CompTIA Blog

Greetings!  As the new vice president of Public Advocacy for CompTIA, I am really excited to be leading the reorganization of CompTIA’s public policy and advocacy efforts to better serve our more than 1,500 members and thousands of tech entrepreneurs who are creating jobs and powering the U.S. economy.Small and medium-sized (SMB) technology firms - and the many policy issues that concern them - have long been underrepresented in Washington.  The status quo is not acceptable.  So CompTIA has refo ...

I’ve had the opportunity to work with many innovative business owners over the years and, while their technological and service knowledge is vast, most are quick to acknowledge their understanding of business law is limited. Recognizing this problem is the first step, with a call to a reputable lawyer the typical response when a need arises. But what about the companies that have limited resources or those that wish to learn more about legal best practices on their own? While there are websites ...

I wrote a draft post last week that will never see the light of day.  In it, I sought to pay tribute to someone I respect very much for their intellect and world experience.  When I started my CIO gig, they imparted the following maxims:Think DefensivelyThink DeceitfullyProceed with Caution – at All TimesIt is good stuff that promotes great questions and discussion - I have had them printed out at my desk since Day 1.  In the post, I wrote a couple of points on each bullet, and thought I had som ...

I have a Google News Alert set up every day for the term ‘CIO.’  Besides the inclusion of AFL-CIO news (a topic on which I am now unintentionally well informed), there is a rotating series of articles around the role of the CIO that make the rounds.  From the last week, here are some of the articles relating to the job role of the CIO:CIOs ceding power to CFOs, survey finds Global CIO: Even Oracle & SAP Agree: The Tactical CIO Is Dead CFOs driving the IT spending bus, study says The New CIO ...

Saying that one’s head is in the clouds suggests that he or she is isolated and detached from the realities on the ground below them.  I suppose it could be interpreted as taking a high altitude view of something, but that wasn’t the impression I got when my teachers (and later, bosses) encouraged me to come back down to Earth. In that context, the clouds represent unrealistic ideas and expectations rather than high ideals and a visionary point of view.In tech parlance, the cloud refers to non-c ...

Note: This is the third of eight blog entries in which I examine managed services best practices identified in CompTIA MSP Partners’ 2010 market research.In a classic Simpsons’ episode Homer exclaims “Oh! I haven't changed since high school and suddenly I am uncool.” Ah yes Homer, things change over time even if we don’t! Our second managed services best practice counters that common mindset; Best-in-Class MSPs develop and deploy new technology solutions to keep pace with the industries their cu ...

There is more to following best practices than just using common sense.If you ran a restaurant, you’d certainly follow best practices pertaining to the cleanliness of your food prep areas - as the last thing you want is for the Health Department to close you down!If you ran a brokerage house, you’d certainly follow best practices pertaining to trades, disclosures, and more - as the last thing you want is for the SEC to close you down!If you ran an accounting firm you’d certainly follow best prac ...

I was recently asked to contribute to an Information Week piece on the state of the US IT industry - which got me thinking about the United States’ technological strengths and weaknesses relative to the other players in the global IT landscape.  The US hasn’t been the dominant base for IT production for many years.  We still don’t graduate all the engineers and PhDs we need, we don’t have the fastest or furthest reaching broadband nor do we have the most Internet users per capita.However, the US ...

During CompTIA’s first Annual Member Meeting in Chicago earlier this month, heavy hitters from the IT industry described the current and future opportunities they see from their corner offices.  The panel session entitled “A Word From the Big Guys” was moderated by CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux who guided the panelists through a candid discussion on the economic landscape and where the IT channel is headed.The panel consisted of the following IT industry visionaries:Steve Dallman, VP & GM, Wor ...

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of a company that you will be hearing more about in the coming years. The company is Knowledge Factor and what they are doing in learning and assessment theory is game-changing.Traditional assessment theory concentrates on a binary mode of responses that boil down to “correct/incorrect.” Since Mrs. Jones’ 2nd grade geography class, that’s been pretty much the way things go in assessment theory. What Knowledge Factor has done is add a diffe ...

A colleague passed on a recent blog post by Eric Dishman at Intel -- "Think Big" as We Engage Patients & Families in a Healthcare System for the 21st Century -- and asked me to write a reaction to it. As background, my youngest child was born in 2006 with a number of acute and chronic conditions. Developmental pediatricians, ENT docs, gastroenterologists, cardiologists, neurologists, plastic surgeons, therapists – all of them had thoughts, directions, and diagnoses. The sub ...

Note: This is the second of eight blog entries in which I examine the 2010 managed services best practices identified in CompTIA MSP Partners’ market research.Nature confirms what we all intuitively understand - living things need time to mature before they become fruitful. None of us plant a seed in the springtime and then stand over it with a fork in hand waiting for dinner. Those of us who have teenagers can also heartily attest to this fact - fruitfulness takes time and is often preceded by ...

During CompTIA’s inaugural Annual Member Meeting, April 7-8 in Chicago, leaders in the security world delved into what it really means to provide security services and how to determine which resellers are qualified to provide them. A panel of experts shared proven approaches to vertical and niche markets and provided insights on partnering with other organizations to deliver a larger suite of security services.Moderator:Larry Walsh, Vice President and Group Publisher, Channel InsiderPanelists:St ...

Information Technology (IT) has expanded business capabilities at a rapid pace. When the PC was introduced many years ago now, it came with a promise to increase the productivity of most businesses. The next advancement in technology allowed the networking of PCs, which further enhanced organizational productivity. The third milestone was the introduction of the Internet and its promise of global productivity, which has been proven and achieved.The services component of IT started with simple co ...

The CompTIA Security Trustmark is a key differentiator for its holders, giving those CompTIA members an edge over their competition. Should CompTIA create a similar credential for Managed Services? The answer isn't obvious - issues regarding scope, varying business models and consistent metrics are just some of the challenges - but the potential benefit for MSPs is huge. Join the debate and help define the future!Facilitators:Ted Roller, Vice President Business Development North America, itContr ...