CompTIA Blog

The Healthcare IT market opportunity is significant and not without its challenges.  It represents one of the fastest growing sectors of the US economy and is expected to be a $50 billion plus market by 2014.What solution provider/VAR would not want to be a part of a potential $50 billion market in the coming years? Jumping in to the HIT (healthcare IT) space can indeed prove challenging, given the hand that regulation plays in this space.When key acronyms like ARRA (American Recovery and Reinve ...

I went to the Apple Store on iPad Release Day ‘just to look’ and walked right in, thinking that an inevitable sellout would make a purchase decision moot. When I asked if any were left, they had plenty, and I broke down and bought one.  I’m normally not an early adopter, but figured I’d cave to the months of hype that culminated in the hilarious Modern Family ‘adisode’.After a week and a half, here are my first set of use cases, albeit after the fact.1.      Act as a babysitter for my child - do ...

Every serious IT channel event should have some fun activities where attendees can unwind and socialize in a less formal environment, to clear out the cobwebs and enjoy some camaraderie. When combined with a charitable cause, could it get any better? At the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting in Chicago, the Creating Futures Charity Miniature Golf Classic was added to the welcome reception, producing an interactive evening of excitement and amusement.The CompTIA Educational Foundation hosted the event ...

Nominate your student for the CompTIA Educational Foundation IT Merit Awards by May 1.Recognize your outstanding students who have trained for and received a CompTIA certification. Help them win at least $250 to further their pursuit of an IT career.The IT Merit Award Scholarship program recognizes outstanding accomplishments by students and adult learners in the CompTIA Education to Careers (E2C), CompTIA Authorized Delivery Partners and existing CompTIA Learning Alliance (CLA) programs who hav ...

The key to selling IT security is building trust between businesses and clients, panelists at an Annual Member Meeting presentation said today.That’s important for a product that succeeds when nothing happens.“Customers small, medium, large – they need this,” said Randy Cochran, Symantec vice president of channel sales. “You are their resource.”Explaining return on investment for security solutions is different because it is more about risk management and explaining what can be avoided, said mod ...

“It takes guts to lead with love and trust!”  So began Dr. Kevin Freiberg’s passionate and energetic luncheon keynote presentation at CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting on Thursday, April 8th.  Based on his book entitled “GUTS! Companies that Blow the Doors Off Business-as-Usual” Freiberg’s presentation was an impassioned plea for attendees to decommoditize their businesses by thinking creatively and taking risks to stand out.To illustrate this point, Freiberg asked attendees to consider if clients ...

Tim Herbert, Vice President, Research, CompTIA and Cushing Anderson, Program Vice President, Project-Based Services, IDC shared their thoughts on current and future prospects for the IT training industry during their State of the Industry Address at CompTIA Colloquium 2010 on Thursday, April 8 in Chicago.Herbert kicked off the address with a brief presentation on the challenges faced by IT decision makers from a variety of verticals. “Productivity decisions intensify during difficult economic ti ...

Members of CompTIA’s IT Security Special Interest Group met to identify industry needs and explore potential initiatives during CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting Thursday morning.  Group chair Fernando Quintero, Vice President, Channel Sales – The Americas, McAfee, led a discussion on the group’s mission, format, objectives and initiatives.The group, consisting of IT industry professionals from a variety of disciplines from healthcare to education, began by reviewing a draft IT Security Code of Et ...

The morning session of the Small Business Owners Community meeting, at the CompTIA Annual Members Meeting in Chicago, concluded with two members stepping forward to highlight the development of the programs they are leading. Each of the initiatives the group is working on was listed as a priority in previous meetings, and significant advances are coming from the collaborative efforts of each project team.Norbert Doeberlein, President and CEO of Netzbahn is leading the discussion on the MicroVAR, ...

The Small Business Owners Community had the opportunity to learn more about the government services available to support their company growth and projects. While most people are aware of the loans supported by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), Carole Harris of the Illinois office pointed out they actually provide other services to support small business. The three areas that the SBA focuses on include: 1.  Counseling and training The SBA works with an allian ...

“Are you sure that’s your final answer?” If you ask Steve Ernst, the first part of that sentence – “are you sure?” -- is every bit as important as the answer itself. Individuals who are confident in their answers and knowledge can retain that information longer, according to Ernst, Vice President, Client Services, Knowledge Factor. The company focuses on measuring both knowledge and confidence in its learning software, he said at a CompTIA Colloquium sessi ...

The results of the latest CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence Index suggest that the majority of tech companies are optimistic about future business conditions and the outlook for their own firms. The survey found that 48 percent of companies in the study expect to increase investments in research and development and other new revenue generating initiatives, while nearly a third plan to increase staff.The CompTIA IT Industry Business Confidence is likely to continue its upward trend as sixty ...

Want to know what the next generation wants in a tech career? The best info can be gleaned face to face. To that end, CompTIA board members, CompTIA Educational Foundation board members and CompTIA staff met with 15 students from the Chicago  Academy for Advanced Technology over lunch. IT leaders got to know the students on a direct basis as they gave them advice on how to land a career in IT and as the students told them what they hope for the  future. The students discussed their ...

You know the saying “it’s all over but the shouting”? That’s probably a good characterization of where we are now with health care reform. It’s been passed. It’s been signed. And as it loosens it’s myopic mental hold on DC politics, the hard realities for US businesses of all sizes will start to take shape. In the IT industry, and for solution providers in particular there are going to be a new set of challenges. With the institution any new bill of this size and complexity will come a myriad of ...

An often quoted Albert Einstein definition for insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Based on this definition, most of us must be one card short of a full deck.  Our tendency in business is to play it safe and follow the pack; yet, none of us goes into business with the goal of being average.History teaches us that those who break from the pack and discover new ways of doing business reap the rewards. Take the development of the latest generation ...