Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

There’s disruption all around us. Over the past three decades, the rise of high-speed internet, exponential growth of computational power, and ever-decreasing costs of data storage have drastically changed how we live, what we interact with, and how businesses operate. The democratization of data and technology provides easier access to things that we have never imagined. It helped organizations to push boundaries and disrupt the status quo. Not only are technology trends shaping business models, but ever-evolving behaviors and expectations from consumers are impacting organizations’ current practices. The advent of the Information Age has been transformative – industry after industry, ranging from law, media, and manufacturing have evolved value propositions, company missions, business models and operating practices to adapt to the paradigm shift. Traditionally, the Oil & Gas industry has been on the cutting edge of technology, rapidly adopting new technologies to enable optimal ...

Empowered to act like an owner A few years ago, my wife asked me: “Why are you so loyal to Schneider Electric?”. My answer to her was: “It is the same reason why I am loyal to you. We share the same core values.” One of the core values I’ve shared with Schneider Electric during my long career path is: being empowered to learn and taking charge of my career.  Looking back at my career path, I have been very privileged to work in 12 different positions, across different functions, business units, and organizations over 25 years . No two days within the 9000+ days I have been with Schneider Electric have been the same. Every day presents new challenges, new problems to solve, new people to meet and most importantly, new opportunities to learn and improve myself. Every assignment helped to broaden my knowledge in every aspect of the organization. And this is what makes Schneider Electric unique in my eyes. Throughout my 25-year career path, Being exposed to different parts of the b...

A PwC study last year revealed that about 62% of global CEOs worry that cyber threats will affect their company’s growth prospects. [i] As a result, it is not surprising that potential cybersecurity risks “will pressure CIOs at G2000 companies to increase IoT security spending by up to 25%, temporarily neutralizing business productivity gains.” ii How do we balance digital risk with business growth driven by digital transformation? A “Defense in Depth” approach that includes people, process, and technology across an extended digital ecosystem is a good way to bolster any company’s cybersecurity posture. Three steps solidify the stance: #1 -View cybersecurity as a business enabler Only 30% of CIOs work in conjunction with CISOs take steps to ensure a business-led approach to digital risk across the organization [ii] . Let’s do more. Being a company’s cybersecurity leader is not about being a cyber expert but about being a digital transformation advocate who can connect the dots...

Have you ever been in a perpetual state of flux, or felt that you are constantly running behind instead of being ahead? Well, let me tell you that you are not alone. Ironically, in trying to adapt to the rapidly evolving changes in our lives we often neglect the very thing that could make a difference, i.e. our own energy. While it may ring true at an individual level, this dichotomy exists at an organizational level too. After conducting a survey with 19,000 people, Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath surmised in their HBR [1] article that “people feel better, and perform better and more sustainably when four basic needs are met – renewal (physical); value (emotional); focus (mental); and purpose (spiritual)”. However, even though there is a strong link between thriving employees and workplaces that focus on health and well-being, only 14% of the organisations have this as a company priority [2] . Further, there’s an internal paradox that people face every day – how to get more and...

Cybersecurity Blog Series: Part 2 How do regulation and legislation impact global cybersecurity practices? What about incentives? In part one of this series , I discussed the importance of standards in preventing cyberattacks, particularly in our increasingly industrialized digital and IoT world. Here, I’ll explore regulations and the role of incentives in cybersecurity. While regulations and legislation vary by country , cyberattacks are border agnostic. Attacks – both attempted and successful – targeting a facility in any one country can have detrimental consequences worldwide. Therefore, it makes sense that we have international guardrails and agreements on cybersecurity best practices in place. This includes initiatives from the International Society of Automation (ISA), including IEC 62443 , a set of standards developed by ISA99 and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) committees to improve the safety, availability, integrity and confidentiality of components or sys...

Indonesia’s decentralized system for healthcare is exponentially expanding, allowing the country’s medical facilities to reach a wider range of the population. However, this broadening demand for specialized medical services has led to an increase in expenditures to keep these hospitals up and running. Nationwide, Indonesia has faced technical obstacles – including power outages and mechanical equipment failures – that make providing a first-class patient experience anything but easy. Indriati Hospital, located in the heart of Solo Baru, Sukoharjo, has overcome many of these noted hurdles. Working closely with Schneider Electric, the hospital has successfully implemented the resources and technology needed to provide state-of-the-art care to patients in a safe, reliable, and connected environment.     Learn more about how IoT-enabled EcoStruxure for Healthcare solutions can help your hospital. The post Indriati Hospital’s Dream Team appeared first on Schneider Electric...

Hardwood Floors, Natural Light and the Right to Choose Your ISP Your landlord is prohibited from making deals that restrict you to a single video provider, and those prohibitions should apply to your broadband service as well. Yet, across the country, tenants remain locked into a single choice. In January of 2017, San Francisco became the first city to take action toward filling in the loopholes that enable anti-competitive practices. Will 2019 see more cities adopting similar protections? Large Corporate ISPs—looking to lock out competition—have created a market of landlord addiction to practices that take advantage of these loopholes in the FCC’s prohibition on exclusive access agreements, by simply denying physical access to any but their preferred ISP. These owners and Real Estate Investment Trusts may charge prohibitive Door Fees , participate in ISP revenue sharing schemes, or enter into exclusive marketing agreements. While ostensibly legal, these practices often result i...

In a previous blog post I outlined why running an effective data center operations team involves many of the same elements as running a successful high-performance race car team. In this post I’m going to stick with the car analogy to explain the difference between a traditional facilities maintenance team and a critical facility operations team, such as those that handle data center operations . Think of traditional facility maintenance, such as for an office building, as the local garage where you bring your car for routine repairs. Critical facility operations, on the other hand, is like a Formula 1 race car team. At least nine elements differentiate the two teams: Professionalism Precision/accuracy Standards/regulations Performance monitoring Documentation/reporting Emergency preparedness Financial risk Safety Security Professionalism, precision, and standards Critical facility operations programs require a high level of professionalism in terms of mindset and attit...

The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a turning point in the campaign against climate change as world leaders pledged their support for adopting cleaner, more sustainable energy practices. With the 24th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference ( COP24 ) underway in Katowice, Poland, it’s an excellent time to refine our mission and optimize our actions for success. Research points to a opportunity In their latest report the IPCC warned of major negative effects on humanity and the planet should global temperatures rise above the targeted 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. And, should temperatures rise to 2℃, it warns of even more dramatic consequences. The report concludes that achieving net-zero CO2 emissions globally by 2060 is of critical importance. While this may seem like a lofty target, a long time away, the window for decisive action is rapidly closing. Essential to the success of any such efforts is economic feasibility. With energy and industrial sectors one of the biggest pol...

Ferdinand Balagtas from  Meralco  joined us in Singapore to share the next steps in their   digitalization   journey. Already using smart technology and testing  microgrids  to generate an “explosion of information,” it is  how  they use this information that will shape the future of their  electric utility  in the Philippines. In the face of climate change, “this will give us direction and guide us on how we are going to improve to meet the changing customer demands, enhancing the performance of our distribution system.”   Watch this panel to hear from business leaders at top electric utilities. From the left to the right: Meralco’s Ferdinand Balagtas, Provincial Electricity Authority’s Pongsakorn Yutthakovit, South Australia Power Networks ‘ Mark Vincent and Schneider Electric’s Carola Puusteli . The post Digitization of electric utilities – Meralco’s innovative approach appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog . Visit Tor...

Smart homes become smart due to home control . The control between different home appliances is brought by Internet of Things. It is made possible through a network of microprocessors fitted in all the systems linked to a central hub. The homeowner can get the control software installed in any device they wish to operate it from – be it a mobile phone, a desktop or a laptop that function as the remote. These devices can be connected to a local area network, via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. With the introduction of KNX in Home automation system, even complex operations are now possible. The standard home automation system comprised only of lighting control, airflow and temperature control etc. However, the modern system has helped to upscale the operations. It has brought into picture features like scheduling processes, time-related commands, etc. The advanced system is also linked to the security and access control system. Therefore, it can be programmed for events or triggers that are not sc...

What is SCADA System? SCADA System refers to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System. Primarily, it is a network of all the machinery and equipment in the system connected through a centralised hub. The hub acquires all the data from the site. It includes information like machine status, process status, health of the machine, its throughput etc. Functions of SCADA All the equipment connected through machine control are operated through instruction sent over the web. The processing unit analyses the data and supervises the healthy functioning of the signals transmitted in the entire unit. The data is stored for valuation in a distributed database. The acquired data also has reference metadata stored for in the different database such as a programmable logic controller ( PLC ). How does it work? The complete SCADA systems has four significant units namely – data communication, data acquisition, information or data presentation and monitoring and control system. With compl...

Amended Version of FOSTA Would Still Silence Legitimate Speech Online The House Judiciary Committee is about to decide whether to approve a new version [.pdf] of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865 ), a bill that would force online platforms to police their users’ speech more closely. The new version of FOSTA improves a deeply problematic bill, but it still represents the same fundamentally flawed approach to fighting criminal activity online. Like the earlier version of FOSTA —and like SESTA ( S. 1693 ), its sibling bill in the Senate —the new version of FOSTA would do nothing to fight traffickers . What it would do is create more risk of criminal and civil liability for online platforms, resulting in them pushing legitimate voices offline. Closing Online Spaces Won’t End Trafficking Automated filters can be useful as an aid to transparent, human moderation, but when they’re given the final say over who can and can’t speak onli...

EFF to Court: Accessing Publicly Available Information on the Internet Is Not a Crime EFF is fighting another attempt by a giant corporation to take advantage of our poorly drafted federal computer crime statute for commercial advantage—without any regard for the impact on the rest of us. This time the culprit is LinkedIn. The social networking giant wants violations of its corporate policy against using automated scripts to access public information on its website to count as felony “hacking” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act , a 1986 federal law meant to criminalize breaking into private computer systems to access non-public information. EFF, together with our friends DuckDuckGo and the Internet Archive, have urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reject LinkedIn’s request to transform the CFAA from a law meant to target “hacking” into a tool for enforcing its computer use policies. Using automated scripts to access publicly available data is not “hacking,” and neithe...

Video: How the Court System Is Abused to Chill Activist Speech One of the most pernicious forms of censorship in modern America is the abuse of the court system by corporations and wealthy individuals to harass, intimidate, and silence their critics. We use the term “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” more commonly known as a “SLAPP,” to describe this phenomenon.  With a SLAPP, a malicious party will file a lawsuit against a person whose speech is clearly protected by the First Amendment. The strategy isn’t to win on the legal merits, but to censor their victims through burdensome, distracting, and costly litigation. SLAPP suits often make spurious defamation claims and demand outrageous monetary penalties to bully their enemies.   In EFF’s work, we’ve seen SLAPPs deployed against journalists and bloggers , cartoonists , and even people who have posted reviews on websites like Yelp and eBay . They’ve been used by election power players against their p...