Information security is inherently complex, but is fast becoming a business distinguisher and even a matter of basic survival. Achieving security goals is possible even without big budgets.

XML is touted as the end to IT woes - a cure-all for integration and compatibility headaches that have held companies captive for so long. But is this grand promise too good to be true?

In part two of ITWeb`s look at the E-Commerce Green Paper, Phillip de Wet examines building trust in the digital economy. Could security and privacy concerns be the ultimate legislative stumbling block to pervasive e-commerce?

Multichoice`s 500 000 subscribers will be the first South Africans to gain access to interactive TV and t-commerce. Soon, they`ll be able to e-mail and shop from the comfort of their lounges, using their television sets.

The Green Paper on E-Commerce raises many questions, and the answers will become law. They will have a massive impact on life and business in SA. In the first of four features, ITWeb examines the legal and regulatory issues.

More South Africans shopped online this festive season than ever before. Profits are up, and confidence is strong that 2001 will prove more lucrative than previously expected.

ITWeb asked industry players to predict the hottest IT trends and technologies in 2001. Mobile, wireless and convergence topped the "hot list", while enterprise resource planning and in-house application development found a much colder reception.

When asked why Internet access in Africa outside SA is so prohibitively expensive, experts at the Highway Africa conference in Grahamstown cited competition and regulation as major factors. But solutions may already be at hand.

Suggestions for a communications satellite owned and operated by SA, SADC or a group of African countries abound. But commercial birds with megabyte capacity to spare might fly before any development proposal is accepted.

Microsoft has firmly thrown the gauntlet at the feet of existing enterprise software platform leaders with its release of Data Center Server, but is the software giant up to the challenge?

How feasible is online broking in SA, where day trading has yet to take off in any significant way? Bronwen Kausch investigates.

Hewlett-Packard believes services will drive mobile Internet growth and is incubating start-ups to grow infrastructure demand. Wireless Application Protocol may be a disappointment, but killer apps may woo consumers back soon.