CompTIA Blog

While Congress and the Administration concentrate on the upcoming elections, Middle East crises and keeping the government running, expiration of the Bush tax cuts looms as a huge issue for all Americans, especially small businesses.  Currently, business planning is near impossible, as major tax increases could take effect on January 1, 2013.  The potential expiration of these cuts could cause an economic slowdown as consumers and businesses face uncertainty on their 2013 tax bills.  This uncert ...

Microsoft recently estimated that this year, sixty percent of the market will remain on traditional servers, while 30 percent will be virtualised and 10 percent will have moved to private clouds. By 2015, however, Microsoft expects a big shift; with just 10 percent on traditional servers, 20 percent virtualized, 40 percent on private Clouds and 30 percent in the public cloud.With such change expected and happening, it is key that channels engage and plan around how to adapt to selling cloud solu ...

As healthcare providers are transitioning from paper records to electronic healthcare records (EHR), the need for tight cybersecurity has become essential. In order to prevent cybersecurity attacks, healthcare providers must have trained IT professionals with the knowledge and skills required to implement, deploy and support healthcare IT systems. Though extreme, a recent case highlights some of the potential issues. This summer, hackers breached The Surgeons of Lake County's computer network an ...

If you work in today's technical industry and your job title contains words like "transition" or "transformation," you had better have a solid grasp of cloud computing for your job security and your employer's success. For IT veteran Jimmy Hooh, whose professional moniker has both, CompTIA played a major role in accomplishing just such a task. Jimmy Hooh Hooh, transition and transformation manager for HP Malaysia, turned to his industry's global trade association for a solid foundation in the ...

Going with the flow isn’t a strategy, and it certainly isn’t a route that business owners should take. But the path of least resistance is often thrust upon solution providers, especially when their clients and prospects are the ones making the decisions. Satisfying clients while doing what’s in their own best interests is a delicate balancing act. With cloud services, that’s a common dilemma.Without a carefully crafted, well-validated strategy, solution providers may find themselves pulled into ...

Takeaway of the week is something akin to a broken record: Notably, that another publication touts the value of "soft skills" in the hiring process, IT certifications tend to bump up one's pay grade and IT hiring continues to be on the rise. Nothing new, yet good to know. The IT Skills That Matter Most Just about anyone worth their salt in the IT job market these days can code, so what can set a candidate apart from the pack? We'll give you a hint. It's not hard. As a recent item in TechRepublic ...

Big Data, the buzzword du jour, has captured the IT industry’s attention with some truly impressive examples of what the future may hold. Consider just a few recent headlines: Tapping 'Big Data' to Fill Potholes Your Favorite Restaurant’s Secret Ingredient: Data, and Lots of It Big Data Tackles Longtime Salesperson Headaches Better Medicine, Brought to You by Big Data Big Data and the God Particle (Higgs Boson)While data has always been important to decision-making and problem-solving, something ...

White House drafts preliminary executive order intended to protect U.S. computer systems. Congress back in session; expected to react. The Obama administration has sought to boost loans to small businesses. The White House has drafted a preliminary executive order with the hope of protecting our nation’s computer systems, says the Washington Post. The exact dimensions of the order are still being debated, but it would create voluntary standards for businesses. With Congress back in ses ...

Due to changes in the information technology industry, CompTIA will retire the CompTIA CTP+ certification exam at the end of this year. The CompTIA CTP+ certification exam, launched in 2010, covers the topic of convergent technologies, more commonly referred to today as unified communications. Since the exam launch, new forms of technology have developed, causing changes in the way business is conducted. These technologies include new mobile technologies and business models such as cloud computi ...

With buzzwords like cloud, mobility and Big Data dominating IT discussions, it might seem that a topic like networking doesn’t have much to offer. Yet time and time again, CompTIA research highlights the importance of networking to success in other initiatives: According to the 3rd Annual Trends in Cloud Computingstudy, 50 percent of cloud users who found its cost savings to be lower than original estimates attributed the disparity to unplanned network upgrades. Forty-two percent of resp ...

What skills are in demand? How do certifications impact salary? How does your salary compare to national averages? Global Knowledge and Windows IT Pro are undertaking these issues and more in the 2013 IT Skills and Salary Survey. Participants receive a complimentary copy of the final report. Those who enter by Oct. 19 will be entered into a random drawing for one of eight $250 American Express gift cards. The annual report is one of the industry's most extensive surveys of IT and business profes ...

As we have been reporting, the Republicans and Democrats both held their conventions and formalized the nominations of President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.  While we would have liked to have seen additional focus on the tech sector and policies to ensure it remains globally competitive, CompTIA had a significant presence at each convention.At the Republican and Democratic conventions, CompTIA joined a number of tech associations in sponsoring events highlighting the contributions of ...

It’s been a whirlwind of political activity for CompTIA’s staff these past two weeks. This week, we joined the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte to spotlight the contributions of innovation to our economy.  We’ve been working on-the-go to ensure that the views – and contributions – of the tens of thousands of small and medium sized tech companies and entrepreneurs are recognized.This week in Charlotte, the Democratic Party focused on several policy provisions significant to CompTIA and ...

While business owners and executives are more inclined to focus on the bottom line costs of new investments, typically due to cash flow and stockholder demands, most understand that price plays a lesser role when it comes to protecting their assets. That doesn’t mean companies are open to purchasing preposterously expensive security services, but most will spend a few dollars more each month to ensure their organization is compliant with governmental and industry regulations.The inclination of b ...

Takeaway of the week is a nice and tidy summation of the key ingredients to a good IT job search: Know the value of the industry you're in and how many others hold it in high regard; learn some tips on how to remain relevant whether as a candidate on the outside looking in or working your way up from within; and, of course, the monetary value others place on your work, which in the IT world these days is not too shabby. Study: IT a Hot Do-Over Thought Given the need to alter directions on that ...