Brian Sherman Posts

It has never been easy to find and retain quality employees. Regardless of how much people complain about today’s challenges with recruitment and retention, world history is filled with HR stories that would make finding an IT tech seem like a walk in the park. In the Stone Age, for example, the Greek economy relied heavily on fishing and trading, so those with sailing skills and great physical strength were highly desired employees. Those with the most exceptional talents often became mer ...

If advertising is any gauge, everyone is selling cloud now. Even though some of the most hype-filled promotions don’t specifically spell out for their intended audience the benefits of this thriving technology delivery method, the frequency of their pitch is likely encouraging prospective clients to conduct their own research. That’s good news for those in the channel, as long as they have the confidence and capabilities to provide a superior service. While some industry professional ...

One of the biggest reasons why entrepreneurs join industry associations is to gain access to a variety of business improvement resources and educational programs that would be costly to recreate or purchase on their own. Those business tools and best practices are particularly hard to come by in the IT channel, and the expense of tailoring them to meet the specific needs of even a well-established solution provider can be quite prohibitive. CompTIA not only recognizes those challenges, but colla ...

People typically buy from those they trust and most industries recognize the companies that do more to earn that type of confidence from their customers. Perhaps that’s why business credentials have become more prominent in the IT community, with solution providers and vendors looking for new ways to validate the processes they put in place to offer top-quality services and products. After all, few accolades speak as loudly to current and prospective customers and other business partners as an e ...

Regardless of their industry experience and knowledge of the topic, it’s not easy for channel executives to navigate the world of cloud services. The business prospects for and obstacles facing the industry here are as vast as the number of solutions available. While the delivery model and basic value propositions are fairly straightforward, deciding what types of cloud services to offer and which suppliers to choose can be a dizzying exercise for most solution providers. For example, should the ...

The trending workplace story last week originated with an internal memo sent to Yahoo employees by Marissa Mayer. In her message, the CEO basically eliminated her company’s remote workforce policy and questioned the value of letting employees work from home. The outcry from those inside and outside the high-tech community has been quite animated, with many suggesting that increased face-to-face interaction will not be the magic bullet that solves Yahoo’s problems. The telecommuting ...

To business owners, the companies that help design, implement and support their technology needs may not seem that different. Most of those organizations employ a variety of talented engineers, sales people and other operational team members who ensure their systems are properly assembled and running effectively at all times. To the user, it doesn’t matter if those individuals are supporting their company’s servers, workstations, printers or communication infrastructure; as long as e ...

Demand for cloud computing-based solutions continues to climb, with Gartner Research predicting that trend to continue for the next several years, taking an even larger share of the total IT market. Gartner expects annual revenue for the Web delivery model to top $207 billion by 2016, as detailed in CompTIA’s Third Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study, which equates to almost 10 percent of overall IT spending. While cloud experts continue to focus on the benefits from mainstreaming Web-based a ...

It was only a decade ago that many of my friends who owned businesses carried two cell phones and rarely travelled without a laptop weighing at least seven pounds. The inconvenience of using multiple devices, especially those without web-connectivity, was assumed to be balanced by the separation of their business and personal communications. Professional acquaintances were typically given the company phone number and email contact information, while their friends and family were granted access t ...

The human body is quite miraculous. Consider how an assortment of bones, tissues and organs can come together in a machine capable of performing such intricate operations. On top of that, the body employs its own defense systems to protect itself from pathogens and other dangers, from multiple layers of skin to a variety of protective antibodies. While not quite as miraculous as the human anatomy, a business computer system is similarly complex and also employs several layers of defense to pro ...