Recent data compiled and published by UK2 show that Digital Britain is currently falling behind in the digital war on broadband provision. Ranking 18th out of 30 countries, the table shows that actual download speeds fall consistently below advertised speeds – and that upload speeds are particularly poor.

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In a single minute there are over 695,000 status updates on Facebook. That's just one example of the mind boggling scale of online activity.
 
The following infographics show a bunch of other incredible things that happen in 60 seconds (via Barry Ritholtz).

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Does dependency on Google have side effects?

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A recent client enquiry prompted this question: just how many bytes of
data are required to store a person's DNA? And the answer, according to
the excellent infographic below, is around 3 gigabytes or 3,000 megabytes.
That means you can store two complete human genomes (with 3 billion DNA
base pairs each) on an entry level iPhone - and still leave room for a few
songs and a handful of apps.

So how many genomes could we store in our data centres? At current levels
not quite the entire staffing complement of the NHS (around 1.5 million
people) but certainly enough to hold the population of a reasonably sized
town. I guess we'll just have to expand... Read more

If you’re reading this then you are almost certainly accessing it via the internet. But do you know how this text is actually getting to you – and how your requests for information are directed to the right web page out of the billions of pages that now exist on-line.

Do you care?

If you are one of those people who are naturally curious about how all this stuff works then hopefully the infographic below will make everything clearer. Read more

Last year has been widely cited as the year that cloud computing took off. It’s still early days yet but this infographic nicely sums up the state of play as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. Read more

The growth of the internet in the last ten years has meant that more services are available online, most of which require us to ‘login’. We need passwords for our email accounts, social networking, online banking and shopping. The way in which some of us are coping with our online lives is by re-using the same password across our various accounts. Most critically, recent statistics claim that almost three quarters of us use our online banking password on other websites. Bank websites have tough security measures but can be easily hacked if users have used the same details for other websites with weaker security. Also, once into an email account, hackers can access ‘forgotten password’ emails from other websites... Read more

The following article has been reproduced from hc2d.

Data security is highly important in any company or business. Personal information of employees, clients or patients can be at risk of being lost or stolen. Whether it is intentional or not, security breaches take place across all industries and can lead to fraud, damage to individuals, and financial implications for the responsible business or organisation.

Most companies will have clearly outlined procedures for training staff in the importance of data handling, fearing the potential damage to their reputation if a security breach occurs. The reputation of the NHS for example, in its handling of personal data, is coming under increased scrutiny... Read more

It all started with a white paper, published in July 2010, and promoted by the government as one of the most radical shake-ups in NHS history. The white paper, entitled ‘Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS’ promised to ‘put patients at the heart of the NHS’. It appointed most of the healthcare budget to GPs in their local areas. Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities were to be phased out by 2013. The paper proposed that an independent NHS Commissioning Board should oversee the new structure. The health and social care reforms were aimed at giving patients more information and choice. They would be able to choose where they are treated as well as rating their quality of service... Read more

Confused by the endless definitions? Hopefully this article will help simplify a few things.

Think of the ‘cloud’ as a bunch of resources that are on the internet, rather than on your PC. Email applications like Google or Hotmail are examples of cloud computing, as well as social networking websites, like Facebook, where information and images are shared and stored in the cloud of data. This being the case, many of us have already been cloud computing without realising it.

The capabilities of cloud computing, however, stretch far beyond individual use. For businesses and organisations this is good news. Instead of being bogged down in a headache of technology problems, a company can focus on the application it wants to develop and deliver to its clients. Cloud computing guarantees that you can be safe in the knowledge that someone else is running, maintaining and updating your application, any problems are their responsibility... Read more