Michael MacMillan

Posing as the industry

What was once viewed as an IT dinosaur may owe part of its ongoing revival to an IBM mainframe known, ironically, as T-Rex. And in Canada, that revival has started in the old dinosaur stomping grounds of Alberta.

Many of the standards are still being ironed out, and customers may not be taking full advantage...

What was once viewed as an IT dinosaur may owe part of its ongoing revival to an IBM mainframe known, ironically, as T-Rex. And in Canada, that revival has started in the old dinosaur stomping grounds of Alberta.

Servers and PCs are the bread and milk of the IT household. Even in slow times, they're going to be bought in relatively big numbers. Their sales numbers often act as a bellwether for the entire industry.

It should be clear to all Canadians by now that in the twenty-first century, local problems can get very big, very fast.

Many of the standards are still being ironed out, and customers may not be taking full advantage of the technology, but experts say Web services is nonetheless becoming a quiet but important players in the IT scene.

Officials at Comdex Canada recently announced that the show they originally planned for September will be delayed until March. For the first time in a decade, the Canadian IT scene will see four seasons pass without its largest annual gathering.