Why Waterloo is Great for ICT
by Lynda Leonard, Senior Vice-President, ITAC
I love Waterloo!
Great cities prominently display their key brand attributes on every street corner and in everything they do. In Rome, ‘la bella figura’ and the wonders of millennia of great design are everywhere. In Paris, romance prevails. And while it may be a bit of a stretch to include Waterloo in such company, the brand attribute that dominates there is ‘smart’. Its monuments are cerebral rather than architectural (though the Perimeter Institute’s architecture is every bit as fabulous as the physics explored there). Besides PI, they include the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Institute for Quantum Computing, the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology and, the grand daddy of them all, the University of Waterloo. ‘Smart’ pervades Waterloo in its institutions, in the dynamic businesses growing there, and in the character of its citizens. It’s a superb example of what a well-planned knowledge-based-economy city looks like.
Every year ITAC teams up with the GSA, the Dallas-based association that serves the global semiconductor industry in Canada. We like to show off for our American cousins so we pick our venues carefully (last year we went to Bromont, Quebec). We figured we could really strut our stuff in Waterloo and we weren’t disappointed. The location offered rich opportunities – Mike Lazaridis, the inventor of the BlackBerry offered his insight on why the industry should be paying attention to quantum computing and then introduced the Director of the IQC to help us all understand quantum better. Dr. Arthur Carty gave us a tutorial on nanotechnology. And then the companies – DALSA toured our delegates through its application lab. Then Brian Doody, the CEO, joined a panel of local executives to talk about Star Trek technologies currently on the market. (Christie Digital Systems Canada – a world leader in optical technology - operates a ‘holodeck’ in Waterloo for heaven’s sake). It was inspiring stuff for me and the delegates liked it too. Waterloo is a great place for a technology conference and, as the stories that follow illustrate, it’s a great place to run an ICT business.
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Sandvine Incorporated: ‘Making the Pipes Smarter’ For a Customized Internet Experience
by Jason Grosse, Communications Manager, ITAC
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| Dave Caputo, CEO, Sandvine Inc. |
Sandvine builds equipment and solutions that are exclusively targeted to folks who are delivering consumer internet experiences — anyone who delivers broadband or mobile internet experiences. Dave Caputo is co-founder, president and CEO of Sandvine and is charged with leading his team to their goal of protecting and improving the quality of experience on the internet. As a leader in the technology community, both in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and beyond, Dave is a dedicated supporter of local entrepreneurs and speaks regularly at universities. Dave also sits on the Board of Communitech, a regional organization that supports the growth of the technology sector.
You’ve spoken before about the
evolution of the internet, what does this mean with respect to broadband and
mobile networks?
Consumers use the internet for so many things today. They are comfortable
paying bills online, downloading music to their iPod and posting videos to Facebook or YouTube. The
internet has become a staple of our daily lives and
subscriber consumption continues to increase as rich media applications,
video streaming and social networking drive usage. What we found is that
there is such a diversity of applications that are delivered on the internet
today, and different applications create different demands on the network
and the network has to become more intelligent — the evolution of the
internet is that the network requires more intelligence to deliver the
quality of experience that people expect within any given application.
What will be the difference between
today’s best-effort networks and tomorrow’s intelligent broadband networks?
With a growing number of applications, each with its own unique
characteristics and delivery demands all competing for available bandwidth,
packets were easily dropped and quality of service suffered. In a best
efforts network a very small number of users can cause quality problems for
a wide range of popular applications. So, with quality of service being
threatened, service providers invested in intelligent network tools. By
understanding what is happening on their networks and using tools to
implement policy controls, service providers can better serve their
subscribers, optimize traffic, offer new services, mitigate malicious
traffic and identify network trends before they become customer issues — the
best efforts network treats all applications and users equally. An
intelligent network tries to focus on delivering a greater quality of
internet experience no matter what the user is trying to do.
You’ve also used the phrase: ‘making
the pipes smarter,’ explain this concept
There's a bit of a myth out there that the more bandwidth you have, the
less it needs managing, the reason that is a myth is there are applications
that take more than their fair share of bandwidth. Certain applications
quickly consume bandwidth; some, like typical peer-to-peer (P2P)
file-sharing protocols, are specifically designed to maximize their use of
available bandwidth. Whereas other real-time applications, like voice over
internet protocol (VoIP) and online video gaming don’t generally make great
demands on network bandwidth but are generally very sensitive to
transmission delays or jitter. Smarter pipes recognize the difference
between applications and treat them with different policies to ensure the
best quality of experience for everyone.
One of Sandvine’s areas of expertise is
Network Demographics, how does the idea of knowing what subscribers are
doing online differ from the traditional network model — what are the
benefits?
By giving service providers unprecedented visibility of what's happening on
the network they can figure out, for example, where the best places are to
apply upgrades in the network or they can figure out where the best ways are
of improving the experience for the drivers on the network — We call this
software module Network Demographics — we hear customers often call it
business intelligence. By understanding what is happening on their networks
and using tools to implement policy controls, service providers can better
serve their subscribers, optimize traffic, offer new services, mitigate
malicious traffic and identify network trends before they become customer
issues. Smarter networks can bring many benefits to the end-user including
increased quality of experience and personalized and tiered services. The
other benefit is to service providers who are rolling out tiers of service.
It allows them to understand where they should be creating tiers that will
make business sense and are still is acceptable to users.
What about the idea of differentiating
subscriber offerings with application-based services, how does this affect
the average consumer?
Hopefully, there'll be a tier that is optimized for every type of user. For
example, if someone is really focused on online gaming, they are going to be
most concerned with network latency issues, whether they know that or not —
longer-term, where this is going is subscriber personalization, where they
decide what the priorities are for their traffic. At the end of the day,
what it means for the average consumer is a more consistent better quality
of experience on the network.
Shifting the focus to the
Kitchener-Waterloo area, why would you say the area has been so successful
in fostering innovation?
I often get asked why Sandvine is in Waterloo, and I usually jokingly reply,
“Because it's close to my house.” The truth of it is there is a great
infrastructure here, and a great support community for entrepreneurs. I
think that Communitech represents a great model of companies trying to help
each other. It's just a great environment, where we are all trying to build
technology companies and we’re willing to help each other and share
experiences.
As a leader in the technology
community, how important is it to you to help support other entrepreneurs?
It's a responsibility that I definitely have. I sit on the board of
directors of Communitech. I look at the success that Research in Motion has
had here locally, I look at the success Open Text has had here locally, and
they are inspirations. I also look at the evolution that we've had from a
start-up back in 2001 which was basically the nuclear winter for starting up
a network equipment company. We've now gone public; we’re listed on the
Toronto Stock Exchange. One of the things that I'm most proud of in our
evolution is the last three years we've been named one of the 50 best places
to work in Canada by the Great Places to Work Institute. I hope that
provides great inspiration for the start-ups in this community that you can
build a great technology company, which is also a great place to hang out
and work.
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Keyword Search: An Occasional Series Introducing Members of the ITAC Community
Eugene Roman, Chief Information Officer Open Text, Award winning wine maker and member of ITAC’s Board of Directors
by Lynda Leonard, Senior Vice-President, ITAC
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| Eugene Roman, CIO, Open Text |
Waterloo I have been a frequent visitor to Waterloo over the past 10 years. It has intrigued me as a fascinating place to live and hang out. Then I was recruited to this job at Open Text last summer and one of the attractions for me was the opportunity to immerse myself in this community as it evolves.
One of the things that particularly strikes me about Waterloo is that it is an ecosystem. When I worked in Ottawa, I always felt it was more of a monoculture based on BNR and Nortel. Waterloo has had a steady growth trajectory. It has benefited from the starburst effect of RIM’s success but there is a lot going on here. There are pluses and minuses in its current state. On the plus side, there is amazing technology in development here. There’s an appetite for risk and enterprise that I haven’t seen outside Silicon Valley. But unlike the valley, here it’s not all about money – it’s an ecosystem where people want to excel and get stuff done – advance technology. On the negative side, I think the community hasn’t attracted enough ‘grey hairs’ yet. As companies grow, they inevitably face a challenge to find the talent to take them to the next level. We have emerging companies here that are becoming serious global players and they are challenged to find the leadership they need to grow. I used to run a billion dollar operation in a multi-billion dollar enterprise. I know I can make a contribution here. But Waterloo needs more grey hairs like me.
Web In Canada, we have an opportunity, because of the excellence of our education system and the prudence of the financial system, to emerge from this poor economy as a leader. But to do so will require that we put bets on what industries are going to matter in the nation that we want to build. Open Text has placed a bet on the next generation of digital media, content and applications. We’ve helped to create the Stratford Institute (which will be a major force in research and commercialization of innovations in digital media) based on the premise that everything that can be digitized will be digitized. Companies and countries that understand this best will emerge as leaders. There’s a huge amount of information on the web. But useful information is still elusive. The Stratford Institute is designed to create useful web-based information in future generations of web development. There has to date been a lot of energy applied to the web with random points of success. Many applications are successful in terms of popularity but the challenge has been in monetizing them. We see the Stratford Institute as a change-the-world play that will re-invent the way we look at education, healthcare and all dimensions of modern life in the same transformative way that Gutenberg’s invention did.
Walkabout I was reviewing a proposal for the Ontario Innovation Council and there was a reference to the fact that the Institute for Quantum Computing has Canada’s most advanced and powerful computers. I can see the IQC form my window. I asked my staff if they knew anything about it and they didn’t. But my assistant has a daughter who works there and she arranged a tour. We walked across the field between our two buildings and we were wowed by what we saw. Ray Laflamme gave us the tour and he said, “Hey, I’ve never been to your place either.” Now Ray comes to our “Summer Stock” training sessions. I’ve talked to Ian Klugman at Communitech and now we’re working on a plan to offer “industrial tourism”. Waterloo is such an exotic location for techies and we believe there’s tremendous merit in getting out and seeing what other members of our community are up to. Walkabouts are also a great way to engage young people. I’m working on a Toronto business walkabout for a group I’m involved with developing young Canadian leaders aged 18 to 28.
Wine Wine has been with humans for 20,000 years. It’s the only food that can be frozen in time. I’m an ‘in the moment’ kind of guy who’s very future-focused but at the same time reflecting on the past. So wine provides a fascinating continuity. There’s a lot of technology involved in getting it right. But above all, wine is a very observable ecosystem. The study of ecosystems helps geeks like me to see our world and the role our innovations can play. Ecosystems are complex. The same vines in the same soil can produce grapes of different taste based on other conditions at play. You have to understand the conditions that will deliver the best result. This has to happen at the Stratford Institute too. We want to create the right conditions to start the revolution.
Eugene Roman will be the featured presenter at the kick-off meeting for the new ITAC MESH Digital Business Forum, where he will outline the mandate for the Stratford Institute. The Forum will meet in May 14 at 10:00 am at the Spoke Club in Toronto. Further information can be found here.
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ITAC Panel
Presents to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates
On April 23, 2009 ITAC presented to the Standing Committee on Government
Operations and Estimates. The ITAC panel, composed of, Louis Savoie Chair of
the ITAC Public Sector Business Committee (PSBC) and Vice-President Bell,
Hicham Adra Member of the Executive of the PSBC Vice-President, CGI and
Linda Oliver Vice-President ITAC provided ITAC s views on the issue of
Procurement within the Federal Government.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations began studying IT procurement in June of last year. CABiNET an association of approximately15 staff augmentation firms located in the Ottawa area expressed concern over potential bundling of contracts in shared services such as Government Enterprise Network Services (GENS.) CABiNET argued that SMEs were being discriminated against, that there was not enough consultation, that SMEs would lose jobs, that SMEs would be cut out of procurement and that GENS did not have a proper business case. In an unusual move the Opposition led committee voted to compel PWGSC to stop proceeding with the Shared Services GENS project until it had done more consultation and provided a business case to the committee. ITAC wrote to the chair and the committee members asking the be heard on the basis that the arguments put fourth by CABiNET and its members were distorted, that the staff augmentation firms did not speak for the industry and that there had indeed been full industry engagement on this issue. Unfortunately, ITAC was not granted the right to appear. The arguments made by this small segment of the Ottawa market were taken as fact. Proceedings were somewhat disrupted with a Federal election last fall. In 2009 with a new chair assuming leadership of the committee ITAC again asked to be heard.
ITAC lobbied committee members individually and secured a presentation appearance before the committee. The ITAC panel presented a balanced industry perspective. Linda outlined ITAC's activities including companies and issues we represent. She also provided a brief view of ITAC's procurement philosophy; the representation of “all companies, large and small,” and reinforced our view that there is a place in government procurement for all sized companies and we believe government should buy outcomes not inputs.
Hicham Adra made the distinction between SMEs and staff augmentation firms. SMEs add value and are innovative and when given the right kind of project work, SMEs grow into larger companies. Staff augmentation firms on the other hand, have no employees, they have resumes. They do not have Intellectual Property (IP), methodologies or training. To further explain the difference, Hicham used CGI as an example. CGI started as a small Quebec company of two people and grew into an international success. Hicham stated that his company grew not through staff augmentation work but because of government project work. These projects, Hicham explained, help companies prove and create IP that they can sell to other clients and countries. Hicham explained shared services is indeed a trend in the private sector and other public sector jurisdictions like British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec and that it has been studied in the Canadian government since 2003 as a way to save resources and use assets more efficiently.
Louis Savoie added that the GENS project is a cost effective approach to delivering a common set of telecommunications networks and these networks enable collaboration within departments. "GENS creates greater network security in that there are fewer points of access in the network. Today government has 120 or so different networks. Consolidating some of these networks would save money. The GENS project is relatively low risk in that it is IT infrastructure, not a complex system. Networks are not now supplied by SMEs so this is not business that would be taken away from SMEs."
Through the question and answer part of the presentation the panel was able to communicate the key messages regarding ICT procurement, namely:
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Government has been doing a lot of consulting with the private sector and ITAC has responded to all occasions to provide views on behalf of its members
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ITAC agrees with the concept that government should use a best practice such as shared services to ensure efficiency.
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GENS is a low risk IT infrastructure project.
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Networks are not now part of the contracts given to staff augmentation firms.
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SMEs and Staff augmentation firms are different. SMEs have IP training, methodologies and have the chance to grow into larger firms. Staff augmentation firms have a place in day-to-day work providing resumes. They do not provide IP, methodologies, employee staff and they are not able to networks.
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Government should buy outcomes not inputs.
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Government should get on with needed project work like GENS and other Shared Services work.
ITAC will continue to work with this committee and others to ensure that ITAC member’s views are heard by government.
Introducing the mesh/ITAC Digital Business Forum
The greater Toronto area is rich in a vibrant resource of talented people
innovating in the fields of online commerce and digital content. Combine
that talent pool with the strong current of enterprise that distinguishes
the city and the result is a burgeoning digital commerce cluster.
The mesh/ITAC Digital Commerce Forum is designed to provide a gathering place for this community of innovators and entrepreneurs. mesh has pioneered this activity. Since 2006, the MESH conference has served an annual must-attend gathering for people with a passion for the Web. In 2008, the mesh founders introduced mesh U, a one-day event of focused workshops on design, development and team management. The success of both ventures indicate that there is a strong appetite for networking, inspiration and business and professional development in the webcentric business community. Click here for the Digital Business Forum Website
Audacity Wins: Presentations from ITAC/GSA
Conference Available
Maybe it was “audacious” to turn over so much of the program to pure science
and next generation microelectronics applications, but the feedback from
participants at the Third Annual ITAC/GSA Microelectronics Conference
suggests that this was precisely what they wanted. All of the respondents
declared that the Conference was either above average or fully excellent.
Click here to access
the presentations.
 Click
image for info |
Nominations for ITAC Volunteer of the Year Award –
Call for Entries
ITAC is a community of companies and business people and, like any
community, it depends on the contributions and leadership of its members to
grow and achieve its objectives. We celebrate this fact at our annual
Chairs’ Dinner (this year taking place June 23 in Toronto.) To further
underscore the importance of the contributions ITAC volunteers make, we
present annually the “ITAC Volunteer of the Year Award.“ This award will be
made to one individual whose contributions have significantly advanced the
progress of ITAC’s work over the past 12 months. The process of identifying
this person is simple. We are calling for nominations from the entire
membership community. If you have encountered a volunteer whose commitment
and energy has helped us achieve a key objective, either through work on an
ITAC committee or in some other capacity, simply identify that person to us
with a brief explanation of why you think that person’s contribution is
exemplary and what results he or she achieved. Please do not nominate
members of ITAC’s Board of Directors. A small committee of the Board will
review the nominees and make a selection. The presentation will take place
at the Chairs’ Dinner. Please make your nominations in confidence. (We will
not publish a list of nominees or nominators.) Send them to Janet Tite at
jtite@itac.ca,
no later than June 7, 2009.
ITAC Central
Agencies I&IT Cluster Breakfast
May 6, 2009, 08:00 AM - 12:00PM
Suites at 1 King West, Dominion Ballroom, Toronto
The Central Agencies Information and Information Technology Cluster
(CA) supports the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Revenue, Cabinet Office,
and Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure. The Cluster is closely aligned to
the core businesses of the ministries and is absolutely essential to the
efficient and cost effective delivery of services, the growth of those
businesses and their contribution to the agendas of both the ministries and
the government. Although there is a wide range of diversity of technology,
it is matched to meet the business needs, is well-integrated and designed to
meet corporate I&IT directions. For more information, or
to register, click here.
Coffee and
Commercialization: An ITAC Forum for R&D Intensive Businesses
May 7, 2009,
07:30AM - 09:30AM
Rideau Club, John A MacDonald Room, 99 Bank Street,
15th floor
Update on the Next Generation of Jobs Fund: As of the end of January,
the Province of Ontario had approved eight initiatives under the Next
Generation of Jobs Fund (NGoJF). NGoJF is a five-year, $1.15 billion
investment strategy to help Ontario strengthen high growth sectors of the
economy including ICT. The largest envelope of funding so far has been for
an ICT in health initiative by Agfa HealthCare. Agfa HealthCare is
developing new software that allows radiologists to share digital images
across a regional network. The Ontario government grant ($29.6 million)
supports a $200 million investment by Agfa HealthCare North America in the
Waterloo area. The venture will create 100 new jobs and support 276 existing
jobs while at the same time advancing Ontario’s global leadership in an
important e-health technology. ITAC has been a strong advocate for programs
like the Next Generation of Jobs Fund and is committed to ensuring active
and successful participation by our members in it. Agfa HealthCare has
graciously agreed to share its experience with the program with other
companies who may be considering applications for funding. Jeff Nesbitt,
Director, External Collaborations, will be in Ottawa on May 7, 2009 to make
a presentation on Agfa HealthCare’s new software project and to share
lessons learned about building a successful business case and application
for NGoJF support.
To register, click here.
Ottawa Event - SMC
Best Practice “Advanced packaging: the ultimate multi-technology solutions
May 12, 2009, 05:30 PM - 08:00PM
Synopsys, 1 Antares Drive - Suite 300,
Nepean
For over a decade, mixed signal CMOS processing technologies have
been proposed as the ultimate solution for implementation of systems-on-chip
solutions but multiple process modules continue to drive up process
complexity and costs, especially when large amounts of DRAM is required in
the design. However, there are now alternatives as multi die packaging has
also benefited from a decade of improvements and added new capabilities to
include different components like crystals in the same package as RF
silicon, DRAM and multi-processor ASIC – all in a single package! So,
can Advanced Packaging help you achieve your performance and cost goals at
the shipment volumes you are projecting? Please join us as Dave Danovitch, a
Senior Engineer from IBM’s world class packaging facility in Bromont, Quebec
describes next-generation packaging technology for the ultimate in high
density pins, including: flip chip packaging, organic SiP’s and Thru Silicon
Via (TSV) chip stacking.
To register, click here.
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The Tremblant
Venture Forum 2009- Venture Capital Financing Solutions in Challenging Times
May 13 – 14, 2009
Fairmount Tremblant Hotel, PQ
The Tremblant Venture Forum (TVF) is Eastern Canada’s premier company
financing event.
It brings together leading North American venture capitalists, over 25 of
the most promising Canadian early-stage and growth-stage companies in ICT and
technology sectors,
prominent investment professionals, CEOs and entrepreneurs and professionals
who offer services to the ICT and Clean Technology Sectors and the VC Industry. For more information,
click here.
For a complete listing of all ITAC events go to: http://www.itac.ca/index.php/site/events/
Strategic Management Skills Series- Presented by
OCRI and the Canadian Management Centre
The Strategic Management Skills Series
will teach you how to communicate with diplomacy, tact and credibility,
offering you insight into your communication style, and those of others you
work with. You will learn the most appropriate words and emotional tone for
every business situation. You will learn how to communicate effectively as a
senior manager and ultimately how to fine tune your voice as a leader.
You'll learn practical techniques to shape your messages.
For more information,
click here.
 The Think Green Alliance is a community of businesses and organizations that are committed to providing environmentally-friendly and sustainable services, products and goods. The Alliance was founded in March 2008 with the following mandate:
For more information, go to: http://www.thinkgreenalliance.com/ |
US System Integrators Delegation - Seminar and 1:1 meetings
May 19, 2009 and May 21, 2009
Toronto, ON
Five major U.S. system integrators will be in Ottawa (May 19) and in Toronto
(May 21) to meet with Ontario technology companies interested in exploring
partnering opportunities. The program includes a seminar followed by
networking and pre-approved 1:1 meetings. The integrators are seeking
Ontario suppliers of innovative technologies in the following sectors:
Wireless, Security, Cyber security, Health IT, Photonics. For details and to
apply contact Mauricio Ospina, Area Director, U.S. (IT sector), Ontario
Ministry of International Trade and Investment (mauricio.ospina@ontario.ca)
or T. (416) 325 6151
Intel Premier IT Knowledge Awards – Call For
Nominations
Has your organization’s IT team or an individual really made an impact in
managing your client fleet or data center? If so, they may have an
opportunity to be recognized for their efforts through the Intel Premier IT
Knowledge Award from CIO and Intel. Honorees and their winning best
practices will be prominently featured in an upcoming issue of CIO magazine.
The deadline is May 29, 2009. For more details,
click here.
Kinsa 3rd Annual Heroes of the Fight
Celebration
June 3, 2009
Berkeley Church, 315 Queen Street East,
Toronto
The Kids’ internet Safety Alliance invites you to join us for the 3rd Annual
Heroes of the Fight Celebration. A Cocktail Reception Fundraising Evening
Featuring a live jazz performance by Juno winner Richard Underhill with a
charity casino and a magnificent silent auction. For more information, go
to: http://www.kinsa.net
Ontario Showcase at CommunicAsia2009 & ICT
Partnering Forums
Singapore & Bangkok, Thailand
June 15 - 23, 2009
The Ontario Ministry of International Trade & Investment is pleased to
invite you to join the Ontario showcase within the Canadian Pavilion at
CommunicAsia2009. The event will be preceded by an ICT Partnering Forum
organized by the Canadian High Commission in Singapore on Monday, June 15
and followed by an ICT Partnering Forum organized by the Canadian Embassy in
Bangkok, Thailand on Monday June 22. During CommunicAsia, a networking event
designed to introduce visiting delegates from India to our solutions is also
planned. For more information, please contact Corie McDougall, Area
Director, South & Southeast Asia, International Trade Branch, Ministry of
International Trade & Investment, (416) 325-6663,
corie.mcdougall@ontario.ca
Ontario delegation at ASIS 2009 (2 spots left, 6 taken)
Sept. 21-24, Anaheim, CA
Ontario-based security companies are invited you to join the Ontario mission
to ASIS 2009 (www.asisonline.org). ASIS is the premiere security event
attracting more than 23,000 security professionals and hosting the largest
marketplace of security technologies, products and services. For the first
time, eight Ontario-based companies will have the opportunity to exhibit
within the Ontario Pavilion (# 2077) and benefit from several value-added
services. First time participants in an Ontario mission to the US are
eligible for the ‘Early Bird’ (US $2,000). The deadline for Early Bird is
July 31, 2009 and there are only 2 spots left. For details and to apply
contact Mauricio Ospina, Area Director, U.S. (IT sector), Ontario Ministry
of International Trade and Investment (mauricio.ospina@ontario.ca) or T.
(416) 325 6151
We want to hear from you! Please submit your company's news link or press release to Jason Grosse at jgrosse@itac.ca for posting on the ITAC website.
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