CompTIA Blog

The CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) certification is now included in the U.S. Department of Defense 8570.01-M program for information assurance personnel.

Interest is growing in the "Marketplace Fairness Act" recently introduced in the House by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) (H.R. 684) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) (S. 336). This legislation would require businesses to collect and remit state sales taxes on sales of goods and services made into other states. For states that have a sales tax, the Marketplace Fairness Act is a good thing. But for businesses, this legislation will result in additional compliance costs, and these costs will dis ...

This entry comes from guest blogger Mike Morton, CIO/VP Emedia at Diversified Business Communications Canada and group event director for iTech2013. Canada’s largest IT infrastructure conference and exhibition series – the iTech2013 Conference – is coming to Toronto on May 16th at the International Centre. Bringing together premier vendors, exhibitors, speakers and specialists for a day of learning, networking and experimentation, this year’s conference promises to be the ...

One of the biggest reasons why entrepreneurs join industry associations is to gain access to a variety of business improvement resources and educational programs that would be costly to recreate or purchase on their own. Those business tools and best practices are particularly hard to come by in the IT channel, and the expense of tailoring them to meet the specific needs of even a well-established solution provider can be quite prohibitive. CompTIA not only recognizes those challenges, but colla ...

Congress failed to pass major cyber-security reform during the 2012 legislative session. In the Senate, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pushed the “Secure Act of 2012” to a floor vote, but failed to get the necessary votes. In the House, Republican Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) advocated for a cyber-security reform through a series of individual bills as opposed to one comprehensive bill as a step toward enhancing America’s defenses on cyber-securit ...

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 ...

It’s been a few weeks now and that check engine light is still illuminated on your dashboard. Your car seems to be working just fine, but that little orange reminder is nagging at you to get your car checked out. Who do you take your car to? Mechanic A looks good enough, but can you really trust him? Mechanic B looks just as good as the first, but he has an official designation of quality – something you know means his business will be efficient and honest. It’s no brainer &nda ...

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 ...

Last week, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in a case brought by Amazon and Overstock.com that non-resident sellers offering products through a New York website will be required to collect New York sales taxes on sales made into the state. This collection requirement would apply even though the out-of-state business has no other presence in the state. In its ruling, the court analogized selling through a New York-based website to having a physical present in the state: “ … if a v ...

The ongoing convergence of IT and telecom technologies, as well as the decision-making preferences of the customer, continue to drive more partnerships between traditional IT channel firms and the telecom agent channel. Both communities are looking to provide customers with an end-to-end solution encompassing both telecom and IT and have found that joining forces and blending skill-sets can be an efficient way to achieve this aim. That’s the conclusion of many respondents to CompTIA and Ch ...

People typically buy from those they trust and most industries recognize the companies that do more to earn that type of confidence from their customers. Perhaps that’s why business credentials have become more prominent in the IT community, with solution providers and vendors looking for new ways to validate the processes they put in place to offer top-quality services and products. After all, few accolades speak as loudly to current and prospective customers and other business partners as an e ...

Tracy Bicknell-Holmes, professor and engineering librarian at University of Nebraska-Lincoln created an online image management microsite for UNL students and staff, but it's publicly available and you can use it to. Clicking through the tabs of Bicknell-Holmes' website, you will find: Slide, audio and video presentations about managing your online presence by a wide variety of experts Direct links to multiple search engines (including Twitter, Dogpile, Google Blogs, Social Mention, and beyond ...

Congressman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) has prepared a draft data breach notification bill that serves as the best effort this year to eliminate the patchwork of state data breach notification laws. The bill would require “entities that acquire, maintain, store or utilize personal information” to report a data breach of customer information within 14 days of the breach. An entity that provides customer notice would be considered in compliance with the proposed rule.The proposed rule also would impose ...

Earning the CompTIA A+ certification is an accomplishment in itself. But Mary Ellen Foye went above and beyond that goal, earning perfect scores on both tests. This puts her in the top 2% of CompTIA A+ certified professionals.