Guest blog post by Cybera, a not-for-profit technical agency helping Alberta push the boundaries of IT.Cybera provides a wide range of IT resources for startups and entrepreneurs. Discover more about their new high-speed research network below:
Calgary’s startup and entrepreneur community members now have access to network speeds of up to 1 Gbps, opening up new possibilities for innovation.
Cybera, Alberta’s neutral nonprofit tech agency, has connected several of Calgary’s incubators and maker spaces—including Assembly, Accelerator YYC, Innovate Calgary, and Protospace—to its high-speed research network, CyberaNet.
Along with ultra-fast broadband internet, the network links universities and think tanks across Canada and internationally, including the Smithsonian and NASA.
Through a one-year pilot project, CyberaNet is now available to Alberta’s innovators and creators. The goal: enable the next wave of bandwidth-intensive applications. In Kansas City, similar access to a broadband network through the Google Fiber project has led to projects like:
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- Kinect Health – a virtual fitness studio
- Optimizing public transit – using real-time dynamic scheduling for public transportation
- Software Lending Library – on-demand access to cutting-edge software for rent through the public library
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In Alberta, Dissolve was among the first companies to fully leverage this advanced network connection. Renting a desk at AcceleratorYYC, they use the connection to upload HD video content to their servers—amounting to terabytes of data each week. On a typical business connection, this would quickly trigger a call from their ISP.
With virtually unlimited bandwidth, inventors and entrepreneurs are encouraged to experiment, test, and develop new ideas that require heavy network usage. This could include cloud-based media file transfers and processing, big data storage, or even high-volume upload and download operations.
If you have questions about CyberaNet or how to get on it, please feel free to contact David Chan ([email protected]).
