Northdoor plc

30/07/2026

Oracle just made it easier to move legacy databases off IBM mainframes. That doesn't mean the hard part is over.

Oracle's new EBCDIC compatibility features in Oracle AI Database remove two long-standing barriers to moving COBOL applications: character conversion and binary sort ordering.

AJ Thompson, CCO at Northdoor plc, shared his view with CIO on what this changes and what it doesn't.

"The two problems it solves... have historically been real blockers for allowing COBOL to move away."

Mainframes weren't chosen because of character encoding. They were chosen for uptime, resilience and workload isolation.

Oracle's announcement solves a data compatibility problem, not a resilience or availability one. Any organisation planning a re-platform still needs answers on resilience, disaster recovery and operational risk.
https://ow.ly/CVQW50ZuESv

Consultants say the functionality looks strong and it should be effective, but at the possible price of trading one vendor lock-in for another.

29/07/2026

Your IT team is being asked to do something structurally impossible.

Endpoints, identity, Teams governance, security incidents.
All at once. With one to five people.

Hybrid working pushed the perimeter out to every device, identity and BYOD phone. You are paying several vendors for overlapping services, the cyber insurer wants evidence of controls the team has no time to produce, and Copilot got bought and nothing changed.

Co-managed IT takes the load. We supplement your team rather than replace it, consolidate the overlapping vendors into one accountable partner, and run the workplace to a defined standard, so your people get their time back and Copilot finally delivers.

Link to book the free Modern Workplace Health Check is here: https://ow.ly/HEpc50Zu67W

What is the one thing your IT team would fix first if they had the time?

28/07/2026

Hands-on with IBM Bob

Two of our developers went to an IBM event to put Bob through real work, not a demo. The feedback was clear.

Reema Sharma, Senior Engineer, built a dummy application and used Bob across the whole flow: shaping requirements, designing the application, generating code, writing unit tests, and wiring it into a CI/CD pipeline. Within a couple of hours, she had a working application that covered every stage from requirements to testing.

Dennis Baffour Application Developer, came at it from a different angle. He asked Bob to turn a sample SOAP web service into a modern .NET API using only a WSDL he created on the spot. Bob mapped out the migration path, set out the deployment steps, and produced the supporting documentation. What stood out most to Dennis was that Bob flagged security issues as the code was being written.

Both came away with the same view: this was not about typing code faster. It was about moving from idea to working, testable, secure software far more quickly than they expected.

Read more: https://ow.ly/pctY50ZtIJw

IBM Northdoor plc

27/07/2026

Your next DSAR probably isn't the problem. Finding the data is.

Most organisations have one month to respond to a Data Subject Access Request under UK GDPR.

The deadline isn't usually what causes trouble.
It's knowing where someone's data actually lives.

Think about how many places personal data can end up:
• Email
• Teams or Slack
• Shared drives
• Legacy file servers
• Cloud apps
• Shadow IT

If your response depends on spreadsheets, keyword searches and people's memory, you're taking a risk.

Miss one mailbox or archived folder and your response is incomplete.
Include information that belongs to someone else and you've created a different compliance issue.

A good discovery platform gives you:
✔ Broader search across your environment
✔ Evidence of what was searched
✔ Audit trails for regulators
✔ Better control over redaction and disclosure

The goal isn't just to respond faster. It's to be able to show how you searched if your process is questioned later.

Read AJ Thompson's article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dsars-without-robust-discovery-hidden-risks-you-can-avoid-mpx5e/?trackingId=7t87pImLFwVGjejMMDU4Bw%3D%3D

23/07/2026

AI agents are changing the security conversation.

The Hugging Face breach shows what happens when an AI system can act on its own. An autonomous agent escaped a sandboxed environment, chained thousands of actions together, accessed credentials, and moved through internal systems without a human guiding each step.

The question for security teams has changed.

It is no longer just about defending against people using AI. Organisations now need to consider what happens when the AI system itself becomes the source of risk.

Three areas need attention:

• Review every AI agent with access to your systems. Treat it like a privileged user with its own permissions and access reviews.

• Test whether you can contain an agent if something goes wrong, not just detect the activity afterwards.

• Update incident response plans for attacks that can happen in minutes, not hours or days.

Agentic AI will continue to enter business environments. Security controls need to be built around how these systems act, not just how people use them.

Read the full analysis: https://www.northdoor.co.uk/insight/blog/ai-driven-attacks-hugging-face-breach/

22/07/2026

Well done to all the Team Northdoor plc runners in last night's Standard Chartered Great City Race, which we ran in memory of Rob Batters.

As well as the fun of the race and the socialising afterwards, we raised some much needed money for the Steps Charity.

21/07/2026

Tonight the Northdoor plc team run the 2026 Standard Chartered Great City Race.

Every step we take will be in memory of our friend and colleague, Rob Batters.

If you are able to support us, we'd be incredibly grateful.

Every donation to Steps Charity helps ensure that somewhere, a child who never thought it possible may one day run their own marathon.

Thank you for helping us keep Rob's vision alive.

Help Northdoor plc raise money to support Steps Charity (formerly Steps Charity Worldwide)

21/07/2026

Learn how Northdoor plc helped Ocorian its large landscape to support always-on global business and cut costs by 20%.

“We chose Northdoor for our SQL Server modernisation project for several reasons: they held all of the relevant Microsoft certifications, supported by a proven track record, combined with compelling pricing. In addition, Northdoor could not only handle the rationalisation and implementation, but also run the new environment as a fully managed service.”

Read the case study: https://ow.ly/pyIO50ZqFhc

21/07/2026

Learn how Northdoor plc helped Ocorian its large landscape to support always-on global business and cut costs by 20%.

“We chose Northdoor for our SQL Server modernisation project for several reasons: they held all of the relevant Microsoft certifications, supported by a proven track record, combined with compelling pricing. In addition, Northdoor could not only handle the rationalisation and implementation, but also run the new environment as a fully managed service.”

Read the case study: https://ow.ly/Ox7T50ZqFgN

20/07/2026

Your admin accounts hold the keys to your most sensitive systems.

But who controls those keys?

Recent breaches at Uber and Target show how one unmanaged credential can expose entire environments, damage operations, and create serious regulatory problems.

Our latest blog looks at:
• Why privileged credentials remain a major target
• What Uber and Target teach us about access controls
• Three steps to tighten privileged access management

Read the full article: Privileged Access Management: The keys to the kingdom
https://ow.ly/MAs550ZpYcx