CompTIA Blog

Building solid relationships with customers, partners and prospects and being responsive to their needs are critical factors in moving a small IT services business into a firm that’s expanding and growing. Panelists delivered that message here Monday during a meeting of the CompTIA Small Business Owners Community.“It’s definitely relationships,” said Steve Murphy, IT director for Caltrol, a Las Vegas-based provider of industrial process automation services, when asked about the biggest factor in ...

Working in Western Australia more than a decade ago, Michael Boughton was more committed to working on the land than LAN. A family man in his early 30s, Boughton was working as a farm technician, harvesting crops and maintaining 5,000 head of sheep. That changed when his boss handed him an old, secondhand computer. In no time, a new hobby was born, eventually spilling into classes, part-time and full-time work. "I saw that you didn't have to be a guru to work in the computer industry, espec ...

2012 is rumored as the tipping point for cloud. For the last four to five years, we have heard that cloud (Internet-delivered solutions) is about to go mainstream, however, this year it is not the hype, but real user benefits that are driving adoption.What do I mean by this? Well people are not going out looking for cloud-based solutions (“I want some cloud”), instead they are looking for a solution to a real problem. Some users are unknowingly using a cloud-based solution (either in their busin ...

The IT channel’s premier education event is less than a week away and the industry’s top product and solution vendors are excited to showcase their new products and mingle with their channel peers at the ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.More than 125 IT firms are expected to be present at the Technology Vendor Fair during Breakaway 2012, set for July 30 through August 2. Several of the IT companies have begun to preview their plans for the event. They include:•ChannelCloud will spotlight its ...

There’s one key reason that VoIP solutions of the past were slow to gain traction in many markets: they were often presented as a simple and cost-effective replacement systems for traditional phone service. While the traditional early adopters and some of those implementing new service were willing to make the leap, there wasn’t a real value proposition for others to make a switch. If current phone services were working well, few businesses were willing to experiment with something as critical a ...

Last week leadership of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a copy of the revised “Cybersecurity Act of 2012,” which is the latest draft bill aimed at reforming cybersecurity laws and regulations.Yesterday, Senator Reid’s office stated that the bill would be up for a floor vote this week.  Senators Lieberman, Rockefeller, Collins and Snowe, among others, worked diligently behind the scenes to move the bill forward by securing bipartisan support for the bill ...

We’ve studied the cloud computing market for three years. Our inaugural study focused on gauging the marketplace and defining cloud concepts, and the second study explored early adoption trends among end-users and channel firms. With the 3rd Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study, CompTIA examines a maturing market and the changes that are taking place not only for IT but also for business in general.The cloud market is expected to continue its rapid growth path. Gartner projects that total clou ...

The big C when it comes to cloud for the channel is “conflict.” I have been presenting and visiting partners around Europe for the past several years and listening to the opinions and input from vendors, VARs, resellers, MSPs, ISPs and a variety of channels by varying name definitions, and one thing is for sure, the cloud has certainly stimulated debate.Whether it is concern, nervousness, confusion or mistrust, a lot of negative feelings have been generated in the channel by the C word. And yet ...

Techopedia recently interviewed Carol Balkcom, CompTIA Director of Product Management, about security certification. Balkcom discussed the topics covered in CompTIA's two security certifications, as well as differences between CompTIA certifications and others in the market. See what she said. ...

Within the corridors of one of Japan's top technical consulting firms, a new skills training program is producing whiplash-fast results for those involved. At the heart of this initiative is a core belief in the value of CompTIA A+ certification. In the past year, the client services division of MicroMates, which provides IT equipment support for Ricoh Technosystems, implemented the "skills map" program to boost staff knowledge through a four-pronged focus on practical skills, communication ...

Recently, CompTIA and the Congressional Caucus on Small Business IT held a briefing on the issue of lagging interest in IT-related careers by our nation’s youth. A group of concerned representatives from CompTIA, Congress and a panel of IT, education and small business experts set out to frame the issue and offer possible solutions. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), the co- chair of the Congressional Caucus on Small Business IT, gave opening remarks, discussing the IT industry’ ...

While CompTIA’s Breakaway has nearly a 30-year history in the channel, it is truly breaking new ground, offering the industry a powerful channel event, unlike any other -- and the industry is responding in a big way!  With the event just a week away (July 29 – Aug. 1 at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas),  CompTIA is looking forward to welcoming more than a thousand channel executives from solution provider, vendor, distributor, media and other channel organizations.   Breaking away from ...

Interest is growing in requiring all remote sellers to collect and remit sales taxes for products and services sold from State A to State B.  For a number of years, states have been concerned over the loss of revenue resulting from their inability to enforce payment of use taxes by residents who purchase products and services from an out of state vendor.  The solution around which most are rallying is to require out of state sellers to collect and remit the applicable tax, even if that business ...

When it comes to locking down your customers’ networks and critical data, the end goal is to prevent any intrusions or information loss. Obviously, with all the nefarious characters wreaking havoc on the Internet and sharing ideas on how to penetrate the various security measures that businesses (and individuals) employ, that’s objective is getting harder to accomplish. For every new threat prevention method, the bad guys seem to create multiple ways to get around them. It’s more than a game to ...

Takeaway of the week is it's hard to know who, or what, to trust. The future is bright for the IT job market. No, it's not. Oh yes, it is. Wait, maybe some of it is sunny and other parts are cloudy. No wonder the weather reporter always takes a beating from the public. Survey Says: Sunny Days for IT Job Seekers If you're equipped with IT training and in need of employment, consider yourself luckier than most job seekers, according to a new survey. More than half of the respondents to Career ...