CompTIA Blog

When we talk of our Breakaway conference and the slew of educational sessions we offer, most people normally think we’re talking education for solution providers.  More than 350 VARs are expected to attend Breakaway this August in Washington, D.C., but the conference is for the entire IT channel, not just the VARs. New at Breakaway this year, our Understanding Your Partners’ Business track includes four sessions to help vendors and distributors understand how their partners run their own busines ...

For years now, Congress has kicked the subject of tax reform down the road.  Even so, most everyone is in agreement that the tax laws and regulations are too complex, that the system is inefficient, and that compliance costs are too high. The last major tax reform occurred in the 1980s.  Lessons to draw from that exercise are that any industry – including technology – must be prepared to analyze and advocate when major legislative proposals are being developed. Last year, the President’s Commiss ...

I am an extremely mobile and well-equipped executive. On a recent trip to South Korea, I carried an iPhone 4, two Android phones, an Apple Mac Book Pro, a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, an iPad 2, a Microsoft Zune media player, an iPod Touch, a CLEAR WiMax modem, a Verizon 4G LTE modem, Sprint 3G hotspot and last but not least a Verizon/Motorola Zoom tablet and a Amazon Kindle e-book reader.You might be asking yourself why would someone carry so many pieces that do similar things? Well my answer is you ...

Last week Senators Kerry and McCain introduced the “Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights”.  The purpose of the bill is to impose stricter guidelines for the collection, storage and transmission of consumer data.  If enacted into law the bill would require the following: Companies that collect consumer data would have requirements for ensuring that the information is protected and secure. Companies would have to provide more robust notice requirements prior to sharing consumer information with third ...

At the direction of Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the United States, the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) is pushing the federal government to the cloud computing finish line with the near completion of a roadmap to assist federal agencies moving to a cloud computing environment.NIST is helping to translate mission requirements into technical portability, interoperability, reliability, maintainability and security requirements.  The roadmap document is the mecha ...

Spring is wafting through the windows.  Summer will be here before we know it.  It’s time to plan out your summer travels.  Between trips to the beach and hanging by the pool, there’s one trip you need to take to keep your business running at top efficiency.  CompTIA Breakaway.  It’s the premier education event for companies doing business in the IT channel.More than 1,100 IT channel leaders – including some 350 solution providers – are expected at Breakaway 2011, which for the first time will b ...

This week Verizon released results from its annual IT security study conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Secret Service and the Netherlands Policy Agency. The study found that while penetrations increased to a record high 760 in 2010, the number of records compromised in the process fell dramatically to around 4 million from 144 million in 2009.  While hacking and malware continue to make up the largest chunks of the problem, physical intrusions such as compromising and ATM were up sharply.Bu ...

Alexander Irigoyen Alexander Irigoyen 
 Network Administrator, Lockheed Martin Which exams have you helped develop? CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Storage+, CompTIA Security+, and the new CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) exam. How did you get into IT? IT was my MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in the Marines. Following boot camp, I was sent to a 36 week technical school and I have been working in IT ever since. Semper Fi! What do you do for your day job? ...

A look at the week of April 18 in public advocacy for the IT channel   This week, President Obama signed the bill repealing the much-debated 1099 tax provision.  The federal government will be closing a third of its data centers and shifting agency programs to the cloud in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency.  Farzad Mostashari, the new health IT coordinator, is beginning his position in a much different political environment than his predecessor and faces signif ...

Research, data, statistics, opinions, insights, trends... What aspects of CompTIA’s industry research provide value to you? In an effort to make your job easier, CompTIA research analysts work diligently every year to provide numerous studies that yield reams of valuable data. Incorporating statistics into your sales proposals and other collateral lends both content and credibility to your projects and can help you close business – especially if the data is from a third-party, vendor-neutral sou ...

CompTIA is looking for healthcare IT subject matter experts to help create a new exam. We are looking for IT professionals with four years of experience in healthcare IT, with at least two years in practice workflow and information management. That could include redesigning workflow in a healthcare facility, integrating IT functions into workflow design, documenting health information exchange needs or accommodating quality improvements and reporting. A workshop to start creating the exam will ...

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified electronic health records (EHR) technology and use it to achieve specified objectives.  Two regulations have been released, one of which defines the “meaningful use” objectives that providers must meet to qualify for the bonus payments.  This year, t ...

The CompTIA mission is to advance the global IT industry. A cornerstone of that mission is to support a national network for career training and education. Tomorrow’s IT entrepreneurs may be today’s student or dislocated worker that needs access to training and knowledge. Hence our deep engagement and support for federal, state and local programs that meet these objectives.On April 15th the President signed into law H.R. 1473, the long-term continuing resolution that will fund the federal govern ...

I often wonder if the old spring phrase should be amended to “April tradeshows bring May flowers.” That one word substitution makes the adage quite true, as this month typically signals the kickoff to the IT channel events season. After attending an industry conference, solution providers typically come home charged and ready to make changes in their business, from new technology and service offerings to training and business development programs.Going back to the old phrase, attendance at April ...

The House introduced a new version of Business Activity tax legislation this week, H.R. 1439, the Business Activity Tax Simplification Act of 2011.  During the last Congress, CompTIA urged passage of similar legislation, which would have provided distinct physical presence requirements as a prerequisite for the taxation of interstate business activities.  On Wednesday, April 13, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing on this new legislation for which ...