In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at the IT challenges facing retailers, as consumers turn increasingly to web and mobile shopping channels. Oracle president Mark Hurd talks about how the supplier intends to simplify IT infrastructures. And new government CIO Andy Nelson discusses how he plans to transform Whitehall IT. Read the issue now. 

This case study illustrates how Sun World International, a mid-sized grower in California, shifted its competitive strategy to capitalize on analytics and gain real-time insight into the competitive market. Learn how it gained a 5% reduction in harvesting costs, a 20% reduction in fuel usage and an eight-fold increase in profit per acre. 

Over the course of several months in 2011, IDC conducted a research study to identify the opportunities and challenges to adoption of a new technology that changes the way in which traditional business solutions are implemented and used. The results of the study are presented in this white paper. 

Health care organizations are not alone in their efforts to convert physical records to electronic files. In this two part course, hear little-known insight from John Weathington, recognized author and compliance and risk management expert. 

From the turn of the millennium until the end of 2007 MLBS (Mobile Location Based Services) had promised much, but delivered very little in terms of commercial applications. Even in Japan and South Korea, the most advanced markets for commercial MLBS, usage was disappointing. 

The commercial potential of cloud computing and cloud services is widely accepted, both in private industry and in the public sector.  The opportunities for cost reduction and efficiency in the UK public sector are real and achievable, but require significant changes to procurement practices, delivery frameworks and across the supplierlandscape. 

Dell VIS Self-Service Creator, part of the Dell Virtual Integrated System (VIS) architecture, helps reduce virtual machine sprawl by automating the process of reducing, reusing, and recycling of compute resources in a shared virtual IT infrastructure. 

In the July 2011 cover story of Storage magazine, Jacob Gsoedl examines the current problems associated with virtual server backup and highlights the latest apps and features that help in putting an end to those challenges. 

In this week’s Computer Weekly, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude talks about releasing government datasets to the public and why open data will drive the next industrial revolution. We also review the latest test version of Windows 8 and see how it shapes up for tablet computers and business users and much more. 

Juniper Research defines a mobile ticketing user as “someone who stores a ticket on their mobile phone for later redemption” at the point of travel, the music venue, the cinema etc. 

Data management technology is on the verge of a new era – and users who commit to its architectural innovations earlier will gain disproportionate rewards in performance, scalability, flexibility and cost. Read this white paper for a description of Oracle’s Exadata V2 solution, also known as the Sun Oracle Database Machine. 

This paper shows the value of combining Oracle software with Intel Xeon processors on Dell PowerEdge servers. It begins with an overview of the collaboration that created these synergies, before detailing the major areas where they are manifest to end-customers: intelligent performance, automated energy efficiency, and flexible virtualization.