CANARIE’s mandate renewed!

Contributor: Kathryn Anthonisen, Vice President, Marketing at CANARIE

Kathryn Anthonisen
Vice President, Marketing
CANARIE

 

Well the budget has been tabled and after almost a year of advocacy, CANARIE was successful in renewing our mandate and funding for the next two years.

Whew!

First of all, we’d like to thank everyone who took the time to write a letter to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Industry, or his or her local MP. These letters clearly made a difference in our efforts, by letting government decision-makers know that there is a large community of users and supporters of the network, and that the network and its programs have become foundational digital infrastructure in Canada.

The process of advocating for our mandate renewal was a fascinating journey. Sometimes, as when I watched CANARIE’s President and CEO present in front of the House of Commons Finance Committee, I was humbled and awed to be part of Canadian democracy in action. While speaking with CANARIE users across the country, I was amazed at the huge variety of research that is reliant upon the network, and fascinated by the game-changing nature of some of this research. And working with the team at CANARIE, which has been busily ensuring that our current mandate is successfully completed, I am proud to be part of a group of such committed, professional and talented individuals.

And now we’ve got our work cut out for us: delivering on the three main areas we are pursuing in this mandate. Just to refresh your memory, our plan is to:

1. Evolve the network to meet growing demand, which means:

• increasing network bandwidth to address the trend of data-intensive research
• expanding the network to connect additional institutions
• providing core network funding assistance to support regional digital equity

2. Build network tools to speed time to discovery, which involves:

• developing a generic researcher environment
• creating discipline-specific plug-ins (e.g. health, social sciences) based on existing research platforms, to enhance researcher productivity
• cultivating the next generation of GreenIT by building on existing investments and supporting made-in-Canada solutions

3. Leverage the network to commercialize innovation, which means:

• Fully implement the Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR) Program, expanding access to a robust R & D environment where digital innovators can develop, refine, validate and demonstrate innovative products and services, and move them quickly to market.

It’s an incredibly exciting time at CANARIE – we’ll keep you posted on progress via our email blasts, website updates, CANARIE Connections newsletter and speaking engagements at conferences and events.

Stay tuned!

CANARIE a obtenu la reconduction de son mandat!

L'honorable Jim Flaherty, ministre des Finances | le 6 juin 2011

Contributrice: Kathryn Anthonisen, Vice présidente, Marketing chez CANARIE

Eh bien, le budget a finalement été déposé et, au terme de près d’un an de démarches, CANARIE a obtenu la reconduction de son mandat pour les deux années à venir.

Fiou!

Pour commencer, j’aimerais remercier tous ceux qui ont pris un peu de leur précieux temps pour écrire qui au premier ministre, qui au ministre des Finances, au ministre de l’Industrie ou à son député. De toute évidence, ces lettres ont fortifié nos propres efforts en prouvant aux décideurs du gouvernement qu’il existe bel et bien une vaste collectivité d’utilisateurs et d’adeptes du réseau, et que ce dernier, avec ses programmes, est véritablement devenu un des piliers de l’infrastructure numérique canadienne.

La manière dont nous avons défendu le renouvellement de notre mandat s’est avérée fascinante à plus d’un égard. Parfois – lorsque j’ai vu le président et chef de direction de CANARIE effectuer sa présentation au Comité des finances de la Chambre des communes, par exemple –, concourir de cette manière à notre démocratie en action m’a emplie tout à la fois d’humilité et d’admiration. Quand je me suis entretenue avec les utilisateurs de CANARIE, un peu partout au pays, j’ai été sidérée par l’incroyable diversité des recherches qui dépendent du réseau, tout comme j’ai été captivée par la nature, propre à changer les règles du jeu, de certains projets. Et après avoir travaillé avec l’équipe de CANARIE, qui n’a pas ménagé ses efforts pour s’assurer que la mission actuelle de l’organisme soit effectivement remplie, je suis on ne peut plus fière d’appartenir à un groupe de professionnels aussi déterminés et talentueux.

À présent, notre travail est tout tracé : progresser dans les trois voies que nous avons dessinées dans le cadre de ce nouveau mandat. Permettez-moi de vous rafraîchir la mémoire. Voici nos intentions.

1.    Développer le réseau pour qu’il réponde à une demande grandissante, soit, en d’autres termes :

• accroître la largeur de bande afin de suivre la tendance vers un usage de plus en plus massif des données en recherche
• élargir le réseau en y raccordant d’autres institutions;
• dispenser une aide financière aux réseaux pour garantir l’équité numérique entre les régions.

2.    Créer des outils réseau pour accélérer la découverte, ce qui suppose :

• mettre en place une plateforme générique pour la recherche;
• créer des modules spécifiques à certaines disciplines (par ex., sciences de la santé, sciences sociales) à partir des plateformes existantes, en vue d’accroître le rendement des chercheurs;
• introduire la prochaine génération de TI vertes en valorisant les investissements actuels et en misant sur des solutions typiquement canadiennes.

3.   Tirer parti du réseau pour commercialiser les innovations, c’est-à-dire :

• Mettre totalement en œuvre l’Accélérateur technologique pour l’innovation et la recherche (ATIR), ce qui permettra un plus vaste accès à une robuste plateforme de R-D sur laquelle les innovateurs du numérique pourront élaborer, perfectionner, valider et présenter des produits et des services novateurs qui parviendront ainsi plus rapidement sur le marché.

CANARIE traverse une époque palpitante – nous vous tiendrons au courant des progrès réalisés grâce à nos courriels, en actualisant notre site Web, au moyen du bulletin Connexions ainsi que lors d’allocutions aux congrès et à l’occasion d’autres activités.

Restez à l’écoute!

Nova Scotia’s Digital Leaders Summit

Kathryn Anthonisen
Vice President, Marketing
CANARIE

Contributor: Kathryn Anthonisen, Vice President, Marketing at CANARIE

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I had an energizing day in Halifax last week, joining over 50 other digital innovators, visionaries, and practitioners at the Digital Leaders Summit II. The discussions were lively, the ideas flowed freely, and most everyone in the room had an opportunity to offer their ideas about how to build a strong Digital Nova Scotia. One thing participants did agree on was the need for a strong, single voice to represent the sector in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Following the afternoon session, we all enjoyed a fabulous dinner, with guest speakers Premier Darrell Dexter and Bill Hutchinson, Chair of the iCanada initiative.

You can read more about Digital Nova Scotia and the role of CANARIE’s and ACORN-NS in supporting it here.

But why just read about it when you can see it all in action? Watch it here!

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!