Good afternoon, everyone.
It is indeed a pleasure to be here to represent Microsoft Canada on this important topic.
As the national technology officer, I have the opportunity to work with businesses, government, and education and health care leaders, in looking three to five years ahead to seize the opportunities of technology and to avoid unintended consequences by making sure that privacy, security, accessibility, and availability are built into businesses and their technologies.
Today I'd like to talk to you about reimagining e-commerce, in the broadest sense of the word, to look across the economy more broadly than the digital economy and perhaps reimagine our economy digitally. Take a look at the transformation that's happening on a global scale. We heard from the other representatives that a tremendous transformation is happening. How do we get ahead of this transformation, using some of that advantage we have from the economic crisis to take the lead and seize the opportunity? Finally, I'll talk to you about adjacent innovation, harnessing the skills for those things we know best, and projecting Canadian know-how and expertise through the use of the web around the world.
I looked through the rich set of questions that inform this conversation and this exploration, and it is indeed an important place to look. When I look at recent studies, they continue to assert that Canadian businesses underutilize the potential of Internet communication and lag behind innovative Internet retailing and its respective logistics. If we think about that for a moment, we quite clearly see that it's beyond the technology side; we see the logistics side and the expansion into other parts of our economy.
When I talk with entrepreneurs and innovators in Canada, I often discuss the consultations on the digital economy that Industry Canada led last year. These were world-leading consultations, government 3.0 types of activities, where we consulted online and voted for the best ideas and whatnot. Outside a small community of technology people, normal business operators in Canada weren't aware of this technology. It was the digital economy consultation.
You might ask yourself why it's important. Let's consider for a moment the contract drilling operations in northern Alberta. We think of the rigs, we think of the trucks, and we think of the people wrestling with this big equipment. But did you know a server at that site not only handles the exploration aspects but all the aspects of HR and administration also?
Let's come a little closer to home. When we look at a construction site here in Ottawa, we see those white trailers outside the site. What's in those white trailers? It's more than a coffee machine. It's more than a water machine and a lunch table. A server is actually there so that the plumbers and electricians can review electronic blueprints.
It's clear that technology is having a transformative effect across all of our sectors. It's perhaps important that we look beyond consultations on the digital economy and look at consultations that reimagine our economy digitally. Broadening the conversation in this manner will help to engage stakeholders across the Canadian economy and extend the opportunities not only to all businesses but also to skills development, as we look at educating our young people for the next wave of innovation.
This is more than wordplay, as it recognizes that technologies play a key role in supporting innovation across Canadian industry. Opportunities project Canadian expertise worldwide. I say this because Canada is what's called a “spiky region”: people want to live here, they want to locate here. How do we take that innovation and those skill sets and project them around the world?
As my colleague from IBM noted, we're seeing a technology transformation equal to that of the Internet, where businesses can now obtain computing resources, commonly known as the cloud. Not only does cloud computing promise to provide almost limitless capacity and world-wide reach on demand, but it also frees organizations from the obligation of paying for infrastructure, so they can only pay for what they need and focus the rest of the money on innovation.
To provide these services at a low cost, there have to be world-wide economies of scale to be able to access these services wherever and whenever they're required. When you look at the supply-and-demand side of things, it's important for Canadian businesses wanting to get into this field to have the largest addressable audience.
Canadian businesses, unfortunately, are reluctant to move to the cloud. Recent Angus Reid polls suggest that only 47% of Canadian businesses are using cloud services, compared to 70% in the U.S. and 68% in the UK. We actually hear stories of emerging marketplaces where entrepreneurs are wholly using cloud computing instead of investing in IT infrastructure. They're putting all their money into that innovation. When we look at the delivery of cloud services, it allows entrepreneurs and innovators to focus on innovations without having that sunk cost.
We unfortunately see many misperceptions on the use of cloud computing. In January 2010, the trilateral committee on transborder data flows reported that organizations were losing out on opportunities because they weren't sure of the policy and legislative frameworks that applied to them and were nervous and reluctant to do so.
From a services perspective, people often look to Canada and say that Canada is a cold place with lots of green energy and lots of space. Why aren't data centres located there?
You'll recall that I mentioned this is an economies of scale business reaching out to the broadest population possible. If you cannot serve the world from your data centres, you're not going to be able to make those economies of scale. So we're still seeing legislative frameworks on a worldwide basis hindering that adoption and opportunity to project that Canadian know-how around the world.
Since the e-commerce economy is predicated on scale, we really need to look at policy frameworks that support the scale of that business.
It was mentioned earlier in regard to the “Internet of things” that the cloud represents one transformational trend. The other trend is that wide variety of connected devices. We see health-related devices--including blood glucose meters, peak flow meters, weight scales--changing the way we deliver wellness to Canadians, changing that equation and that conversation around how we deliver health care.
When we look at the connected home, at smart meters and smart appliances, not only can we manage our energy use but we can also figure out what groceries we need to pick up.
When we look at the smart vehicle and the connected vehicle projects that are under way in smart corridors in the province, there is the opportunity to avoid accidents through the use of these smart technologies and the cloud, and also to streamline logistics flows as we bring in goods from overseas and ship them across North America.
So there are great opportunities there as we look at how these different devices are connected and we look to different telecommunications channels. White spaces and the analog television networks promise to invent a whole new marketplace for how these devices communicate and share information with one another.
History demonstrates that adjacent innovation is perhaps the way that inventors come up with new ideas, by picking something they have expertise in and then linking it with another smart idea. So as we look to reimagine Canada's economy digitally, we should look to all segments of Canadian excellence and to extend them by harnessing the potential of technology.
With that, I thank you.