As we near the end of Cybera’s 2025 fiscal year, looking back, it’s clear this has been a period of uncertainty that has tested our entire community. From financial pressures to geopolitical tensions, Alberta’s public and education sectors have faced many difficulties! But even amid these challenges, our community has shown resilience and determination by forging meaningful partnerships across multiple sectors and locations.
I’m proud of our community’s continued effort to work together to build a stronger foundation for the future.
Partnerships beyond borders
Cybera’s focus on bridging innovation and strategic collaboration — both locally and globally — has helped us and our member institutions tackle a variety of pressing issues. A great example of this is the development of a pilot regional Security Operations Centre (rSOC) in Alberta, in partnership with Australia’s national research and education network, AARNet. By working with global partners, like AARNet, we are investing in international collaboration, cross-nation talent development, and advanced threat information sharing, tailored specifically to the higher education community.
This commitment to extending beyond provincial borders was also evident in our partnership with SRNET this past year as we worked together to grow the reach and value of Cybera’s ShareIT program hand-in-hand with the Saskatchewan higher education community. By combining resources and negotiating better deals, this program has helped our collective members save time and money on technology and IT service procurements, while also sharing invaluable best practices with each other.
The success of these partnerships is proof that collaboration can create benefits that go beyond what any of us could achieve alone.
Network and other services continue to grow
At the same time, we’ve stayed true to our goal of strengthening our network infrastructure and addressing the pressing digital needs of our members. Over the past year and a half, we made significant upgrades to our network — such as installing new fibre optic transmission equipment in Calgary, and upgrading our core router in Lethbridge. These upgrades have expanded our network’s capabilities, ensuring that educators, students, and researchers have access to the fastest and most reliable connections.
The numbers from the past year tell a powerful story. We moved a record-breaking 93,000 terabytes of data over our network; as of December 2024, the ShareIT program had achieved nearly $80 million in savings for participating members; and the use of our Rapid Access Cloud continues to grow, with nearly 5,900 researchers and students now using the service, a 22% increase from last year. These numbers represent just a fraction of the work being done by the Cybera team and our extended community.
Planning for the future
What really sets Cybera apart, however, is our ability to look ahead and adapt. We are moving into the 2026 fiscal year with a renewed focus on the needs of Cybera’s community. We will continue to focus on the services that bring tangible benefits to members, as well as the intangible value that Cybera offers: bringing people together through initiatives like the Cyber Summit, fostering collaboration and communities of practice, and creating the right services at the right time. We know budget pressures and cybersecurity threats aren’t going away anytime soon, but with the partnerships we’ve built and the progress we’ve made, we’re better positioned to face what comes next.
Looking ahead, we will continue our investments in cybersecurity, collaborative service offerings, and advocacy as part of a broader strategy to deliver lasting value for our members.
Reflecting on everything accomplished over the past 12 months, I am proud of the Cybera team and the partnerships that have made such progress possible. Whether it is through expanding our network, advocating for better access to digital infrastructure, or creating knowledge sharing opportunities, our goal is to improve our members’ work lives and operations through solutions they simply could not find elsewhere.