Has social media killed off the traditional contact centre? Merri Mack examines the wane of the contact centre and the simultaneous rise of social media as a means of customer service.

Looking to save a few dollars, organisations are putting less and less consideration into security when developing software. While it may pay off in the very short term, it’s almost certain to cost businesses much, much more in the long term, with the cost of dealing with security breaches vastly outstripping the cost of developing secure software in the first place. So opines Rob McAdam, CEO of security consultancy Pure Hacking.

On 13 June, Australian web host Distribute.IT revealed that it had been the victim of a malicious hacking attack, one which had irrevocably annihilated the data of 4800-odd websites hosted by the company. Andrew Collins looks at what online storage customers and storage administrators can each learn from the incident.

As organisations continue to horde massive volumes of data for analysis - producing so-called ‘big data’ - database management technology must evolve to keep up with the challenge. Guy Harrison, head honcho of R&D at Quest Software, explains the technologies that can help cope with these massive data volumes.

Platform Networks, Australian telco wholesaler and NBN affiliate, last week revealed it had been on the receiving end of a six-month-long hacking attack. Andrew Collins talks to Platform’s managing director, David Hooton, about the disclosure of information on the incident to the Australian Federal Police, and a forthcoming case study on the attack and the company’s defence against it.

With the rapid explosion of data volumes occuring around the globe, the IT industry is scrambling for qualified workers to handle the challenges that arise. Merri Mack takes a look at the cloud and ‘big data’ storage certification programs that vendors and universities have to offer.

As part of Telecom New Zealand’s proposed functional separation, the company has announced that Mark Ratcliffe would become CEO of infrastructure business spinoff Chorus. [ + ]

IT is engaged in a costly and lengthy military campaign with mobility. Upper management drafts fleets of new tablets, while users introduce their own mobile devices to the network. All of these must be secured and managed - refusing to do so can cost you your job. So what’s an IT manager to do? According to Joe Sweeney, analyst at IBRS, the only answer is to lay down your arms.

Companies are marrying customer service with social media, using the likes of Facebook and Twitter as public and easily accessible avenues for customer support. Is this new movement for every business? And how do you get started? Andrew Collins reports.

Giving employees access to data and processes while in the field is becoming increasingly popular. IT often responds to this need by creating device-specific mobile applications for each specific function or process. But as the number of devices and applications grow, this ad hoc approach can become unmanageable. Darren Besgrove, Director at BlinkMobile Interactive, discusses holistic mobile service delivery platforms as an alternative.

Learn how to use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as a medium for customer service and support. Andrew Collins takes a look at how your social media customer support channel should operate, how to encourage community growth and which department inside your organisation should take responsibility for social media.

The Storage Networking Industry Association for Australia and New Zealand (SNIA ANZ) has revealed its board of directors for 2011-12. Board members are elected each year by SNIA ANZ members and are responsible for pursuing the association’s strategic objectives in the following 12 months. [ + ]

Australia may soon have a national e-waste recycling scheme, with the passing of a Product Stewardship Bill in the Senate last week. [ + ]

Australian businesses are eager for business video services. Ovum analyst Claudio Castelli reckons this presents telcos with a market that is growing and so far untapped, and recommends they move to exploit it.

With reports coming out virtually every second day on serious data breaches around the world and in Australia, it’s time to add up the cost and take serious prevention measures. Merri Mack reports on the state of data breaches, and chats to the experts on ways to mitigate the damage.