Toshiba has announced an upgraded version of its Stor.E Slim portable external hard drive, which now holds up to 1TB of data and comes with access to 10GB of free cloud-based storage.

Available immediately, Toshiba developed the Stor.E Slim portable hard drive to tackle two issues: backup of valuable data and provide users with secure access to digital content while on the move. It provides this in a compact enclosure no bigger than an iPhone 5, which connects to the host computer and draws its power via a USB 3.0 port.

While the original Stor.E Slim offers 500GB of storage, the new version can store up to 1TB. Suggested retail pricing for the two versions is £60 and £85 respectively.

Toshiba said it has also partnered with Pogoplug PC to provide owners of the new Stor.E Slim with a free subscription to the cloud platform that delivers 10GB of cloud storage. With remote access tools from Pogoplug, users can access their digital files stored on the Stor.E Slim from anywhere, providing the HDD is connected to a computer with an internet connection.

On the backup side, Toshiba provides NTI Backup Now EZ, which scans the computer and recommends the best backup coverage, giving users the option to back up to the Stor.E Slim. A backup can be scheduled to run automatically at any time so that users can ensure their data is always protected, according to Toshiba.

Oracle has announced an update to its scalable MySQL Cluster database platform, adding features such as an Auto-Installer to ease deployment and foreign key support to make it easier to integrate with packaged applications, both designed to make it more attractive to customers.

MySQL Cluster 7.3 introduces a number of enhancements intended to drive the software more and more into commodity use cases around the web and elsewhere, the firm said. The major new features are the Auto-Installer tool, foreign key support, integration with MySQL 5.6 and NoSQL JavaScript for Node.js.

However, Oracle has not compromised on the enterprise-grade capabilities of the clustering technology, according to Tomas Ulin, vice president of MySQL Engineering at Oracle.

“From the get-go it’s been about high-availability and scaling, and that continues to be the main attributes of MySQL Cluster 7.3,” he said.

With the Auto-Installer, Oracle wants to ensure the database can be used by anyone, Ulin said. Users just tell the tool what machines they want Cluster to run on, and it will scan the network, detect the hosts and check what their hardware resources such as CPUs and memory. With input from the user on what type of workload they intend to run, Auto-Installer suggests configurations based on Oracle best practices.

By adding foreign key support, Oracle hopes to see more adoption in the internet hosting industry and e-commerce by making it easier to integrate with packaged applications.

“We hope to reach even more customers through this foreign key support where a great many packaged solutions that are available require this,” Ulin said.

Another piece of the make it easy puzzle is Native JavaScript access to MySQL Cluster, implemented as a module for node.js.

“For those that don’t want to learn about SQL, they should be attracted by this interface, which makes it easier to get going,” said Ulin.

Integration with MySQL 5.6 means that MySQL Cluster can make use of improvements in the latest version of Oracle’s database, released in February, such as Optimiser improvements that boost query performance.

Ulin said that MySQL Cluster is ideal for applications needing millisecond response times, low cost and application agility with support for a number of development languages and frameworks, plus SQL or NoSQL options.

The government has admitted its IT services procurement scheme, G-Cloud, has ‘more to do’ in convincing users of its value, and has told its departments to ‘take a risk’ on the service.

Speaking at the Think G-Cloud event in London, the Home Office chief technology officer and former head of G-Cloud, Denise McDonagh, said that misunderstanding of G-Cloud is at the heart of its uptake issues.

“They have to think more seriously about G-Cloud,” she said at the event attended by V3. “People will be expected to make cloud adoption plans in central government. G-Cloud is not the root of everything, but you do have to at least test it first.”

The service aims to level the playing field for SMEs offering IT services to government departments. Most recent figures show that in the year up until the end of April, just £22 million was spent on the scheme’s buying website, CloudStore, with 62 percent of that figure going to SMEs.

“I am bedevilled by central government’s processes,” she continued. “There isn’t a willingness to understand that we do things differently.”

McDonagh, who was honoured with a CBE this week for services to IT, directed criticism of G-Cloud’s slow uptake to way in which the service was launched.

“We’ve been under the GDS [Government Digital Service] mantra of ‘get out there quick, fail quick and sort it out’. When we put out CloudStore we knew it wasn’t brilliant, but we have made significant strides. But there’s still a bit more to do,” he said.

She also encouraged government departments to ‘take a risk’ with buying services using G-Cloud. “It’s about experimenting,” she said. “Once you buy something you’re not locked in like you would have been. You can buy something for a matter of months. “

G-Cloud now falls under the banner of GDS, with Tony Singleton taking McDonagh’s role at the helm of the scheme.

The Home Office’s chief technology officer Denise McDonagh has received a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for her services to the IT world, such as leading the G-Cloud framework, despite numerous issues plaguing the system since its inception.

McDonagh has worked in the civil service for over 25 years, with IT projects ranging from DEFRA to the Home Office, and taking charge of IT renovation projects with budgets in excess of £100 million. Her 2009 Home Office “extend and blend” programme reportedly removed £100 million of unnecessary costs over the duration of multiple IT contracts.

However, the G-Cloud project has come under fire in recent months, most recently with the government admitting that the service was still ‘underused’ despite having been available for more than a year and spending on the project only reaching £22m, a tiny amount in government spending terms. She stepped down from the role last month, but remains the chief technology officer for the Home Office.

The scheme, which is designed to streamline the process of procuring IT services to public sector bodies through an online shop known as CloudStore, suffered at the hands of excessive red tape and lack of clarity among government departments.

Despite these roadblocks, McDonagh said in February that a change it attitude was required before G-Cloud can truly take off: “The move to purchasing IT services as a commodity requires a culture shift for the public sector that won’t happen overnight,” she insisted.

McDonagh will deliver a keynote entitled ‘It’s Only Just Begun’ at tomorrow’s ‘Think G-Cloud’ event in London. V3 contacted McDonagh and the Home Office for comment on the appointment but had received no reply at the time of publication.