New data centres are more efficient than their predecessors, but they have to be reliable too. Peter Judge asks - what happens when the need for reliability clashes with the demand for efficiency?

Never mind security and cost. There's one question around cloud computing that could be a show-stopper, says Peter Judge. Do cloud services comply with regulations, and can you safely use them?

Twitter lost its data through a hack on Google Docs. Learn from this to be very careful how much trust you place on cloud apps and Web 2.0, says Eric Lundquist

You can't have it both ways, says Jim Rapoza. If Google expects users to pay for a service, then it can't call it a beta. Beta software is not ready for prime-time, by definition

There's a big buzz around the "new economy" of sustainable development. But is anyone actually sure that that means, asks Peter Judge:  Growth,  or no growth?

BT's poor results and shock redundancy plan have come about because of problems in its Global Services division, says Bathwick Group's Katy Ring. But there could be hope

Larry Ellison has committed Oracle to investing more in Sun's SPARC, apparently because he think servers are like iPhones. That's just silly, says Peter Judge

The move to greener IT is unstoppable - even in a recession. But IT departments have a tough job getting their message with the other 90 percent of the company, says Forrester's Chris Mines.

The technology to make data centres more efficient is well-proven - but it's only implemented on a minority of data centre servers. Our new practical How To Guide will help you cut costs

The recession is creating an army of disaffected ex-employees - many of whom will still have access to their former company's IT systems, warns Matt Hines