Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!
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What’s new this week
HP to acquire Poly for US$3.3 billion
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
