CompTIA Blog

To some, the differences between Canada and the U.S. comes down to hockey vs. baseball, kilometers vs. miles and “about” vs. “aboot.” All kidding aside, when it comes to the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, the two countries share an underlying skills gap, but conduct business in very different ways. CompTIA’s IT Services and Support (ITSS) Community in Canada is a collaborative group that works to provide resources to smaller Canadian ICT f ...

Initially, Just IT Founder and CEO Simon Perriton hesitated when his CompTIA partners suggested he expand his London-based IT training and recruitment business into the apprenticeship market. Just IT had benefited from CompTIA's discounted exam vouchers, marketing support and business advice for years, most recently through the CompTIA Authorized Partner Program, but Perriton was uncertain about how 16- to 18-year-old apprentices would perform in training and on the job. But when Just IT laun ...

This week the Senate “Gang of Eight” released their comprehensive immigration bill titled, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.” This legislation is the result of months of negotiating between Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), John McCain (R-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). As the title of the legislation suggests, the bill ...

Debate unfolded this week on the House floor on the bipartisan Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), sponsored by Representatives Mike Rogers (R-Mich) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD). Representative Bob Woodall (R-GA) gave an impassioned speech on the importance of preserving consumer privacy while also advocating for the passage of CISPA as a tool to protect against foreign nation actors that form “teams of cyber warriors led by nation states focused on stealing U.S. ...

This week, three cyber-security-related bills were passed by the House of Representatives. Three in particular were introduced “under suspension,” meaning that these bills are generally considered less controversial and, as such, receive less time for debate but require a two-thirds majority vote for passage. All three bills passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Coinciding with an op-ed published this week in Politico, Representatives Darrell Issa and Elijah Cumming ...

The CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner certification is now included in the U.S. Department of Defense 8570.01-M program for information assurance personnel. The program provides guidance and procedures for the training, certification and management of Department of Defense workers conducting information assurance functions in assigned duty positions. How CompTIA Certifications Fit into DoD 8570.1M IAT Level I IAT Level II IAT Level III CompTIA A+ GSEC CASP CompTIA Network+ CompTI ...

Last Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee voted the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (CISPA) out of committee by a vote of 18-2. The bill is headed for a floor vote this week. In a nutshell, CISPA allows for private sector companies such as Internet service providers and telecommunications companies to share information with federal agencies about online cyber-threats and attacks. The bill is controversial because consumer protection groups and civil liberty org ...

Interest is growing in the "Marketplace Fairness Act" recently introduced in the House by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) (H.R. 684) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) (S. 336). This legislation would require businesses to collect and remit state sales taxes on sales of goods and services made into other states. For states that have a sales tax, the Marketplace Fairness Act is a good thing. But for businesses, this legislation will result in additional compliance costs, and these costs will dis ...

This entry comes from guest blogger Mike Morton, CIO/VP Emedia at Diversified Business Communications Canada and group event director for iTech2013. Canada’s largest IT infrastructure conference and exhibition series – the iTech2013 Conference – is coming to Toronto on May 16th at the International Centre. Bringing together premier vendors, exhibitors, speakers and specialists for a day of learning, networking and experimentation, this year’s conference promises to be the ...

One of the biggest reasons why entrepreneurs join industry associations is to gain access to a variety of business improvement resources and educational programs that would be costly to recreate or purchase on their own. Those business tools and best practices are particularly hard to come by in the IT channel, and the expense of tailoring them to meet the specific needs of even a well-established solution provider can be quite prohibitive. CompTIA not only recognizes those challenges, but colla ...

Congress failed to pass major cyber-security reform during the 2012 legislative session. In the Senate, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pushed the “Secure Act of 2012” to a floor vote, but failed to get the necessary votes. In the House, Republican Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) advocated for a cyber-security reform through a series of individual bills as opposed to one comprehensive bill as a step toward enhancing America’s defenses on cyber-securit ...

We’re proud to announce that four of the 2013 SMB 150 – an annual list of the top 150 small- and medium-sized business (SMB) professionals – hail from CompTIA! Congratulations to: Todd Thibodeaux, president & CEO. Nancy Hammervik, senior vice president of industry relations. Kate Hunt, director of member communities. Corey Simpson, director of member communities. These four individuals have been honored for their impact on the SMB channel. Impact is measured through provi ...

One of the biggest recent shifts in technology is that the consumer has become the prime driver for much of the innovation, with businesses either being secondary beneficiaries or rapidly dealing with consumer-focused solutions championed by the users. Nowhere is this more evident than with mobility, and CompTIA’s Second Annual Trends in Enterprise Mobility study sheds some light on this dynamic space. One of the primary implications of enterprise mobility is that IT professionals can no l ...

Are you seeking to prove your technical knowledge and skill with cloud solutions? Consider earning the CompTIA Cloud+ certification when the exam launches in the third quarter of 2013. The vendor-neutral certification is ideal for system, network and storage administrators and network engineers with 24 to 36 months of experience with cloud technologies and infrastructure. If you aren't seeking to prove your cloud chops, you should be – for the sake of your own career growth. The job market incre ...

The stated theme of Cloud Connect may have been cloud as a platform, but the unofficial theme became the necessary transformation of the IT function. And while there were two dubious quotes from the conference on Wednesday, a quote from Thursday perfectly summed up this new theme: “Virtualization is a technology; cloud computing is a business model.” Viewing cloud computing as a technology leads to the impression that it can be bought and implemented into an existing business flow. A ...