Smart home technologies provide a quick and simple solution for a range of tasks. But is this trade-off for a snap-of-the-fingers convenience creating a strain elsewhere?

Security vulnerabilities within some devices, or at least the way in which they are set up, may be keeping the door ajar, allowing access for cyber criminals.

With power outages across the city, primarily in the downtown core, and with flood waters converging on the Calgary Municipal Building, it was up to information technology staff to keep the City online - primarily from Calgary's Emergency Operations Centre, but also from staff's own homes.

CREBNow recently sat down with the City's Heather Reed-Fenske, manager IT and Doug Hodgson, director IT and here's some of what they had to say regarding the June 2013 flood.