ReleaseWire Connect

Collaboration and information sharing has become a priority for enterprises across sectors in recent years. SNCF, the French railway authority, has announced that it will adopt Trimble® Quadri and Trimble Connect® software to serve as the central system within its Enterprise Common Data Environment (CDE) for Building Information Modeling (BIM) models for the next three years.

Cyber security today is not just a priority on an individual business basis, but at regulatory level too. As part of the EU's strategy to keep Europe's digital society and economy safe, the European Council has confirmed a new directive - NIS2 - that will establish a high common level of cyber security Europe-wide. The new directive will update and evolve the NIS directive that is currently in place, something that is considered necessary due to the significant increase in cyber-attacks that have occurred over the past year or so.

Cyber security has become a top priority, especially given the number of operations that moved to a remote basis during 2020 and early 2021. Nevertheless, globally 61% of organisations say their cyber security teams are understaffed. A small business is hacked every 19 seconds in the UK and this year has also seen a vast increase in the number of ransomware attacks targeting big enterprises and national infrastructure. As a result, the cyber security industry is growing at an exponential pace with businesses moving quickly to keep up with the latest threats and optimise investment in tech and protection. Crucial to that protection are the cyber security professionals who are able to understand and navigate the global threat landscape when it comes to cyber security. With the cost of the average data breach coming in at £1.79 million it's more important than ever before for organisations to have dedicated cyber security programme in place.

Tech jobs in the UK have been experiencing a boom in recent months and the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the majority of professionals placed in the jobs market between July and September 2021 were female. During those three months around 58,000 jobs were created in information and communication categories in the UK and 71% of the professionals who were recruited into available jobs were women. Technology has proven to be a thriving sector full of opportunities for many different talented people and especially for women who are looking to get ahead. Technology is the third fastest growing sector in the economy and in terms of job creation for women, technology ranks as the third sector according to ONS data. A gender imbalance has long existed in the tech sector and serious efforts have been made to improve this - the latest ONS figures show that things could now be moving in the right direction.

Investment in the tech industry has risen significantly over the past year thanks to the sharp spike in demand due to the pandemic. As a result, tech-related vacancies now account for 13% of the total number of roles available in the country. The figure for the same period last year was just over 12%. The tech industry in Britain currently employs around 9% of the workforce but with many organisations making large investments in their tech teams over the course of 2021 this figure is only going to increase. So far this year around £13 billion has been invested by businesses in UK tech.

Tech skills as a whole have been considerably in demand over the course of 2021 as many organisations have tried to accelerate their digitisation strategy. However, some skills have even more value than others in the technology world right now. In particular, those who are able to provide support when it comes to cloud computing are especially highly sought after.

Sky Glass is an innovative new product from the media giant that is designed to give millions of people access to its services without the need to find a way to attach a satellite dish to their home. It's the biggest product launch by Sky since it was bought by Comcast and has been earmarked as a watershed moment in terms of the development of the business in the years to come. Many people view this new product launch as a move by Sky to take on the big streaming providers, such as Netflix, especially when it comes to integrating direct access to this service via technology.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all recently suffered an unprecedented outage that left many users not only feeling rather bereft but also without access to what they consider to be essential services. The problems arose from an error during routine maintenance of the social media giant's data centres, which triggered a six-hour outage across all its platforms and a very public global meltdown.

Digital transformation holds the key for many businesses to move successfully forward after the challenging time that the past year has been. However, there are also obstacles. One report has found that specific obstacles in the way of digital transformation for the manufacturing sector, for example, include funding, a lack of digital skills and resistance to change.

The British Army had a big role to play in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, not all of its achievements were as visible as building hospitals and managing testing stations. One regiment of the army also designed a groundbreaking data platform that turned out to be crucial to the way that the country was able to handle its response to the pandemic. 42 Engineer Regiment designed a geospatial intelligence system that could draw together data from the NHS and its partners to facilitate analysis for real time decision making.