Last week, CENGN took part in CANARIE Summit, which was hosted our long-time partner CANARIE, at the Hôtel Omni Mont-Royal in Montreal. This year, the CANARIE Summit focused its theme on cyber security, its importance and its future. Attendees had the chance to explore all the different angles of cyber security and challenge their beliefs on hackers and security frameworks as a whole through multiple panels over the two-day summit.

With panels on black hat and white hat hackers, quantum cyber threats, security resilience and more, CANARIE ensured that everyone who had the chance to attend came away armed with new knowledge. CANARIE also encouraging attendees to engage with other members of the ICT industry to learn from one another, which could lead to new collaborations and innovations within the field.

CENGN was pleased to sponsor such an innovative event. With how rapidly network technology is advancing, it is easy to recognize that security must advance right alongside it. The innovations driving our country forward are primarily data driven, and it is important to keep that data safe. New solutions or technologies simply will not be able to make the greatest impact possible if it leaves its adopter vulnerable to breaches and attacks. The importance of knowing about what is going on within the field of cyber security truly highlights what made CANARIE Summit an essential event to attend.

Canada’s future is directly tied to advancements in network technology, which is in turn connected to new innovations in cyber security. For example, connected vehicles are an innovation that demonstrates how far our technology has come in network connectivity. However, security measures will be required for proper implementation of these vehicles to ensure safety on the road. Security is a requirement if Canada wants to further raise its ICT profile and bring about many new technology innovations.

CANARIE supports new innovations through connecting researchers, educators and innovators to new data, technology and partnerships through their ultra-high-speed network. They also promote reusable research tools to accelerate discovery through funding and the DAIR program. CANARIE’s DAIR Cloud program gives businesses access to their cloud in a self-service style. The DAIR Cloud is offered to encourage Canadians to reap the benefits of cloud technology, such as scale, speed and agility, in order to accelerate their software development, engineering processes and commercialization. Their core purpose “Advancement of Canada’s knowledge and innovation infrastructure,” aligns with CENGN’s mission to drive technology innovation and industry growth through the CENGN test bed, technical expertise, talent development, and partner ecosystem.

CENGN’s vision is to advance global technology in order to benefit all Canadians, and we do that by helping innovative Canadian businesses commercialize their solutions through CENGN projects. These projects give growing Canadian companies access to our infrastructure services, in order for them to validate the functionality and scalability of their products and confidently enter the marketplace.

However, while the CENGN testbed is safe and secure, not all infrastructures are. CENGN has anticipated the need for enhanced cyber security solutions in the ICT sector, which is why network security is one of our specialties.

Our security projects focus in a wide variety of areas, like the advancements of virtualized security functions, or improving security algorithms for network links, both of which keep networks and software safe from attacks. There are also projects focused on new multi-factor authentication methods, which are aimed towards keeping networks and devices safe from unauthorized users, as well as projects geared towards building secure virtual environments, which provide a safe space for network assets. The ultimate goal is commercial success for these Canadian innovative companies and security solutions that work with the advancing technology of today and tomorrow.

Through their Summit, CANARIE has brought members from all over the ICT sector together to expand their knowledge on cyber security and form new connections that will lead to a brighter future with safer and more secure technologies. Without events like these, it would be far more difficult to successfully introduce brand new solution that are safe and secure.

For this reason, CENGN was honoured to have the opportunity to sponsor such an innovative and important event. In order to help build a better future, we need to be able to collaborate and support the businesses that will drive Canada forward.

Now it is our turn to host the networking community.  Join us November 13^th for this year’s CENGN Summit! We will be focusing on technologies that are set to revolutionize the ICT industry, and the ecosystem that collaborates to bring those innovations forward.

About the Author

CENGN, Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, drives technology innovation and industry growth through our testbed, technical expertise, talent development, and partner ecosystem. Through our projects, CENGN enables small and medium Canadian Enterprises to test and validate promising technologies, removing barriers to product commercialization and accelerating market growth.

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