CompTIA Blog

The Obama Administration’s Small Business Jobs Act is kicking in $5M for a small business mentoring program. The Small Business Administration is providing grants ranging from $250K to $500K for organizations to provide support and mentoring for small businesses.  The deadline for submitting grant applications is April 11, and the grant recipients will be announced soon after the deadline. The program is open to profit and non-profit organizations that have at least three years of national exper ...

The National Institute for Science and technology announced its next cloud workshop scheduled for April 7-8 in Gaithersburg, MD. Last year NIST convened a series of workshops on cloud computing to develop a roadmap for federal agencies to migrate to the cloud.Specifically, NIST stated, “Federal CIOs need and want answers to practical operational questions. How does an agency protect its data if it doesn’t physically control the hardware and software used to store, transport and process the data? ...

Yesterday, the Senate Science Commerce and Transportation Committee held a hearing on the “State of Online Privacy”.  This was the first of two heating hearings focused on whether additional legislation was needed to protect consumers from how companies manage consumer data collected online. There were was testimony from several private, not-for-profit and federal agency stakeholders. Senator Kerry plans to introduce a bill sometime soon, which he hopes will solve several issues: Websites sellin ...

A look at the week of March 14 in public advocacy for the IT channel   This week, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) will try to pass 1099 repeal legislation as part of an authorization bill to fund the Small Business Administration (SBA).  Industry groups are urging the government to forgo cybersecurity legislation in favor of public-private incentives and cooperation.  New studies on implementing electronic health information systems suggest that the technology benefits healthcare professionals.Johanns ...

Do you remember the days when the IT channel consisted simply of companies reselling hardware and software to customers? While a number of organizations still provide that service—and make money doing it—the overall technology market has changed significantly. These traditional transactions have become more of a commodity these days, as prices and margins declined with customers shopping online and purchasing directly from vendors to get what they believe is the best value. While t ...

Since last June, the CompTIA Educational Foundation has been focused on becoming a more effective organization in the effort to find underserved populations lasting careers in the IT industry. Through research on our own program’s outcomes and studying the work of other non-profits and government organizations involved in workforce development, we found that our foundation was not achieving the level of job placement that was possible in other programs. We moved quickly to improve those numbers. ...

A look at the week of March 7 in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, the House voted to repeal the 1099 requirement, but the Congressional debate is far from over.  The interim spending bill passed by Congress cuts Department of Homeland Security (DHS) network security programs by $20 million. The federal government is evaluating its cybersecurity staffing needs and potential plans for an increase in personnel.  1099 Repeal: Not Over Yet — Although the House joined the Senate in voting ...

Successful small businesses that grow into medium-sized and large businesses are the key to this country’s future, President Barack Obama told an Ohio audience last week at the “Winning the Future Forum on Small Business”. “When our small businesses do well, America does well,” Obama said.  Standing at the intersection of the small business community and healthcare information technology (HIT), many of our nation’s small IT firms will continue to be c ...

When you started your IT services business, did you have a detailed document that walked you through best practices and alerted you to the pitfalls you could encounter along the way? If your experience was similar to that of most VARs and MSPs I know, the answer would be a resounding NO! Most of the successful entrepreneurs in the IT channel built their businesses the old fashioned way; through trial and error. While there are a number of reasons why most companies fail, those who receive advice ...

After uneven gains in 2010, our market research points to an improving landscape for the global IT industry in 2011. We project industry growth of four percent, with upside potential of slightly over six percent. This equates to approximately $1.5 trillion in global sales of IT hardware, software and services, according to the research firm IDC. Add in the telecommunications sector to cover the full breadth of information technology, and the industry scales to a $3 trillion economic and innovati ...

We have the privilege of working in one of the best industries in the world. The IT channel is dynamic and it’s always changing. Most of us who run a VAR, solution provider, managed service provider—or whatever label you want to use—company are typically not born business people.Most of us are technology-oriented, whether through formal training or experience, typically getting into the business from the IT side. Over the years, we force ourselves to learn what we need to know in order to succes ...

Economic growth covers up a lot of warts, but when growth isn't there, those blemishes start to look pretty ugly. Elected officials at the federal, state and local level are beginning to wipe the steam off the bathroom mirror and they aren't liking the options staring back at them.Everyone is better at managing when times are going gangbusters. Really, how difficult was it to manage the U.S. economy in the second half of the 1990s? The economy was growing at near emerging market rates. Federal a ...

While the process of answering the phone hasn’t changed a lot over the years, the technology behind the call has transformed significantly—especially for businesses. Efficiency and productivity are being taken to new heights with the latest unified communications (UC) solutions, connecting a myriad of applications and account management platforms to reduce the time required to manage customer calls. Both the technology and business applications continue to advance, which was confirmed by two of ...

A look at the week of February 28 in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, discussions over government funding led to a reconsideration of essential security personnel.  The House is scheduled to consider stand-alone 1099 legislation.  Funding for electronic medical records (EMRs) may be threatened in budget cuts. Looming Government Shutdown Redefines Essential Personnel — The threat of a government shutdown has forced cybersecurity experts to reevaluate which employe ...

I love the TechRepublic website, and my last Monday morning’s reading included Jack Wallen’s “10 Reasons for Quitting IT” article. Lots of comments and suggestions—some of them humorous like farming and Buddhist monk, etc., but some of them observations from some pretty frustrated IT folks. As someone who has moved around for most of his IT career (production manager in database/imaging service bureau, IT manager, CIO in several places, storage industry executive leadership, now working for Comp ...