Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. These briefings drop on Tuesday mornings. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada reporter Pragya Sehgal, with files from editorial director Alex Coop. Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We got you covered.
ITWC Podcasts
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
A lawsuit against Google gets class-action status, Iran bans crypto mining after rolling blackouts, and unredacted documents show Google made it hard to keep location data private.
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
Canadians still fall for Windows support scams, new Nobelium attacks and another warning to Pulse Secure VPN users.
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.
In case you missed it
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.
Apple, Microsoft and Google are the most trusted of all “big tech” companies among Canadians when it comes to biometric data – survey
According to a recent survey of more than 1,000 Canadians from Gartner’s GetApp, 26 per cent of respondents say they “highly trust” Apple to properly use and safeguard biometric data. This level of trust is greater than that placed in government agencies, which only 21 per cent of respondents said they trust highly.Overall, 65 per cent say private companies’ use of biometric data should be regulated by law, while one-third of people surveyed don’t trust tech companies at all with their biometric data. [Full survey results here]
University of Ottawa launches cloud expert training program with FX Innovation and CENGN
Last week, The University of Ottawa announced it has partnered with Quebec-based IT company, FX Innovation, and Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), to launch CloudCampus, a cloud expert training program designed to develop and requalify the tech workforce in Canada and solidify Canada’s economic recovery and success. According to Peter Heath, senior manager of training programs at CENGN, who broke down the announcement on May 27, the program that has been developed for the first cohort includes three modules. The first one is a personalized introduction to cloud to make sure that all of the participants have the basics. The second module is Docker and Kubernetes, which are the two key tools in the containerization ecosystem. Lastly, the third module is infrastructure as code (IaC) which will dive into a number of tools that sit behind virtualized infrastructure on the cloud.
15 cybersecurity experts to serve on CompTIA ISAO’s inaugural MSP Champions Council
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce, has selected 15 cybersecurity experts to serve on the inaugural MSP Champions Council of CompTIA Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO).
CompTIA ISAO is a threat intelligence and actionable analysis tool specifically tailored to meet the needs of technology vendors, MSPs, solution providers, integrators, distributors, business technology consultants, and their customers. Selected from leading organizations across the information technology (IT) industry and its community of managed services providers (MSPs), the organization said these members will provide their expertise and ideas to guide the CompTIA ISAO. [Details of all the members can be found here]
Canadian tech company receives just over CA$66 million to improve digital accessibility for differently-abled people
Last week, global investment firm KKR announced an investment of over CA$66 million in Canada-based eSSENTIAL Accessibility (eA), the provider of Accessibility-as-a-Service platform that ensures organizations’ digital properties are accessible for people with disabilities. As deadlines loom for organizations to confirm their digital properties are compliant with global, national, and provincial regulations, such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), eA says its platform addresses the urgent demand for a comprehensive, sustainable solution. Businesses with at least one Ontario employee, and 50+ employees total, have until June 30, 2021, to ensure their online presence meets AODA standards. [More on AODA and the deadline here]
ICYMI – IT World Canada
The CRTC scrapped cheaper internet costs, so what should Canadians know? [Full story]
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recently struck down its wholesale pricing set in 2019 that would have reduced the cost of borrowing networks for smaller ISPs, which set off waves of exasperation among independent internet service providers (ISPs) and worries of bias in the CRTC’s leadership.
Microsoft Build announcements at a glance: Azure, Power platform get major updates [Full story]
At the conference, Microsoft made more than 100 announcements, including new features and functions aimed at providing that help to developers.
The chief executive officer and founder of cloud service provider ThinkOn, together with other IT channel partners, has launched a digital marketplace for the federal government. More than a year in the making, GCloud.ca by ThinkOn launched May 26 and is already waiting to enlist dozens of software vendors that have expressed interest in the portal.
ICYMI – IT Business Canada
B.C. government extends PNP Tech Pilot indefinitely, renames it to BC PNP Tech [Full story]
The British Columbia government recently announced that the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) Tech Pilot, originally set to expire at the end of June 2021, has been made permanent and renamed to B.C. PNP Tech.
Canadians want action on privacy, harmful internet content: CIRA poll [Full story]
A majority of Canadians surveyed want governments to get tougher on harmful content on social media platforms and increase the powers of the federal Privacy Commissioner to help safeguard personal information.
All the Teams updates announced at Microsoft Build 2021 [Full story]
Microsoft Teams is getting updates – a lot of updates. At its Microsoft Build 2021 digital event this week, the company unveiled new features, a new portal for developers, and new subscription purchase experiences, and much more.
ICYMI – Channel Daily News
D&H came out of 2020 ‘virtually unscathed’ and is ‘bullish’ about the future, exec says [Full story]
“We’re going after the professional services side of the business,” Tom Guagliardi, the company’s vice-president of sales and vendor management for the Canadian business, D&H, told Channel Daily News, adding that includes cloud, integration and managed services. “We’re in a growth mode.”
Commvault expands SaaS portfolio to include Metallic Backup for Microsoft Dynamics 365 [Full story]
Commvault is expanding its Metallic software as a service (SaaS) portfolio and introducing a new unified intelligent data services platform. The new enterprise-grade SaaS data management offerings will include Metallic Backup for Microsoft Dynamics 365, giving customers support for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft Azure.
Sage launches its first Sage Intacct data centre in Canada [Full story]
The cloud business management solutions vendor Sage announced it has launched its first Canadian Sage Intacct data centre to cater to the increasing demand for cloud accounting solutions that meet Canadian data sovereignty law.
Bookmarked tweets
incoming…
more unsealed docs, this time in the Google case led by Arizona Attorney General.
The newly unsealed material is underlined in green unsealed this week (left). Last year, Google proactively unsealed less risky material (right) when Judge first ruled. /1 pic.twitter.com/EQe3UxFxh9— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) May 28, 2021
