Authors: Jean-François Amiot, Byron Chu, Neil Stewart Beyond Firewall-as-a-Service The concept for the K-12 Firewall as a Service pilot is simple: leverage Cybera’s existing cloud resource, the Rapid Access Cloud, to provide a virtualized security solution for schools. These institutions are looking for an alternative to the individual security appliances employed by the majority of K-12 […]
Cloud-Based Security Services Read More »
Introduction In the last installment of this series, I demonstrated how to use Terraform and the Rapid Access Cloud to create a multi-tier virtual network environment. In this part, I’ll show how Virtual Routers can be used to extend that environment. Virtual Routers In the last blog post, we created a virtual machine that was
Using Terraform Part 6: Virtual Routers Read More »
Introduction The previous blog posts in this series focused on creating “compute”-based resources in Cybera’s Rapid Access Cloud — that is, services focused around virtual machines. The Rapid Access Cloud recently implemented OpenStack Neutron, which provides virtual networking services. Let’s see how Terraform can take advantage of these new services. Virtual Networks and Subnets Just
Using Terraform Part 5: Virtual Networks Read More »
As other blog posts on our site have mentioned, IPv4 addresses are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. To make the situation more difficult, most communications on the internet is done through IPv4. Cybera’s Rapid Access Cloud provides each project with one public IPv4 address, known as a “Floating IP”. We call them this because they’re
Port Forwarding with gobetween Read More »
Having joined Cybera a year ago, I got to attend my first ever OpenStack Summit last month, in Boston. I was really impressed by how large the OpenStack community is, and how many projects are a part of it! There were more than 5,000 attendees (from 1,000 companies and 63 countries) at the Summit, who
OpenStack Summit 2017: Lessons learned on Barbican, Kuryr and Vitrage Read More »
BCNet’s 2017 opening keynote speaker, cybersecurity expert Robert Herjavec (yes, the guy from Dragons Den and Shark Tank) proposed that the internet has evolved to become as necessary as electricity. He put it more eloquently than this, but essentially, he believes that the internet will soon be everywhere on earth and connected to everything, to
Is internet as vital as electricity? Read More »
The global shortage of IPv4 addresses got a bit of a reprieve last month, when MIT announced it would be selling 8 million of the IPv4 addresses it had been sitting on. These were quickly purchased by major tech companies (such as Amazon), who are rumoured to have spent tens of millions of dollars on
Why switch to IPv6? So you can get free internet! Read More »
Twenty years ago, the first Internet Exchange (IX) was set up in Canada (in Toronto). It was soon followed by a second, in Ottawa. Today, Canada has eight IX’s, including two here in Alberta – the YEGIX in Edmonton, and the YYCIX in Calgary. Why this explosion of exchange points? Because Canadians are tired of
Calgary’s Paper Interactive, Inc. offers a good lesson for startups on the benefits of staying open to new ideas. The company behind ContractClub (a cloud-based contract management and digital signature platform) actually began as a group of engineering students looking to solve a common issue for wind-powered generator companies: accurately mapping wind. I know what
Today’s startups need to stay nimble: how technology can help Read More »
The story behind the Cyber Summit 2017 theme “The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed” is a quote by William Gibson, a writer who has explored the effects of technology, cybernetics and computer networks on humans. The visionaries within the Prairies’ Research and Education Networks work behind the scenes to connect
The future is already here: It’s just not very evenly distributed Read More »
By Andrew Klaus, former security advisor, Cybera In part two, I explained how to create the repository for configuration management, and deploy infrastructure to support the OpenConext platform. In this part, I’ll be covering how to prepare the Ansible environment, install OpenConext, and test if the installation was successful. Prerequisites Ansible and other dependencies need
OpenConext Deployment: Part #3 Read More »
By Andrew Klaus, former security advisor, Cybera In part one, I talked about what myUnifiED is and the various tools Cybera has used to deploy it. In this post, I’ll be covering how to create the repository for configuration management, and deploy infrastructure to support the OpenConext platform. To keep things simple, I’ll only create
OpenConext Deployment: Part #2 Read More »
By Andrew Klaus, former security advisor, Cybera Cybera is working on a two year pilot to create an Identity Federation for K-12 schools in Alberta, called myUnifiED. This Identity Federation will use OpenConext, an open source hub and spoke federation platform, as the technical solution. In this three part blog series, I will detail the
OpenConext Deployment: Part #1 Read More »
Griping about a slow internet connection has become the unofficial pastime of rural Canadians. But a recent CRTC decision may improve this state of affairs. In December 2016, the commission ruled that residential fixed broadband and mobile broadband internet access are basic telecommunications services—equal in importance to the landline telephone of the 20th century. The
Lessons learned from the Cyber Summit 2016: Using Technology Responsibly In an increasingly interconnected world, how can people maintain some semblance of privacy while preventing their devices from being hacked? More importantly, are we doing enough to ensure the generations to come have the tools they need to navigate an increasingly interconnected and automated world?
Using Technology Responsibly Read More »
With the introduction of the OpenStack DNS service (designate) to the Rapid Access Cloud, users are now able to host and manage DNS zones and records, to assist with accessing and managing their resources. Nothing is required for users to start leveraging the OpenStack DNS service, as we have created automated convenience records for floating
Embracing DNS on the Rapid Access Cloud Read More »