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The Leading Edge of Cloud Computing

On October 7, The Calgary Council for Advanced Technology and Cybera are presenting an informative presentation and panel discussion on The Leading Edge of Cloud Computing. This networking event will feature presentations by Adam Lukaszuk, President and CEO, VrSTORM, Geoff Hayward, President and CEO, DataGardens (a project partner of Cybera's) and a keynote speaker from Red Hat Inc., California. A panel discussion will follow.

Cloud computing is the ability to access computer processing cycles and data storage in a dynamic and flexible manner provided from multiple remote locations, securely and reliably.

The event will take place at at 5:00 pm at Alberta Research Council in Calgary.

CLICK HERE for registration and more information.

Cybera joins collaborative Alberta water initiative

A new project that will connect hundreds of water-related organizations across Alberta and promote improved access to and management of water resources was announced today by Cybera. The Cloud Services for Water Management pilot project – a collaborative initiative between Cybera, Alberta WaterSMART, Tesera Systems Inc., and the Grid Research Centre at the University of Calgary - will explore cloud computing technologies as a possible data management and storage solution for the existing Alberta WaterPortal. The Alberta WaterPortal enables free and open-source access for anyone to share information on water conditions, water management innovations, best practices, news and research, and conservation programs. The project will build a prototype portal that will incorporate cloud computing technologies for improved sharing and manipulation of data relevant to land use planning. This includes the integration of a social networking environment and the capabilities to acquire and process data from a number of different sources, which is beyond what individual user groups can presently access.

Read media release >

Former CANARIE President to receive honourary degree

Andrew Bjerring, a founding member of the board of CANARIE Inc. and a visionary leader within the Canadian technology arena, will receive an honourary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba for his respected achievements.

Bierring was President and Chief Executive Officer of CANARIE Inc., Canada´s advanced research and innovation network, from 1993 until the summer of 2009. Over the past two decades, Bjerring has also participated on numerous boards and councils for networking and related applications. He currently chairs the advisory board for the Institute for Information Technology at the National Research Council of Canada, and is active on the board for the Communications Research Centre.
Prior to his appointment at CANARIE Inc., Bjerring spent 18 years as a faculty member and then senior administrator in academic planning and information technology services at the University of Western Ontario. He obtained his B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. degrees from the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario.

The 42nd Fall Convocation will take place on Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22, 2009.

Cybera staff attends Research Project Management seminar

On September, 10, 2009, Lindsay Sill, Project Manager, and May Lynn Lee, Project Coordinator for Cybera attended a full day seminar on Research Project Management as a Career Path at the University of Calgary. The seminar was hosted by the University of Calgary's Project Manager to the Research program.

The day's agenda included:

• The Changing Research Landscape
• Principles of Research Project Management
• Research Project Management as a Career Path
• Project Management Training Resources

Project management is critical component of ongoing success of Cybera's projects and this seminar helped the Cybera representatives further develop their management and leadership skills.

New study shows cloud computing being used by 80% of large enterprises

F5 Networks, Inc., a company that provides strategic points of control throughout IT infrastructure, enabling organizations to scale, adapt, and align with changing business demands, announced that a recent survey found that 80 percent of large enterprises are implementing or testing cloud computing with their IT systems.

Just what is cloud computing? The F5 survey aslo conducted a focus group with IT managers, network architects, and cloud service providers to develop a definition for cloud computing:

"Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them. Furthermore, cloud computing employs a model for enabling available, convenient, and on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."

Read the full media release >

"Sexy-tastic" GeoChronos at Elgg Camp

Roger Curry, Project Developer for Cybera pilot project GeoChronos, presented at Elgg Camp Boston 2009 on August 15 at Harvard University. About 100 people attended the conference to explore the open source social engine software, Elgg. Curry's presentation on GeoChronos as An Elgg-based Collaborative Platform for Earth Observation Science generated a lot of positive feedback, as displayed on Twitter.

"The GeoChronos install of Elgg is more about cloud computing than social networking, but getting the scientists online is a plus," said andreamercado, Twitter user and Elgg Camp attendee. "Seriously, this GeoChronos stuff is sexy-tastic."

"GeoChronos Project to help scientists communicate with a social media tool because of global distribution," said techTherapist.

GeoChronos is a set of collaboration and management tools, hosted in an online portal, that enables researchers from the earth observation community to integrate, analyze, visualize and share data and scientific applications.

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