Anyone who works outside of a major city, or has ever tried to get work done while on a trip to a more rural location, knows that rural connectivity can be patchy. 

Despite the UK’s high population density and relative lack of difficult terrain, rural connectivity remains an uneven picture. Many rural businesses are still struggling to receive fiber optic cables, let alone leverage 5G signals to keep up with the demands of modern business.

Is UK connectivity improving? And how far have we still got to go?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to David Happy, non-executive director at JET Connectivity and non-executive chairman for transport at Wales Fiber, and Colin Wood, innovation lead at Dorset Council, to better understand the state of rural connectivity in the UK.

Read more:

• UK rural businesses set for broadband improvements
• Invest 2035: the UK's modern industrial strategy
• UK gov has ramped up broadband roll-outs to tackle 'hard-to-reach' areas in 2023
• BT and OneWeb succeed in "game changer" satellite connection trial
• The battle for space broadband dominance is hotting up
• UK government to run Starlink trials in Snowdonia, Lake District

January is a time for planning, goal-setting, and looking to the future and here on the ITPro Podcast things are no different.

While there are sometimes unexpected developments – take ChatGPT in 2022, for example – it’s nevertheless possible to tease out trends from the year gone by that can influence the new one.

For this new year’s edition of the podcast, Jane and Rory are joined by Dr John Honchell, IT industry analyst at Future B2B, to unpick the top trends from this year that will shape 2025.

Footnotes

• Generative AI's cybersecurity potential is clear, but so far it's given hackers the upper hand
• Enterprises are ramping up investment in private AI systems
• VMware cuts ribbon on new Private AI offerings
• What is a sovereign cloud?
• Sovereign cloud demand is “truly global” according to Oracle — and the company is well placed to capitalize on it
• OpenAI just raised $6.6bn in funding, but it drove a hard bargain – investors will be stopped from funding rivals

It's now a Christmas tradition on the ITPro Podcast to look back at trends that were expected to dominate the year but then fizzled out.

What predictions have gone the way of flying cars and the Metaverse? Which are delayed, perhaps permanently?

In this episode, Jane is joined by Bobby Hellard, ITPro’s reviews editor, and Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to discuss three of the trends that failed to materialise this year: Intel’s AI dominance, a nuclear solution to data center energy problems, and generative AI taking our jobs.

Highlights

“They are going to rely on AI to solve the problem of the small modular reactors which they need to power the data centers that are running the AI all while the energy problem continues.”

“I remember Pat Gelsinger coming back in January 2021 … this big, shattering news story, prodigal son returns. But if you look at that point there, they were so far behind in production for 10 nanometer process, AMD had caught up really quickly, and by the time Intel had got anywhere near developing that AMD were already on seven nanometer process … when it gets to developing AI, they're they're just so far behind they can't catch up.”

“The potential reliance on AI tools in the future could actually have a detrimental impact on broader security teams and people entering the industry and the workforce. How reliant are they going to be if you're going through college, university now, and so much of the sort of industry narrative is around these tools, and you're you're using them, you're learning how to use them, you get into your first job, and then what's your level of expertise compared to a fresh graduate 10 years ago?”

Related links

• Microsoft is using AI to get its nuclear projects approved in the US
• Microsoft’s Three Mile Island deal is a big step toward matching data center energy demands
• Google is going nuclear
• Intel targets AI hardware dominance by 2025
• Intel layoffs to hit 15,000 roles as falling revenue and poor returns on AI bite
• Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announces retirement
• What do security pros want from generative AI?
• Median construction time for nuclear reactors

It’s the last week before Christmas but while everyone else may be winding up for the festive season, the news never sleeps. In this episode of the ITPro Podcast, Jane is joined by news and analysis editor Ross Kelly to look back at some of the biggest stories from the month of December.

Included in this episode:

• The US charges 14 members of a North Korean IT worker scam
• Ireland has become a ‘data dumping ground’, says Friends of the Earth
• Is virtual reality the next frontier in software development?

Read more:

• Cyber firm KnowBe4 unknowingly hired a North Korean hacker – and it went exactly as you might think
• Lawmakers clash over Irish data center industry growth amid environmental concerns
• UK warned about data center need, again
• “Significant concerns” raised over impact of data center growth on regional energy grids
• WWDC 2023: Will Apple’s Vision Pro be a VR game changer?
• Why 2024 won’t be the year of AR, VR or any kind of immersive tech

This week, Google announced that it had made a major step forward in quantum computing with its new quantum chip Willow. The AI and search giant stated that it had successfully completed calculations that would previously have been impossible using its new piece of hardware.

In doing so, Google has taken shots at existing supercomputer infrastructure and driven excited chatter on social media – as well as worried posts about how the end of encryption is just around the corner. But how significant is this breakthrough? And what does it mean for the future of quantum computing?

In this episode, Jane and Rory recap Google’s Willow announcement and detail what its immediate and long-term implications could be.


Read more:

• Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip
• Explained: P vs. NP
• Preparing for the quantum revolution
• UK government quantum investment welcomed by industry
• Why experts are warning businesses to prepare for quantum now – or face critical cyber risks when it arrives
• Quantum supremacy is here — so what?
• The quantum computing sector needs to cut the hype and focus on responsible development
• UK quantum computing ambitions need a 'pro-innovation' regulatory approach akin to AI

If one company can be said to have walked away the winner of the generative AI boom of the past few years, it’s OpenAI. The startup, which was founded as a non-profit with a mission to drive progress toward artificial general intelligence – aka a conscious machine – has led the pack of generative AI developers since it launched ChatGPT in 2022 and quickly became a household name.

But in recent months, more and more questions have been raised about the viability of OpenAI in the long term. As some of the biggest companies in the world look to pin down AI return on investment, OpenAI is still laying out its exact profit model. Can it keep its AI crown? Or is it on a downward trajectory?

In this episode, Jane and Rory look at the inner workings of OpenAI to understand how the company is faring amid strong competition and how it could perform in the next year.

Please note: this episode was recorded prior to the announcement of the new 'ChatGPT Pro' tier.

Read more:

• OpenAI could go bankrupt in 12 months if it doesn’t raise some serious cash – but is the Microsoft-backed AI giant too big to fail?
• OpenAI seeks $6.5 billion investment as costs continue to mount
• OpenAI just raised $6.6bn in funding, but it drove a hard bargain – investors will be stopped from funding rivals
• Enterprises are ramping up investment in private AI systems
• OpenAI tool previously thought 'too dangerous' for the public goes generally available
• OpenAI launches $20 ChatGPT Plus in search of greater revenue
• AWS bet big on Anthropic in the race against Microsoft and OpenAI, now it’s doubling down
• Amazon’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic faces UK competition probe – here’s what it means
• Meta’s Llama 3.1 promises to compete with closed source competition
• OpenAI says ads aren't coming soon – if ever

November has come to a close, and the depths of winter are just around the corner. But that doesn’t mean events in tech are slowing down at all – nor that attackers are taking an early Christmas break.

In the past month, we’ve seen a slew of cyber incidents, ranging from high-profile exploits of Microsoft vulnerabilities to a ransomware attack on a supply chain software company integral to high-street brands.

Elsewhere, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has hailed the strides his company has made with using AI to generate internal source code – but how far can AI code really go, and does it put software engineers at threat of redundancy?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak once again to Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to unpack some of the most significant stories of November.

Read more:

• Warning issued after SharePoint flaw puts entire corporate networks at risk
• Blue Yonder ransomware attack disrupts grocery, retail, and hospitality firms
• Breached for years: How long-term cyber attacks are able to linger
• How IT leaders can respond to the evolution of ransomware
• Google CEO says more than 25% of the company's code is now AI-generated – is this the future of software development?
• Gemini Code Assist Enterprise – Google wants to simplify code for all
• Gemini Code Assist could be Google's secret weapon to challenge GitHub Copilot

HPE’s annual European conference took place this week in Barcelona and the company’s focus is still firmly on AI. This is bolstered by its supercomputing credentials – El Capitan, the latest supercomputer to come online in the US, was awarded the title of fastest supercomputer just a day before the conference kicked off.

In this episode, Jane sits down with Gerald Kleyn, vice president of customer solutions for HPC and AI at Hewlett Packard Enterprise at HPE Discover Barcelona 2024 to discuss what the real-world impact of these high-performance machines is and whether they hold any benefits for the average IT department.

Read more:

• What is HPC really for?
• AI’s thirsty secret
• Inside Lumi, one of the world’s greenest supercomputers
• HPE’s AI and supercomputing journey continues with new Cray and Slingshot hardware
• El Capitan powers up, becomes fastest supercomputer in the world
• HPE Discover Barcelona 2024: All the news and updates live
• Isambard-AI, the UK’s most powerful and sustainable supercomputer, is now up and running

What does it mean to be secure in your sector? While every organization has its own cyber security policies, numerous pieces of legislation also set out minimum requirements for security that firms must reach or else be held accountable through fines.

The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act – which came into force in 2023 and applies from 17 January 2025 – aims to do just this for financial entities within the region. 

But what does being DORA-ready mean in practice? And how will the legislation add to the responsibilities of IT professionals?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to John Stevenson, Technical Director at Skybox, to better understand the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act and what it means for businesses.

Read more:

• What is the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)?
• DORA and why resilience (once again) matters to the board
• ‘Borderline irresponsible’ attitude to third party risks must change, says expert
• Supply chain attacks are still plaguing enterprises – here's why

It's that time of year when the clocks change and the nights draw in, the familiar starts to take on a new aspect as the shadows lengthen, and in the world of IT, trends that have been taken for granted are also starting to take on a new shape. 

As countries battle productivity problems, can they replicate the success of Iceland's four-day working week? Elsewhere, developers have started to question just how useful AI coding tools really are, and OpenAI has had another successful funding round – but is interest in the company starting to wain?

In this episode, Jane is once again joined by Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to unpack the most interesting news that October brought.

Read more:

• New four-day week trial kicks off for workers across UK
• Iceland’s four-day working week trials have been a roaring success – economic growth spiked, workers were happier, and burnout plummeted
• The benefits of a four-day week in tech
• UK's four-day week trial ends, leads to reduced burnout and sick days
• OpenAI just raised $6.6bn in funding, but it drove a hard bargain – investors will be stopped from funding rivals
• OpenAI could go bankrupt in 12 months if it doesn’t raise some serious cash – but is the Microsoft-backed AI giant too big to fail?