CompTIA Blog

In IT security, the stakes are high, so employers want to know they’re hiring security professionals they can trust. That’s where certification comes in.

Students and teachers don’t always agree on everything, but they have found common ground when it comes to technology, according to a new research report from CompTIA, The Changing Classroom: Perspectives from Students and Educators on the Role of Technology. Educators are always looking for ways to make learning more engaging, and students believe technology in school makes learning more interesting and fun, according to the report. And both groups want to increase technology in the classroom, particularly by way of laptop PCs, tablets and high-speed Internet access.

How customers utilize your products or services is crucial to your success, and user experience was a prevailing topic with several speakers and in many round table discussions at the recent ITSS Community meeting in Philadelphia. Experts offered firsthand accounts of how some rather large organizations are adopting and implementing the latest technologies, and each presenter addressed a number of the concerns and problems their management and tech teams experienced along the way.

The ITSS Community dedicated $5,000 of its annual charitable fund to empower NPower, a group that brings the tech community together for social good, helps people at a disadvantage and focuses its support on nonprofits.

With so many new IT services companies “born in the cloud,” will IT distributors be able to provide enough value to recruit those providers to their partner programs? Yes, in fact, and some providers and vendors believe their position has never been stronger. While many industry experts suggested in the past that the cloud and managed would be the death knell for distributors, most VADs are reporting record sales and partnership numbers.

As an optician solving problems is Arlo Ely’s specialty. But as his recently-awarded CompTIA A+ certification indicates, glasses and contact lenses aren’t the only forms of technology he troubleshoots.

In the coming months and years, technology companies will face a significant shortfall in skilled IT workers. With 86 percent of hirers saying IT certifications are a priority, they are an obvious choice for individuals looking to improve their career progressions or unlock new opportunities. For organisations too, certifications provide the job-relevant skills to upskill their new and existing staff.

Cloud adoption has jumped 90 percent since 2010, according to CompTIA’s 5th Annual Trends in Cloud Computing, and resellers, solution providers, MSPs and other channel types are reporting a sunny outlook related to cloud revenue. But that doesn’t mean channel firms aren’t experiencing growing pains.

Companies want to hire new employees, but seem a little slow on the uptake, perhaps because of the candidate pool. Here are a few ways to look at job applicants with a little less skepticism, without losing quality outcomes.

The IT industry’s over HP’s announcement that the company will split in two, and Brian Sherman breaks it down in this week’s ChannelTrends.

In honor of Veterans Day, we asked CompTIA members with military backgrounds to share insight on how the industry can help veterans transitioning from military service find viable careers in the IT industry. This is the second piece in our three-part series.

There’s no better place to see collaboration in action than a gathering of solution providers, vendors, agents and other channel professionals. The combined sessions of the CompTIA Advisory Councils was a perfect example of teamwork as providers, master agents and a variety of vendors all shared their points of view and worked through various concerns. “Everyone was on the same page in the discussions instead of coming up with separate ideas and trying to reconcile them later,” said Joe Infante, president of Dynamic Strategies. “It forced us to validate the discussions.”

Logan Murphy of Fort Collins, Colorado, is an IT consultant with Long View Systems. Just recently, he became CompTIA A+ certified and even more recently discovered that he was the one millionth IT pro to do so!

Veteran BBC broadcaster Maggie Philbin used her keynote address at EMEA to encourage the IT industry to fight harder than ever to attract the most promising young people. Tomorrow’s technology, she said, depends on new ideas.

Following two highly productive CompTIA UK Channel Community meetings earlier in 2014, the year’s final meeting in London on 5 November saw the largest audience yet, a diverse group that spanned the British IT industry spectrum.