Articles
July 1, 2019
Gareth Morris

Q4 2018: Evolution’s industry news round-up

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s take a quick look back at Q4 2018 – it was cold, festive, Brexit-filled and full of exciting news and developments from across the IT industry. So, sit tight, as we download Evolution’s top updates from the IT sector last quarter.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October was national Cybersecurity Awareness month, giving the topic and profession the attention it deserves. Amongst the hype was the release of some shocking statistics, including:

The average cost for financial service companies to recover from a single DNS attack is an eye-watering $924,390;
The UK receives an average of ten cybersecurity attacks per week; and
Only 54% of businesses believe that their technology is as resilient as it should be.

Cybersecurity also received increased media attention last quarter, with Russia being accused of a cyber-attack campaign; British Airways revealing that up to 185,000 more people than originally thought, may have been affected by its data breach; and news that cybercrime is the UK’s biggest evolving crime. Polish up your CVs, cybersecurity candidates, because it looks like you’re going to be in demand!

Gartner

Speaking of cybersecurity, some of the Evolution team were lucky enough to attend 2018’s Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Barcelona. Discussing technology trends and growth in the coming year, the conference updated our recruitment specialists with the knowledge to help you secure your next IT job in the UK and Europe. Watch our blog over the coming months, where we’ll be revealing more of what we discovered.

United techdom

New data shows that the UK creates 35% of unicorns across Europe and Israel, thanks to the country’s world-leading academic institutions. The UK is now home to 15 unicorns, with cities including Manchester, London, Cambridge and Oxford being particularly popular. Other countries across Europe are taking note and we’re seeing an increase in requests for UK IT candidates to fill European positions.

Safety does it

The Google Safety Centre officially launched in Europe this October. The Safety Centre provides users with the tools, tips and information necessary for security, privacy and technology, and is available in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.

Money, money, money

Last quarter saw a lot of GBP flying around the industry, spelling bigger budgets and more jobs. Investment announcements included:

£63.5 million from Adobe into the UK, along with a promise to increase its UK workforce by 20%;
11 foreign investments totalling £109 million and set to create 359 high-tech jobs in the UK;
£29.5 million into London-based AI-powered Software Assembly Line, Engineer.ai; and
£300,000 from the Department of Education into the development of prototypes submitted as part of the Higher Education Open Data competition.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that the UK IoT Research and Innovation Programme failed to spend all of its £40 million budget, losing out on £10 million. Ouch.

Code of practice

The UK government launched a voluntary code of practice, intending to help boost the security of internet-connected devices. Leading companies including HP Inc. and Centrica Hive Ltd. were among the first to sign up to the code, promising to continue strengthening the cybersecurity of products at the design stage.

London calling

Atos and Google launched an open AI lab in London in November. The lab, which hopes to improve enterprise adoption of, and opportunities for, AI, is open to businesses and public-sector entities across Europe. Following the presumed success of the hub, Atos will open two additional hubs, one in Dallas and the other in Paris – creating a global community of highly skilled AI workers.

Amazoom

Amazon was very busy last quarter, not only handling its biggest shopping day ever, but also adding four new AWS capabilities, making it easier to build IoT applications and act on data at the edge. AWS IoT SiteWise and AWS IoT Events will make collecting, monitoring and processing industrial IoT data easier, while the AWS IoT Graph and the AWS IoT Greengrass Connectors will make it even simpler to build IoT applications.

Google-

Google+ announced its early retirement last quarter, following a data breach on the platform, exposing the data of up to 500,000 Google accounts back in March. Google+ will officially close its doors to consumers in August 2019, but is expected to live on as an enterprise product. More information to follow.

One million tech workers

Tech London Advocates has launched a campaign encouraging companies to employ one million tech workers by 2023. TLA hopes that the campaign will put tech at the forefront of Britain’s stand-out industries post-Brexit, and aims to address gender, diversity, age and nationality issues along the way.

Compute this

Leading tech experts will join the National Centre for Computing Education, to improve the teaching of computing across the UK. The £84 million centre will operate virtually, helping a national network of 40 school computer hubs to deliver tech training and education to primary and secondary school students.

Over the pond

Meanwhile, over in Europe last quarter:

The NSM warned of the growing threat of hostile foreign actors against Norway’s IT systems and national infrastructures;
The largest tech and innovation campus in the Nordics is to open in Stockholm, in spring 2019;
The Netherlands came fifth in the IMD World Talent Ranking 2018; and
Evolution launched its new European website – placing both contract and permanent candidates in IT roles across Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and the rest of Europe.

Winner, winner

There has been plenty to celebrate this quarter in the tech industry, including:

The Silicon Canal Tech Awards winners, including most influential male in tech winner Alan Wilson (CEO of ecommerce SaaS company, Expandly) and large company of the year winner, mobile payment solution PM Connect;
The winning start-ups of the Mayor’s Civic Innovation Challenge, each receiving £15,000 of funding to tackle pressing social and environmental issues;
The Most Influential Women in UK Tech top 50 finalists, including this year’s winner, Code First: Girls CEO Amali de Alwis; and
Winner of the UK Cyber Security Challenge, 19-year-old Charlie Hosier.