Sam Kingston, Zenitech CEO
To mark Computer Weekly’s 60th anniversary, Sam Kingston reflects on three decades running IT services firms, arguing that the technology story is always, fundamentally, a human-interest story, a principle he says has guided the publication throughout. Click to read the full article in Computer Weekly.
He frames his career across three eras of computing:
- The “heavy iron” era (mid-1990s) – mainframes and client-server systems, when scaling a business meant literally building server rooms and running cables.
- The strategy and integration era (2000s) – the shift to ERP systems, global supply chains, and early cloud computing, when IT moved from a back-office cost center to a driver of business outcomes.
- The current era of pervasive smart tech and accountability – AI, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure, where technology itself is the business, and failures carry major societal and legal stakes.
Kingston credits Computer Weekly’s investigative journalism, especially its early coverage of the Post Office Horizon scandal, broken in 2009, as proof that technical reporting must reckon with real human consequences. He closes by arguing that even as tools have changed beyond recognition, the human element hasn’t, and that IT leaders’ real job is building systems resilient to real-world failure.