CompTIA Blog

I was at the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week and was amazed to see the seemingly infinite number of vendors in the security space. Of course, all the usual companies were there, like McAfee, Symantec, Microsoft, CA, Cisco, Trend Micro, Kaspersky, Sophos and ESET, with  nonstop demonstrations and, of course, tchotchkes.  You can always use another t-shirt or keychain, right?I had the opportunity to interact with a wide range of folks while walking the show floor, working the booth, atte ...

This is the second part of my commentary, “Why Managed Services.”  In the last article, I examined the reasons that managed services are good for the SMB end customer.  In this piece I will discuss why managed services mean better business for the solution provider.Every once and a while, I step back and marvel at the way IT has changed my life. Thanks to constant innovation, my house is a veritable museum of advances in IT.  In one corner of my house, my CD collection sits gathering dust, never ...

Just about every water cooler discussion I’ve ever been a part of on the future of technology inevitably leads to mention of flying cars and/or robots. People can’t seem to resist criticizing the state of technology for not providing certain innovations that were “promised” years ago, or dreaming about a futuristic world where helper robots free us from the doldrums of work and flying cars free us from the annoyances of traffic. It wasn’t long ago when a discussion of the “future” would mean a d ...

Ready to match shots with a professional mini-golfer?  During CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting, you can match shots with George McLeod, the second highest ranked professional mini-golfer, as determined by point totals on the U.S. ProMiniGolf Association national ranking list. CompTIA members and technology leaders will network and help fund training for the disadvantaged and disabled during the CompTIA Educational Foundation’s First Annual Creating Futures Charity Miniature Gol ...

At the recent EU IT Services and Support Executive Forum, David Milot from Unisys started off discussions with a presentation on the revolution of cloud computing. The cloud has been a hot topic, but there still seems to be a slightly fragmented approach to the subject. How can managed service providers, logistics companies and OEM's best utilize this delivery technology? According to research statistics and those in the room, security is the biggest fear around deploying cloud computing solu ...

As I see it, one of the most essential ingredients of a successful managed services operation is the services level agreement (SLA).  In fact, it’s so crucial that it’s part of our standard definition for managed services that I mentioned in my last blog post. CompTIA Managed Services Definition:The ongoing management, monitoring, and maintenance of networks, software, hardware, and related IT services by an external organization. Managed services are often marked by detailed service level agree ...

There has been a lot of talk lately about the cloud….pick up just about any tech journal, business publication, or even the newspaper (online or even the old print format!) and there are articles and analysis discussing everything moving to “the cloud.”  What does that really mean?  Is the end of the desktop/laptop, as we know it today, coming sooner than we thought?  Is it all about being connected 24/7 so that no applications reside locally anymore? Accordin ...

With a flurry of activities underway and planned for 2010, the Managed IT Services Executive Forum convened for a conference call to reconcile all the undertakings. The discussion included the latest updates on the MSP Partners program and a multitude of new resources being developed for the managed services community. As many of you know, CompTIA acquired MSP Partners late last year and brought the program under the fold of this managed services community.   Jim Hamilton, Senior Dir ...

Many SMB companies experience enterprise issues, they just have smaller budgets and fewer employees than their larger brethren. Smaller solution providers experience similar challenges, but also may need resources or guidance to create a valued and long-term business. Based on those requests from the IT provider community, CompTIA launched a new group to develop and make those resources available to members: the Small Business Owners Special Interest Group. The group is off to a great start, jus ...

Unless you are skier Bode Miller, who can apparently win the trifecta of Olympic medals with relatively little preparation, success requires hard work and lots of training. CompTIA’s recent study Government IT Buying Plans confirms that government IT professionals recognize the need for on-going training as an important step in ensuring success on the job.According to the survey of over 500 government IT decision makers, approximately 3 in 4 expect to invest in IT training in 2010. The data reve ...

Google announced plans to “build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.”  The gigabit fiber broadband service is expected to be available at “a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people,” according to Google’s official blog post on the subject.  The goal of this ambitious project is to foster development of new bandwidth intensive applications, to experiment with new broadband deployment strategi ...

In our first official Podcast, we interview CEO Todd Thibodeaux about the IT Industry and how business and members can get involved.[podcast]http://www.comptia.org/media/Todd_Thibodeaux_CompTIA_021110.mp3[/podcast] download the .mp3 file

Putting the “rubber to the road,” as the saying goes; the IT Services and Support Executive Forum meeting in Toronto spent the second half of the afternoon focused on new initiative discussions. Sticking to the CompTIA Communities philosophy of sharing ideas and industry experiences, attendees offered up a variety of potential programs and topics in this part of the meeting. These sessions provide an opportunity for attendees to submit subjects that matter to their business and the i ...

As mentioned in previous articles, managed IT services and managed print services are moving beyond the adoption cycle to become readily accepted by both providers and end users. The topic was a large part of the discussion at the IT Services and Support Executive Forum meeting in Toronto today, with discussions on the core business drivers and the opportunities that exist for the various players. Matt McLeish, Director of Field Sales and Managed Print Solutions at Parts Now! started his manag ...

It’s been a busy day so far at the IT Services and Support Executive Forum meeting in Toronto, as the group shifted into discussions on certification and initiatives updates, as well as a review of the new CompTIA Communities.Initiatives are central to many of the organization’s goals. CompTIA members have started a variety of industry programs to strengthen the services industry and promote the groups’ initiatives. One example of this is the Canadian OEM PDI+ adoption program, a unique initiati ...