President's Message
As the new president, I’ve been at the helm for just over two months now. It’s been a fascinating time as I get to know the people and projects that make up Cybera. There is such a diversity of talents and such a range of scope that I am repeatedly adjusting the model I’m building to better reflect the capabilities of the organization. The one constant however, is potential. Potential to do even more. Potential to be a real enabler for our partners in academia. Potential to drive development for our industrial partners. Most exciting of all, the potential to expand our service offerings through cloud computing and virtualization to reach a much larger group of Albertans and have a significant impact on innovation in this province. In this newsletter, you’ll read about projects underway and some new initiatives just getting started. With the exponential growth rate of new technologies that touch our daily lives, expect Cybera to be at the leading edge, helping our partners derive the maximum benefit for the good of us all.
CyberaNet Link Offers Unique Opportunity for Athabasca U
Astronomy and Astrophysics researchers at Athabasca University’s (AU) observatory can now transfer high-volume research data twice as efficiently, thanks to a new direct connection to CyberaNet, the high-speed, high-bandwidth gateway to Canada’s national research network, CANARIE. Upgrading from a commercial internet connection, this new direct link to the research network positions AU as one of the few university observatories in Canada that can capture ground-based imagery from a relatively dark location and transmit it over a high bandwidth connection like CyberaNet. The upgrade took place on March 8. More details about the benefits the CyberaNet connection will bring to AU's entire research community will be available in a press release next week.
GeoCENS Hosts Workshop to Demo Network-Enabled Platform Prototype
On February 16, the Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Sensing (GeoCENS) project hosted representatives from the City of Calgary, Alberta Environment, the Alberta WaterPortal community, Parks Canada and the University of Calgary for a demo and discussion of the project’s CANARIE-funded Network-Enabled Platform. Managed by Cybera, the GeoCENS project provides a user-driven and intuitive 3D virtual globe portal for biogeoscience researchers to share distributed sensors and their data. A prototype of this interactive online portal, which is anticipated to launch in the fall, will allow researchers to remotely access and control historical and real-time data from Alberta, and eventually from around the world. This multi-dimensional interface will allow scientists to build focused, collaborative networks to which they can publish new biogeological datasets, and make their research searchable and accessible to their global network of colleagues. Attendees to the GeoCENS workshop provided a diverse array of feedback, including how they would like the project to address data storage, data sharing, data analysis, sensors, and instrumentation. The workshop hosts included the Biogeosciences Institute, University of Calgary; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary; GeoSensor Web Lab, University of Calgary; University of Saskatchewan & IP3 Network; and Cybera.
OPEN BSD CONNECTION TO CYBERANET “A HUGE WIN”
Open BSD, the free, multi-platform computer operating system best known for its integrated security features, has connected to CyberaNet, the high-speed network operated by Cybera. Bob Beck, a long-time Open BSD developer and Director of the Open BSD Foundation described the CyberaNet connection as “a huge win for us.”
“It is hard for research-oriented organizations to work globally without some organization helping us to get the network connectivity in place,” said Beck. “Keeping our own infrastructure secure is the biggest and most important step in distributing software that is secure. The Cybera connection ensures that this can be done.”
Cybera is a non-profit organization that accelerates Albertan’s competitive advantage in research and development. It operates CyberaNet as a high-speed, high-bandwidth gateway to advanced networks around the world. CyberaNet’s fast, low-latency connectivity provides a significant advantage to the open source community, said Beck, as Open BSD can now distribute items such as software releases with greater speed and efficiency than previously possible. The infrastructure provided by CyberaNet also means that Open BSD does not have to compromise their security to provide the degree of connectivity necessary for global open-source collaboration. While shared data centres can provide the network requirements for many Canadian businesses, the high level of security that has benchmarked the Open BSD platform necessitates an independent network connection. Cybera Network Manager Jean-Francois Amiot said CyberaNet provides a means to strengthen the capacity for globally distributed teams to collaborate.
“The Cybera network enables researchers to exchange ideas, whether through video conferencing or other collaboration tools such as software repositories and files sharing,” said Amiot. “Collaboration is one of Cybera's core competencies, and the Open BSD connection demonstrates the value of CyberaNet.”
Open BSD developers from around the world experienced CyberaNet’s extra bandwidth capacity first-hand at the N2K10 Open BSD Network Developers Conference in January 2010, hosted by the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) in Melbourne, AUS. Beck was impressed by the difference the new connection made in their on-site performance at the conference.
“It was rather obvious that the connectivity was vastly improved over past events outside of Canada, " said Beck.
Overall, the partnership with Cybera has enabled Open BSD to use a made-in-Alberta solution to address the challenges of operating a globally-distributed service using secure, seamless networking.
“Open BSD is based in Alberta, and sustained by developers all over the world. It is imperative that we are able to do this type of work in Canada, and organizations like Cybera make that possible,” said Beck.
For background information and media contacts, please refer to the full press release.
CESWP Successful in Virtualizing CSSDP
The Canadian Space Science Data Portal (CSSDP) became virtualized on February 25, achieving the first project milestone for the Cloud Enabled Space Weather Platform (CESWP), of which Cybera is the project lead. CESWP enables space physicists to share, run, and collaborate on modeling and simulations through a compute cloud that hosts the virtual platform for CSSDP. CSSDP hosts a wide range of space data, observations, and provides investigative tools that space scientists around the world will rely on for their research. To bring the CSSDP server to the cloud, developers in Calgary and Edmonton built three high fidelity copies of the CSSDP production system using virtual machines. While users will experience no difference in the operation of the virtualized CSSDP, operating in the cloud will greatly simplify IT management and has increased the portal’s capacity for virtual testing and disaster recovery. Virtualization will also provide space scientists with a user interface that removes the need to purchase and maintain complex and expensive hardware.
“As we continue to talk to the CESWP Virtual Organization, our understanding of the project becomes more refined and takes us closer to an understanding of what virtualization is good for, both in terms of this project and future virtualized systems,” said CESWP Senior Software Developer Barton Satchwill.
Earlier in the year, the CESWP VO held its inaugurate meeting and received member feedback that provided important clarifications and insights about the scope of the project. Dr. Robert Rankin, University of Alberta physics professor and Principal Investigator of both the CSSDP and CESWP projects, explained that the goal of the CESWP project is not the creation of a global repository of models, but rather to provide a workbench environment (ie. a set of tools and services) to allow researchers to move their models into the cloud; to run instances of them there as part of their research; and to work collaboratively on models with small teams of other researchers. This approach will help the project to succeed by keeping the scope manageable while still providing useful tools to the community.
To follow developments on the CESWP project, visit the Project Blog or follow CESWP on Twitter.
Cybera Expands International Presence, Joins OGF Board
Jill Kowalchuk, Cybera Vice President Project and Partnership Development, has been elected as an At-Large Board Member of the Open Grid Forum (OGF). The OGF is is a community of users, developers, and vendors -- representing over 400 organizations in more than 50 countries -- leading the global standardization effort for grid computing. Last year, OGF joined Cybera, CANARIE and IEEE to co-host of Summit 09 in Banff. Cybera looks forward to building its international relationship with the OGF community.
Alberta Innovates Announces Voucher Recipients
Alberta Innovates has announced the recipients of 204 Innovation vouchers in 33 communities across the province. This roughly $6 million dollar provincial investment will assist businesses in emerging growth sectors such as clean technology, health, and information communication technology (ICT) to partner with innovation support service providers such as Cybera. The specialized expertise and infrastructure provided by Cybera and others will help advance recipient’s ideas to the marketplace. Cybera anticipates partnering on a number of these projects this year. For more information about the Alberta Innovation vouchers, click here.
Senior Cybera Staff to Present at BCNET/CANARIE Conference
On May 4 and 5, Cybera President and CEO Robin Winsor and Chief Technology Officer Patrick Mann will attend the BCNET/CANARIE Conference 2010 to present on Cybera pilot projects for an audience of researchers, academics, and industry leaders. The conference's theme, New Ideas for Shared Solutions, will explore innovative ideas for sharing technology services to solve common problems. The Cybera presentation will reflect on lessons learned through its pilot project initiatives, and the future direction of these projects. Of significant emphasis will be the four CANARIE-funded Network-Enabled Platforms (NEP) projects: CESWP; CSSDP; GeoChronos; and GeoCENS. With more than 400 attendees expected to participate, BCNET/CANARIE Conference 2010 creates an excellent opportunity for organizations like Cybera to network with academic and industry experts in the areas of information and communications technology (ICT) and cloud computing.
Cybera Open Houses Recap
Cybera's series of Open Houses in Lethbridge, Calgary, and Edmonton presented the perfect opportunity for researchers, academics, and industry leaders to meet Cybera’s new President and CEO Robin Winsor. A total of 135 participants attended these lunch hour engagements during which Winsor discussed his experiences in successful technology commercialization, namely as the inventor of the world’s first direct digital x-ray system and founder of Imaging Dynamics, which commercialized the technology in 1991. Winsor also spoke about the speed of technology development and how today's innovations are happening in months or a year as opposed to multiple years or generations. In his new role as Cybera's President, Robin will be investigating ways to build more industry partnerships as well as enable greater access to cyberinfrastructure for all Albertans. To view photos of the Open Houses, click here. If you missed the Open Houses and would like to meet with Winsor, please contact us.
Upcoming Events
The Leading Edge of Commercialization: Taking Products from Conception to Profitability
Date: March 17, 2010
Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm Cocktails
Location: Club Paradisio, 1413 9th Ave. SE, Calgary, AB
Speaker: Robin Winsor, Cybera President and CEO
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International Marketing Conference
March 16 - 17, 2010
Carriage House Inn, Calgary, AB
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The Leading Edge of Alberta's Oil Sands
April 27, 2010
5:00pm – 9:00pm
Hotel Arts, 119 - 12th Ave SW, Calgary, AB
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NAIT Innovation Series - Building Business Models that Work
March 25, 2010
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
NAIT - Room W202, HP Centre, Edmonton, AB
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BCNET 2010 Conference
May 4 - 5, 2010
SFU Harbour Centre
Vancouver, BC
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