Seth Robinson's Posts

Security may not be as hyped as other tech trends like cloud computing, mobility or Big Data, but several CompTIA research studies have shown that it remains a top priority for businesses among a wide range of IT initiatives. However, that may not necessarily translate into businesses having a robust security posture or knowing which steps to take as they explore new technology models. CompTIA’s Eleventh Annual Information Security Trends study examines the areas that may need closer atten ...

As major trends like cloud computing, mobility and Big Data continue to dominate technology headlines and channel discussions; there are a number of interesting developments taking place at other levels of the technology universe. Improvements to the most basic building blocks of IT have enabled today’s trends, and tomorrow’s trends will be fueled by the pioneering improvements currently underway: Computing: The end of Moore’s Law has been predicted for at least a decade, but m ...

Two new iPhones are being released today, triggering lines at Apple stores, a flurry of reviews on tech blogs, and fresh battle lines being drawn between the Apple faithful and the critics. The iPhone 5c is last year’s model with some slight improvements repackaged in colorful shells. While it was not the low-cost iPhone many expected, the fresh coat of paint serves marketing purposes and some are guessing that this is Apple’s way of capturing a demographic that is moving from iPods ...

Just as channel firms are finding new models of operations within a cloud paradigm, end-user businesses are moving through a series of changes that lead from early experiments to a fully transformed approach to IT. With 90 percent of businesses claiming some form of cloud usage, adoption ranges from those late entrants just starting to test the waters to early adopters who have moved full-production systems or even business-critical applications into the cloud. Beyond born-in-the-cloud companies ...

On Thursday, Microsoft announced a huge reorganization and shift in mission. This article covering the announcement is a long read, but well worth it to gain some insight into what Microsoft thinks is important in a technology landscape that has been transformed since the PC-centric era that Microsoft helped usher in and maintain over the past 20 years. There are several interesting aspects of the re-alignment, especially for channel partners who base a great deal of business on Microsoft system ...

In the wake of Tim Cook’s appearance at D11, technology pundits are eagerly dissecting his speaking points to determine what might be happening at Apple. There is more than a little disappointment being voiced, primarily because people are wondering when Apple – or anyone – is going to change the world again. What’s missing from all the analysis is the recognition that the world may not drastically change in the near future; that technology in general is maturing rather t ...

One of the biggest recent shifts in technology is that the consumer has become the prime driver for much of the innovation, with businesses either being secondary beneficiaries or rapidly dealing with consumer-focused solutions championed by the users. Nowhere is this more evident than with mobility, and CompTIA’s Second Annual Trends in Enterprise Mobility study sheds some light on this dynamic space. One of the primary implications of enterprise mobility is that IT professionals can no l ...

The stated theme of Cloud Connect may have been cloud as a platform, but the unofficial theme became the necessary transformation of the IT function. And while there were two dubious quotes from the conference on Wednesday, a quote from Thursday perfectly summed up this new theme: “Virtualization is a technology; cloud computing is a business model.” Viewing cloud computing as a technology leads to the impression that it can be bought and implemented into an existing business flow. A ...

On Wednesday at the Cloud Connect conference, I heard two statements presented that I didn’t quite agree with. The first was that “cloud is nothing new.” I’ve heard this statement before, and I think people who make it are mostly trying to make the point that client/server architectures have existed before. That much is true, but there is clearly something new about cloud computing, and I believe that something is the amount of disintermediation that has taken place. Many ...

The theme for Cloud Connect in Santa Clara this week is the growth of cloud as a platform for building IT solutions. In some ways, this means that cloud becomes a secondary consideration behind the specific solutions being built. John O’Farrell, general partner with Andreessen Horowitz, said the venture capital firm frequently takes cloud for granted as it evaluates investment options, a sentiment that was also shared by CompTIA in our 2013 IT Industry Outlook. As a platform, cloud computi ...