Women In Technology Waterloo Region Chapter

After much planning to launch a local chapter we begin with a kickoff event here at the Hub in the Tannery Event Space on May 12th, 5:30 - 8:30. All are welcome, you can register here.

Why single out Women in Technology? While women have made tremendous strides in the roles we play in technology in the last 20 years, less than 25% of all ICT positions in Canada are held by women. According to 2010’s Labour Market survey, their visibility is dropping (23.9 % in 2010 which is down from 25.3 % in 2000). Women need to continue to support efforts of all women in this sector, working together to help all advance their careers and ensure we continue to pave the way for future generations.

The night is meant to be the start of a new support network. We have planned the event in a way to inspire women to build connections within the technology sector. There will be formal section hosted by local Chair, Angelique Mohring, Senior Director of the Office for the Chief Marketing Officer for OpenText with a night's keynote address from Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran.

I am most excited about the dynamic panel of women we have assembled to discuss their experiences in technology. The panel includes:

• Carol Leaman, CEO, PostRank - 2010 recipient of the Sara Kirke Award for outstanding woman in technology innovation and corporate leadership 
• Jennifer Smith, VP Engineering, Christie Digital Systems
• Sarah Shortreed,  VP, Planning and CIO Program Office, RIM
• Deb Krizmanich, CEO Powernoodle
• Reemah Khalid, Student at UWaterloo

We finalized the questions last night and I am looking forward to hearing their responses.

There will be light refreshment served and a cash bar. Students from Conestoga College are working on visual displays to utilize the Christie display technology in the event space at the Tannery. The event is sponsored by OpenText. They have been very supportive of the event and getting the local chapter up and running. All in all we are expecting a great event to kick off this chapter. 

Don't forget to register!

Building the Canadian Cloud at the Hub

One of the early stage technology companies at the Hub is Canadian Cloud Computing. When I do hub tours I sometimes get that quizzical look that says "what is the cloud."

My simplistic explanation to non-tech people, and you will see that I am by no means a cloud expert, is that the cloud has been around for a long time, it is basically just servers hosting data, nothing to be nervous about. Canadian Cloud Computing offers companies a cost effective alternative to buying and building their own server infrastructure.

I do add a consumer advantage from the cloud -- as digital technology becomes more and more a part of our daily lives, I expect that we will all be interacting more and more with a cloud and not even know it. Such as when we log in at the office to check that we did indeed turn off the iron this morning. If you want to learn more about how you can do that you should check out this Kitchener company - SafePlug.
 
Another example is Gmail and how within my account I have endless space to store email on their server. And this is a segue into the unique value  that Canadian Cloud is offering -- The Trusted Canadian Cloud - a fine balance between building a world-class cloud platform in Canada that is uniquely Canadian while still remaining a part of the global Internet infrastructure.

Basically it is about providing Canadian companies all the benefits of cloud computing without the global entanglements. In other words, because my Gmail account is hosted by an American Company, Google, all of my emails are open to scrutiny under the Homeland Securities Act. As Canadian Cloud Computing is obviously a Canadian company, the data they are hosting for Canadian companies would not be open to that type of exposure. And this is another good segue - data security.

Canadian Cloud Computing puts a GREAT deal of effort into data security. Their servers are located within a data fortress. Their secure networking systems provide encrypted VLAN access to content that is hosted on their Cloud Cloud Server with firewalled public IP addresses so customers can securely access servers through the Internet.

A philosophy of the team at Canadian Cloud Computing is that one size does not fit all when it comes to the Cloud. Some cloud providers focus on their own technology and expect you to adapt your business to their cloud platform. But at Canadian Cloud Computing they want to deliver all the benefits of cloud computing no matter what hardware or software platform you may use today - they want to offer the best platform to meet  unique Cloud needs.

It is kind of funny, Clouds and Fortresses... for storing data. It is a different age than what I grew up in and everyday is a new adventure in technology. 

Those crazy Grey Aliens

If you go to our website you see the three Grey Aliens who are featured throughout. They are cute and comical and if you search for them on youtube you will also discover they are lyrical and seasonal - Enjoy

As a blogger, what I learned this week

That when you are very busy with work and home life and volunteer work, the first thing to go is the blog.

Captains Blog, Grey date April 7th, the year 2011 - It has been a week since my last blog and that one I completed on the train ride to Toronto. My list of things to blog about has not been touched, nothing added, nothing removed. This blog is stuck in time lock.