ICT: Innovation in the cloud
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010Cloud computing has been developing rapidly over the last five years. Emma Blee speaks to Paul Doyle about what the future holds for the technology. While innovation in the cloud continues to develop, some issues need to be resolved before it can be fully utilised. Paul Doyle, a computer science lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology, says that “the interesting thing about the technologies behind the cloud is that they are not really that new”. He remarks that the “cloud paradigm” has come about through an evolution of existing technologies, which are now being used to...[full story]
ICT: Quantifying data
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010An information explosion is well under way. Peter Cheney looks at its causes and effects. The near-collapse of the world’s banking system, in the not too distant past, was partly triggered by vast amounts of financial data being misread by the computer models designed to analyse risk. Such a major crisis illustrated the scale of data in today’s world and also the problems when the information is not handled properly. Digital information is now increasing tenfold every five years as more is accumulated, stored and shared through the internet. The number of blogs alone is also thought...[full story]
ICT: Skills – The size of the gap
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010There are still many employment opportunities in the ICT industry in Ireland but a skills gap is causing problems for employers. Emma Blee reports. Around 37,000 people in Ireland are employed in IT professions, which amount to 1.75 per cent of the country’s workforce. However, some businesses are still having problems finding staff with the specific ICT skills they need. The Central Statistics Office has found that those working in the sector have some of the highest educational profiles in the economy: over 80 per cent are third level graduates while only a small share has not attainted...[full story]
Europe: Research in the marketplace
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010Research Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn tells Meadhbh Monahan that Europe will support Ireland’s budget and explains the need for more integration between researchers and business. “Europe stands ready to be helpful and to assist in whatever the Irish Government wants done,” was the message from the Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, in advance of the €6 billion budget. The Irish Commissioner, and former Fianna Fáil TD, said that “whatever help is asked for will be provided”. She also appealed to Europe’s government finance departments,...[full story]
ICT: Up in the clouds
Friday, January 1st, 2010Cloud computing looks set to take not only the IT world, but also the business world by storm. Ryan Jennings looks at what it all means. Cloud computing has been around longer than it has existed as a buzzword. Those of us who use Gmail and Hotmail for email will be familiar with the concept; your emails aren’t stored on your computer, they’re stored ‘up there’. The logic of this service is to allow computing to become a quasi-out-sourced service, with saved files accessible on any device just as the services above are available to you from Dublin to Dubai. The main benefits...[full story]
ICT: What attracts companies to Ireland
Friday, January 1st, 2010Despite the recession the ICT sector is continuing to invest in Ireland. eolas takes a look at what attracts ICT companies to Ireland. Ireland was placed 11th out of 82 countries as one of the most attractive business locations in the world in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Business Environment Ranking for 2008-2012. Experts say that Ireland is attractive because it has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world at 12.5 per cent. A thriving research, development and investment sector, with strong government support for productive collaboration between industry and...[full story]
ICT: Shared services
Friday, January 1st, 2010The Department of Justice is spear-heading efforts to share ICT services, as recommended in the McCarthy report. Government bodies must reduce their use of external Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services by 50 per cent and share services between departments in order to save €100 million a year, according to the McCarthy report. One of the recommendations is that the Department of Finance leads efforts to get departments to share services such as e-mail, file and print, anti-virus and anti-spam services, office productivity software, payroll solutions and to share...[full story]
ICT: apps.ie
Friday, January 1st, 2010With over 100 software developers in Ireland now making a living developing applications (apps) for the Apple iPhone, Meadhbh Monahan speaks to two of them about why the market has become so popular and their thoughts on the future stability of this line of work. The iPhone has now become a must-have gadget since its launch in 2007, when it was named ‘invention of the year’ by Time Magazine. Its array of applications such as internet, GPS, dictaphone, torch, spirit level and video camera has made it popular across the world. In 2008 Apple opened an online apps store which now has...[full story]
Education: On top of the world
Friday, January 1st, 2010“Rankings can never capture the full contribution of this university. The standard line is they don’t matter – but they do.” That is the opinion of Dr Hugh Brady, President of University College Dublin (UCD), which has for the first time made it onto the world’s top 100 universities. “International students and international staff look at rankings. When I was in China they knew exactly where we are and what we are good at. World rankings are still consistently cited as one of the top 10 reasons why multi-nationals choose where they are going to locate,” Brady added. This...[full story]
