CompTIA Blog

SBA Advocacy recently released an important report, “An Examination of the 2001 IRS Tax Gap Estimates’ Effects on Small Businesses.”  The “tax gap” is the difference between the tax that is collected and the tax that should be collected.   In the current budgetary climate, this term is becoming more important. In 2007, the IRS released a report on the estimated 2001 tax gap.  That report found over a third ($109B out of $290B) of the estimated non-collected tax gap was due to underreporting of b ...

Ever since the dot-com bubble burst at the beginning of the last decade, the IT industry has been waging an uphill battle to attract the talent it needs to meet its ever growing workforce demands. Somewhere along the way, as words like outsourcing and off-shoring became permanently derogatory terms in our vocabulary, pursuing an IT career lost its “cool” factor. The reasons I commonly hear from kids and their parents are “why would I want to be in IT?” or “Aren’t all those jobs for programmers ...

Even after all these years, Sam Morris still cringes when he hears it. The brutally honest student expression can determine whether or not that student succeeds or fails miserably in the 21st century global economy.He’s talking about those dreaded words: “Why bother? I’m never going to use this anyway.”Morris, a K-12 and college math teacher of nearly two decades, is working to erase that defeatist line from student lexicon. Last month, he was hired by CompTIA member Lenovo in part to help the l ...

Ever since the dot-com bubble burst at the beginning of the last decade, the IT industry has been waging an uphill battle to attract the talent it needs to meet its ever growing workforce demands. Somewhere along the way, as words like outsourcing and off-shoring became permanently derogatory terms in our vocabulary, pursuing an IT career lost its "cool" factor.The reasons I commonly hear from kids and their parents are "why would I want to be in IT?" or "Aren't all those jobs for programmers be ...

Those in Washington know that the best way to get steam behind a public policy issue is by building on the momentum of a national news cycle. Well this week the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade held a hearing entitled “The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers”.The hearing was in response to Sony’s announcement on April 26 of a massive data breach caused by computer hackers that resulted in the theft of 77 million user accounts. What caused an even grea ...

A look at the week of May 3 in public advocacy for the IT channel This week U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano discussed the need for cybersecurity tactics to be as widespread as the networks themselves.  The new health IT center is attracting bipartisan support as a federal program with high potential for private industry.  Competition to host the government’s cloud computing needs is growing heated. Napolitano: Cybersecurity Is a Public-Private Challenge f ...

The Department of Labor made $240 million available in federal grants for training U.S. workers in high growth, high tech and high skill jobs. U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced the H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants program competition yesterday. Grants will be awarded to help workers update current job skills or acquire new skills so they can enter career pathways that lead to higher-paying jobs, including positions in information technology. The Department of Labor expects to fu ...

The recent cloud outages spotlight the need to focus on disaster recovery (DR) more than ever. Whether it's a large public cloud or your own small private cloud having a plan, a contingency and a course of action are crucial to getting up and running and minimizing loss of data.CompTIA has attempted over the course of the last 18 months or so to generate traction from the channel around the creation of a DR member community. For those who aren't aware, CompTIA has nearly a dozen member communiti ...

The Department of Labor made $240 million available in federal grants for training U.S. workers in high growth, high tech and high skill jobs.U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced the H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants program competition yesterday. Grants will be awarded to help workers update current job skills or acquire new skills so they can enter career pathways that lead to higher-paying jobs, including positions in information technology. The Department of Labor expects to fun ...

A look at the week of April 25 in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, Amazon’s cloud computing malfunction raised questions about the security and reliability of the service.  The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs plan to collaborate on a joint electronic health record. CompTIA released a new study examining the rise of green IT initiatives in corporations. Amazon’s Trouble Raises Cloud Computing Doubts — As technical problems interrupted computer ...

[podcast]http://www.comptia.org/media/intlcerts.mp3[/podcast]Two out of three human resources directors place a high value on certifications when it comes to hiring an IT professional.  If you’re ready to get a job in IT or move up the career ladder in IT, you need certification.CompTIA has been the leading vendor-neutral certification organization since 1985.  And its certifications aren’t just U.S.-centric, but can help you move your career worldwide.Hear from Matthew Poyiadgi, our senior VP o ...

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 ...