Todd Thibodeaux Posts

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 ...

The fluidity of the regulatory, political and economic environment has reached a point where the amount of uncertainty at play in making everyday business decisions has reached a critical level. Terms on contracts, healthcare for employees, the very viability of your customers and more, are really up in the air. The global economy thrives on certainty. It’s one of the reasons, historically, we’ve seen strong economic growth during periods that mixed a multitude of different variables in differen ...

CompTIA is committed to doing its part in training the tech workforce of tomorrow. As the leading global source of vendor-neutral IT certifications we have a big responsibility. Since the initiation of CompTIA’s programs more than 10 years ago a large part of our focus has been on adult learning. Working with our training partners CompTIA has certified more than 1.2 million people helping them start or transition into a new career.Over the coming months and years we will be placing a larger emph ...

With the launch of the CLEAR WiMAX network in select US cities we’re going to begin to understand what kinds of applications true mobile broadband can begin to power. And whether it ends up being WiMAX, Long Term Evolution (LTE a competitor to WiMAX), or new hybrids yet to emerge in the big spectrum chunk left open by the US transition to HDTV earlier this year, wireless applications are going to open up significant opportunities for MSPs and VARs. Here’s a few ways I think those opportunities w ...

Looking back over the IT news from 2009, I’m struck by a handful of shifts and trends that will have a lasting impact on the IT industry. Here are my top five: The financial meltdown – what started as a panic at the end of 2008 ran well into 2009 with companies laying off staff and seeing some of their worst quarters in history during the first six months of the year. While the banking system has become more stable, credit is still at a trickle. Mergers to add services – Dell, HP, Xerox and othe ...

So much of the Green IT revolution is yet to be defined and I’m not even sure we’ve really gotten started. We’re beginning to get a good handle on how to market and sell software as a service (SaaS) while managed services and cloud computing are becoming less foggy. However, the Green IT revolution has lagged behind. Here are some of the reasons for this:Green IT has a lot of moving pieces and dependencies – In the broadest sense Green IT will include the power grid, smart buildings, telepresenc ...

I was recently on Capitol Hill talking with staffers on both sides of the aisle whose job it is to focus on legislation impacting small businesses. To their credit they are always open to the feedback and ideas of the small business community so we had many opportunities to tell the same disappointing story.As the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was being drafted and put into law our industry was supportive. It wasn’t a perfect bill by any stretch, but there were enough reasons to ...

The channel is embracing social media in a number of ways and not just for staying in touch with partners or vendors but for commerce as well! As your industry trade association, if we’re going to help you make sense of it all we need to get onboard too.Things are changing at CompTIA to better serve our members and the channel as a whole. And while I welcome your calls, emails and notes on any topic this blog will hopefully provide you the chance to stay up-to-date on a more regular basis.I invi ...

There’s no doubt the global IT industry can churn out the news. We’re inundated with news sites, blogs, magazines and opinions on a daily basis. CompTIA has been doing its part to help make sense of it all through our daily SmartBrief newsletter (click here to subscribe) launched several months ago. In a very short time, SmartBrief has seen its audience grow from zero to some 50,000. Subscribers like it because it brings all their favorite sites and feeds together in one easy to use format right ...

I’m just back from the wildly successful CompTIA EMEA Member Conference in the UK where I was struck by how green everything was– and I’m not just talking about the lush landscape. The Green movement was evident everywhere in the UK, from things as simple as switched outlets and compact florescent lighting everywhere, to motion sensing escalators that “sleep” to conserve power and mirrored ceiling panels that reflect light and heat into the stands of the Ascot Racecourse where the event was held ...