At a high level this is software that helps automate servers in order to reduce the amount of administration required.

Toronto was put on the map as a leader in this space back in 2003 when IBM purchased Think Dynamics , rumoured to have been in the $50M range. Think was a company with virtually no revenue, but very cool technology.

Here are some other mid/early stage companies in this space in the Toronto region:

Platform Computing (www.platform.com)

Platespin (http://www.platespin.com/)

Opalis (http://www.opalis.com/)

Cirba (www.cirba.com)

Avokia (http://www.avokia.com/)

Xkoto (http://www.xkoto.com/)

michael kane

kane_mr@yahoo.com

Toronto, liberal. Hmmm, I remember thinking how strangely uptight it was that everything was closed on Sunday, and how you couldn’t buy beer in corner stores like in Newfoundland. Liberal maybe, but with a Puritan sensibility. “We’re world-class because our commutes are the longest, we have such long lines for concerts, etc.” I always got the vibe that the way to success in Toronto was to endure the most discomfort.

The other thing is the sprawl. Yes, in Toronto you can shop on funky Bloor St. West or Queen St. West. Then head 45 minutes east or west to visit a friend in Scarborough or Missassauga. Later go to dinner in some hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Etobicoke or North York. Notice you spent practically the whole day in your car, and practically speaking never left Toronto. In Berkeley, you can go from the marina to the shopping district to funky music clubs to the gourmet ghetto (restaurant row) to the university campus in 10 minutes. In Silicon Valley, every highway stop or two is its own little community with its own personality and reasons to go there. I never went to Etobicoke for a restaurant or Scarborough for a concert or Mississauga for shopping in 10 years in Toronto. But in the Bay Area I go to concerts in Mountain View, shopping in Palo Alto, visit friends in Burlingame, sightseeing in Sausalito, etc. Even Foster City has a great bike path along the bay.

And of course, like someone said before, people need to take risks, stop with the bureaucracy and start building and making stuff. And not be afraid to make mistakes. The GTA and Waterloo region are actually considered Silicon Valley North, so there is some resemblance.

I’m also not sure where being like Silicon Valley surrounds only web publishing, which this topic seems to focus on. Silicon Valley is successful because they have great software companies of many varieties, and hardware companies to complement it. Cranking code and blogging isn’t going to bring this city up to par.

And while all of the fuss in Toronto about comparing to US cities? Hollywood North? The new Silicon Valley?

But I’d wager Montreal and Vancouver are probably seen as more free-spirited than Toronto. All our other attributes make us a serious contender, but until Toronto’s hype machine finds the right spark, we’ll continue to remain a wannabe.

Anyway, yes, U of T is nowhere near those universities. The proper comparison would be Waterloo, which is why there are so many start-ups there. Now all we need to do is get more to go public (like RIM and OpenText) and fewer to take the buy-out exit strategy (that company Google bought recently, the one Adobe bought, the company that Sybase bought – obviously memorable companies in their own right).

Toronto may be #3 in people “working in information and communications”, which amazes me, but that isn’t the number of people who start and work in startups. That requires a very different mentality. As for world class universities, you are comparing the U of T to Stanford, MIT, and Harvard.

You need to change the fundamental attitudes of people to make them into entrepreneurs rather than workers, and then change the tax structure in Canada to make it reasonable to invest in those start up enterprises.

And ok, so they’re actually pretty dry and academic. My point is just that there are a lot of people who study this cluster growth issue. I mean, who doesn’t want to be the next Silicon valley? If it was easy or obvious, everyone would do it. You omit historical factors, like the presence of the first semiconductor companies, which seeded the explosion in tech companies and the large number of defense contractors laid off in the area at the end of the cold war. And let’s be blunt: the weather in the bay area doesn’t hurt. Toronto’s weather, well, it can hurt at times.

And are the ICT Toronto people the same as the TRRA?