, is already convinced about blockchain’s potential power. “I think blockchain will be an absolutely momentous technology and I think it will create fundamental

change in the way business operates,” he says. “Look at the banking industry. It is traditionally conservative,

but it is incredibly interested in blockchain. I think interest in the finance community provides a really strong indicator of the importance of the technology.”

Ridley points to the first cross-border transaction between banks using multiple blockchain applications, which took place last October. He concedes that adoption of the technology may not be rapid, but said the opportunities were boundless.

“There are obviously still a lot of concerns about the technology and how it is going to grow into the future,” says Ridley. “Technology experts and industry leaders must address some of these structural issues as developments in block-chain progress. But as an open ledger of transactions, I think it could be used incredibly well across entire businesses. It could be a very powerful way to help transfer digital

BLOCKCHAIN

❯UAE bank becomes the latest to test out the potential of

blockchain technology for improving financial services processes.

“Blockchain will Be a momentous technology and will create fundamental change in the

way Business operates”marK riDley, Blenheim chalcoT acceleraTe

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What do CIOs think about blockchain?

Downtime

information from one place to another – and it could become the master record of data that sits across an organisation.”

Camden Council interim CIO Omid Shiraji says bitcoin and block-chain present potentially exciting opportunities for CIOs looking to reform public services. He points to the introduction of HullCoin, the local digital currency launched by Hull City Council. Shiraji says Camden is exploring how to make the most of developments related to blockchain.

“Some applications relating to identity, property and transactions can be linked to our drive to push as much data as possi-ble into the public domain,” he says. “But we want to do that with services, too. The real reform can come from citizens and local businesses helping each other, and local authorities acting as a trusted broker.”

Real-life applicationsSo what will those brokered implementations look like? For now, Shiraji is unsure. “We don’t have the answer, but that’s OK – I’m comfortable with that,” he says. “The opportunity is around find-ing real-life applications for the technology. And it’s not neces-sarily my role to do that – I want the wider ecosystem to help us find solutions.”

Shiraji and his colleagues are setting up a competition to see how blockchain technology could be used to bring about change in the public sector. The aim is to help solve real-life community

problems, possibly using local technical expertise in Camden. “We are talking now and it will hopefully happen soon,” says Shiraji, referring to the competition. “An area like blockchain is a great example of where it can be difficult to establish a clear busi-

ness case. But there are two reasons for us getting involved now – we have the data and basic infrastructure in place, and we have social problems that need tackling.”

Matt Peers, CIO at legal firm Linklaters, recognises that blockchain – and the potential creation of smart contracts – could have significant ramifications in the legal sector. Such smart contracts would

link into various ledgers and provide awareness around which parties have signed up to what kinds of deal, he says, but it is important to put such significance into context.

“It will be an important technology and will undoubtedly be used,” he says. “But the introduction of blockchain could take a while, especially given that legal firms are often not the fastest to sign up to new technology.”

Peers points to the slow adoption of technology in related areas. He says Linklaters is using technology from electronic signature specialist DocuSign to help ensure the secure use of documents. The tool has helped to boost employee productivity, but take-up has been slower than Peers expected.

It is a theme he expects to see repeated in other areas of advanced technology. “Blockchain might create significant change, but adoption won’t be rapid,” he says. “It’s not really on

BLOCKCHAIN

“Blockchain might create significant change, But

adoption won’t Be rapid”maTT Peers, linKlaTers

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Downtime

our five-year horizon right now – in fact, it’s probably beyond the strategic timeframe at the moment.”

Chris White, CIO at Clyde & Co, is another legal CIO who is investigating the potential role of blockchain. His firm ran a ses-sion about the technology at its recent partner conference. The partners at the meeting analysed the technology from a legal per-spective to consider its impact on clients.

White said the general feeling across the firm is that blockchain will eventually have a significant influence. “It is something we are keeping a watching brief on, but the level of that effect is hard to predict,” he says.

Much of the complexity relates to the level of confusion about the technology in the IT marketplace, he says.

“The experts have many different definitions of blockchain, just like they do of big data and cloud,” says White. “An idea enters the mainstream and then, over a period of time, people get a bet-ter understanding about what blockchain is and its potential rel-evance to their organisations.”

Stay on top of trendsThe key for CIOs is to find ways to stay on top of emerging trends, including blockchain, says White. “We have pockets of people across the business who do the research, keep an eye on what’s happening in the market and share their knowledge.”

Neil Moore, head of ICT at the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, says he has also started to investigate blockchain. Like many of his fellow IT leaders, Moore is unsure about the technical implications and is looking for key technology suppliers to take a

lead in developments. “At some level, blockchain seems

a lot like infrastructure – and that’s something our suppliers will deal with,” he says. “As we’re not devel-oping the applications and security services ourselves, it isn’t neces-sarily an area where we have to build internal expertise.”

But Moore also recognises blockchain could have a big impact on the way firms secure their applications and services. “It’s already in use in some services,” he says. “Unbeknown to us, it could already be used as a mechanism behind secure transactions.”

Change in approachAt a more general level, Moore says the introduction of advanced technologies such as blockchain is part of a continuing shift in the management of IT security in the modern business. “There seems to be a change in approach, from defending a firewall around the edge of the organisation to protecting the security of the actual data,” he says.

“In the old way of operating, someone who gained entry through the firewall could rampage through the datacentre. Now access is just a starting point – each element of data is protected.” n

BLOCKCHAIN

“unBeknown to us, it could already Be used as a mechanism

Behind secure transactions”neil moore, hamPshire Fire anD rescue

computerweekly.com 4-10 April 2017 26

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Welcome our robot overlords for they come bearing cakeAs all tech experts know, it is only a matter of time before arti-ficial intelligence (AI) takes over the world, eliminates our jobs, creates Skynet and the terminator, and enslaves us all in the Matrix. We can’t wait to read the terms and conditions page.

For those who see this as something to fear and fight against, early experiments in AI can reveal the likely tactics our robot over-lords plan to employ. PhD student Janelle Shane has discovered one of the first tricks the automatons will use. She’s training a neu-ral network to create cookbook recipes, and the early output of her work offers a valuable glimpse into the cunning minds of the AI.

Among the recipes suggested so far by our future leaders are: chocolate chops & chocolate chips; export bean spoons in pie-shell; top if spoon and whip the mustard; whole chicken cookies; salmon beef style chicken bottom; completely meat chocolate pie; chocolate chicken chicken cake; chocolate chips with choco-late chips; and chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate cake.

Here at Downtime, the prospect of quadruple chocolate cake has sent half the team into a spin and destroyed all productivity. Meat chocolate pie took care of the rest.

Robots won’t even need to take our jobs, just offer chocolate cake. No need to work, and a life of cake. The future won’t be all bad. n

DOWNTIME

❯Read more on the Downtime blog.