BCNET & HPCS Community to Connect, Compute and Collaborate in Vancouver, May 1-3, 2012

BCNET: British Columbia’s Shared IT Services Organization for Research, Higher Ed and Regional CANARIE Partner

How often would 500 of Canada’s higher education computing and IT experts come together in a forum to discuss the latest innovations and developments in technology? We are making it happen on May 1st, as we kick off our 11th annual BCNET Conference, bringing together a national community of experts in high-performance computing, high-profile members of the Canadian research community, IT professionals in higher education, high-tech and telecommunications industry professionals and Canadian and American advanced research network organizations.

This year we are joining forces with Compute Canada and WestGrid to host a national technology conference for research and higher education at Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver. The joint event will deliver a rich array of content, offer experiences of professional development and plenty of networking opportunities.

Our Conference venue and hotel vacancies are filling up fast, so don’t miss your chance to interact with Canada’s technology experts! Register today on our Conference page and begin planning which sessions you want to attend!

Content-Rich, Interactive Sessions

Member-focused and member-driven, our conference program serves up the hottest IT topics that are designed to be interactive to peak your learning experience. Our community of IT working groups and committees have devised a content-rich schedule, covering a host of topics from privacy, security, social media and mobility to cloud computing and desktop collaboration tools.

Furthermore, we plan on highlighting how BCNET’s expanded mandate of shared IT services for higher education and research assists B.C’s research universities and institutes to reduce costs and support their strategic objectives. Our high-speed, high-capacity advanced network is the digital highway that transmits data and services amongst campuses. If you’re interested in acquiring a better understanding of how a shared IT services platform can impact an institution‘s mission and vision, this is one session you definitely don’t want to miss.

HPC & Data Management

Our HPCS partners will share the latest tools, techniques and advancements in computational research and data management. These sessions will range from case studies to panel discussions that aim to explore a variety of high-performance computing issues such as the sustainability of data centres, the security measures and privacy policies around big data, and the role of big data in the medical field.

Keynotes On Our Future

Hear from Leonard Brody, a business and technology visionary, described as “a controversial leader of the new world order.” Brody is a highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, bestselling author and a two-time Emmy nominated media visionary who has been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history.

Our second keynote, Dr. Michael Wesch, is a cultural anthropologist known as “The Explainer” exploring the effects of new media on society and culture.

Rounding out our trifecta of keynote speakers is John Towns, the NCSA Director of the Distributed Cyber infrastructure Program Office, who will be illustrating the importance of advanced computing and data resources by presenting a number of computational science and engineering research projects.

Come to Vancouver to Learn, Share and Connect

Whether it’s from the real-life campus case studies or the hands-on pre-conference workshops, everyone attending the 2012 BCNET & HPCS Conference will gain valuable insight on the research and higher education community’s innovative IT and computing solutions.

The national scope of our event will allow you to network with not just professional colleagues but also industry experts from all over the country through speaking tracks and industry showcases.

Needless to say, our concept of a jointly hosted Conference between BCNET and HPCS stays true to the idea of partnership and collaboration, a spirit that is inevitably necessary to advance research and higher education into the future.

Time to say goodbye to unlimited Internet?/Est-ce la fin de l’Internet illimité pour tous?

This past January, Deloitte once again published its annual predictions to help us understand – and plan for – upcoming changes in Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT). According to its report entitled This way to the future, “it’s the end of the line for unlimited Internet”. You would expect such news to make waves, but strangely it only got a passing mention in a few select outlets.

In Canada and elsewhere around the world “The demand for data has already seen many mobile phone networks ease away from the ‘all-you-can-eat’ world and 2012 could be the year that a similar trend occurs in fixed-line broadband”[1]. In fact, demand in Canada has been growing at 30 percent per year, forcing the three big players in this market – Bell, Telus and Rogers – to react by throttling speeds and charging extra for data access during peak hours.

There are some who question the relevance of having Optical Regional Advanced Networks (ORANs) in place exclusively for research and education (R&E) institutions when large telecommunications companies could just as easily serve that community. I would respond by pointing out that research requires sharing large quantities of data with other institutions located in Canada and abroad, while education increasingly relies on high bandwidth real-time applications such as videoconferencing.

ORANs were created to address those needs and provide a way for R&E institutions to bypass any caps or limits commercial access providers might impose on traffic, even during peak times. Three areas in particular benefit from this initiative. Firstly, R&E institutions are able to share their discoveries with each other on their own private networks. Secondly, these institutions can directly access marquee content providers such as Google and Amazon, and bypass commercial Internet providers. Thirdly, educational institutions can enjoy a minimum of interference in their communications with their student population thanks to Internet exchange points such as QIX™ Service and TORIX. As members of RISQ, educational institutions connect to ORANs for their communications. Furthermore, part of their communications with their student population automatically connects through R&E networks.

Finally, while the private sector is rapidly adopting cloud computing in order to reduce its operational costs, this shift does not alleviate the increasing strain on commercial networks – quite the opposite, in fact. Thankfully, ORAN members do not need to concern themselves with such issues, since they will enjoy direct and reliable access to cloud computing providers, just as they benefit from a similar access to content providers today.

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[1] This way to the future, Canadian TMT Predictions 2012. Deloitte

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En janvier dernier, Deloitte a publié, comme chaque année, ses prédictions pour nous permettre de suivre, ou de survivre, aux principales tendances dans le secteur des technologies, des médias et des télécommunications (TMT). Son dernier rapport, intitulé En route vers l’avenir, prédit que « C’est la fin de l’Internet illimité ». Une petite bombe qui est passée presque inaperçue chez le consommateur non averti.

Au Canada, comme ailleurs dans le monde, « L’importance de la demande de données pousse déjà de nombreux réseaux de téléphonie mobile à restreindre le volume illimité de téléchargements et une tendance similaire pourrait se manifester en 2012 pour les lignes fixes »[1]. Les principaux Telco, Bell, Telus et Rogers contrôlent le marché canadien. Constatant une hausse de la demande de 30 % par année, il leur est venu l’idée d’écraser quelques orteils et d’imposer des tickets modérateurs pour soulager la congestion des réseaux aux heures de pointe.

On nous demande souvent ce que les réseaux optiques de recherche évolués, les RORES, apportent de plus au secteur de l’éducation et de la recherche que les grands télécommunicateurs ne peuvent leur offrir. La recherche implique le partage d’immenses quantités de données entre institutions canadiennes et internationales. La formation requiert l’accès à diverses applications, dont certaines en temps réel, telle la vidéoconférence.

Pour répondre à ces besoins spécifiques, les RORES permettent à leurs membres d’échanger avec d’autres établissements de R&E, d’accéder à des fournisseurs de contenu ou de communiquer avec leurs étudiants en contournant ou en évitant l’Internet commercial. Les établissements d’enseignement et de recherche peuvent échanger entre eux en utilisant principalement les RORES. Ils ne passent pas par l’Internet commercial et ne sont limités par aucun ralentissement de trafic, même aux heures de pointe. Pour atteindre les grands fournisseurs de contenu, comme Google
ou Amazon, les établissements de R&E bénéficient d’un accès direct, contournant l’Internet commercial. Dans les échanges entre établissements d’enseignement et étudiants, il est possible, encore une fois, de limiter au minimum les intermédiaires, grâce à l’existence de points d’échangeur Internet comme le Service QIX^MC ou le TORIX. En tant que membres du RISQ, les établissements d’enseignement passent par les RORES. Une partie des échanges établissements-étudiants passent donc directement sur les réseaux privés de R&E.

En conclusion, si l’essor fulgurant des technologies de l’information pousse les entreprises et autres organisations à se tourner de plus en plus vers l’informatique en nuage pour réduire leurs coûts opérationnels, cela ne leur permettra pas d’éviter la congestion des réseaux publics. Au contraire, on verra la demande en bande passante exploser. Les membres des RORES ne feront pas face
à cette congestion, puisqu’ils bénéficieront d’un accès direct aux fournisseurs d’informatique en nuage, comme dans le cas des fournisseurs de contenu.

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[1] Deloitte. En route vers l’avenir, Prédictions TMT canadiennes 2012.

Innovating our policies along with our practices

Richard Hawkins speaking on innovation policy at the Tech Futures Summit.

An interesting conversation was happening today at the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures Summit. Richard Hawkins, University of Calgary Professor and Canada Research Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, presented on how to determine whether or not innovation policies are working.

He talked about how one of the challenges faced by government-sponsored innovation programs is to demonstrate impact from public investment, especially in the short to medium term. Unfortunately, that is not always enough time to collect conclusive data or tangible results.

According to Hawkins, the solution to this un-complementary fit is to re-calibrate performance expectations and broaden our measurements. These days, we should be looking at program impacts on multiple and different parts of the innovation system, including the social and economic sectors.

Also, developing more technology should be a means, not an end, he said. “There is no shortage of technology, but there is a shortage of innovation,” Hawkins said. Policies that focus on simply producing technology rather than deploying it are missing the point.

So, shifting our perspective from technology as the innovation to technology as the conduit (or “platform”, to give a pointed nod to CANARIE’s Network-Enabled Platforms Program as an example), we see that innovation and the resulting impacts are then driven by who uses the technology, what they use it for, and how that changes what they were doing before.

As innovation is built around change and disruption, it makes sense that our policies and policy-building approaches should evolve in response. Measuring short-term impacts will always be a challenge, but if we change what we’re looking at and where we’re looking for it, that can help uncover new measures of success.

What are your thoughts? Do current metrics accurately measure innovation impacts? If not, how should policies change? Please leave your comments below.

The RISQ is in great shape!

La version française suit – French version follows

Québec’s roads network may be giving motorists plenty of headaches, but judging by the successes of the most recent projects spearheaded by the Réseau d’informations scientifiques du Québec (RISQ), its network is as reliable and robust as ever. No doubt about it, the RISQ is in great shape!

Demands and expectations in telecommunications, a sector in the midst of sweeping changes, are increasing all the time. As is well known, in the space of a few decades, the telecom industry has seen a massive shift from analog systems to distributed digital technology.

One of the goals of the RISQ is to track, and even anticipate, when possible, the fast-paced evolution of telecommunications technologies; another is to respond to the specific needs of its members.

Three projects are deserving of particular attention as proof that the RISQ is forging ahead in these directions. Each reflects the new demands of telecommunications and new technologies, and each is a unifying project that stakeholders can rally around. One involves an institution of higher learning, and the other two are emblematic of the cultural and social vitality of Québec youth, in the performing arts and sports spheres respectively.

PoP implemented at the Cité du Savoir

 On June 11, the RISQ team proceeded to implement a point of presence (PoP) at the Cité du Savoir in Laval. With this connection, the  Université de Montréal campus set to open its doors in the fall of 2011 will be able to provide future users with access to all of the varied  content sources offered through the RISQ network. The multi-wavelength infrastructure will deliver high-level performance, enabling  Université de Montréal to operate an active backup site using four separate 10 Gbps wavelengths.

This new PoP brings significant benefits for all RISQ members. Each new PoP added actually increases the network’s robustness. This also  allows for provision of alternate access to members located off the Island of Montréal. Lastly, traffic is less dense, allowing the network to  retain its full flexibility.

CMIM 2011: RISQ lends expertise to Radio-Canada

 For this mandate, with the collaboration of Université du Québec à Montréal, the RISQ team installed equipment in the Pierre-Mercure concert hall of  Centre Pierre-Péladeau to assist Radio-Canada (the CBC’s French network) with its live Web broadcast of the Concours de musique international de  Montréal (CMIM) over the RISQ.

The interconnection made in the concert hall allowed Radio-Canada to broadcast performances by contestants in the music competition, held from May 23  to June 3, 2011, to several countries around the world, while ensuring superior stability, a high bit rate and very large upload and download capacities.  Mario Haché, Support Analyst with CBC/Radio-Canada Internet and Digital Services, said: “For this live-broadcast event, the RISQ enabled us to deliver  clear, fast and very fluid data transmissions to our Web users.”

The CMIM, which brings together the ideal conditions to ensure the highest possible level of artistry and an international reach as broad as it is  exceptional, is today considered as one of the country’s great artistic achievements.

2011 Québec Winter Games: RISQ gets into the sporting spirit

For its 46th edition, the Québec Winter Games in Valleyfield built an interactive website to ensure it could properly meet the informational needs of its various audiences. Online games and contests, webcasting—with live coverage of events provided on up to seven different channels at once—a photo gallery and an interactive zone were all accessible on the website throughout the nine days of the Games, from February 25 to March 7, 2011.

To meet the requirements of the organizers, participants and the many Web users, the RISQ installed a dedicated router with a 1 Gbps connection, ensuring maximum stability and sufficient bandwidth capacity to respond to user needs—for example, friends and relatives following the exploits of the young athletes on the site via live webcast.

This marks the second time that the RISQ has partnered with an event of this type. Up to now, the realm of sports events has been seldom served by the RISQ. Given the importance of sport for young people, the RISQ hopes to respond to needs from such clients more often in the future. In addition, this project allowed the RISQ to broaden its services a little more and, once again, to confirm the stability and reliability of its network.

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Le RISQ est en grande forme !

Au Québec, pendant que le réseau routier donne des maux de têtes aux automobilistes, le succès remporté par les derniers projets du Réseau d’informations scientifiques du Québec (RISQ) prouve que son réseau est toujours aussi fiable et robuste. Le RISQ est en grande forme !

Les exigences et les attentes en matière de télécoms, un secteur en pleine mutation, sont de plus en plus grandes. On le sait, en quelques décennies seulement, ce secteur est passé d’une technologie analogique à une technologie numérique et distribuée.

L’un des objectifs du RISQ est de suivre, et même de précéder, quand c’est possible de le faire, l’évolution rapide des technologies de télécommunications, mais également de répondre aux besoins particuliers de ses membres.

Pour poursuivre sur cette lancée, trois projets méritent une attention particulière. Ils reflètent les nouvelles exigences en matière de télécommunications et de nouvelles technologies et ont tous les trois en commun d’être des projets rassembleurs. L’un est un haut lieu du savoir, les deux autres sont des emblèmes de la vitalité culturelle et sociale de la jeunesse québécoise.

Implantation d’un PoP à la Cité du Savoir

 Le 11 juin dernier l’équipe du RISQ a procédé à la mise en place d’un point de présence à La Cité du Savoir à Laval.

Grâce à ce raccordement, le campus de l’Université de Montréal, qui ouvrira ses portes à l’automne 2011, pourra offrir à ses futurs  usagers un accès aux diverses sources de contenus offertes par le biais du réseau du RISQ. L’infrastructure multilongueur d’ondes  fournira une performance de haut niveau qui permettra à l’Université de Montréal de disposer d’un site de relève actif utilisant quatre  longueurs d’ondes à 10 Gbps.

Ce nouveau point de présence ou PoP comporte des avantages notables pour l’ensemble des membres du RISQ. Chaque point de présence  supplémentaire permet de renforcer le réseau en augmentant sa robustesse. Cela permet également d’offrir un accès alternatif aux  membres localisés à l’extérieur de l’île de Montréal. Enfin, le trafic est mieux aéré et le réseau conserve ainsi toute sa flexibilité.

CMIM 2011 : Le RISQ offre son expertise à Radio-Canada

 
 Dans le cadre de ce mandat, grâce à la collaboration de l’UQÀM, l’équipe du RISQ a installé des équipements à la salle Pierre-Mercure du  Centre Pierre-  Péladeau afin de permettre à Radio-Canada de diffuser en direct le Concours de musique international de Montréal (CMIM)  en utilisant le RISQ.

Le branchement effectué à la salle Pierre-Mercure a permis  à Radio-Canada de diffuser du 23 mai au 3 juin 2011 les prestations des  participants au  concours dans de nombreux pays du monde, tout en bénéficiant d’une grande stabilité, d’un débit élevé et d’une grande  capacité de téléchargement et de  téléversement. Selon l’analyste de soutien Internet et services numériques de la SRC, Mario Haché, «  L’événement était diffusé en direct. Le RISQ nous a  permis d’offrir à nos internautes une transmission de l’événement claire, rapide et très  fluide ». Le Concours, qui réunit les conditions idéales pour se  situer au plus haut niveau artistique et s’assurer un rayonnement aussi  vaste qu’exceptionnel est aujourd’hui considéré comme l’une des grandes  réalisations artistiques du pays.

 Jeux du Québec Hiver 2011 : le RISQ a l’esprit sportif !

La 46^e Finale des Jeux du Québec s’est dotée d’un site Internet interactif de manière à pouvoir répondre aux besoins informationnels de ses différents publics. Jeux, concours, web diffusion ─ Jusqu’à sept chaînes différentes diffusaient les Jeux en direct ─, galerie de photos, et une zone interactive étaient accessibles sur le site Internet des Jeux du Québec de Valleyfield durant les neuf jours de l’événement qui avait lieu du 25 février au 7 mars 2011.

Pour répondre aux besoins des organisateurs, des participants et des nombreux internautes, le RISQ a installé un routeur dédié avec un lien d’un Gbps pour favoriser le plus de stabilité possible et une capacité en bande passante capable de répondre aux besoins des utilisateurs, tels les parents et amis, par exemple, qui pouvaient suivre les prouesses des jeunes athlètes directement sur le site Internet par le biais de la webdiffusion.

C’est la seconde fois que le RISQ s’associe à un tel événement. Jusqu’à ce jour, ce secteur a été  peu desservi par le RISQ. En raison de l’importance que cela a pour la jeunesse, le RISQ souhaite pouvoir y répondre davantage dans le futur. Par ailleurs, ce projet a permis d’étendre encore un peu plus les services du RISQ et, encore une fois, de confirmer la stabilité et la fiabilité du réseau.

Canada needs to seize the green energy opportunity

The world’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is in need of a green energy provider, and, according to Mohamed Cheriet, spokesperson for the GreenStar Network (GSN) project, that’s where Canada has the potential to make its mark.

Cheriet, a Professor in the Department of Synchromedia at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, gave an overview of the GSN project at the CANARIE Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Tuesday, June 21. The virtual AGM was videoconferenced across four sites using CANARIE’s advanced network and the GSN. Cybera’s Calgary facility was one of the broadcast locations, joining Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.

Cheriet showed a map plotting 2,000 datacentres in the world. Of those, he said that half are based in the United States (US), 57 in Canada, and the rest are spread around the world. These centres are one of the ICT sector’s largest energy consumers. As more and more research organizations, institutions and businesses of all sizes turn to cloud, virtualization and remote storage as data solutions, the reliance on ICT — and the amount of greenhouse gases this sector produces — is expected to grow. Currently, Cheriet noted, the ICT industry in the US accounts for 8% of its national power consumption. The carbon dioxide produced from that energy consumption is growing by at least 6% per year.

This is where Canada and the GSN come in.

The Calgary-based GreenStar Network node is operated by Cybera and powered by eight solar panels located on the roof of the Alastair Ross Technology Centre.

As we’ve already noted in past blogs, the GSN project draws renewable energy from five nodes across Canada. Cybera is a local partner in the project, operating the Calgary solar-powered node located on the roof of the Alastair Ross Technology Centre (pictured at right). With a global reach in mind, the GSN project has expanded overseas to host nodes in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Iceland, and Spain. A Memorandum of Understanding has also been signed with partners in China, and one with Egypt is in the works.

Cheriet says Canada offers unique advantages which make it an ideal green energy producer. The country’s expanding investment into hydro, wind and solar resources means energy can be provisioned at a low price. Access to high-speed optical network infrastructure (such as that provided by CANARIE) enables high-performance connections with major content providers, allowing for large-scale research projects and leading-edge network-enabled platforms. This has also set the stage for the GSN project to experiment with key areas of ICT operation and management technology, namely virtualization, cloud management, carbon monitoring and energy optimization. The next step, argues Cheriet, is to continue rallying and building government and industry support for adopting green IT and green energy platforms.

CANARIE, a major funder of the project, is on board with GSN’s vision.
“If we can become a leader in green IT, it creates economic advantages for all Canadians,” said Mark Roman, CANARIE President and CEO.

As CANARIE begins its mandate renewal process, the GSN is one of many funded projects that demonstrate CANARIE’s impact on advancing Canada’s digital economy strategy. Both Roman and Mark Whitmore, Chair of CANARIE’s Board of Directors, highlighted the following as priority areas for the organization’s mandate renewal:

• reach out to more Canadian users and enhance international collaborations
• incorporate emerging technologies such as cloud and wireless
• spearhead economic development and job creation

Strong collaborations remain a cornerstone to these plans, Whitmore noted, and CANARIE will continue to develop and support partnerships in Canada’s research, education and industry sectors.

So what does the upcoming year look like for you? Is green energy or some form of green IT on the horizon for your organization? Are you using Cybera’s or CANARIE’s advanced network for a project or pilot? We want to hear about it. Leave your comments below!

Reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated.

Mark Twain, who was the recipient of a premature obituary, cleverly quipped, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”  Likewise, despite what you may have heard in the blogosphere, CANARIE is alive and well and looking forward to a renewed mandate in the 2012 budget.

Yesterday, Nancy Leblanc wrote glowingly of CANARIE at Impolitical, but was distraught at, as she put it, “the government’s decision to no longer fund Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network (aka the ‘CANARIE network’) as of 2012, confirmed in the budget.”

We’d like to set the record straight and ease those anxious minds …

CANARIE receives funding in five-year blocks, so the current Government estimates indicate that CANARIE’s funding is to be retired. That language can be confusing — what it really means is that this five-year funding block expires this year. BUT — CANARIE will apply for another five-year funding block, which will be included in the March 2012 budget.

CANARIE’s senior leadership team have been working closely with Industry Canada in putting the final touches on our proposal for mandate renewal, which presents a strong case for the need for ongoing funding of CANARIE if Canada is to continue to engage in world-leading science, research, innovation and discovery.

If you want more detail on the proposal, go to our website at www.canarie.ca and watch our CEO, Mark Roman present the elements we are proposing. Of course we are mindful of the fiscal environment the Government is managing right now, and our proposal reflects a balanced approach to the need for advanced digital infrastructure in a challenging environment.

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology

The Government of Canada is committed to supporting leading-edge research in Canada, which relies on the CANARIE Network. Earlier this week Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear put it nicely:

“Science drives Canada’s economy. Our government is committed to investing in the people and ideas that will produce tomorrow’s breakthroughs, in order to create jobs and improve the quality of life of Canadians.”

Hear, hear!

So, thank you for your support (keep it coming!) but don’t fret; we’re still going strong.

But, since we’re on the topic — chime in: what would it mean to you if the government DID stop funding CANARIE?

Is the door closing on open Internet?

The “open” movement has been building momentum in recent years. “Open data,” “open government”, “open innovation” – these concepts are about making information, gathered publicly or privately, available for anyone to access and use. This could then lead to research breakthroughs or new commercial ventures. Such an unrestricted digital future is seen by many as a natural next step for the Web.

But it may not be as simple as that. Such a progression is based on the assumption that a free and open system to house and distribute this information exists. The truth may not be so simple.

Tim Wu is a Professor at Columbia Law School and a renowned advocate for open Internet. He coined the phrase “net neutrality”, which is a call for all Internet content and websites to be treated equally by the networks controlling them. Wu worries that Internet carriers are finding more reasons to crack down on, or limit, their content.

In an essay he wrote last year for a book called The Next Digital Decade, Wu noted, ‘There are… certain commercial advantages to discriminatory networking that are impossible to deny, temptations that even the Internet’s most open firms find difficult to resist. …It seems obvious to me that open networking principles can be dislodged from their current perch.”

Wu will be discussing this issue at the Cybera Summit 2011: Data for All – Opening up the Cloud, where he will deliver one of the keynote addresses. Running from October 6-7 at The Banff Centre in Banff, AB, the Summit will cover the evolution of the cloud and open data applications (see video for more details).

Speakers will explore how open, shared and cloud technologies are helping to connect people and resources in new and exciting ways. They will also discuss issues that arise from these developments, including the debate over public versus private information.

In his essay, Wu asked, “Will we think of the open age of the Internet the way we think of communism, or the hula-hoop?”

What do you think? Will the movement towards “open” continue to grow, or simply become an out-lived trend? Leave your comments below or join us this October at Cybera’s Summit 2011 to further explore this idea.

Canada’s Brightest Research Stars use Advanced Networks

CANARIE and Cybera are both pretty thrilled to see that Dr. Steve Liang has been named Tech Futures-Microsoft Scholar in Open Sensor Web Systems. CANARIE funded this project through its Network-Enabled Platforms program, and Cybera is the project manager. Dr. Liang is the Principal Investigator and self-described “sensor web evangelist.” This award, which comes with $220,000, will enable Dr. Liang to work on an extension of his GeoCENS project, which enables biogeoscientists to search, visualize and share geographical datasets using a 3D virtual platform. Dr. Liang will be presenting GeoCENS at the BCNET Conference next week (Tuesday, May 3).

More information about Dr. Liang’s research can be found at sensorweb.geomatics.ucalgary.ca. You can also follow him on twitter: @steveliang.

Read Cybera’s press release.

Congratulations, Dr. Liang!

IPv6 – Welcome to the first day of the rest of the Internet’s life

The Internet – once thought bottomless and boundless – has finally reached a breaking point…..of sorts. Much like the transition to 10-digit local calling, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses have finally reached an exhaustion point and the official rollout of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) has begun.

Keeping in mind, IPv6 is hardly new technology. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) saw the writing on the wall nearly 12 years ago and developed IPv6 at that time to mitigate the foreseeable IPv4 address exhaustion.

The issue is making news now in 2011 because earlier this month the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) announced it has allocated the last IPv4 address blocks. Several months still remain before Regional Registries consume all their remaining regional IPv4 address pools, but experts are suggesting that Asia, Europe, and North America (in that order) will exhaust their address allocations around July 2011.

What’s interesting is how people are handling this news and the now-very-real need to transition to IPv6. For example, a press release issued by IPv6 Canada, a chapter of the North American IPv6 Task Force and IPv6Forum, contained this quote:

• “Attempting to predict this date has been an interesting challenge over the years, given the chaotic nature of global Internet growth. The challenge ahead for the larger community will be to move past denial, mourning, and grief, and get on with the task of IPv6 deployment,” states Tony Hain, IPv6 Forum Fellow, Technical Director, North American IPv6 Task Force.

Denial? Mourning? Grief?
We all know that nobody likes change, but isn’t this supposed to be exciting news?

A day that no one (outside of the IETF that is) thought would arrive – the day when the Internet essentially isn’t big enough anymore – is now upon us. And instead of being stopped in our tracks, we’ve developed a way to keep it growing. We shouldn’t be mourning this – we should be celebrating it.

Some people are. Consider GogoNet, a social network that’s been built around supporting professionals making the jump to v6. They’ve got people talking, tweeting, connecting and sharing their experiences with IPv6. And then there’s the upcoming IPv6 Day planned for June 8, 2011, where Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight Networks will join other major organizations to offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour “test flight”. This one-day event is hoped to motivate organizations to prepare their services for IPv6 transition.

Here in Canada, CANARIE is leading the charge and successfully running IPv6 across the country – which you can monitor in real-time via its online iPv6 Traffic Map. Cybera’s provincial backbone network in Alberta – CyberaNet – has been fully IPv6 compatible since 2005, however no members have made the switch from IPv4 yet. Last week Cybera’s president, Robin Winsor, was set up with access to IPv6 so that he can gain first-hand experience with it.  As a personal challenge (and test of the uptake rate), he’s attempting to conduct as much Internet interactions as he can on IPv6, tracking any hurdles and rewards along the way. His first hiccup: he couldn’t announce his personal challenge on Facebook because even though the newsfeed page is available on ipv6, apparently his profile page isn’t. Stay tuned to Cybera’s blog for the results of Winsor’s IPv6 challenge.

Ultimately, IPv6 adoption across North America is expected to take some time. Cybera’s Technical Operations Manager, Jean-Francois Amiot, noted some reasons for this in an earlier Cybera blog post. Common barriers include dealing with legacy equipment (i.e. basic switches and routers), incompatible firewalls, and coordinating IPv6 education for internal IT teams. Issues such as these are expected to delay IPv6 deployment. Some observers are predicting North American mass adoption will take at least 10 years.

Looking ahead, the important thing will be to remember to do just that: keep looking ahead. Internet usage continues to grow – at last count, 1.9 billion people or nearly four times the population of North America were connected to the Internet. Connectedness has become key in work, play and education. The recent growth and prevalence of social media, social networking and online communities speaks to how much we’ve come to depend on and live our lives through the Internet.

It may take us 10 years to adopt IPv6, but how long do we have until we will need IPv7 or 8? Are you looking ahead? Please leave comments below if you’ve had any experience yet with IPv6.

Tarifier au débit ou au volume? Le RISQ se prononce…

Il y a un peu plus d’une semaine, le président du CRTC, Konrad Von Fickenstein, a annoncé son désir de mettre en force un mode de facturation à l’utilisation pour l’Internet. C’est le sujet chaud de l’heure. Si cette nouvelle règle est mise en application, elle aura, bien évidemment, un impact majeur chez les utilisateurs d’Internet.

« Est-ce une bonne ou une mauvaise décision? « Je n’ai pas la prétention de connaître les structures de coûts des FSI et je ne pointe personne du doigt face à cette  annonce, mais ça m’amène à réfléchir sur notre propre modèle d’affaires », dit Michel Vanier, directeur général du RISQ. Le modèle d’affaires du RISQ est très différent de celui des fournisseurs d’Internet commerciaux. Cependant, la question de la tarification au volume ou selon un autre modèle se pose depuis 20 ans, soit depuis la naissance de l’organisme.

Que ce soit comme réseau privé au service de l’éducation et de la recherche ou comme FSI, la question se pose. Dans notre cas, nous desservons deux secteurs de pointe qui nécessitent de très larges bandes passantes; en R&D et dans le secteur de l’éducation, la quantité de données transmise est variable, mais reste très élevée. Donc, la question de facturer au volume, au débit ou selon d’autres métriques s’est toujours posée.

La mission du RISQ et les enjeux auxquels font face nos membres du secteur de l’éducation nous ont toujours guidé dans nos décisions et ont, jusqu’ici, fait pencher la balance en faveur d’une tarification plus prévisible, donc indépendante du volume de données transmises. Pourquoi? Parce qu’avec le volume consommé par certains centres de recherche ou secteurs de pointe, si on facturait au volume ou à l’utilisation, ces derniers n’arriveraient probablement plus à se prévaloir de services de télécommunications. On mettrait un frein important à l’innovation et le RISQ irait totalement à l’encontre de sa mission.

Le grand avantage du RISQ, c’est justement de pouvoir offrir à ses membres cette grande capacité de transfert des données sans qu’ils soient facturés à l’utilisation. Cette façon de faire favorise nettement l’innovation. Notre réseau est puissant et il permet à des infrastructures de calcul de haute performance, tel Calcul Québec, ou même à des projets de recherche innovateurs comme CBRAIN, de transférer une quantité phénoménale de données sans qu’ils soient confrontés à des coûts tout aussi phénoménaux.

Pour les membres du RISQ : tarification au débit ou au volume? Définitivement pas au volume.