January 20, 2012 | Quebec

In order for the Canadian government's IT infrastructure to remain reliable, officials should migrate much of the country's networked services to cloud-based systems, says a leading IT industry group, according to the Montreal Gazette. 

Dave MacDonald, CEO of Softchoice Corporation and chair of the Information Technology Association of Canada's Board of Governors, told the Gazette that network redundancy is a serious threat to many critical government systems.

"The government has got 300 different data centres, 100 separate email systems and these are all aging infrastructures," MacDonald said. "The old age security Canada Pension Plan and insurance benefits issue more than 250 million payments in a year and they're running on systems that are seriously out of date. The risks could be quite significant in terms of mission-critical systems becoming inoperable."

However, not everyone is as keen to migrate data to the cloud as MacDonald. According to IT World Canada, many IT professionals remain unconvinced of the benefits of cloud computing in comparison to business leaders. Data privacy and security were cited as two primary drawbacks to moving away from traditional networking models.

As networked services continue to evolve, those with a background in networking training may find themselves in demand. If you're ready to train for a career in the IT field, you learn the fundamental knowledge and skills in the technology programs at CDI College. For more information,  fill out the form to your right.