TMCnet News

ICT Association of Manitoba and Red River College Partner with CANARIE to Bolster Manitoba's ICT Sector Growth Through Cloud Technology
[January 29, 2014]

ICT Association of Manitoba and Red River College Partner with CANARIE to Bolster Manitoba's ICT Sector Growth Through Cloud Technology


(Marketwire (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 29, 2014) - CANARIE, a vital component of Canada's digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, today announced partnerships with the ICT Association of Manitoba (ICTAM) and Red River College to support the incubation and growth of ICT-based businesses in Manitoba.



The partnership enables ICTAM to deliver a white-label offering of CANARIE's Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research (DAIR) program to its clients. DAIR provides free cloud-based compute, network and storage resources for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to develop, test, prototype and demonstrate next-generation products.

This ICTAM partnership is a further expansion of the Powered by DAIR partner model, in which organizations supporting SMEs secure a block of free DAIR resources and offer the service as an extension of their service portfolio. For ICTAM, the Powered by DAIR model helps deliver greater value to their members and obtain greater leverage for investments in its business incubation and acceleration services. For ICTAM members, the model enables access to a made-in-Canada cloud that delivers the time horizon, scalability and cost certainty that supports accelerated product development and testing of innovative products at a national or global scale.


CANARIE's complementary partnership with Red River College is an expansion of its DAIR program for colleges engaged in applied research, and further strengthens the ecosystem supporting business innovation and growth in Manitoba. The partnership provides students in any program, who are required to engage with SMEs in an applied research project, with access to DAIR's powerful cloud resources. Students engage in meaningful experiential learning, while businesses benefit from accelerated product development at no additional cost.

In addition to the tangible benefits of the DAIR offering for ICTAM and Red River College individually, the partnerships seed fertile ground for additional research/business alliances between the organizations, strengthening the Manitoba innovation ecosystem as a whole.

"Having access to DAIR's cloud resources is a tremendous advantage for ICTAM members and Manitoba's ICT community. It increases our research and development capacity and capability without the expense of investing in new infrastructure. This is a winning collaboration, "says Kathy Knight, CEO, ICTAM. She added, "DAIR is an important partner in furthering the success of our technology innovation ecosystem." "DAIR is an asset which will provide Red River College and our private sector partners with access to new virtual resources in our community and region; which will accelerate applied research activities to everyone's mutual benefit", says Ray Hoemsen, Director of Applied Research and Commercialization at Red River College.

"CANARIE's focus is to provide Canadians with access to transformative technologies that will drive the evolution of our knowledge economy," says Jim Ghadbane, President and CEO of CANARIE. "Our partnerships in Manitoba leverage the strength of players in the innovation ecosystem to expand the visibility of DAIR and the impact cloud technologies have on small businesses competing in a global marketplace." CANARIE's relationships with ICTAM and Red River College are among a number of partnerships it has developed to ensure a broad swath of Canadian entrepreneurs and small businesses benefit from the free cloud resources provided through DAIR. To date, CANARIE has developed partnerships with the City of Fredericton's goFred Network, Startup Calgary, Algonquin College, and New Brunswick Community College. Additionally, over 100 small businesses are directly using the DAIR cloud.

CANARIE's national research and education network (NREN) partner in Manitoba, MRnet, provides the critical connectivity to DAIR for Red River College users. CANARIE delivers DAIR in partnership with its Alberta NREN partner Cybera, and Compute Canada, Canada's national platform for high performance computing.

About CANARIE: CANARIE designs, delivers, and drives the adoption of digital infrastructure for Canada's research and education communities. CANARIE keeps Canada at the forefront of digital research and innovation, fundamental to a vibrant digital economy.

CANARIE's roots are in advanced networking, and CANARIE continues to evolve the national ultra-high-speed backbone network that enables data-intensive, leading-edge research and big science across Canada and around the world. One million researchers, scientists and students at over 1,100 Canadian institutions, including universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals, and government laboratories have access to the CANARIE Network.

CANARIE also leads the development of research software tools that enable researchers to more quickly and easily access research data, tools, and peers. In support of Canada's high-tech entrepreneurs, CANARIE offers cloud-computing services to help them accelerate product development and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Twelve provincial and territorial network partners, together with CANARIE, collectively form Canada's National Research and Education Network (NREN). This powerful digital infrastructure connects Canadians to national and global data, tools, colleagues, and classrooms that fuel the engine of innovation in today's digital economy.

Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the major investment in its programs and activities provided by the Government of Canada.

For more information, please visit: www.canarie.ca.

About ICTAM ICTAM seeks to primarily benefit the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, defined as those companies in, related to, and impacted by the vibrancy of the industry, operating within Manitoba.

ICTAM provides a community for the ICT industry through programs, workshops and events and by connecting people and information. ICTAM strives to provide growth for Manitoba's technology industry by providing an environment where companies can expand their networks, knowledge, skills and ultimately their businesses. We actively advocate on issues affecting the growth and prosperity of ICT firms in Manitoba and continually develop initiatives that strive to support Manitoba's ICT industry.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Ela Ienzi Communications Manager CANARIE Inc.

(613) 943-5432 [email protected] Source: CANARIE Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]