CompTIA Blog

 There has been no shortage of examples of high profile online personal data leaks over the last few years. From TJX’s stolen credit card information to AOL’s exposure of consumers’ personal surfing habits, the stakes are high for both consumers and businesses when it comes to protecting our online privacy. Yet at the same time, the connections proved through the Internet and the associated speed of technology development make the World Wide Web the wild west of innov ...

Good news, market research firm Gartner is forecasting global IT spending to top $2.5 trillion in the coming year, up roughly 3 percent over 2010. By 2014, spending on IT goods and services will rise to $2.8 trillion – well above the previous pre-recession high set in 2008.So that’s the good news. But Gartner goes further to state that enterprises will shift their spending in new directions. According to a presentation given by Gartner senior vice president Peter Sondergaard, businesses are redi ...

Technicians with expertise in printing and document imaging are needed given the sheer number of printers, copiers and multi-functional devices and recent surge in shipment growth. For the first time in more than a decade, the worldwide hardcopy peripherals market experienced double-digit growth. According to IDC, the total market grew 20 percent year-over-year to 29 million units in the second quarter of 2010 while shipment value increased 14 percent year-over-year to $13.3 billion.Moreover, th ...

The CompTIA EMEA Member Conference at the Radisson Edwardian London Heathrow Hotel opens this week, and nearly two dozens vendors will showcase their latest tools for the IT channel to more than 300 attendees.Prometric, a global leader in testing and assessment services, has two improvements that will impact and benefit its IT test center partners around the world. TCFlow 2, the newest version of its proprietary test center administration software, is rolling out to global test center partners. ...

Channel-Lands started last week with the Microsoft’s release of Windows Phone 7, because the world needs another mobile operating system. But that was just the beginning of a busy week, which saw the McAfee partner conference, FalconStor’s new CEO promising changes and rumors of Oracle contemplating a mega-acquisition. Windows Phone 7 Launched, FinallyMicrosoft’s much-anticipated launch of Windows Phone 7 finally came this past week. Microsoft has much riding on the successor to Windows Mobile 6 ...

We all need community. Through relationships, both business and personal, we receive support and can support one another. Through community we can interact, share and develop valued programs and solutions to our problems. These connections also allow us to make the world a better place. Business owners can often feel isolated when facing threats on their own, wondering many times if they are the only one facing a particular problem. Whether facing the current economic climate, keeping pace with ...

There’s been a significant shift in the services business over the past few years. When customer contracts begin to approach their conclusion date, most providers are very proactive and engage these clients to continue to expand their support programs. You can’t expect to automatically extend existing contracts, even if it was a common practice before. Times have changed; perhaps this change is due to the negative shift in the economy or the continued drive for efficiency in many businesses. Eit ...

Microsoft’s Scott Charney says we should treat malware-infected PCs in the same manner as 19th century public health officials treated victims of typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera: quarantine. Yes, the head of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing believes malware infections are so pervasive and destructive that isolation is the only means for protecting the greater good. Perhaps, but I have a better idea: recall.First, let’s review Charney’s idea – quarantine.“Governments, industry and consumers sh ...

A look at the week of October 11, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, a CompTIA study found that IT firms are more optimistic about their own potential than that of the economy at large, causing them to put off hiring and expansion. The rise of electronic medical records is generating tough questions about privacy and security. Green tech start-ups have trouble getting off the ground due to a rough economy and a lack of climate legislation. The SBA reports a jump in small bu ...

As a person starting a small business, I know first-hand the difficulties of getting started. When you conceive of a venture, you think of all the important stuff: products, customers, operating model, sales model, revenue targets, staffing, responsibilities and resources. That’s where I started when I founded The 2112 Group and Channelnomics. Often overlooked are the little things – particularly forms and legal documents.A new benefit for CompTIA members is a rich library of legal document temp ...

Is there no stopping the juggernaut known as Apple? Apparently not the old fashion way through innovation and superior products to market. The continued ascent of Apple is driving numerous lawsuits, alliances and potential mergers. The impact on the Channel-Lands is potentially enormous. Microsoft, Adobe Start DatingThe long wait is nearly over. Next week will bring the launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s best hope for competing against Apple in the increasingly lucrative mobile handheld mark ...

As states seek to maintain or expand both their tax base and collections, we’ve noted increasing and novel attempts to tax interstate transactions.  No less than the U.S. Supreme Court, however, has held that the predicate that for a state to tax a non-resident individual or business, the individual or business must have a real physical presence in the state.  Commonly, physical presence has been interpreted as having an office or place of business in the state, or employing workers that operate ...

Earlier this week, CompTIA released this interesting little statistic: 55 percent of businesses have a comprehensive, written IT security policy. Think about that for a moment. The statistic means that roughly one-half of all other organizations do not have a security policy in place.October is National Cybersecurity Awareness month, a celebration conceived nearly a decade ago to elevate the level of understanding of Internet and computer security threats. The idea behind this awareness month is ...

A look at the week of October 4, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channelPresident Obama proclaimed October as “National Cybersecurity Awareness Month” to alert and educate the public about cybersecurity. The discovery of the Stuxnet virus delivered a wake-up call to government and industry officials as to the broad implications and potential dangers of a malware attack.  Medical software companies are looking to the recent national mandate for electronic medical records as a turning point in ...

The session Channel Execs Predict the Future (21 October at 11:30-12:15) is sure to be one of the most popular sessions at the upcoming CompTIA EMEA Member Conference 21-20 October at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel.The panel, moderated by CRN editor Sara Yirrell, covers what leading channel players think is hot, happening and coming down the pike: cloud computing, green IT, healthcare IT, security, storage and much more. We asked the panelists — Ray Barber from Kaseya, Tim Black from Inte ...