CompTIA Blog

By the time she had graduated from Stanford University, Stephanie Brown had already completed internships with Fortune 500 companies Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Deloitte. She was only 21.No wonder, then, that Microsoft’s human resources department tracked her down, offering her a position she had not even applied for: helping the company’s enterprise customers in the Southeast streamline their IT infrastructure.Getting connected with BDPA in high school put Stephanie Brown on a learni ...

A look at the week of August 29 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, government agencies take steps to expand health IT to rural areas.  States and businesses struggle over sales tax as more transactions take place in cyberspace.  A new report finds that IT workers received millions of dollars in recruitment, retention and relocation incentives in 2009. HHS, USDA Align To Reach Rural Areas with Health IT — The Departments of Health and Human Services and Agricultur ...

The “Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2011” (H.R. 1860 and S. 971) would bring some certainty to an endless tangle of state tax rules and regulations.  This legislation would restrict collection of sales taxes on digital goods and services to the jurisdiction encompassing the buyer’s tax address.  It also would bar a state from imposing multiple or discriminatory taxes on the sale or use of digital goods or services, but does not cover telecommunications service, Internet access se ...

A recent article in The New York Times discussed how security concerns are contributing to the reluctance of federal agencies and businesses to migrate their IT operations to the cloud.  While some of these concerns are legitimate, given the benefits of the cloud, the transition seems inevitable and the longer we wait, the more money is wasted.In the past, businesses of all sizes and government agencies spent billions of dollars on IT hardware and software.  Much of this technology was proprieta ...

It’s been a few years since IBM sold off its personal computing business to Lenovo but, in the words of Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” With last week’s announcement that HP is “exploring strategic alternatives” for its Personal Systems Group, a number of the company’s dedicated partners could be left with a significant gap in their portfolios.  Although they left the door open to spin off the division into a separate company, the organization’s preference appears to be a sale of the ...

CompTIA has long believed it, and a recent gathering of U.S. veterans in Chicago confirmed it: Veterans and returning service members need a program that helps them qualify for IT jobs. With the right IT job skills and aptitude, a veteran could take advantage of career opportunities in the U.S., where more than 450,000 IT positions remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates. To address both veterans’ and U.S. industry needs, CompTIA on Tuesday, August 23rd, unveiled Troops to Tech Ca ...

CompTIA has long believed it, and a recent gathering of U.S. veterans in Chicago confirmed it: Veterans and returning service members need a program that helps them qualify for IT jobs. With the right IT job skills and aptitude, a veteran could take advantage of career opportunities in the U.S., where more than 450,000 IT positions remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates. To address both veterans’ and U.S. industry needs, CompTIA on Tuesday, August 23rd, unveiled Troops to ...

Cloud computing has been one of the most hyped IT strategies in recent years, with vendors scrambling to provide cloud-enabled technologies and businesses trying to figure out if this new model can deliver on its promises of cost savings. CompTIA’s 2nd Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study finds that beyond the hype, cloud is indeed a strategy that proves beneficial to end-users, and one that has significant momentum for years ahead.Other firms agree with this assessment. Gartner projects publi ...

A look at the week of August 22 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, Amazon announced a new cloud service geared toward government agencies.  Peter Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Obama, believes the HITECH Act is creating significant value in healthcare.  The White House wants to expand the role of agency CIOs to encompass management of the agency’s total IT portfolio. Amazon Launches Gov-Only Cloud — Amazon's new "G ...

These days the question on everyone’s mind seems to be: “Will the economy ever recover enough to let us succeed in business again?” Unfortunately, the key to success can’t actually be found in that question. You see, a thriving business is only marginally dependent on the broader economic conditions in which it operates. While many businesses benefit from a thriving economy, it’s undeniable that strong businesses are able to thrive no matter what the economy is like.Thus, the more meaningful que ...

The right information technology (IT) training and certification for the right person at the right time—that’s the mission of the competency-driven IT workforce development model in the Office of Information & Technology (OIT) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).Originally deployed to information security officers across VA facilities, OIT’s competency model project is being expanded to encompass all IT staff and is rolling out, by job classification, to the approximately 8,000 I ...

Our UK Channel Community is nearly one year old, and members are finding they get out much more than put in.  The community allows them to share knowledge and learn from each other.This month, UK Channel Chair Richard Tubb interviewed community member George Ilko of Vitality Consulting, a leading managed services provider focused on the small and medium-sized business market.  Why is Ilko involved in the community and how is it helping him grow his business?  Listen to the podcast.[podcast]http: ...

The right information technology (IT) training and certification for the right person at the right time—that’s the mission of the competency-driven IT workforce development model in the Office of Information & Technology (OIT) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Originally deployed to information security officers across VA facilities, OIT’s competency model project is being expanded to encompass all IT staff and is rolling out, by job classification, to the approximately 8 ...

Every year the NFL and NHL refit their players with some of their historic uniforms, paying homage to the great teams of the past—while raking in some extra cash by selling this limited-edition gear to their fans. They’ve learned that people relish the past and the organizations can still generate significant income by providing that link. While the correlation between that situation and what’s happening in the IT vendor community may not be exact, this week’s news seems vaguely familiar.  Of co ...

Pupils across the U.K. have received their A-level results and are wondering what to do next. Like every year, we can expect that nowhere near enough of these talented individuals will pursue a career in IT.The reason for this is surely not that IT has little to offer, or that it is too specialist, or even that it is boring, for it is none of these things. But this is how a lot of young people see it. Until we start doing something to change this perception, we will struggle to attract the requi ...