CompTIA Blog

In discussions with owners of small technology businesses we find, almost without exception, that growing their business is a top priority for this year. There is no shortage of information resources suggesting where the new business opportunities may be found. New technology products are introduced each month, novel partner programs are announced frequently and innovative services, such as security or cloud offerings, are outlined in the industry news each week. With all of these options, how d ...

Unless you are skier Bode Miller, who can apparently win the trifecta of Olympic medals with relatively little preparation, success requires hard work and lots of training. CompTIA’s recent study Government IT Buying Plans confirms that government IT professionals recognize the need for on-going training as an important step in ensuring success on the job.According to the survey of over 500 government IT decision makers, approximately 3 in 4 expect to invest in IT training in 2010. The data reve ...

Popular crime TV shows like CSI and Law and Order often portray fictional investigators discovering and using evidence in e-mails and other computer files when conducting investigations. While these shows often exaggerate and misrepresent the ease of electronic discovery, they have nevertheless sparked interest in the field.Digital forensics refers to a branch of forensic science pertaining to legal evidence found in computers and digital storage media. Closely associated with digital forensics, ...

Google announced plans to “build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.”  The gigabit fiber broadband service is expected to be available at “a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people,” according to Google’s official blog post on the subject.  The goal of this ambitious project is to foster development of new bandwidth intensive applications, to experiment with new broadband deployment strategi ...

In our first official Podcast, we interview CEO Todd Thibodeaux about the IT Industry and how business and members can get involved.[podcast]http://www.comptia.org/media/Todd_Thibodeaux_CompTIA_021110.mp3[/podcast] download the .mp3 file

Putting the “rubber to the road,” as the saying goes; the IT Services and Support Executive Forum meeting in Toronto spent the second half of the afternoon focused on new initiative discussions. Sticking to the CompTIA Communities philosophy of sharing ideas and industry experiences, attendees offered up a variety of potential programs and topics in this part of the meeting. These sessions provide an opportunity for attendees to submit subjects that matter to their business and the i ...

As mentioned in previous articles, managed IT services and managed print services are moving beyond the adoption cycle to become readily accepted by both providers and end users. The topic was a large part of the discussion at the IT Services and Support Executive Forum meeting in Toronto today, with discussions on the core business drivers and the opportunities that exist for the various players. Matt McLeish, Director of Field Sales and Managed Print Solutions at Parts Now! started his manag ...

It’s been a busy day so far at the IT Services and Support Executive Forum meeting in Toronto, as the group shifted into discussions on certification and initiatives updates, as well as a review of the new CompTIA Communities.Initiatives are central to many of the organization’s goals. CompTIA members have started a variety of industry programs to strengthen the services industry and promote the groups’ initiatives. One example of this is the Canadian OEM PDI+ adoption program, a unique initiati ...

As we honor black history this month, we find more African Americans entering the IT workforce, but are we doing enough as an industry?African Americans are finding tech career success, although they are still somewhat under-represented in the IT workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2008 calculated that approximately 574,000 African Americans worked in IT and related fields. African Americans make up roughly 12.5 percent of the entire U.S. population, compared to only 8.6 percent of the ...

MSPs, VARs, vendors and other service providers converged in Toronto this morning for a meeting of the IT Services and Support Executive Forum. Excitement among the attendees was very high, with many expressing optimism at 2010 business and revenue prospects. This economic confidence was supported by the keynote presenter, Sebastien Ruest, Vice President of IDC Services and Technology Research. His discussion, From Virtualization to Cloud: Dealing with the Changing Economics of IT focused ...

After several cycles of tough international economic conditions, CompTIA’s IT Services and Support Executive Forum will highlight the industry opportunities at its first 2010 meeting in Canada. The event will be held today, in Richmond Hill, Ontario, with many IT service leaders in attendance to discuss the emerging business trends and learn how the community can benefit from several new technologies. In addition, attendees will participate in workshops where current and new industry initi ...

It is hard to believe that a full decade has gone by from a time when fear, angst, and anxiety across many aspects of the channel was focused on the “what ifs” of Y2K. You would be hard pressed to pick up any publication and not see something about the Y2K situation. Here it is ten years later and, yes we survived Y2K, but there is a similar media storm these days about security as more vendors, channel partners, and end-users turn to the “cloud” for everything from storage/back up to financial ...

As the economy starts to turn around, one positive that can be taken from the economic downturn is that business executives see the value of IT increasing (according to a recent report from Accenture and the Economist). The majority of the executives questioned said that the economic downturn has increased awareness among business unit managers of the importance of the company’s IT objectives to the overall business.IT service executives have always understood the importance of IT to the busines ...

Something that has occupied a lot of my thinking lately is the development of an industry-wide standard for managed services.  No matter who I talk to, from large OEM manufactures to the smallest of service providers, each sees value in the development of a standard that clearly communicates an MSP’s managed services proficiency to their customers, partners and vendors.  A standard would significantly help promote managed services to end users, differentiate strong MSPs from the less qualified, ...

Pick up any technical journal, read any relevant blog, talk to any industry pundit and you can’t help but notice that there’s a lot of confusion in the cloud marketplace today.Vendors are telling customers that everything’s moving to “the cloud.” It’s better, faster, stronger, cheaper, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It’s the best solution for every IT problem, regardless of industry, and why would you even think of using anything else? Oh, and everybody’s using it. If hype is ...