CompTIA Blog

A look at the week of March 28 in public advocacy for the IT channel   The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has released a strategic plan to carry out mandates in the HITECH Act.  The Pentagon has revised its cyber budget and is now asking for an extra billion dollars to protect its networks.  Sen. Robert Menendez has sponsored an amendment asking the Obama Administration to study the 1099 repeal. Healthcare IT Strategic Plan Unveiled — A draft of the ...

Our Get IT Video Contest asked IT professionals who are CompTIA certified to submit a 60-second video about how they’ve used their CompTIA-certified skills to solve an IT problem, get a raise or a promotion or get a job. This social sweepstakes video contest was the first of its kind offered to the large pool of CompTIA certified individuals.Michael Sileno took 1st place in our Get IT video contest.Michael Sileno, owner and president of Stryker Computer Solutions in Greensboro, N.C., claimed the ...

Michael Sileno of Greensboro, NC, won first prize and $2,500 in the CompTIA Get IT Video contest. IT professionals had 60 seconds to show or tell how CompTIA certifications helped further their careers. “If it wasn’t for my CompTIA certifications, I would not be an IT professional,” Sileno said in his video. Scott Leppelman of Rio Rancho, NM, won second place and $1,500. You can watch all of the videos on the contest website. ...

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Karen Mills, discussed the importance of international markets and the types of hurdles small and medium size businesses (SMBs) face when exporting products or services.The export topic gets some “ink” periodically, but relative to other SMB topics, not much. Somewhat puzzling considering: 76 percent of global economic activity occurs outside of the United States. Granted, the U.S. economy is still ...

Our most involved and dedicated members head to Chicago next week for our Annual Member Meeting (AMM).  It’s our second year of bringing our members together and providing a forum for networking, education and community meetings.Members and non-members can attend, however members benefit with free online registration until March 29th.  Yes, that’s today, folks.  Haven’t registered yet?  Save yourself a few bucks and do so now!Once you register, take advantage of MyAMM.  It’s AMM’s own online com ...

The creator of a tool that made it easier to send and receive large volumes of data; a leader in bringing racial diversity to the IT industry; and the team that developed a credential that’s helped hundreds of thousands of people embark on careers in high-tech are the newest members of the IT Hall of Fame, administered by CompTIA.The IT Hall of Fame Class of 2011 includes the late Phil Katz, creator of the .ZIP file format, and Earl Pace, founder of Black Data Processing Associates. Both men wer ...

Winston Churchill once said, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it’s in the right direction.” How prophetic a statement that was, and continues to be in today’s IT channel. Almost every week an announcement touts a major acquisition or merger and, while some of these deals may seem inconsequential, the sum total of all these changes is altering the channel landscape significantly. Many of these corporate unions bring benefits for solution providers, such as more comprehensive solution and s ...

Our Annual Member Meeting, now in its second year, provides a forum for networking, educational sessions and member community meetings.  Attendees will brainstorm and problem-solve shared issues. Members and non-members can attend, however members benefit with free online registration until March 29th.What can you expect to see at AMM this year?  Community meetings and presentations across a full slate of verticals – from healthcare IT to cloud to unified communications.  Plus learn about our ne ...

Employment in the U.K. IT and telecom industry is set to grow at 5 times the national average over the next decade, playing a vital role in underpinning economic recovery.The research, Technology Insights 2011 by eSkills in January 2011, shows that demand for IT professionals has increased over the last year. 1.5 million people are currently employed in the IT workforce – equivalent to 1 in every 20 people employed in the U.K. This year alone, the IT and telecom workforce will require 110,000 ne ...

A look at the week of March 21 in public advocacy for the IT channel  This week, a comprehensive cybersecurity bill was introduced in the House.  Democrats plan to offer a different way to pay for the 1099 repeal.  Cyber attacks are both increasing in number and becoming more serious, according to a White House report.Rep. Langevin Introduces Cybersecurity Bill — Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) unveiled a comprehensive cybersecurity bill that would create a national office to coordinate responses to In ...

One thing the IT industry doesn't get enough credit for is the innovations it makes in its own business models and delivery. The IT industry is shockingly young compared to oil, transportation and other conglomerations, yet it may have gone through more variations than all the others combined. If the introduction of the personal computer into the business and consumer mainstream in the early 1980s marks the birth of the modern IT industry, for a 30-year-old, it's worn a lot of hats.The early '80 ...

Last month, CompTIA, in conjunction with the Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) and several regional tech associations, launched www.techvoice.org, a grassroots advocacy website focusing on the needs of members like you.The website is filled with news, blogs and other information about what’s going on in Washington, DC, and highlights specific issues affecting the industry.  Among the many useful items on TechVoice, one item stands out in particular: the TechVoice Legislative Resource ...

Over and over, MSPs and VARs ask me how to know when their clients can benefit from UC (unified communications). The answer is easy – and complex at the same time. First of all, ‘unified communications’ is not a product or a group of products. It is a strategy for integrating elements of voice, data, video, and mobility to provide solutions for a wide range of customer business issues and other organizational problems. Second, depending on the customer issue that is being addressed, a ‘UC soluti ...

When President Obama announced the formation of a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (Jobs Council) in January, CompTIA was alarmed that none of the 23 members appointed by the president currently run a small business. In response, CompTIA’s public policy team reached out to Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)  to share data on who makes up the IT industry and encourage her to contact the White House to ask that the Jobs Council include a representative from the small IT business community.  T ...

The global technology industry is extremely interconnected and depends on a number of “cogs” to work in synch. That becomes particularly evident when a catastrophe strikes a key world IT collaborator, as happened last week with the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. Our first and foremost concern is for the health and safety of all those affected, especially with the mass cleanup and overwhelming nuclear power plant issues the Japanese people are facing. This week’s column is a bit differ ...