California-based VMware announced in early October, the opening of the VMware Next G-AI Research and Innovation Center at Centech and ETS in Montreal. The Center will bring together VMware’s multi-cloud infrastructure, advanced networking and modern application development expertise with the latest emerging Cloud Native development techniques, AI and ML technologies. The center is part of the TETRA initiative to build sustainable, human-centric 6G technologies.

The TETRA initiative, also named Digital Equity Grid Innovation, was launched by VMware in November 2021 in partnership with Mitacs, a nonprofit organization that fosters industry-academia partnerships, to drive applied research in the areas of sustainable grid, digital equity, and clean technologies.

The initiative included the creation of a TETRA Research and Innovation (R&I) Center in Montreal, in partnership with the IEEE Future Networks Initiative (FNI), a technical community of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) the world’s largest technical professional organization advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

Kit Colbert, CTO of VMware, said at the launch of the initiative

“The path to 6G requires a fundamental redesign of the Internet to an open network, accessible from anywhere and offering immersive applications to everyone. This requires a significant advancement of physical and digital systems through broad partnerships and true cross-industry collaboration. Our partnership with Mitacs aims to advance this advancement, keeping sustainability and digital equity at the core of our work.”

The Next G-AI Research and Innovation Center

The center supports three connected programs:

• Applied Research: In partnership with Mitacs, VMware is working with researchers across Canada to develop sustainable 5G and 6G technologies, improve digital equity and redesign the Internet as an open network.
• G-AI Research and Innovation Lab: The Research and Innovation Lab provides researchers and industry partners with access to cutting-edge software and hardware to quickly validate and demonstrate key concepts.
• Modern Application Software Factory: VMware Tanzu Modern Software Factory provides VMware customers and partners access to VMware Tanzu solutions and open source technologies. The offering will include Spring and .Net development expertise and tools, developer gas pedals, automated container build service, support for any Kubernetes-compliant execution, and the ability to create, run and manage software supply chains that deliver on the 5S promise (speed, stability, economics, security, scalability).

Through partnerships with Mitacs, Centech and IEEE, VMware will also provide selected researchers and startups with access to the Next G-AI Innovation Lab and the Modern Application Software Factory.

Partnership with Centech Incubator to Support Montreal Startups

Through the VMware Tanzu Modern Applications Software Factory, selected partners and startups associated with Centech will have free access to Tanzu solutions and open source technology. This set of enterprise and platform-independent tools will allow participants to learn how to create, deliver and manage native cloud applications designed to run on any Kubernetes on-premises, in the public cloud or edge environments.

Richard Chenier, CEO of Centech, states:

“Access to VMware Tanzu technology is an incredible benefit to our contractors. Access to these powerful tools will enable startups to quickly deploy modern applications, dramatically accelerating time to market and allowing them to be deployed in any environment.”

A competition to bridge the digital divide

VMware, Mitacs and the IEEE Future Networks Initiative also announced the first Canada-specific award category in the IEEE Connecting the Unconnected Challenge, which seeks innovative solutions for universal and affordable Internet access.

Mary Ward-Callan, General Manager, Technical Activities, IEEE, explains:

“The Internet is a critical access point to education, economic opportunity and information and health services. However, nearly half the world is still not connected. Through our partnership with VMware and Mitacs, we are looking to work with Canadian competitors interested in addressing this critical humanitarian issue.”

The IEEE 2023 Challenge will kick off next spring, including the challenge specifically dedicated to Canadian researchers developed jointly by IEEE, VMware and Mitacs.

Translated from VMware annonce l’ouverture d’un centre de recherche et d’innovation en IA à Montréal