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
YouTube is the second fastest growing brand, says TradingPlatforms.com
According to online education platform for traders TradingPlatforms.com, YouTube is the second fastest growing brand worldwide, with a growth rate of 83 per cent, followed by Google at 79 per cent. French luxury jeweler, Cartier copped the first place.
TradingPlatforms’ financial analyst Edith Muthoni says that Youtube managed to be one of the most popular social media platforms with over two billion active monthly users as it proposes something for everyone, from entertainment to ecommerce. Additionally, YouTube maintained consistent growth by adding new features, including a new messaging feature to allow businesses to connect more easily with consumers and sell directly through their YouTube videos, says Muthoni.
Other notable brands that made it to the Top 10 list of fastest growing brands are Tesla with 78 per cent growth and LinkedIn at 63 per cent.
Amazon Future Engineer Awards University Scholarships to Canadian Students
Amazon has announced the winners of Amazon Future Engineer Awards. Ten graduating high school students from British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan will each receive C$30,000 to help cover university tuition over four years, and the opportunity to complete a paid summer internship at one of Amazon’s Canadian Tech Hubs. Qualifying students need to demonstrate exceptional academic performance, plan to study computer science or a related field, and show financial need.
The complete list of Amazon Future Engineer Canada scholarship winners in 2022 includes:
- Hewan Amare (Stratford District Secondary School, Stratford, ON), studying Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo
- Jadiha Aruleswar (Agincourt Collegiate Institute, Scarborough, ON), studying Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo
- Ayaan Dada (St. Francis Xavier Secondary School, Mississauga, ON), studying Computer Science at the University of Waterloo
- Mairah Hashmi (Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute, Toronto, ON), studying Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo
- Savithru Kannuri (Glenforest Secondary School, Mississauga, ON), studying Life Sciences at the University of Toronto
- Katrina Mei (Ursula Franklin Academy, Toronto, ON), studying Computer Science at Toronto Metropolitan University
- Iftier Rahman (Scarborough Academy for Technological, Environmental and Computer Sciences at W.A. Porter Collegiate Institute, Scarborough, ON), studying Track One Engineering at the University of Toronto
- Sidhant Sidana (David Thompson Secondary, Vancouver, BC), studying Applied Science at the University of British Columbia
- Kaitlyn Wright (Delisle Composite School, Delisle, Saskatchewan), studying Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan
- Leyi (William) Wu (Unionville High School, Markham, ON), studying Computer Science at the University of Toronto
A special one-year, C$7,500 scholarship has also been awarded to Isabella Cotton (Kelowna, BC), who will be pursuing a one-year General Engineering program at Okanagan College.
A video of the 2022 winners learning about their scholarship awards can be viewed here.
Shop local with Locoshop
Locoshop, an independent Canadian online search engine, is encouraging consumers to shop local by showcasing local physical stores and products that are in close proximity to the shopper.
The company says it omits reviews that risk being falsely representative and in turn, redirects shoppers to the original e-commerce website.
“Now that millions of local retailers worldwide have transitioned online, largely due to the pandemic, we thought it made sense to connect them to a common platform and give shoppers an alternative to Amazon that is truly local,” said Dan Facciolo, founder of Locoshop.io.
Stores registered on Google Maps and operating an e-commerce enabled website can register for free to list up to 500 products and perform four updates per month. For unlimited products and updates, stores can upgrade to Locoshop PRO for C$350/year.
IGM collaborates with Microsoft for its cloud computing needs
Winnipeg-based wealth and asset management company, IGM Financial Inc. has announced that it is adopting Microsoft Azure to bolster its cloud computing needs and advance its technology infrastructure.
With this partnership, IGM seeks to enhance its capacity to build and offer new services, digitize back-office operations, develop modernized practices, and reinforce security systems, as it retires from proprietary services. Additionally, the company says that this partnership reinforces its sustainable practices, as Azure Cloud provides energy-efficiencies over traditional data centres.
“IGM and Microsoft have a longstanding relationship, and we are proud to build on that foundation to accelerate their digital transformation journey,” said Chris Barry, President, Microsoft Canada. “By trusting Azure for strategic cloud platform needs, we are helping IGM advance its key business and technology transformation priorities and deliver next-generation digital financial services to Canadians coast-to-coast.”
SmartONE wins KPMG Private Enterprise Tech Innovator in Canada
Markham-based proptech company SmartONE Solutions Inc has been named KPMG Private Enterprise Tech Innovator in Canada.
A panel of judges chose SmartONE from among 35 startups in Canada.
SmartOne connects smart homes within building units to the wider community, allowing residents to perform tasks such as control access to building entrances, view common area cameras, enable EV charging, activate car shares and smart parking, and facilitate package delivery.
The company will now move on to compete at the Global Tech Innovator competition in Lisbon. This competition has now been expanded to include 22 countries across the world.
More to explore
Bell to acquire Distributel, a major independent network service provider
Bell today announced the acquisition of Distributel, one of Canada’s largest independent network service providers.
International Women in Cyber Day advice: Just say ‘yes’
Not long after the pandemic began, Leigh Tynan was asked by a manager to move from her position as Telus’ director of business strategy development to a new post: Leading the team developing Telus Online Security, a software-as-a-service offering to consumers for protecting their internet-connected devices.
What happened with CentOS will not happen with Rocky Linux: Kurtzer
Gregory Kurtzer, who founded and once led the former open-source project CentOS Linux as well as The cAos Foundation, the organization where early development of it took place, said today a governance structure has been put in place that will keep Rocky Linux in the public domain forever.
Open Text to acquire Micro Focus in all-cash US$6 billion deal
Waterloo-based information management company Open Text has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire UK software giant Micro Focus in an all-cash US$6 billion deal.
Canadian Digital Trust & Identity standard and others under review, comments invited
The CIO Strategy Council has announced that it is now inviting comments on the draft second edition of the National Standard of Canada for the fundamentals of digital trust and identity (CAN/CIOSC 103-1: 2020, Digital trust & Identity – Part 1), which specifies minimum requirements and a set of controls for creating and maintaining trust in digital systems and services that assert and/or take in identity and credential data pertaining to people and organizations.
Laurentian Bank partners with Kyndryl for its cloud transformation journey
The Laurentian Bank of Canada and IT infrastructure service provider Kyndryl are launching a new cloud landing zone for the Bank, leveraging cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. With this initiative, it said in a press release, it now benefits from a solid and proven foundation to deploy its multi-cloud environment, which will enable it to offer engaging customer experiences and innovative digital capabilities.
New VMware networking, security offerings targeted at multi-cloud world
VMware Inc. yesterday announced a number of additions to its networking and security portfolio, all of which, the company said, are designed to allow organizations to embrace the cloud operating model.
Bryan Watson – a startup “institution” joins finance firm Venbridge
Venbridge has announced that Bryan Watson, a leading force in the technology start-up financing community, has joined the company as senior vice president of business development.
Longer life for lithium-ion batteries could soon be possible
A group of scientists at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in Gwangju, South Korea say they have developed a “universal method” for improving the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
IRS accidentally leaks financial data; TikTok denies data breach; Amazon shutters two service centres.
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
An alert to energy companies, a warning to Linux administrators and more.
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.