CompTIA Blog

Apple iPads are popping up across the channel, but they won’t be alone. Other PCs are racing to get their tablets out to market. The question is whether tablets will displace PCs. It’s just one of the many issues solution providers and vendors in the channel are wrestling with this week. Beyond tablets, this post from Channel-Lands looks at the benefits of virtualization, increasing demand for custom servers and growing opportunities in professional services.iPad Cannibalizing Notebook SalesYou ...

In a week consumed with stories about burning Qurans and mosque protests in New York City, it was easy to overlook word of a new mass-mailing worm fouling in-boxes across corporate America. But could there be a connection between the prolific attack and the high-profile debates regarding Islam in the Unites States?The worm dubbed “Here You Have,” a nod to the subject line of the offending email, started rolling in on Thursday, Sept. 9, and quickly ensnared machines at corporate heavyweights such ...

Dell has taken the temperature of the healthcare market and has written a prescription for its five-inch Streak tablet as an electronic medical records solution. It’s part of Dell’s big push into healthcare with hardware, software and professional services solutions to digitize and support health care delivery. This is not an unusual strategy. Geoffrey Moore’s book “Crossing the Chasm” codified the wisdom of targeting vertical markets or similar-type companies to ...

There is nothing like watching a courtroom drama on TV when the prosecutor has the suspect on the ropes and is slowly wringing him in with the final line of questioning. Whether you’re a fan of Law & Order (insert your favorite version here), JAG or any other show with a legal theme, you likely root for the good guys to prevail in the end. When the situation occurs on television, it’s entertaining. But when you’re called into court to face criminal charges or answer a civil lawsuit in real l ...

Staff training is a key component to any successful business. But when budgets are tight, margins are razor thin, and sales are flat; where does the small business owner turn? Even in these challenging economic times, business owners need to make sure their team has access to relevant instructional content. CompTIA recognizes this need and is making every effort to assemble a comprehensive library of training materials from some of the leading industry experts—and all readily available in the Me ...

I’ve spent the week monitoring the Channel-Lands from afar in the Far East this past week. Honestly, I’ve been a bit disconnected between trying to keep up with a regular workload and taking in the sights and sounds of Shanghai and the surrounding countryside. Nevertheless, all of the headlines and drama of the channel back home have found me behind the Great Firewall of China. Here’s what tops my list for the stories of the week.Have You ‘Hurd’ about the HP-Oracle Drama?As we used to say in my ...

A look at the week of September 7, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channelThis week, a failure in Virginia computer networks points to huge system-wide vulnerabilities in every major company and government in the country.  The U.S. has fallen short in awarding contracts to small businesses.  Slow improvements in tech-sector hiring raise questions about the sustainability of future job growth in America. Broad Implications for Crash of Va. Computer Network – The failed data storage unit that ...

Dim news of the U.S. unemployment situation seems inescapable. The official unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent. Despite trillions (with a big T) of dollars spent on stimulus programs, the sluggishly recovering recession isn’t doing much to spur jobs creation.Comparatively speaking, the tech sector’s unemployment rate – roughly 6 percent – isn’t bad. During the depths of the recession, IT vendors shed tens of thousands of workers, and solution providers eliminated jobs as spending grounded t ...

Hewlett-Packard showed no signs of disorientation or cowardice once it engaged with Dell in the battle over 3Par, a cloud storage specialist. After 10 days of bidding and counteroffers, HP emerged with the prize, and Dell was left to contemplate its next move in building out enterprise and business-to-business offerings.What can we in the channel learn from this bidding war? Storage is hot, but that’s too easy. The bigger lesson is mergers and acquisitions are a tool for accelerating growth and ...

A look at the week of August 30, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channel The last week of August, a top Pentagon official confirmed a significant cybersecurity breach in which a flash drive was used to infect U.S. military computers.  A recent report touted the $100-billion Recovery Act as a major source of funding for healthcare IT.  Meanwhile, high tech-sector profits have translated into a frenzy of M&A rather than an increase in hiring.  And with elections approachin ...

Oracle’s outspoken CEO Larry Ellison publicly derides the term “cloud computing” regularly, most notably last January, when at an event detailing the closing of the Sun Microsystems’ acquisition he facetiously bellowed, “What does cloud computing mean? It's just computers, databases and networks. If I'm missing something, please tell me know!”Bluster aside; he’s onto something when it comes to definitions.CompTIA’s first research study on cloud computing is near completion, and one thing evident ...

The last week of summer is supposed to be lazy and quiet, and this past week in the Channel-Lands didn’t disappoint. Well, it was quiet with one exception in the ongoing HP-Dell rivalry. In fact, the quiet could actually signify something deeper brewing beneath the surface.PC Sales Rate Slow (or Is It?)Fears of a double-dip recession in the U.S. and Europe caused Gartner to revise its personal computer sales forecast for the second half of 2010. Originally, Gartner said PC sales would rise at th ...

Did you know CompTIA members can provide input on the design of our industry research studies? So not only are the reports available to you for free, we invite members to review and comment on all our studies. We want your input on the scope to help ensure you get the answers you need and we’ll take it any way we can get it; whether it be via email, council or community conference call, online community discussion forum, etc.Even if you are a regular visitor to the CompTIA Member Resource Center ...

In my late teens, I had the opportunity to travel with a friend to visit his family in Greece. The Greeks I met were friendly but curious about my origins and would often ask (translated by my Greek-speaking friend) if I was American. I would smile and respond “no, I’m Canadian.” Most of them would smile politely and move on but, on one occasion, a man stopped dead in his tracks and exclaimed, “Canadian, American: what’s the difference?” After I took the time to explain that Canada and the US we ...

On Capitol Hill, Congress is loosely debating the merits of nearly three dozen different pieces of cybersecurity legislation. These bills would impose new requirements for disclosing security breaches, guaranteeing the privacy of individual citizens and giving the government new powers in defending critical infrastructure and prosecuting a cyberwar.To date, the federal government has about a dozen or more cybersecurity laws on the books and scores more that address cybercrime and hacking. All bu ...