CompTIA Blog

President Obama signed the Small Business Lending Bill (HR 5297) into law.  At a total cost of $42 billion, this legislation aims to assist small businesses through both increased access to capital and tax benefits; it also includes an assortment of trade and contracting provisions.  The predominant access to capital provisions are a Small Business Lending Fund, a State Capital Access Program and increased limits for some SBA loans. The $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund (to be administered ...

In ordinary years, 2010 would go down as a relatively good year in the IT market. Market analysts say IT spending will increase roughly 3.5 percent. Not bad, considering nearly 40 percent of that money flows through the channel. And the expectation is IT spending will continue to rise in 2011.Check out these fresh numbers. According to a survey of the Society of Information Management, 38 percent of IT managers say their spending will increase over this year’s expenditures. Overall, 72 percent s ...

In case you haven’t heard, the recession is over. While many of us are still feeling the pinch of economic contraction, there are several sectors where there’s growth for the channel, in particular with SMB and communications. And that’s the focus of this week’s Channel-Lands: vendors and entire sectors are seeing opportunities in SMB sales, converged communications and cloud computing. Here’s this week’s scoop.SMBs to the Recession RescueChannel-lands can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that e ...

It was a busy day at the Canadian IT Services and Support Community meeting, with a host of educational sessions, followed by hands-on workshop sessions to advance group initiatives. The day started out with a keynote on social media for business, generating a day-long discussion among attendees, followed by interactive sessions on cloud business opportunities, print management and an overview on warranty fraud issues.Cloud computing is an attractive solution for businesses, whether small or lar ...

Our U.S.-based CompTIA executives finished up a world tour this month which focused, in part, on how IT certification is advancing on the global stage.  They found that CompTIA’s set of Strata certificates get a warm reception abroad.CompTIA's Strata program offers fundamental-to-advanced certificates that validate a wide range of subjects in IT. Students and professionals holding a Strata certificate demonstrate that they have the knowledge required to enter and excel in IT and technology-relat ...

Each year, businesses are required to provide a Form 1099 to any individual or unincorporated entity to whom that business paid $600 or more for services. Payments for services to corporations are exempted.  This reporting requirement was intended to bring independent contractors into compliance.  Of course the reasoning was that if payments are reported to the IRS, the recipient will be (much) more likely to report those same payments as income.  So, for now, a Form 1099 is required to be filed ...

Is social media a boondoggle or a valuable marketing tool for your business? That’s the question many solution providers have asked since these sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter came on the scene. The attitude of many business executives is, “If you can’t provide tangible results, what good is it?” Attendees of the CompTIA Canadian IT Services and Support Community in Toronto found several answers to that question with a deep dive discussion into the opportunities available with thes ...

IT solution providers see green IT – the art of making data centers and computing devices more energy efficient and eco-friendly – as a potential boon for business. As energy costs rise and resources constrict, they are being called upon to consolidate rack space, create less power hungry data centers and install better cooling systems. While being “green” is often a derivative of smart IT projects, it is nonetheless a differentiator for solution providers who can deliver.Ah, but is being green ...

Just prior to Super Bowl III, Joe Namath famously guaranteed “we’re gonna win the game, I guarantee it,” in response to taunts from a particularly loud Colt’s fan.  Johnny Sample, the Jets defensive captain, reflecting on Joe’s rash promise said “…we all thought we'd win the game. We had studied film on the Colts and we were really confident. But to make a guarantee?” The rest of the story is history; under enormous pressure, Joe Namath delivered on his promise and brought both the AFL and the J ...

A look at the week of September 20, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channelThis week, the Senate passed the Small Business Jobs Act to open credit to small businesses and create incentives to promote expansion and hiring.  Meanwhile, the government has made little progress in implementing a plan to address cybersecurity threats a year after President Obama made it a national priority.  Tech hiring is on the rise, possibly indicating the start of a broader upward trend in hiring.  Representat ...

2010 has been an exciting, if not challenging year for many IT businesses, though the outlook and trends are very positive. Providers and vendors are not only growing their sales pipeline and generating additional services revenue, but several are making acquisitions to strengthen their market position and portfolios. There are countless changes taking place in the IT industry and keeping track of all the new business trends and market opportunities can be extremely difficult. How does the old s ...

Selecting a vendor partner can be an exasperating process for a small business. When you consider the number of manufacturers and software providers clamoring for your attention, and the potential for wasted unbillable time, one might make the comparison to managing telemarketers. I have one friend who was so tired of repeated calls to his home from carpet cleaning companies that he would tell them “no thanks – we have dirt floors.” While this may be a satisfying response in the heat of the mome ...

Many people believe cloud computing is changing everything about the way we use IT. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some solutions coming to fore in the cloud are tools and services that have been around for some time. Take for instance the new authentication services offered by Google and Microsoft.In June 2009, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone was shocked to discover sensitive business documents of the microblogging service were compromised. An investigation revealed Twitter’s sys ...

On January 24th 1848, James Marshall found gold while working on Sutter’s Mill in northern California.  Word of this discovery spread quickly throughout the state, then extended like wildfire to the rest of the country and the world. It wasn’t long before everyone in the free world understood that fortunes could be made mining for gold in California. The result was an influx of treasure hunters who increased the population of this formerly remote area by as many as 86,000 p ...

A look at the week of September 14, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channelThis week, the Senate voted to move forward with the Small Business Jobs Act, providing increased loans, programs and tax cuts for small business.  Meanwhile, a growing demand for technology services and electronics is stabilizing tech-heavy metro regions even as the broader economy risks a double-dip.  Although cybersecurity legislation has been listed as a priority for Congress, its passage is far from certain.Small ...