Balancing out the gender discrepancy in tech.

First on the list this month: a local Saskatchewan organization that is working to advance the tech community. Conexus Cultivator has been very successful running events and programs, but the minds behind the Saskatchewan startup-focused business incubator noticed a big difference in the number of male to female founders taking part in their programs. In a recent news article, they highlighted their goals to attract more female entrepreneurs in an effort to directly address the gender imbalance they see in the Saskatchewan startup community. Conexus Cultivator has partnered with other local tech organizations including iQmetrix, Hack Regina, Innovation Saskatchewan, and Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan to commit to hosting events focused on women in tech.

Are you really prepared for a technical disaster?

According to Infrascale’s recent research project, 92% of 500 participating business leaders have extreme confidence that they’re ready to face a disaster in which their company’s data is lost. Unfortunately, 16% of those businesses didn’t know their Recovery Time Objective, and another 20% don’t have an actual recovery plan. Russell Reeder, CEO of Infrascale, explains that this confidence but lack of preparedness comes from a lack of understanding of what it means to be able to recover from a data loss disaster. Learn more about why having both a plan, and a quick Recovery Time Objective is important in this article shared by SaskTel employee Ken Yick.

Remote working before and after the pandemic

In the most recent episode of Women In Tech Insights, Lindsay Kerr, Engineering Manager at GitLab, Kristen Williams, Tech Recruiter for Theorem, and Yuliya Kaleda, Tech Lead at Facebook, share their companies’ outlooks, opinions and adaptations surrounding remote working. Some employees at these companies have been working remotely for years, and others are new to it. These three leaders talk through different hurdles and roadblocks associated with working remotely, and how they’ve overcome them. They also talk about the benefits of remote work, such as the endless talent pool you have to choose from when you aren’t restricted to candidates that can be in the office in any one given city. Check out the video below to hear how working remotely should be seen as a benefit, not a challenge.

Smarter security policies for a dynamic network

People (and businesses) have been securing networks with IP based address codes and firewalls for years. We used to be able to set up a firewall and secure everything within it, but unfortunately, that isn’t scalable to meet the needs of today’s growing companies. With this growth, the need for larger secure networks has increased. By deploying a single organization wide policy that is based on who you are rather than your IP address or where you are, employees can use different devices, change office locations, and work remotely with the same access they’d have with the old system of IP address codes. Listen to the most recent Meraki Unboxed Podcast to learn more about Adaptive Policy and its intuitive and straightforward approach to allowing network access without the increased administrative overhead.

What tech news have you learned recently that has helped you? Let us know below in the comments, or share it with us on Facebook or LinkedIn.