ACS Week in Review: 25 January 2013
ACS in the news
Topics in the news
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Digital Economy: Australian retailers urged to go super personal, Apple shares slide 12%.
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Cyber security: New cyber centre to protect national security
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Telecommunications: Digital dividend auction deadline looms
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Government: DPS appoints new CIO
News for ACS newsfeed
Digital Economy
- Australia retailers are being urged to roll out personalised websites to customers who want convenient online shopping. The next generation of retail websites in the US boast personal shoppers and real time chat to help customers select and purchase goods.
- The co-founder of HootSuite, one of the most popular social media monitoring firms has warned the Australian government against funding start-ups, saying that they could be counter-productive. Dario Meli notes that excessive conditions linked to government funding often imposes constraints on start-ups and prevents them from growing as quickly as they could otherwise.
- Apple shares slid by 12%, the largest drop in four years knocking US$50 billion off the companies market value. The fall happened as the company announced disappointing sales results in the critical smart phone category.
Cyber Security
- Cyber security has been put at the heart of Australia’s first National Security Strategy. Hailing the document as the start of the ‘post 9/11’ decade, the PM has pledged to create a cyber security centre in Canberra to ensure the country was well protected.
- The NSW Department of Finance and Services is reassessing its IT systems security for ServiceFirst, its shared serviced division. As part of the review it is shelving its existing firewalls and looking for contracts to implement new ones.
Cloud
- Oracle have set out their strategy to dominate in cloud services here in Australia, as president Mark Hurd visited the country. He launched a new data centre, located in a facility managed by Equinix to provide remotely hosted subscription based services, competing with providers like Amazon and Salesforce.com.
- CommBank and Telstra have joined the Open Data Centre Alliance, an independent IT consortium that bring IT executives from around the world to build unified standards for cloud computing and datacentres.
Telecommunications
- Deloitte has predicted a spectrum and broadband shortage around the world, as demand for smartphones and the roll out of 4G networks increase globally. A report from Deloitte has predicted that more than 200 operators in 75 countries will provide 4G by the end of 2014.
- Cable system equipment vendors and operators are considering upgrades to subsea cables to allow to 100 gigabit per second, despite expectations that bandwidth demand growth is flattening.
Government Announcements
Opposition Announcements