For Immediate Release
Toronto
08/17/2011

 

BACKGROUNDER - Ontario And Cisco Share Vision For Innovation

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

(PDF - 964 KB)

Ontario and Cisco Canada today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will enhance technology collaboration and support the creation of new jobs for Ontarians.

The MOU focuses on:

• Health and Wellness – for example, advancing Telemedicine as a delivery option for remote communities and also using networking technology to enhance collaboration and education for doctors, nurses and hospital administrators.
• Energy – including making best use of information and communications technology to save energy while helping Ontario clean tech companies market their innovations to the world.
• Education – increasing industry collaboration with universities while expanding video and networking technology to provide even greater access and flexibility for students at high schools, community colleges and universities.
• Smart and Connected Communities – further integrating technology into the places where we live, for example providing more flexibility to work from home and more options for accessing government services.
• Economic Cluster Development – for example, looking at ways for the IT industry to work together on regional economic development strategies and identifying opportunities to bring new Ontario-developed technologies to market.
  

 

Cisco’s Ontario IT Innovation Initiative

With provincial support, Cisco’s Ontario IT Innovation Initiative will invest in major R&D projects that will create 300 new research and development jobs in Toronto and Ottawa and also help retain 300 existing R&D positions.

The projects will focus on technology including what's at the forefront of the internet today and will power the Internet of the future. Projects will include the development of:

• New advancements to the world’s highest capacity Internet router. Routers are devices that enable one network to communicate with another. Internet traffic is expected to quadruple in the next five years.
• New technology to increase the speed and reliability of wireless networks. The technology will enable cell phone companies to move traffic from the wireless voice network, which is under strain from the vast number of mobile devices in use, across to the Internet-based data network, which offers increased capacity at a lower cost.
• New technology for Internet Service Providers to upgrade to the next generation of the Internet, called “IPv6.” Internet technology will soon run out of IP addresses – these are the unique numbers assigned to every computer, mobile device or router connected to the Internet.
• New software to allow improved and more flexible sharing of video content in various formats between different types of devices, while helping to manage digital rights and copyright. Internet video currently accounts for over one-third of all consumer Internet traffic, and is expected to become the dominant form of Internet content in the near future.
  

For more information:

Lauren Tedesco
Minister's Office
416-325-6909

Neil Trotter
Communications Branch
416-325-6716

ontario.ca/economy-news

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