CompTIA Blog

The stock market and consumer confidence indexes continue to show signs of anxiety, with some economists suggesting it may take a couple more years before we get back on track. While that prediction may be too pessimistic, conservative spending habits will likely continue to be the norm for most businesses. Despite the doom and gloom, one key business sector is on the rise; SMB. That segment is also a major consumer of VAR solutions and services, so this should be welcome news for the IT channel ...

A new class of students just earned its CompTIA A+ certification, this class being the Operating Network Systems Class at Sullivan County Community College. Students at the two year community college, part of the State University of New York system, traveled to the New Horizons Testing Center in Albany to take on the demanding testing in late May. The class came through both the CompTIA A+ Essentials and CompTIA A+ Practical Application exams with "flying colors," according to their instruc ...

Tony Carmichael doesn’t take lightly the importance of being well prepared in carrying out his IT duties.A military veteran who has had to troubleshoot computer systems under direct enemy fire, Carmichael credits the success of his civilian career to his solid foundation of skills and knowledge earned through CompTIA certifications.“Technology, especially computer technology, is constantly evolving,” said Carmichael. “One must be prepared and have the basis to build on as changes occur. Core kno ...

New business opportunities in the converging worlds of audio visual (AV) and IT bask in the spotlight next week at InfoComm. Some 32,000 people are expected to attend InfoComm 2011, the world's largest AV trade show. June 11-18, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.At InfoComm, CompTIA is sponsoring an IT Solutions Pavilion in booth #993. Top IT product, service and solution companies will be on hand, including Autotask, Barrister Global Services Network, ExchangeDefender, Fiel ...

A look at the week of June 6 in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, Congress and the White House are pushing legislation to protect the U.S.’s energy grid and infrastructure from cyberattacks.  A new report claims that the information-sharing capabilities enabled by health IT will reduce healthcare’s costs and increase access.  The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to tackle data breach issues and consumer privacy. Grid Vulnerabilities Trigger Legisla ...

Prior to the economic downturn in late 2008, the challenge we most commonly heard was the inability to find enough skilled personnel. During that period there were as many as 1.3 million unfilled tech jobs in the U.S. market. As the economy sank, so did that number, to a low of just over 200,000 open positions in the second half of 2009. And as we've seen a recovery to a number close to half of a recent high water mark, the comments about not having access to a large enough pool of quality talen ...

As a member of The Government Withholding Relief Coalition, we urge you to add your name to the National Sign-on Letter calling for repeal of the new 3% federal tax withholding requirement on payments made by most government entities. Scheduled to go into effect in 2012, this law would require all federal, state and local government entities and instrumentalities to withhold three percent of payments made for goods and services.  The bottom line here is:  This withholding will result in decrease ...

Last week, Speaker John Boehner, Rep. Bob Goodlatte and House Republican Leadership released the Technology Working Group agenda for the 112th Congress.  The agenda focuses on technology issues to help America maintain and expand its competitive edge in the technology sector while creating jobs to fuel economic growth. The key components of the agenda are: Promote spectrum availability and efficiency, Protect the U.S. from cyber attacks, Protect American intellectual property, Promote free and f ...

From time to time, CompTIA invites thought-leaders on IT issues to contribute to our blog. Steve O'Keeffe is a 20-year veteran of the IT industry and the founder of MeriTalk, an online community that hosts professional networking, thought leadership and focused events to drive the government IT dialogue.  Below is O'Keefe's guest blog post.Excavating Pompeii, archeologists found three types of correspondence: love letters, shopping lists and IG reports on failing federal IT projects. But serious ...

It seems like we’ve reached a critical point in the advancement of cloud technology, with significant announcements this week from a major distributor and the company that made ‘i’ a fashionable prefix. Perhaps more significant than the players in the news is that two device-centric organizations are making major investments in the virtual world. Perhaps hell hasn’t frozen over, but it may be defrosting a bit on the edges. With the wealth of cloud offerings for business consumers to choose from, ...

It seems like we’ve reached a critical point in the advancement of cloud technology, with significant announcements this week from a major distributor and the company that made ‘i’ a fashionable prefix. Perhaps more significant than the players in the news is that two device-centric organizations are making major investments in the virtual world. Perhaps hell hasn’t frozen over, but it may be defrosting a bit on the edges. With the wealth of cloud offerings for business consumers to choose from, ...

A look at the week of May 30 in public advocacy for the IT channelThis week, the Pentagon concluded that foreign cyber attacks can be considered an act of war. Lockheed Martin suffered a cyber attack on its networks.  Federal CIO Vivek Kundra expects big financial savings from the federal cloud transition.Cyber Combat Declared an Act of War — The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the doo ...

By a vote of 387 – 33, the House voted yesterday to extend the popular SBIR/STTR programs which were set to expire on the same day, May 31. The Senate already had passed the extension on May 26 by unanimous consent.  The extension is only for four months and will expire after September 30.  All anticipate that the President will sign this extension into law.In an earlier post, we noted that legislation, which would have both extended and enhanced these programs, was stymied by controversy surro ...

Tony Carmichael doesn't take lightly the importance of being well prepared in carrying out his IT duties. A military veteran who has had to troubleshoot computer systems under direct enemy fire, Carmichael credits the success of his civilian career to his solid foundation of skills and knowledge earned through CompTIA certifications. "Technology, especially computer technology, is constantly evolving," said Carmichael. "One must be prepared and have the basis to build on as changes occur. Core k ...

Despite the news highlighting how much debt the federal, state and local governments have racked up, the outlook for solution providers that support this sector is still promising. While the politicians debate budget priorities, a great opportunity exists for savvy channel partners who can address a myriad of issues facing municipalities, regional agencies and other public sector groups. The technology needs for government organizations don’t differ much from business customers, although the pro ...