Steven Ostrowski Posts

Trust can and should be the greatest asset an organization can have, Stephen M.R. Covey, author The Speed of Trust, Smart Trust and other best-selling books, told attendees at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting Wednesday.“Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust,” Covey said in his keynote speech.” It’s not just trust as a social virtue. Rather, it’s an economic driver that can make a profound difference in your business. It’s an idea whose time has come.”When there is a low trust, everything tak ...

Small IT businesses are more successful when they focus on generating demand and nurturing leagues rather than focusing on managing demand. That was one of the messages delivered today during a meeting of the CompTIA Small Business Owners Community.The group, which focuses on the development of best practices, business fundamental education and resources for emerging IT businesses with fewer than 20 employees, met this week at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting.“We go out there and fix immediate ...

The shortage of skilled information technology (IT) workers is fast approaching a critical point where it could negatively impact industry growth and prosperity. That dire message was delivered today by speakers on an IT workforce panel at CompTIA Colloquium, the annual gathering of leaders in the IT training and certification industry.  The current supply of skilled IT workers in the United States is simply not enough, said Tania Lavin, market research manager, Allegis Group Inc. She cited ...

The shortage of skilled information technology (IT) workers is fast approaching a critical point where it could negatively impact industry growth and prosperity. That dire message was delivered today by speakers on an IT workforce panel at CompTIA Colloquium, the annual gathering of leaders in the IT training and certification industry. The current supply of skilled IT workers in the United States is simply not enough, said Tania Lavin, market research manager, Allegis Group Inc. She cited a r ...

IT solution providers need to do their homework – especially when it comes to security – if they plan to do business in the cloud computing market.“You need to educate yourselves on what your cloud provider is including or not including in a service level agreement,” advised Wendy Frank, president, Accell Security Inc. “Customers are going to rely on you. You need to understand what’s included and what happens if something goes wrong.”Frank spoke today at a meeting of the CompTIA Cloud / SaaS Co ...

Cybersecurity experts at the CompTIA Tech Summit today shared a chilling scenario of the current threat level in the world of mobile devices and applications"Right now mobile security is a pretty dicey place," said Andrew Hoog, chief investigative officer, viaForensics. "It's too much for an IT department to take on, but it's too big an issue to ignore. It's a massive hole.""The numbers of users, devices and applications are massive," said Brian Contos, director, global security and risk managem ...

Security considerations in a cloud computing universe are real, but not much different than the threats organizations wrestle with today in a traditional networking environment."This is not a new set of issues," said Ellen Rubin, founder, CloudSwitch. "The issues are the same that you have in your own internal environment."Rubin was one of the speakers on a "Security and Cloud Migration" panel at the inaugural CompTIA Tech Summit, co-located with CompTIA Breakaway 2011.Just like in-house IT depa ...

The market for mobile devices and applications is a 21st century version of the Wild West where technology solution providers can strike it rich by bringing law and order to the technology frontier.“There are not a lot of standards,” Bill Taylor, president, Panasonic Systems Networks Company of America, said during a mobility trends industry panel discussion Wednesday at CompTIA Breakaway 2011. “You’ve got this Wild West of multipurpose devices.”What’s needed, especially by business users, is so ...

The IT solution provider companies best positioned for future success are the ones that take a hybrid approach to customers, combining traditional product sales and support with new offerings in managed services, cloud computing and customized application development.That’s the collective view of four IT industry analysts who spoke Wednesday at CompTIA Breakaway 2011.“We believe the hybrid model will be here for the next 10 to 15 years, a combination of on-premise equipment with elements of clou ...

IT solution providers would be wise to leave discussions about bits, bytes, speeds and feeds at the front door and instead engage customers in conversations on how to solve business challenges, executive from four top IT vendors advised Breakaway 2011 attendees.“The money is in understanding the domain the end-user is living in,” said Mike deVente, vice president, North America channels, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. “What are they trying to accomplish? Bring the solution to the proble ...