Huawei, TELUS and Carleton University Celebrate Opening of Cloud Computing Research Centre

OTTAWA, Jan. 12, 2012 /CNW/ - The Huawei-TELUS Innovation Centre for Enterprise Cloud Services opened today at Carleton University. The centre was created through a $1.4 million investment made by Huawei and TELUS.

The centre, located in Carleton's new engineering building, will be a venue for performing cutting-edge research in cloud computing. Students, faculty and industry will research real-world problems associated with enterprise clouds including management of computing, on demand storage and network resources, data-centre networking, scalability, business continuity, and security.

"Working with such innovative partners as Huawei and TELUS helps ensure Carleton continues to collaborate with important industry locally and nationally," said Rafik Goubran, dean of Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design. "Our students will get the hands-on, real-world training they need to be competitive in the job market."

"This initiative will enable Carleton to work with a growing number of innovators in the field of cloud computing research," says Ibrahim Gedeon, TELUS Chief Technology Officer. "The centre, supported by TELUS and Huawei, will be a vital element of not only academia in Canada but with our industry in helping to develop the most advanced cloud technology and services, ultimately benefitting the consumer and business alike."

"We're very pleased to be partnering with TELUS and the dynamic researchers in Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design in developing the cloud computing lab," says Sean Yang, president of Huawei Canada.  "With Carleton students driving research in leading-edge technologies, this will have significant benefits in the local information and communications technology community as these students graduate and enter the workforce."

Many of these students, along with faculty from Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design and representatives from Huawei Canada and TELUS, were on-hand at the opening to discuss the importance of cloud technologies and the research projects they are launching in the centre.

Carleton's Shikharesh Majumdar, professor of systems and computer engineering, will work with two graduate students on resource management in clouds that give rise to high system performance while conserving power; Professor Changcheng Huang will lead a project on traffic control for data-centre networks; Professor Yvan Labiche and students will research intrusion detection for clouds; Professor Samuel Ajila will lead a team working on virtual machine migration within the cloud; Professor Winnie Ye will lead a project exploring how photonic cross connections can be used to optimize clouds; and a team of four professors and graduate students led by Professor Ioannis Lambadaris will investigate effective techniques for service level agreement based resource allocation.

About Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing allows users to acquire resources on demand from a service provider and store data on the service provider's system rather than hosting this information on their own computers. The term "cloud computing" refers to the information which is processed and stored on computers that are offsite, often in a location unknown to the client and accessed via the internet. Enterprise cloud computing offers resource sharing within one business or enterprise and provides secure, fast and flexible sharing of computer power,  storage and software focusing on one company's or business's individual demands.

About Carleton University:

Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design has more than 4,500 students, making it one of the largest engineering schools in Canada. Located in the nation's capital, Carleton University is a dynamic research and teaching institution with a tradition of leading change. Its internationally recognized faculty, staff and researchers provide more than 25,000 full- and part-time students from every province and more than 100 countries around the world with academic opportunities in more than 65 programs of study, including public affairs, journalism, film studies, engineering, high technology, and international studies. Carleton's creative, interdisciplinary and international approach to research has led to many significant discoveries and creative works in science and technology, business, governance, public policy and the arts. As an innovative institution Carleton is uniquely committed to developing solutions to real-world problems by pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding daily.

About Huawei

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Through our dedication to customer-centric innovation and strong partnerships, we have established end-to-end advantages in telecom networks, devices and cloud computing. We are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers by providing competitive solutions and services. Our products and solutions have been deployed in over 140 countries, serving more than one third of the world's population.

For more information, visit Huawei online: www.huawei.com.

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About TELUS:

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.3 billion of annual revenue and 12.6 million customer connections including 7.2 million wireless subscribers, 3.6 million wireline network access lines, 1.3 million Internet subscribers and more than 450,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video. In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees will, by year-end 2011, have contributed $245 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition. For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

Media contacts: 

Chris Cline
Carleton University
[phone], ext. 1391
[email protected]

Scott Bradley
Vice-President Corporate and Government Affairs
Huawei Canada
613-558-5333
[email protected]

Chris Gerritsen
TELUS Media Relations
403-530-4919
[email protected]om