Coffee Briefing March 29, 2022 – HP to acquire Poly; Twitter Canada top 3 conversation trends 2022; Webex to launch two new datacentres in Canada; and more

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What’s new this week

HP to acquire Poly for US$3.3 billion

Source: yalcinsonat1 | Getty Images

HP yesterday announced a definitive agreement to acquire Poly, a global provider of workplace collaboration solutions/equipment born from the 2018 acquisition of Polycom by Plantronics, for US$40 per share in an all-cash transaction, implying a total enterprise value of US$3.3 billion, inclusive of Poly’s net debt. 

HP says Poly will help drive the growth and scale of HP’s peripherals and workforce solutions businesses. Poly provides video conferencing solutions, cameras, headsets, audio conferencing hardware, and software. Together, HP and Poly will aim to deliver a complete ecosystem of devices, software, and digital services for better employee experiences, improved workforce productivity, and to provide enterprise customers with better visibility, insights, security, and manageability across their hybrid IT environments.

Rogers launches Canada’s first commercially available 5G standalone network

Source: Rogers

Rogers Communications yesterday announced it has launched the first commercial 5G standalone (SA) network in Canada. Built exclusively with network partner Ericsson, Rogers 5G SA service is now available to customers on 5G SA capable or certified devices like the Google Pixel 6 and the Google Pixel 6 Pro. Wireless customers with capable devices will automatically connect to the 5G SA service where it has been rolled out and Rogers says it will be onboarding other major devices later in the year.

Rogers completed the rollout of Canada’s first national standalone 5G core in Dec. 2020 and that of the country’s first 5G standalone device certification in Oct. 2021. Click here for more info.

Microsoft to offer free cybersecurity training to Canadians

Source: Visual Generation | Getty Images

Microsoft last week announced the expansion of its cybersecurity skills campaign to an additional 23 countries around the world, including Canada, that have an elevated cyberthreat risk. As part of this initiative, Microsoft says it will offer free training for cybersecurity pathways through their LinkedIn Learning platform to provide free curriculum, educator training, and tools for teaching, including coursework like Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals, Microsoft Azure Security Technologies certification, and more. Additionally, Microsoft is partnering with Ecole 42, a global computer science training program, to make Microsoft cybersecurity content available to its 15,000 learners globally.

The company first launched the campaign with the U.S. community colleges in Oct. 2021 to help skill and recruit 250,000 people into the cybersecurity workforce by 2025, representing half of the country’s security workforce shortage. 

Twitter Canada: three top Canadian conversation trends of 2022

Source: Twitter

Twitter Canada has released a new report detailing its three top Canadian conversations trends for 2022. The Twitter trends were compiled by analyzing billions of Tweets over two years. The three trends include:

The great restoration: The pandemic has shifted the conversation surrounding sustainability and the future of the planet. Burnout has also driven people to prioritize wellness, with a focus on bettering the environment. Issues such as deforestation, emissions to net zero, and protecting nature and the outdoors were all popular conversations on Twitter Canada. 

Fan-built worlds: This year, digital communities and spaces were all the rage. There was a 696 per cent year-over-year increase in mentions of “fan-tokens” on the platform, and terms such as Patreon, Fan marketplaces, World building, and NFT avatars became popular on the app.

Finance goes social: Cryptocurrency and digital wallet conversations were extremely popular on Twitter over the past year. Younger Canadians, who are interested in virtual investments, are looking for new places to spend and grow their earnings. There were 30 times more tweets about NFTs than work from home in 2021. Terms like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Binance, and Litecoin were all trending, according to Twitter Canada.

Webex to launch two new datacentres in Canada

Source: pp76 | Getty Images

Webex by Cisco, an American company that develops and sells web conferencing, videoconferencing, unified communications as a service, and contact centre as a service applications, last week announced that it is launching new datacentres in Toronto and Montreal. With this expansion in Canada, the company says it aims to provide Canadian customers with in-country data residency, failover, and disaster recovery for Webex Meetings and associated customer data. User-generated content, such as files and recordings, and troubleshooting data will be processed and stored in Canada.

These new datacentres will complement the existing Webex Calling datacentre in Canada, providing a comprehensive in-country collaboration solution. With the additional in-country datacentres, Webex will be able to further support its customers with sensitivity to data residency, like those in the public sectors in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Quebec, as well as those in the healthcare and financial sectors, Webex team noted in a blog post.

More to explore

Canadian small businesses get another cybersecurity training resource

Members of Canada’s small business lobby group will have access to free online cybersecurity training in a few months, including lessons on ways to stop phishing and ransomware attacks.

Many Canadian firms still ‘bury their heads in the sand’ over cyber risks, says expert

Leaders of many Canadian organizations still think they won’t be the victim of a cyberattack, says the head of the cybersecurity practice of a major consulting company.

This week in ransomware

A recent study from telecommunications company Telus, has revealed that not every company that pays a ransom gets their data back. In fact, the study indicates that under half of the companies that reported paying ransoms actually got their data back.

Nine in ten Canadian nonprofits consider digital transformation efforts a top priority in updating business processes – report

A new study from Sage, the accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology provider for small and mid-sized businesses, has found that Canadian nonprofits are investing in digital transformation to drive efficiency and growth. 

CRTC agrees to let Rogers buy Shaw’s broadcasting services

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has agreed to let Rogers buy Shaw‘s broadcasting services, with specified conditions and modifications.

Telus is upping its fixed wireless Internet speed game in rural communities across B.C. and Alberta

Telus yesterday announced it is using its Smart Hub technology and 5G network to bring faster fixed wireless Internet speeds to nearly 60 rural communities across British Columbia and Alberta by the end of the year. 

Seven in UK arrested, allegedly linked to Lapsus$: News reports

News sources are claiming seven people arrested in England are allegedly related to the Lapsus$ extortion group.

Studies reveal that full-stack observability and automation adoption are priorities for businesses in 2022

A new study reveals that 91 per cent of Canadian technologists believe that the shift to full-stack observability will be transformational for their business.

Channel Bytes March 25, 2022 – DX Award nomination deadline; Top 100 Solution Providers gala; “Free-forever” plan from Zomentum; and more

Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending

More than a third of jobs in the U.S. can be done remotely, misinformation is dissuading the public from green energy initiatives, and Apple is allegedly cutting back the iPhone SE’s production due to low demand.

Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today

This episode reports on putting of Kaspersky on U.S. national security threat list, malware found in NPM open-source library, and security updates for Sophos, Chrome and Western Digital products

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)

If you live in Quebec or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Pragya Sehgal
Pragya Sehgal
Her characters are bold and smart, but in real life, Pragya is afraid of going upstairs when it is dark behind her. Born and raised in the capital city of India - Delhi - bounded by the Yamuna River on the west, Pragya has climbed the Himalayas, and survived medical professional stream in high school without becoming a patient or a doctor. Pragya now makes her home in Canada with her husband - a digital/online marketing professional who also prepares beautiful, healthy and delicious meals for her. When she isn’t working or writing around tech, she’s probably watching art films on Netflix, or wondering whether she should cut her hair short or not.

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