ServiceNow launches Toronto office
ServiceNow may have begun life as a modest SaaS IT service desk, but it has grown into a $30 billion (US) workflow solution company that ranked number one on the 2018 Forbes list of the world's most innovative companies. Last week it celebrated the opening of its new 4,500 square foot Toronto office.UDPATE: A spokesperson for ServiceNow has provided ITWC with an update, saying the new space is actually 6,800 square feet. Collaborative workspace
Designed to house about 50 people, the office was created to ServiceNow's specifications by LiquidSpace, which also manages the property. It features collaborative workspaces in several forms. Here's one - desks that can be used for sitting ....
Designed to house about 50 people, the office was created to ServiceNow's specifications by LiquidSpace, which also manages the property. It features collaborative workspaces in several forms. Here's one - desks that can be used for sitting .... Adjustable desk
...Or, with the touch of a button, for standing.
...Or, with the touch of a button, for standing. Meeting space
There are also small meeting rooms complete with speakerphones and screens for use in presentations.
There are also small meeting rooms complete with speakerphones and screens for use in presentations. A cozier option
A pair of banquettes allow teams to work together in comfort.
A pair of banquettes allow teams to work together in comfort. Table for one
A couple of single-person lurking spots provide privacy for those who need to concentrate.
A couple of single-person lurking spots provide privacy for those who need to concentrate. Room with a view
All of the banquettes offer a great view as well as peace and quiet.
All of the banquettes offer a great view as well as peace and quiet. Phone booths
For those really private calls, a couple of phone booth-sized enclosed cubicles fill the bill.
For those really private calls, a couple of phone booth-sized enclosed cubicles fill the bill. Training room
The roomy training room allows for larger meetings.
The roomy training room allows for larger meetings. Feeding the natives
Yes, there are snacks.
Yes, there are snacks. Lounging space
Beside the phone booths, sofas with views of the city – the one on the wall, and the one outside the windows to the left.
Beside the phone booths, sofas with views of the city – the one on the wall, and the one outside the windows to the left. Office portal
Employees can use this portal, built on the Now platform, to book meeting rooms and provide other services to employees.
Employees can use this portal, built on the Now platform, to book meeting rooms and provide other services to employees. Support agent
For caffeine deprivation or other important situations, a virtual agent offers interactive help.
For caffeine deprivation or other important situations, a virtual agent offers interactive help. A tasty grand finale
Industry leaders and startups came together at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas for the ShowStoppers event. ShowStoppers produces events at 
When it comes to virtual reality, people still have reservations. It’s an experience that requires a headset that’s almost always attached to wires, and the resolution is simply not comparable to traditional HD displays. While 
Everyone has those moments when you simply can’t focus, but what do you do when this happens? Well, an increasing number of people have turned to the 
Using nothing but water and safe reaction components, the 
Chinese AI company 
Rock and roll on the go. That’s the concept behind 
One of the clearest displays on the show floor wasn’t from a display at all but a series of projectors. 
We love rugged smartphones, and not many companies build them better than 
Jabra was back at CES this year and it had some new headsets to show off. Released in Q4 of 2018, the Evolve 65t is sort of like an enterprise-grade version of AirPods. It’s certified for the enterprise. Specifically, it’s Skype-certified for high quality conferencing interactions. No fiddling around with the Bluetooth settings on your laptop. Just plug in the USB connector and you’re good to go. The Evolve 65t is on sale now for $329 US or about $440 Canadian. The just-announced Elite 85h connects with either Google Assistant, Alexa, or Apple’s Siri without the need to push a button. Users just ask for the voice assistant they want to talk to. The 85h will be available for pre-order in March and will ship in April at a price of $299 USD or $399 Canadian. You can read more about them 
A 2019 CES Innovation Award Honoree wants to revolutionize the way people secure their homes. Lockly was on site showing off its smart lock that's filled to the brim with all kinds of software and hardware features. One of its most notable features include offline access codes. Lockly secure locks can generate multiple access codes without an internet connection. These codes can be issued to guests via text messaging - perfect for Airbnb hosts, for example - even if the power or internet is out in the area. The device also comes with a 3D fingerprint sensor, the option to unlock it with a physical key, and multi-user access. It's also powered by standard AA batteries.
Enterprises in 2018 were also encouraged by vendors to develop some software skills. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Tara Fine, channel chief for VMware Canada, says the skills gap in the country will push businesses in 2019 to invest in training and retraining programs for employees. “There’s room for more collaboration between vendors and the channel community to move the marker on closing this skills gap in 2019,” she says. IDC Canada says the Canadian IT skills gap expected to grow to 59,000 full-time employees by 2020. But Canada's talent pool is nothing to scoff at. In a ranking of tech talent this past summer (by CBRE), Toronto was named North America’s fastest growing tech market. Ottawa and Montreal also ranked in the top 20 on the list.
After building the right team with the right skills, what does an enterprise do next? Build apps, of course. By 2021, more than 50 per cent of CIOs will deliver what IDC Canada is describing as “agile connectivity” via APIs and services to grow in real time verticalized use case applications. Additionally, 70 per cent of organizations currently do some custom app development today, and IDC Canada is expecting an explosive growth in new apps on new architecture in 2019, largely driven by line of business needs.
We’re combining two AI-related predictions here. By 2020, IDC Canada is predicting that at least 30 per cent of Canadian enterprises will have adopted a form of "commodity" AI: non-deep learning AI that focuses on augmenting analytics with algorithms. Additionally, by 2024, 40 per cent of structured repeatable tasks will be automated and 25 pre cent of workers in knowledge-intensive tasks will have AI-infused software or other digitally connected technology as a "co-worker."But it’s not a simple matter of turning on a switch and getting machines to automate stuff. Peter Near, national director of solution engineering for VMware Canada, points to 
Cloud is complex, but it looks like enterprises are becoming increasingly comfortable with the technology and switching dynamically between cloud providers in a “best of breed” approach. This will continue in 2019. IDC Canada says nearly 35 per cent of Canadian enterprises are using this approach when it comes to their multi-cloud strategy, closely followed by enterprises standardizing one or two strategic providers across IaaS/PaaS, at 33 per cent. “In 2019, 
5G is coming, and from 2019 to 2021, Canadian wireless carriers will invest billions in 5G in order to bring latency sensitive applications, such as autonomous vehicles, rescue drones and factor robots, to life. And unlike the transition from 3G to 4G, the shift to 5G will require entirely new architectures to support it, says Jeff Gudewicz, chief product officer for Wilson Electronics. “5G will require all new infrastructure, new towers, more radios and small cells,” he explains. “We [Wilson] have yet to go into direct partnerships with Canadian partners, we’ve just started partnering with North American operators.” Gudewicz also indicates that Wilson is paying close attention to Canada’s decisions around what frequency bands carriers can operate under.In March,
Ten per cent of Canadian enterprises will pilot new architectures, but mainstream edge computing won’t take off until 2021. IDC Canada says 28 per cent of Canadian enterprises currently have an edge computing strategy, while 65 per cent do not. And what are the biggest reasons why enterprises are pursuing edge computing you ask? Data processing at the edge and improved security. “These dynamics are material for realizing the promise of the IoT: to capitalize on the vast amounts of data created by the ‘things’ at the edge, driving automation and creating new customer experiences and business models,” says Tom Bradicich, vice-president and general manager of converged servers, edge and IoT systems for HPE.Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of products and operations for Dell Technologies, is
Thought security and privacy was going to take a backseat in 2019? Not a chance. By 2020, privacy and personal data ownership becomes a new revenue stream for consumer-focused vendors, and by 2021, security services spending will surpass spending on security products. As cloud, IoT and mobility solutions produce more attack surfaces, we’re going to see an increased investment in managed security services. The rollout and updates to privacy laws is also creating business opportunities for channel partners. “Organizations need to select a digital foundation that will make it possible to move data easily and efficiently should changes in laws demand it,” says Sean Forkan, country manager for VMware Canada.In 2019, we’ll see advances in supply chain traceability, and blockchain will likely play a role here thanks to its ability to ensure trust and safety in sourcing, while also securing information and data about goods and services along the way. Manav Gupta, director, engineer for cloud native competency at IBM, says channel partners will play a huge role in implementing blockchain across Canada. “For the channel, it’s a great opportunity to provide value added services,” he says. “Channel is also going to be critical in addressing the skills shortage in the blockchain space. Blockchain is an area where Canada is punching above its weight.”
There were 52,000 customers and partners of 
Ethan Kaplan, chief product officer at Fender Digital, conducted the first consumer segmentation study of guitar players after joining the legendary guitar brand. He discovered that 90 per cent of players quit within the first six months, but those that don't will buy eight to 10 guitars over their lifetime. To keep players engaged, the firm created Fender Tune and Fender Play mobile apps to teach beginners how to tune and how to play with high-quality 4K video content. It's all hosted and processed in the AWS cloud - all 747 TB of video, which has been viewed 5 million times. [
Ross Brawn Obe, the managing director of motorsports at Formula 1, wants to unlock the rich data stores generated by this gladatorial speed sport. "More than a million points of data are transmitted every second between the cars and the pits," he says. Using AWS SageMaker, F1 is 
Yuri Misnick, executive general manager of business enabling technology at NAB, says this bank plans to invest $4.5 billion (AUD) over three years into cloud transformation, with AWS as its strategic partner. The largest business bank in Australia, it's already running more than 100 cloud applications and taken its deployment time from weeks to under 15 minutes. "Our engineers love Lambda," he said. "It's helped us move fast, eliminate overhead, and reduce management across the stack." NAB trained more than 3,000 of its software engineers on AWS and created a 
Dean Del Vecchio, CIO of Guardian Insurance first transformed the grey cubicle walls workplace of this 150-year-old firm, then took a production-first cloud rollout strategy. Today the firm uses 40 different software as a service (SaaS) vendors and AWS as its sole public cloud provider. It migrated 200 applications to AWS in just 12 months. "We shut down our last owned and operated data centre on Nov. 5," he said. "Lights out." [
Pebbles Sy-Manalang, CIO of Globe Telecom, says her home country of the Philippines faces many challenges, such as an "unbanked" population and a lack of doctors. "We believe we can help build a Phlipines where families' dreams come true," she says. To do that, it aims to connect 2 million homes with 50 Mbps internet speeds in the next two years. To offer such a service, it migrated from its Oracle databases to AWS Aurora PostgreSQL. "Today we are seeing better performance at one-tenth the cost," she says. [
Keith Bigelow, GM and SVP at GE Healthcare asked the audience to imagine he met the unfortunate fate of a car wreck and how his fate would unfold differently based on where it took place. "If I had my car wreck here in Las Vegas, I could probably see a radiologist. But if it was out in the boonies of Nevada, I might have to wait 8 hours until morning. During that time, I could go into critical condition," he said. GE is looking to help solve the lack of radiologists by using AI to determine if a critical condition, such as a collapsed lung, exists. Doing so could potentially save lives and reduce wasted resources. [
Chris Dyl, director of platform at Epic Games, shared how this videogames giant is using the AWS stack to run the multiplayer, multi-platform deathmatch hit Fortnite. The game has grown 100 times in the past month alone, he says, and as a result extreme elasticity is needed as demand waxes and wanes in different regions. It can even support huge events that drive millions of players online simultaneously, such as when a rocket ship was launched from Fortnite's battle grounds. "We really stretch the capacity of AWS to the limit with these events," he says. [
Jennifer Schaeffer, CIO of Athabasca University in Alberta, which is an all-online university that wanted to expand its user base. Doing so wasn't for lack of marketing, but because of constraints serving 40,000 students from a server rack in its on-premises data centre in rural Alberta. To adapt, Athabasca migrated its course content to AWS. Now Schaeffer is rethinking what's possible, planning to deliver education in a "just in time" model to students, so they can progress as they live busy lives, not just when they set aside can concentrate for hours at a time. [Watch the '
Cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, targeting everything from your inbox to elections, and Canada sees its fair share of them. Between 2011 and 2015, the percentage of total cyber attacks targeting small organizations - in Canada, more than 
In addition to research, Trend Micro wants its newest building to serve as a centralized space for the company’s partners and customers. Marcia Sequeira, vice-president of Canadian sales and marketing for Trend Micro, says the research centre is the perfect place for training sessions, demonstrations and networking. Visitors walk on Canadian Maple floors and are surrounded by some greenery, giving the multi-purpose open space a refreshing, relaxing feel.
Trend Micro’s chief technology officer, 
If you there’s an opportunity to install a secret room in your office - take it. Pictured above, Mike Gibson, vice-president of threat research, shows off the all-purpose secret room. Gibson says the room was ideal for demonstrations and training sessions, especially when other rooms were occupied. Of course, he adds, it also makes for a great karaoke space.
In order to study threats, you need a place to safely deploy them. That’s what these servers function as. Researchers detonte malware on them - which are obviously segmented from the company’s corporate network - and play around with the malicious code to develop new tactics and solutions to combat similar threats.
A 200-person team in Ottawa heads a global operation that provides cybersecurity for cloud computing. Trend Micro has also acquired a Montreal firm that does research into AI and machine learning. This type of work continues across the company’s more than a dozen research centres across the world in Tokyo, Munich, Prague, Sao Paulo and Austin, Texas. Sequeira says that by the end of the year, Trend Micro is planning to hire at least 500 new people, 50 of which will remain in Canada. In total, Trend Micro has a workforce of approximately 6,000. Pictured above, vulnerability and malware researchers hard at work.
The tour was capped with a brief presentation about the latest trends in the cybersecurity space. Approximately 83 per cent of cyber threats blocked by Trend Micro are found in emails. Only 14 per cent of them come directly from individual files, and only 2 per cent come from URLs. Ransomware continues to be a popular avenue for attackers to earn money, but cryptojacking is rapidly rising in popularity. According to Symantec's 
TORONTO --- A lot happened Sept. 19. The inaugural 
The Canadian Channel Chiefs Council (C4) is the voice of technology channel professionals in Canada, and on Sept. 19, new and existing members of the not-for-profit gathered together for an afternoon of discussions and exercises circling the channel community. The workshops took place prior to Computer Dealer News’ inaugural Channel Innovation Awards. New and existing C4 members had the opportunity to introduce themselves, provide feedback for C4's new education series introducing the channel community, and talk openly about some of the challenges they and their sales team face in the market. Pictured above, Corinne Sharp, president of the C4, welcomes C4 members to the meeting.
The state of the channel is always changing. Steve White, vice-president of worldwide channels and alliances research for IDC, pointed to some research that shed some light on channel predictions. Subscription-based products have helped alter the customer journey, changing the way technology gets into the hands of individuals and organizations. This doesn’t render the channel community useless, said White, but it has forced channel players to rethink their strategy. Partnerships and collaboration will become increasingly important. By 2021, 50 per cent of G2000 organizations will form alliances with technology partners and 30 per cent of purchasing will be driven primarily through strategic industry and innovation ecosystems. By 2020, P2P-collaboration-driven initiatives, will account for at least 30 per cent of revenue generated among leading cloud partners. In addition, IoT is becoming a mainstay in the partner ecosystem - IDC suggests that by 2020, more than 70 per cent of infrastructure-centric partners will become involved with IoT in edge development.
How do you define the different type of channel partners out there? That's what leaders in the partner community tried to figure out at the C4 workshop ahead of the CIA awards organized by Sharp and Jim Love, ITWC’s CIO. C4 members were asked to write down what they thought various labels - such as value-added resellers, managed solution providers and distributors - meant to them and how they connect to each other. The session concluded with an open discussion about the many labels, in addition to the current challenges sales teams face in the channel. One of the recurring messages from the discussion was about how sales teams should focus less on touting a solution’s specs and features, and instead convey exactly how it will solve a customer’s problem. Everyone thinks they have the fastest server, said one member, but how will it actually solve a customer’s problem?
Twenty organizations from across the country were recognized for the creation of solutions and services that, thanks to unique value propositions, are positively impacting partners and channel customers across Canada. The inaugural CDN Channel Innovation Awards recognized projects ranging from unique systems developed to protect Canadian digital history to the use of artificial intelligence to meet the needs of a busy homeless shelter/drop-in centre in Calgary. Audience members also got to participate in a mini tech-inspired scavenger hunt sponsored by Veritas. CDN's social media streams showed were home to a number of selfies, suggesting that self-confidence is not a problem in the channel.
David MacDonald, member board of directors at In the Chat Communications Inc and Softchoice - and CIA judge - took to the stage to talk about where he sees the Canadian channel heading. His career has included 18 years at Xerox Corporation in Global roles and 16 years leading Softchoice. MacDonald said channel players are "caught between huge forces," pointing to bleeding edge technology hitting the market on almost a daily basis, and subscription models that have completely changed the way customers purchase technology. "Applicants that were successful were transitioning, adding value and moving to the cloud," he explained. "Congratulations to tonight's winners for figuring out how the future is going to look like."
The channel is changing, and so is Computer Dealer News. IT World Canada's editorial director, Brian Jackson, helped unveil CDN's rebranding efforts, announcing that, very soon, CDN will stand for Channel Daily News. It's more than a name change with a new URL and logo. The rebranding will be accompanied by more videos, improved search capabilities and a new channel directory that will help readers and business leaders find channel players quickly.
Legacy vendors in the IT infrastructure monitoring space beware, Paris-based Centreon Software Systems - which was also a CIA sponsor - is 
Systems integrator Sierra Systems took home the most sought after award of the evening - 
Amazon hosted a devices launch event inside of its Seattle Spheres on Thursday. It announced some new versions of Alexa hardware and some entirely new Alexa devices too. Let's take a look at all the announcements, what's coming to Canada, and what it costs.
The third iteration of the Echo Dot will be coming to Canada. Amazon promises that its sound will be louder and crisper. It has an updated fabric design and retails for $69.99 CAD. It's available for pre-order now and begins shipping next month.
The second generation of the Alexa speaker that doubles as a smart home hub will be available in Canada at $199.99. It has a larger 63.5 mm Neodymium woofer and a new fabric design. It supports Amazon's new Wi-Fi simple set-up, which allows you to connect smart devices just by powering them on. It's available for pre-order now and begins shipping next month.
The Echo Show is coming to Canada for the first time, with the second generation of this device sporting a 10-inch HD display, built-in smart home hub, and "powerful speakers," for $299.99. It's available for pre-order now and begins shipping next month.
You can now set up your Echo speakers in a 2.1 or even a 1.1 configuration so this subwoofer can back up your tunes with a healthy dose of bass. The sub retails for $169.99 in Canada. It's available for pre-order now and begins shipping next month.
It's another Wi-Fi connected plug that you can control with your Alexa devices or app. It runs Amazon FreeRTOS, a real-time operating system that runs on several of Amazon's products. It's also the first device to ship with Wi-Fi Simple Setup. It sells for $34.99. It's available for pre-order now and begins shipping next month. This concludes the new Amazon devices coming to Canada.
From here on out, the rest of these devices are available only in the U.S. But we're guessing some of you may get your hands on them anyway. The Echo Auto is an eight microphone array that you put on your dash. It connects to the Internet through your smartphone, and to your car via Bluetooth. It's available by invitation only, shipping to the chosen later this year.
It's a microwave with Alexa in it. In an on-stage demo, a potato was cooked. Alexa is triggered by pressing an "Ask Alexa" button here and a Dash Replenishment service can automatically reorder popcorn for you. It's $59.99 USD and shipping to the U.S. later this year.
A companion device that connects to an Echo device via Bluetooth, this wall clock will display timers, alarms, and reminders scheduled with Alexa. It retails for $29.99 USD and ships later this year to the U.S. only.
Amazon noticed that many of its customers were using the Echo Dot for its input only, connecting it with other speakers to playback the audio. So this is the first Echo device without a speaker. Just a thin, four-microphone array and available later this year for $34.99 USD in the U.S. only.
This connects to a receiver or amplifier and has multiple digital and analog inputs and outputs for compatibility with your existing stereo. Control your music, how loud it is, and where it plays with the Alexa app. This has no price or release date yet.
The Echo Link Amp has a built-in 60W 2-channel amplifier, along with multiple digital and analog outputs to connect with your stereo. Again, no release schedule or price for this device yet.
San Francisco --- 
The lobby: Box was founded in 2005 by Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith. The company moved into its Redwood City headquarters in 2016, which staff helped design to specifically meet the company's needs and corporate image.
Five of the headquarters' seven floors are dedicated workspaces that mainly house the company's engineers. These are all fairly similar, open-concept offices with a variety of workspaces from sitting or standings desks to meeting rooms and collaboration areas. They also each have a quiet room, pods, and lounging areas like this one. Each floor comes equipped with a small kitchen space and, most importantly, a beer keg.
What makes the floors unique, however, are the different and very specific themes, from Wild West to Ski Lodge and more. Box also has eight other offices around the world, including a Box Canada office located in Toronto.
While the working spaces seem pretty fun, the best floor by far is the cafeteria. It’s a large area that can seat hundreds of employees and offers more buffet-style options than is probably healthy (the pork belly pizza was to die for). At the end of every week Box hosts what they call "Friday lunch," and will have different events such as speakers or "Boxers" DJ-ing lunch.
The cafeteria also offers a little "tech space" hideaway where people can work or just play video games.
It also offers spaces to let loose and interact with coworkers, by playing some ping-pong or pool, for example.
The space also features an old Volkswagen bus that its co-founders apparently used to drive around Redwood in Box’s early days to help promote the brand. Now it's been turned into a mini bar that offers a few select beverages, including Sambuca!
And how could we forget dessert? Menchies Frozen Yogurt recently teamed up with Box to offer its employees a full service froyo bar. (Jealous yet?)
And the best part of all (well, we think so anyway) is the Box bar that serves a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic options for those so inclined.
So there you have it: Box’s California headquarters. Our only question at the end was: how do Box’s employees get any work done?
Why a separate e-book reader? Simple – because e-ink is much easier on the eyes than a computer or tablet screen, and an e-reader's battery lasts for weeks, not hours. I carry my Kobo Clara HD (which weighs almost nothing – only 166 grams), loaded with a bunch of library books and the odd business document as required, along with my laptop. It holds up to 6000 books, has 11 fonts and over 40 font styles, and supports 14 file formats (but not Kindle's, in case you were wondering). The front light lets you read anytime.
In these 
Have you ever had a hotel room with enough electrical sockets in the right places? I haven't. The Orico power bar has two outlets, plus four USB charging ports, and it can handle European voltages (any power bar that can't accept 240 volt inputs will self-destruct when introduced to them – trust me on that). It's also a surge suppressor. I also carry plug adapters for my destination, if required, so the power bar can be plugged in to the wall, and then my devices can use their regular cords with the power bar. Be sure to buy adapters that can handle grounded plugs – many can't.
I call them hydra cables – those USB to multiple connector cables we often pick up for free at trade shows. They offer a standard USB connector, plus a mix of micro USB, mini USB, Lightning (for iPhone or iPad), and USB-C connectors in one handy unit. Rather than carrying half a dozen cables, tuck one of these into your bag. If you plan to charge your phone through one of them at a public charging point, consider picking up a charge-only version (it lacks the data connection pins) to ensure nothing nasty sneaks onto your device while it's juicing up.
The Microsoft Arc Mouse has several advantages, besides being kind of cute. It packs completely flat; you turn it on by bending it into an arc, and turn it off by splatting it flat again (very therapeutic after a tough day). It connects via Bluetooth – no wires or dongles required. And the newest model has a full scroll plane to allow both vertical and horizontal scrolling.
TORONTO --- More than 200 delegates from more than a dozen of Canada’s top tech companies descended on Toronto’s Guild Inn Estate in Scarborough last week for the 2018 Women in the IT Channel Recognition Luncheon. The event’s hosts, ITWC president Fawn Annan and Ingram Micro Canada country chief executive Bill Brandel presided over an event which was filled with all manner of speaking guests, including the inaugural honourees of CDN’s new Women in the IT Channel Hall of Fame. Read on for insights from the event's guest speakers and award winners, including representatives from FedEx, HP, Ingram Micro, and more!(All photographs for CDN by Paul Darrow.)
ITWC president Fawn Annan welcomed guests to the event Thursday and introduced the theme of this year’s luncheon - superpowers. “This event is all about us. It’s about women and the power of women,” she said to everyone. “We’re not talking about x-ray vision. We’re talking about the talents that only you can bring to the table.” She also acknowledged the 57 other women who are in ITWC's Women in the IT Channel Hall of Fame. “That number will continue to grow, and each year, our hope is to bring a focus on to the people who are making a huge difference and helping us in our quest for equality.”
The luncheon’s other co-host, Bill Brandel, country chief executive for Ingram Micro Canada - a founder and sponsor of the event - echoed Annan’s comments, adding the annual luncheon is always well attended by the channel community. In a brief interview with CDN, Brandel said the gender split is 50/50 overall across Ingram Micro Canada, but shared his regret that only 20 per cent of women have a role at an executive level. The company is actively trying to improve that statistic, he said, by ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity when a position opens up and ensuring the hiring pipeline is full of diverse candidates. Brandel also voiced his disappointment around the misconception that the #MeToo movement introduced new rules to the office. “There are no new rules. It’s simply about treating everyone equally.”
One of the first speakers of the afternoon cleverly weaved together her top five superpowers into an acronym that represented their theme. Jennifer Villers, senior manager of marketing for Ingram Micro Canada, listed nurturing, optimistic, authentic, multitasker and wise as her top five superpowers - which, she revealed, spelled the acronym “WOMAN.”“We all have many different superpowers and we should be proud of them and work with them together as a team,” she said.
Mary Ann Yule is one of the most recognizable members of the Canadian IT channel. The president and CEO of 
Another very recognizable member of the Canadian IT channel took to the stage after Yule to introduce the Women in the IT Channel Hall of Fame. Deanna Thomson, 
Audience members at this year’s CDN Women in the IT Channel Recognition Luncheon burst into a round of applause after hearing FedEx Canada’s president passionately reiterate that women shouldn’t have to choose between a family or a career – they can have both. “I tell women that all the time,” said 
Four new Women of the IT Channel Hall of Fame honourees were introduced at the end of the afternoon’s program. The honourees were:
TORONTO - More than 200 delegates from more than a dozen of Canada's top tech companies descended on Toronto's 
When introducing the conference, ITWC president Fawn Annan emphasized that, to paraphrase Charles Darwin, digital transformation means that it's no longer the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent - it’s the one most adaptable to change."Every industry and every organization will have to transform itself in the next few years," she said. "What is coming at us is bigger than the original internet and you need to understand it, get on board with it and figure out how to transform your business.""Digital transformation means a lot of different things. At its heart, it’s about innovation through technology," she continued. "But it’s about more than that - it’s also about disruption and completely changing business models."
In the event's 
Appearing on a panel to discuss the answer to "How does a smart business gear up for smart technology?" AWS country manager Eric Gales (second from left, alongside Peer Ledger CEO Dawn Jutla; SecureKey CEO Greg Wolfond, and TD vice-president of North America mobile Steve Brar) said that he personally is turned off by case studies presenting advancement as a straight line of improvement, when the reality is the opposite: digital transformation occurs in bits and pieces, and often requires maintenance and, more importantly, change agents to move forward.“At every organization, there’s always lots of reasons not to do things," he said. "But if you're not moving forwards, you are moving backwards. I often find myself having to convince a customer that... if you’re not trying, if you’re not learning about these new capabilities, you are going backwards. And it will catch up with you very quickly... If you’re not involved, if you’re not moving, if you’re not changing, if you’re not learning, if you’re not challenging, then you’re going backwards. It's just a fundamental reality.”
OpenText vice-president of cloud and services solutions Lynn Elwood was on hand to present the results of a recent study, conducted in collaboration with ITWC, that found only 
Moneris CTO Amer Matar appeared on a panel with CISO advisor Michael Ball and Insurance-Canada.ca partner Patrick Vice to discuss "FinTech 2.0: Where are we now and how should we prepare for the next wave?"Responding to the OpenText and ITWC study, Matar said that he finds most organizations have trouble moving quickly because of their dependence on legacy platforms, and that in his opinion their philosophy should incorporate ongoing platform upgrades, allowing them to slowly chip away at the problem."It's a little bit of a lack of leadership and a lack of innovation that's going on," he said.
ITWC CIO Jim Love (left) and CA Technologies senior director Kovar Gregory discussed the latest findings of our annual CanadianCIO Census, which found that 44 per cent of respondents planned to increase the number of workers under them over the next year - a testament, Gregory said, to the business case for digital transformation."The needle is finally moving," he said. "The budgets wouldn't be increasing if they weren't seeing business results."When it came to barriers against further transformation, the census found the leading cause equally divided between culture (33 per cent) and employee skills (31 per cent)."At the top you can mandate something, but unless everyone in the organization buys into it, you won't get those efficiencies," Gregory said.
Jordan Kyriakidis, president and CEO of Halifax-based 
During a panel titled "Moving Beyond the Hype: Separating AI Fact from Fiction," SalesChoice Inc. CEO Cindy Gordon (who was joined by Blue J. Legal CEO Benjamin Alarie; Ernst & Young risk advisory partner Cathy Cobey; and ICTC president and CEO Namir Anani) advocated for the future value of educating yourself about artificial intelligence by noting that China has decided nationally that AI will be in every school curriculum from junior kindergarten onward.“China has just made a decision nationally that AI will be in every single curriculum from JK to all levels - every program, every faculty, everything," she said. "It's moving at a trajectory that is unprecedented in this point in history, and we need to step up – here, as Canadians, and I urge you to lobby, to become more vocal, because that’s how fast this is moving.”
Few Canada-based success stories in the tech industry loom as high in the national memory as BlackBerry Ltd., and as senior vice-president Margaret Stuart illustrated in 
City of Vancouver CTO Jessie Adcock was among the panelists discussing "Digital Transformation from the Trenches"."Just because you don't understand something, doesn't mean it's the next greatest technology," she said, noting that, for example, "many blockchain use cases can be done with a spreadsheet."Other experts who joined Adcock on the panel included Microsoft Canada national technology officer John Weigelt; Nav Canada CIO Claudio Silvestri; SmartONE Solutions Inc. president Ted Maulucci; and Startup Canada co-founder Victoria Lennox.
In a section cheekily titled "Whippersnappers" in the conference program, three teams of students between the ages of 12 and 17 pitched the tech startups they had developed with assistance from digital education centre 
The evening was capped, of course, by an awards presentation honouring the year's best digital transformation projects.From left, CTO Roberta Fox collected an award on behalf of 
Ottawa-based industry organization the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (
By Lalaa Comrie, ITWC Social Media Marketing ManagerWelcome to ITWC’s July 2018 community slideshow! Every month we ask leaders in the Canadian technology industry about a general life topic as a fun way to know the community a little better. In honour of the World Cup taking place in Russia, we decided to ask tech leaders across Canada:"How do you balance your employees’ desire to watch a major sporting event with your company's usual workload?"While no predictions were made, it was great to see that the World Cup has brought so many people together which solidifies the saying that #SoccerisLife!Read on for answers from Intel Canada, SOTI, Trend Micro and more. We’d love to hear your thoughts, use the hashtag #CommunityQuestion and join the conversation.
Carl Rodrigues, President and CEO of 
Marcia Sequeira, Country Manager, 
Deanna Thomson, National Director, Channel Sales for 
Justin Thouin, CEO of 
Tyler Handley, CEO of 
Dan Holowack, CEO of 
Cisco Systems has ambitious plans. In addition to meeting the demands of a modern-day network infrastructure that is seeing more and more devices connecting to it every day, the company wants to educate thousands of people about the latest advancements in network management, and move them away from the archaic and much more manual processes still in place. A lot of stage time was dedicated to these new ideas at Cisco Live! 2018 in Orlando, Florida. The message was clear: Cisco won’t stop selling hardware, but software will take centre stage going forward, and this was emphasized by CEO Chuck Robbins, who said the company is betting big with intent-based networking. Here, we have collected a few moments from the conference that more than 30,000 people attended. Photo from Cisco.
A thunderous bass and some bright lights kicked off Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins’ opening keynote, which was about solving some of the world’s biggest problems by improving the network infrastructure it's built on. While the infrastructure in place today has helped deliver health, education and other resources to all parts of the world, Robbins suggests there is another level we haven’t achieved. By 
Last November, Cisco announced a partnership with 
The Port of Rotterdam is one of the most advanced port authorities in the world. In addition to exploring the possibilities of blockchain technology, Europe’s largest shipping port is partnering with Cisco and a few other companies to learn more about a shipping container’s journey. Vincent Campfens, the port’s consultant on all things IoT- and network-related, explained how the global shipping market has functioned largely the same for decades, and the journey from one port to another hasn’t ever been properly documented. From water and weather patterns, to what’s happening at a port when a container arrives, a lot of data is waiting to be uncovered. “Containers haven’t changed much in 50 years. Like everything else, it’s time to digitize ourselves.” The new smart container, which was on the show floor at the event, will be outfitted with a variety of sensors that will document the journey across the ocean and its movements upon arrival at a port, later this year. The port is also working with IBM and The Weather Company on the project. Photo from Cisco
More than 14,000 people, more than 100 exhibits and dozens of international speakers converged on the 2018 Red Hat Summit in San Francisco last week. It was an opportunity for the open-source company to tout its significant growth in the past few years. The leading Linux company, which turned 25 this year, made nearly $3 billion in total revenue after its latest fiscal year. In addition to IBM and Microsoft announcing major expansions to their existing partnerships with Red Hat, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with 300 breakout sessions and makers, artists, coders sharing their stories about the open source community. Pictured above, Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat president and CEO. We’ve compiled some of these moments here.
The two companies expanded their alliance to allow enterprise developers to run container-based applications across Microsoft Azure and on-premises. Through this collaboration, the two introduced the first jointly managed OpenShift offering in the public cloud, combining Red Hat OpenShift and Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud. Above, Paul Cormier, Red Hat’s president of products and technologies with Scott Guthrie, executive vice-president of the cloud and enterprise group in Microsoft, announcing the availability of Red Hat OpenShift on Azure. The launch is anticipated to be available in preview in the coming months.
Red Hat and IBM took to the main stage and announced an expansion to their current relationship, which builds on IBM’s recent move to re-engineer its entire software portfolio with containers, including WebSphere, MQ Series and Db2. IBM and Red Hat customers can now build and deploy containerized applications on a single container platform, resulting on a single view of all enterprise data. Above: Red Hat’s Matt Hicks, senior vice-president of engineering, addresses the crowd with Arvind Krishna, IBM’s senior vice-president of hybrid cloud and director of research.
Raj Channa, senior director and head of cloud devops and distributed hosting engineering for global technology infrastructure for the Royal Bank of Canada, walked on to the stage during one of the summit’s main keynotes and talked about the banks digital transformation. “Today, business strategies and IT strategies are one in the same,” he said. “We understand that most of the innovation out there happens in the open source community. We rely on Red Hat as a partner to consume open source innovations in a manner that meets our enterprise needs.” Channa also pointed to the fact that RBC has the largest Red Hat Enterprise Linux footprint in Canada.
Two women were recognized for their work in the open source community: Dana Lewis, founder of the
The open source community is growing, and many its members are starting young. Femi Owolade-Coombes of