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
Brookfield Asset Management partners with AWS to advance its digital transformation and renewable energy operations
At AWS re:Invent 2022, Canadian investment management company Brookfield Asset Management announced that it has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its cloud provider. In return, the company’s subsidiary Brookfield Renewable will provide 601.6 megawatts (MW) of clean wind and solar energy capacity to power Amazon’s operations on three continents.
Brookfield has migrated its legacy systems to AWS, and will use AWS’s analytics, containers, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and storage capabilities, as well as the AWS partner network, to modernize operations and further innovation.
The partnership with Brookfield Renewable will help accelerate Amazon’s commitment to power its operations with 100 per cent clean energy by 2030. Seven Amazon projects—three in the United States (in Arkansas, Illinois, and Mississippi), three in Europe (in Spain, Northern Ireland, and Italy), and one of Amazon’s first projects in India will benefit from this power purchase agreement. These projects are expected to generate 1,370 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which is sufficient to power more than 120,000 U.S. homes per year.
AWS announces Conversational AI Competency program
At re:Invent 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the AWS Conversational AI Competency program to help businesses implement advanced AI-powered chatbot, virtual assistant and IVR (interactive voice response) solutions, designed to improve user satisfaction and cut operational costs.
AWS Conversational AI Competency Partners seek to support customers in selecting use cases and defining Natural Language Understanding (NLU) intents and training phrases, designing conversational flows, integrating backend services and more.
The initial partners include Accenture, Cation Consulting, Cognigy, Deloitte, NeuraFlash, NLX, Quantiphi, ServisBOT, TensorIoT, VoiceFoundry, and XAPP AI.
AWS Conversational AI Competency will launch in Q1 2023.
HCLTech expands foothold in Canada through IT apprenticeship program and delivery centres
India-based information technology company, HCL Technologies is aiming to develop and retain talent in Canada through its new IT apprenticeship program. Said Joelien Jose, executive vice president (EVP) of HCLTech Canada, the company “believes in creating talent, rather than buying talent off the market.”
With this program, applicants with a high school education and no formal college degree take on paid training, focusing on areas such as software development, testing, cloud computing and more. Participants can also benefit from HCLTech’s tuition assistance program to support their further education.
HCLTech Canada experienced 15 per cent growth year-on-year for its Q2 2023 earnings results and has managed to grow its workforce from 800 in early 2020 to 2600 today, Jose stated.
Additionally, the company has added more delivery innovation centers across New Brunswick, and in Mississauga ON, Edmonton AB, and Vancouver B.C., which Jose explained is “testament that to the fact that we are growing and we have the headcount growth to support that momentum as well.”
Sage launches Sage for Accountants
Accounting software provider Sage has launched Sage for Accountants, designed to improve business flow, profit and client value.
“This launch signifies the start of our journey towards a renewed focus on ensuring that our accountant and bookkeeping partners thrive in this ever more digital world,” said Karen Ainley, head of accountant business unit. “Our global mission with Sage for Accountants is to equip this profession with tools that support them, from client on-boarding to client advice, to drive efficiency and success throughout their practice.”
Sage for Accountants includes the following (all currently available only in English):
- GoProposal by Sage – Propose, price, and produce automated engagement letters that can be exchanged and signed electronically.
- AutoEntry by Sage – Submit documents using automated data entry without user intervention
- Futrli by Sage (coming soon) – Deliver short, medium and long term performance and cash flow metrics to generate an instant three-way budget that can be tracked against actual performance/forecasts
- Sage Intacct – cloud financial software automating tedious accounting processes
Sage for Accountants will also provide businesses partnering with Sage access to an array of tools and resources. Sage for Accountants will be rolled out to current partners in 2023.
Nautilus to provide water-cooled data centres in France and the US
California-based Nautilus Data Technologies, provider of water-cooled sustainable data centers, announced today that it has signed leases for two new locations in Marseille, France and Los Angeles, California. Each location will accommodate a 7.5-megawatt data center facility with power agreements and water assessments already in place.
Nautilus’ cooling technology consumes no water and operates using 30 per cent less power than average data centers, the company says.
Moreover, the new locations are optimal as they are situated in major telecommunications hubs, power grids and a temperate climate.
“The addition of these two new locations to our portfolio reinforces our commitment to setting new, and higher, standards for performance, efficiency, sustainability, and global scalability,” said CEO of Nautilus, Rob Pfleging. “We’re all about speed to market while reducing environmental impact.”
More to explore
Software supply chain attacks will increase in 2023: Report
Attacks on open-source and commercial software will continue to rise in 2023, says a new security vendor report on the software supply chain.
AWS announces ‘water positive’ pledge and global water replenishment programs
At re:Invent 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that it will be water positive by 2030, committing to return more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations, and also to report annually on its water use efficiency (WUE).
Accenture and AWS deepen years long partnership at re:Invent 2022
Last week at Re:Invent 2022, IT (information technology) services and consulting company Accenture launched Velocity, a jointly funded and co-developed platform with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Legal minds explore risks associated with technology contracts
The signing of a long-term technology agreement is certainly common enough, but according to a group of lawyers with Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, there is a myriad of legal implications that need to be considered once the physical outsourcing and procurement takes place.
New Aptum study explores how best to combat unforeseen cloud costs
Hybrid multi-cloud managed service provider Aptum this week released Part Three of its annual Cloud Impact Study 2022, with the main takeaway being that cloud computing has resulted in higher-than-expected costs for 73 per cent of IT decision makers surveyed.
Government of Canada announces investment in three Waterloo Region tech businesses
Today, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced an investment of more than $10 million in three Kitchener-Waterloo tech companies.
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.
AWS re:Invent 2022: Data and Machine Learning
On the second day of Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent, Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of AWS Data and Machine Learning (ML) revealed the latest innovations during his keynote.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Hashtag Trending Dec 6 – TSA facial recognition system; Adobe to sell AI made stock images; Darknet markets
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
Cyber Security Today, Dec. 5, 2022 – Another data-wiper has been found, the open source Fosshost service is closing, 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.