Coffee Briefings deliver our entire audience – the IT administrators and channel partners as well as the C-Suite – the most complete news package with the latest headlines, interviews, and social media chatter. These briefings drop on Tuesday and Friday mornings. If you missed the last briefing, you’re in luck, because you can find it here. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by ITWC editorial director Alex Coop.
What you need to know right now
It’s what you need to know right now in the world of IT and tech – ’nuff said. (Often taken with a side of Hashtag Trending)
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Hyundai scoops up Boston Dynamics, Airbnb makes a huge splash after it opens for trading; and Facebook’s in trouble for tying the use of the Oculus to Facebook accounts. Read the episode transcript here.
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Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
A hacking warning to schools from the FBI, email security controversy and France fines Amazon and Google. Read the episode transcript here.
Psst … do you live in Quebec, or speak French, and want to read tech coverage in the French language? Our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered.
In case you missed it [Technicity GTA recap]
Did you miss our Technicity GTA event? Fear not, we’ve got you covered.
Technicity GTA had a number of expert panellists discuss important topics about the public sector’s digital transformation efforts:
- Technicity GTA 2020: Finding common ground – how to best manage public-private partnerships
- Technicity GTA 2020: Experts say public sector needs ‘thoughtful reflection’ about the data it collects
- Technicity GTA 2020: Stop worrying if remote workers are working and focus on creating a healthier experience, says Microsoft
- Technicity GTA 2020: Residents are seeing the benefits of open data, experts say
Our Leading the Charge videos showcase four unique case studies involving digital transformation within four different municipalities:
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In case you missed it [General IT news]
The recent tech news that we maybe didn’t get to yet, or it’s the news we’ve reported on and feel is worth resurfacing. Sometimes we’ll also feature awesome stories from other publications.
Dreamforce announcements
Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack wasn’t the only big news to come out of the company’s Dreamforce event:
- Salesforce Hyperforce, a redesigned platform architecture to deliver Salesforce solutions securely and reliably on major public clouds. Salesforce says businesses will be able access the platform from anywhere while leveraging the scale and agility of public cloud (News release)
- Einstein Automate, an end-to-end intelligent workflow solution bringing together Salesforce, MuleSoft, Tableau, AppExchange, Einstein and more to automate everyday processes. (News release)
- Service Cloud Workforce Engagement, a new workforce engagement product that uses AI to help service leaders in the contact centre industry predict customer demand, enabling companies to staff the right agents with the right skills at the right time. Salesforce says it’s entering the workforce management market for the first time to help contact centres meet increasingly complex demands in the service industry. (News release)
ICYMI – IT World Canada
Annual total losses from cybercrime including downtime almost $1 trillion, says report [Full story]
Cybercrime continues to be an increasingly lucrative business for criminals and nation-states, according to a survey by McAfee.
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Move these 7 workloads to the public cloud now [Full blog post]
Cloud adoption will continue to accelerate to support an increasingly remote workforce. In a post-pandemic world, there is opportunity to move key workloads to the cloud for the benefits it offers today and to prepare for the next unforeseen disruption. Here are seven key workloads that organizations should prioritize moving to the cloud now.
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On Tuesday, Cisco’s Jeetu Patel didn’t waver from a statement he made back in August about the big changes coming to the Webex platform and its mission to make virtual interactions 10 times better than in-person experiences.
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Canada doesn’t have a ‘Huawei problem’, says report, it has a 5G strategy problem [Full story]
For several years the Canadian telecommunications sector has been caught in what some call the “Huawei problem,” a set of controversies over whether Ottawa should allow telcos to buy 5G wireless equipment from the Chinese manufacturer amid allegations that it owes allegiance to Beijing.
ICYMI – IT Business Canada
From events to e-vents: Why there’s no turning back from the virtual events environment [Full story]
A digital marketing expert with three decades of experience in leadership roles across marketing, customer experience, IT and sales, IDC’s Laurie Buczek joined ITWC President Fawn Annan in December 2020 for an installment of CMO Talks, a podcast series presented by ITWC and IDC to address pressing marketing challenges. The discussion focused on why there’s no looking back when it comes to virtual events.
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COVID-19 has caused major changes to payments preferences and spending habits of Canadians with most of them continuing to maintain a digital-first mindset, according to several new reports.
ICYMI – Channel Daily News
Platinum Equity is acquiring Ingram Micro in a transaction valued at $7.2 billion [Full story]
American private equity investment firm Platinum Equity this week announced that it’s acquiring HNA Group’s Ingram Micro in a $7.2 billion deal.
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Equinix to expand Equinix Fabric into five additional Canadian markets by 2021 [Full story]
Equinix announced Dec. 8 that it will be launching Equinix Fabric services in five new markets in Canada in the coming year.
Bookmarks of the week
A few bookmarked tweets that we think are worth sharing with you.
The #CCPA is the California Consumer Privacy Act. Find out what your company needs to do for compliance. #CyberAware #PrivacyAware https://t.co/jjSBzSbz1e
— Cat Coode (@BinaryTat) December 10, 2020
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MSI Chinese mainland factory was stolen, stolen 40 boxes RTX3090, the total value of 2200000RMB ……😓
MSI has been officially announced and informed to the police ,Reward of 100000 RMB for reporting effective information. pic.twitter.com/JWw8hOMioG— 夕惕若厉 (@GoFlying8) December 7, 2020
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The r/MSP recap
The MSP subreddit community is growing rapidly. It’s also a chatty bunch. With more than 85,000 members as of today, it’s worth taking a look at what they have to say every once in a while. Here are the recent top posts. Click on the posts to view additional responses.
Helping a MSP decide to re-hire, or fire, their salesperson. Lessons to learn from a recent experience. from msp
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Any 4-6 man MSP’s? from msp
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