CompTIA Blog

This month we kick off a new series of podcasts, interviews with IT channel CEOs, to help our members learn from each other.  CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux discusses changes in the IT channel with Bob O’Malley, CEO, InFocus.InFocus® Corporation is an industry pioneer and global leader in the visual communication market. Its digital displays make bright ideas brilliant everywhere people gather to communicate and be entertained -- in meetings, presentations, classrooms, and living room ...

Remember the famous Henry Ford quote on his Model T car, “You can have it in any color, as long as it’s black?” The early days of mass production were all about making a lot of things, but none of them were complicated. Options were minimal and design wasn’t a major focus for most manufacturers, but as consumers started to demand variety, companies started to offer a larger selection of products.That’s the same transition that technology is taking today, and solution providers get to be the guid ...

Gadgets are the new cool – everyone wants the latest mobile phone, iPad 2, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy and a myriad of others. In fact, at the recent CRN PartnerConnect conference at the Ricoh Arena, where we talked about cloud business opportunities and mobility, our CEO Todd Thibodeaux brought all of these devices with him in his hand luggage and showed them to the audience, which generated a combination of laughter and interest. Todd also talked about making IT cool and I would like to pick ...

What does your business have that other businesses don’t? How do you set your staff apart from the competition? For some businesses like Incredible Connection, the CompTIA Authorized Service Center (ASC) accreditation gives them the competitive advantage over other IT service and repair companies. Incredible Connection is an IT specialist retailer with 60 stores across South Africa, and two additional stores in Namibia and Botswana. With 155 staff members, customer service is Incredible Connecti ...

What does your business have that other businesses don’t? How do you set your staff apart from the competition? For some businesses like Incredible Connection, the CompTIA Authorized Service Center (ASC) accreditation gives them the competitive advantage over other IT service and repair companies.    Incredible Connection is an IT specialist retailer with 60 stores across South Africa, and two additional stores in Namibia and Botswana. With 155 staff members, customer service is Incre ...

Just a month ago, the SBIR/STTR reauthorization legislation seemed poised for passage in the Senate, then something happened:  Amendments. One of the biggest controversies involved how to attach an amendment that would repeal the 1099 repeal provision; that controversy was solved when the 1099 repeal provision was introduced as stand-alone legislation, which ultimately passed.  It seemed at the time that removing the 1099 amendment from the SBIR/STTR legislation removed some of the urgency for m ...

A look at the week of May 16 in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, the Administration unveiled a proposal for cybersecurity in the U.S.  Although health insurers are losing profit to federal reforms, healthcare IT might present an opportunity to recoup some losses.  Some senators are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to disclose when they have been victims of cyberattacks.  White House Reveals Cybersecurity Plan — The White Hou ...

Last week I attended two events at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. The first, held on Thursday 12th May, was the CRN Partner Connect Exhibition – which many of you may know better by its previous name, the UK Channel Expo. The event saw hundreds of vendors, distributors and resellers get together for an expo, networking and educational presentations.The evening saw vendors, distributors and resellers get together with CompTIA UK for a drinks reception and meal in the G Casino, part of the Ricoh Are ...

While today’s the day many people are especially careful to avoid black cats, walking under ladders or spilling salt, for the rest of us, it’s just another Friday. Okay, I admit to being a little superstitious, but I am also a firm believer that we make our own luck in life and our careers. When someone works hard and focuses on accomplishing a goal, their fortunes tend to be positive. Whether that is luck or old fashioned effort is your call. The news this week concerns the fortune of the IT ...

While today’s the day many people are especially careful to avoid black cats, walking under ladders or spilling salt, for the rest of us, it’s just another Friday. Okay, I admit to being a little superstitious, but I am also a firm believer that we make our own luck in life and our careers. When someone works hard and focuses on accomplishing a goal, their fortunes tend to be positive. Whether that is luck or old fashioned effort is your call. The news this week concerns the fortune of the IT wo ...

The short Day 3 at Interop featured sessions sponsored by InformationWeek Analytics. The first session focused on trends in mobility and mobile security. The stance on mobility was consistent with other sessions throughout the week: more mobile devices are coming, and employees will continue to bring these devices into the workplace. One of the concepts presented was similar to a concept from the cloud security session: individual security is a good starting point for corporate security. Another ...

This week the IRS issued final regulations to implement the three-percent federal income tax withholding requirement on government contract payments.  Enacted into law in 2006, this provision requires all federal, state and local government entities and instrumentalities to withhold three percent of payments made for goods and services.  Initially set to go into effect in 2010, legislative extensions had pushed the effective date to January 1, 2012.  And, in an unexpected twist, the IRS regulati ...

Last month we wrote that the Office of National Coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services had announced its “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015,” which was last updated in 2008. The plan focuses on implementing key healthcare IT policies over the next five years through coordination between government agencies, the private sector, and the public. The plan outlines five goals: Achieve adoption and information exchange through meaningful use of healthcare I ...

Dell’s Enterprise Expert Center in MontPellier, France, became the first European site to achieve CompTIA ASC Gold status. In doing so it has seen customer satisfaction levels increase 10 percent.As European hub for technical enquiries from enterprise computing customers, the Montpellier center was already considered a leading light for the global computing giant for its high levels of technical competence among staff and customer satisfaction.Customer Services Director Jean-Pierre Berone, howev ...

Day 2 at Interop started with the same theme that was so prevalent during Day 1: cloud. However, the panel that discussed cloud in the keynote session focused on some of the more recent issues surrounding cloud, specifically the outage at Amazon and the security breach at Sony. The panel, which included members from Avaya, Terremark and Rackspace, definitely did not feel that these events left a black mark on cloud, but they did highlight the need for further attentiveness by cloud users and ope ...