30 May 2025

Joe Potten, Team Lead, BCS Consultancy

The planned shutdown of the Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces by Jingye and its interim ‘rescue’ by the UK Government has shone a spotlight on what is happening to the UK’s steel production.

Jingye, the Chinese owners of British Steel justified their decision to close the facility by reporting that it was making losses of around £700,000 every day and was therefore no longer viable to operate. These losses were as a result of increased tariffs of 25% on steel products being exported to the US; rising labour costs; price increases for the hard to source coke and iron ore raw materials needed to fire the furnaces; and further environmental regulation requiring increased carbon offset measures.

27 May 2025

Nick Burling, Senior Vice President, Product, Nasuni

The pressure to invest in AI and enhance enterprises’ processes and fuel innovation shows no sign of letting up: McKinsey research earlier this year found that 78% of organisations are using AI in at least one business function, up from 72% in early 2024 and 55% a year earlier.

Pressure for transformation

And in such a competitive landscape, the pressure on company boards to lead change is unrelenting: in IBM research of 2,000 CEOs, nearly two-thirds (64%) acknowledge that ‘the risk of falling behind drives investment in some technologies before they have a clear understanding of the value they deliver.’ Consequently, there is no lack of expectation from boards, and lines of business, for AI-driven business transformation, whether across the enterprise or by individual ‘early adopter’ departments.

07 May 2025

Criag Herrett, Managing Director Alliot Technologies LTD & Vadim Lyu, Managing Director UK & Ireland Netmore Group

The Internet of Things (IoT) industry has matured significantly, now providing crucial data-driven insights needed to truly optimize our daily environments. The ability to intelligently manage resources, reduce waste, and predict failures is becoming standard practice, showcasing the tangible benefits IoT can deliver.

06 May 2025

Jez Pickering, Head of Customer Experience, Nebula

Voice over IP (VoIP) is not a new or unfamiliar concept to those responsible for managing corporate networks or IT decision-makers, but within certain sectors it has been under-adopted. One of the most interesting examples is the energy sector, which often have dispersed workforces, complicated workflows, intense margin scrutiny and a critical need for effective communication.

Since its emergence, increasingly faster internet speeds and more reliable connectivity have made the technology more appealing to businesses. Some of the biggest uptake has understandably been in call-heavy industries, such as hospitality, call centres, healthcare and insurance.

06 May 2025

Bernie Malouin, VP, Design, Process and Technology Engineering, JetCool, A Flex Company

The relentless growth of AI is pushing the boundaries of computing power, and at the heart of these advances lies a quiet but critical struggle: keeping the machines cool.

Take Meta’s Llama 3 405B, for instance. Over the course of 54 days, Meta’s AI infrastructure experienced daily GPU failures. Meta experienced nearly eight unexpected failures a day over this training run, and 58.7% were attributed to GPU failures. Compared with other components (especially CPUs and system memory), it’s clear that AI training puts distinctively intense pressure on the GPUs and as a result, they fail.