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While there is a long-standing debate over the exact nature of the IT skills gap, there is no doubt that the dynamics of supply and demand are in flux. Some companies that have never been aggressive technology adopters are now trying to push the envelope, while other firms are moving away from generalists and searching for specialists. In this environment, new paths for building and proving skills are emerging. Major tech companies like Apple, Google and IBM no longer require a four-year college degree for many positions, opening the door to those who have been through boot camps or have taught themselves. Some proof of competency (like CompTIA certifications) is still highly valuable, but job candidates are finding that they can get that proof through a variety of options. It’s not “humans OR machines,” it’s “humans AND machines.” The threat of robots taking over jobs has been making headlines for some time now. Without a doubt, there are many cases where automation will eliminate th...

The Time for Federal Action is Now With GDPR in Europe and new privacy laws in Brazil and California, companies are now facing a patchwork of state privacy laws along with developing international patchwork. Panelists discussed the major compliance burden this puts on businesses and negative impact on consumers. This makes it more urgent than ever for Congress to take the critical next steps in passing comprehensive federal privacy legislation. 5G Is a Geopolitical Issue The United States was the first country to deploy and adopt 4G wireless, allowing it to reap numerous economic benefits and become the global leader in technology. Competing against the US for dominance in the next generation of wireless is China, which despite infrastructure challenges, is establishing 360 cell sites a day – 12 times faster than in the US. The race to establish 5G is not just technological – it is a race that will determine which country will have political and economic dominance in the years to come...

Be prepared to provide a realistic and comprehensive estimate of certification costs to your boss, including the exam fee, coursework and training materials. Unless you plan to study during work hours, it's probably not necessary to calculate the cost of time spent preparing for the certification exam; however a transparent estimate of time is vital to show that you've prepared carefully and considered the impact. Finally, offer a comparison of alternatives in terms of both price and value. If budget could be an issue, be prepared to explain the return on investment (ROI) through direct cost savings or risk avoidance: Avoiding a data breach Preventing downtime Improved continuous improvement Better compliance audit results Your internship is the time to be curious about everything. Ask lots of thoughtful questions to help you piece together how the company works: What needs to get done in the short-term? How does the department function? How does the product you’re working on...

Nothing is worse than taking an exam and realizing you have been using the wrong textbook version and training material. This may sound crazy, but it happens. Be sure to check your vendor’s certification page to locate the exam topics and training resources – here’s where to get CompTIA exam objectives and practice tests for free. Maybe you have a mentor or know someone who has taken the same certification – ask them for guidance. The internet, YouTube and Reddit are also great resources. Here are 7 ways to prep for a CompTIA certification exam. “The CompTIA DC Fly-in is a fascinating way to go behind the curtain and experience first-hand how our government functions and how it is approaching technology-related legislation,” said Cristina Greysman, chair of CompTIA’s Advancing Women in Technology Community. “The senators, congressmen and staff I met with during the Capitol Hill visits value the insights they get from their constituents. I believe they learned as much in our meetings a...

I earned the DevOps Foundation certification. Through this, I learned that the business has to establish its “why” – the purpose, beliefs, goal and reason for doing something. This can also be applied to certifications – what is your purpose, belief, goal or reason for achieving the certification? I apply this to every major decision in my life. Establishing the why puts the goal into focus. Great examples include Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, Symantec and more. By creating customer demand and answering customer requirements, they’re helping the channel fulfil its role, which is to fulfil this demand. There are also non-traditional examples of next-generation companies who are using the channel really well. Examples include LiveTiles, Veeam and Datto; all three have leveraged our traditional channel to fulfil the demand they themselves create through their products. Security is a great example of how partners have moved to address customer demand. Any partner with a security practice woul...

Going out into the local tech community is critical, but sometimes the best source to point businesses in the direction of potential IT hires is right there in the IT department already. Internal referrals are a powerful tool for attracting reliable, skilled talent. It’s a business’ responsibility, then, to make their workplace an attractive place to work. “So much is referral no w that you have to make your environment attractive to the referrer,” Rockoff said. “You have to give them an incentive.” He advised telling current IT employees referrals allow them to bring friends into the company and makes themselves more visible. What do you need to know to be able to hire with confidence and how do you stay up on that knowledge? If you own most of the mobile engineering requirements, you need to be up to date with the newest technologies and languages. Same goes for backend, DevOps, web, data analytics, etc. A lot of engineers build their personal brand through Medium blogs, Twitter po...

Automation for the cloud really comes into its own, however, in several areas of activity. First and foremost, automation is essential to handle the setup and tear-down of virtualized applications, platforms, services and infrastructures. In fact, there’s usually a huge amount of detail work involved in configuring, provisioning and deploying added capacity or capability when additional cloud assets or resources must be laid on, during peak demand cycles or to support demand-driven growth. The same is true when demand falls off, and virtualized resources must be pruned to avoid excess costs for idle capacity or capability. The volume of activity involved means it is neither possible nor practical to assign such work to humans. They’re simply not fast enough, and they’re too expensive to handle such things in real time as workloads wax and wane. This kind of automation is really what makes cloud technology such an attractive proposition for businesses and organization, especially at la...

CompTIA Server+ Emphasizes the skills needed for advanced work and troubleshooting of server platforms. Virtualization, server security and storage are all focuses of CompTIA Server+. Jobs related to CompTIA Server+: Systems Engineer Download the CompTIA Server+ exam objectives to see what’s covered. CompTIA Linux+ CompTIA Linux+ validates the skills of IT pros supporting Linux systems. Cloud computing, cybersecurity, emerging tech and DevOps all use Linux, and getting CompTIA Linux+ shows that you have the skills hiring managers need for these roles. Jobs related to CompTIA Linux+: Database Administrator, Data Scientist, Web Administrator Download the CompTIA Linux+ exam objectives to see what’s covered. CompTIA Cloud+ With more than 90% of all companies having moved at least some work to the cloud, organizations need IT pros who can maintain and optimize cloud infrastructure services. CompTIA Cloud+ proves you have these important skills to help businesses efficiently and securely l...

Most people don’t know where to begin looking for internships, so they immediately turn to the Web. The Internet is a fantastic search tool, but Googling “IT internships” will yield 734,000,000 results in 0.59 seconds. That is why it’s vital to narrow down your search terms. Also, it’s super helpful to know where on the Internet to search for internships. Here are a few ideas: LinkedIn Indeed Internships.com Glassdoor Idealist Absolute Internship Looksharp Internship Programs Keep in mind that students routinely find quality internships at their current educational institution, so don’t forget to talk to your on-campus career advisor about IT internships as well. If you were cloning this from another computer, you’d have to use git clone username@hostname:/path instead. For example, to clone this repo on triosdevelopers.com to your local computer, you’d have to use the command git clone root@triosdevelopers.com:/home/jason.eckert/myscripts/ and supply the root user’s password when p...

Now that you understand what big data is, it’s time to dive into some of the challenges organizations face in collecting, managing and analyzing big data. Because big data can be such an asset to your business, it’s important not to get intimidated by these challenges. We’re here to help you face them head on and tackle them. Here are four of big data challenges and how to conquer them. 4 Big Data Challenges 1. Managing Big Data Growth With a name like big data, it’s no surprise that one of the largest challenges is handling the data itself and adjusting to its continuous growth. It is estimated that the amount of data in the world’s IT systems doubles every two years and is only going to grow. The best solution for companies is to implement new big data technologies to help manage all of it. Below are a few different types of big data technologies: Storage technology to structure big data Deduplication technology to get rid of extra data that is wasting space and in turn, wasting mon...

As an IT pro, you are vital to keeping your organization afloat and operating efficiently. In the past, IT pros were often reactive, hearing about something that was broken and going to fix it. That concept will never completely disappear, but as the industry has grown IT pros are more proactive, planning ahead and anticipating potential problems. Organizations use many types of software and applications with a large number of users, and they are expected to perform optimally. This progressive foundation can now evolve even more with the help of big data. IT pros can use big data analytics to solve large and time-consuming problems in a more automated way. Change in an organization is inevitable, and It would take a lot of time and money for an IT pro to manually update systems to keep up with this change. Big data helps incorporate changes faster than ever to keep your organization running like a well-oiled machine. Big Data Jobs in IT Operations: Network Engineer Database Administra...

With so many options under the banner of emerging technology, the difficult choice for partners is which emerging technology to incorporate into their businesses. It’s important to understand that businesses can’t necessarily be experts in everything, so they’ll need to prioritise the resources and extra skills required to embrace emerging technology. This includes technical and sales training, and ensuring partners can collaborate with each other to maximise customer outcomes. Of course, what we know as blockchain today will likely look much different in the not-too-distant future. The technology is still developing, skilled resources are hard to find, and there’s not a lot of clear standards or regulations in place—all of which might impact adoption for a while. “Companies are reticent to jump on blockchain because it’s too immature at this point,” Gitney said. “For solution providers, the focus needs to be on standardization and developing a great story. We’re probably four or five...

Register for Your Exam To hold yourself accountable, buy an exam voucher and schedule your exam before you begin preparing. Then you are less likely to put it off and more likely to get certified in a timely manner! Knowing your exam date early will help you fine-tune your study plan as well. We put this at Step 6 because if you decide to take an IT training course, your voucher may be included, and you may even take the exam as part of the class. If you’re buying the voucher and scheduling the exam on your own, there are a number of ways to save money on your IT certification, including buying a bundle, which includes training materials, an exam voucher and a retake voucher in case you need a second try. Study … and Stay on Track You know what you need to focus on. You have a plan. You’ve booked a date. Now it’s time to dive in and study for your IT certification. Enlist friends and family to help hold you accountable – share your study plan with them and let them know that your focu...

As with most new technology initiatives, cost savings tops the list of expected benefits. Traditionally, IT has been viewed as a cost center, and new advances are usually expected to help lower costs. In the early stages of emerging technology adoption, cost savings can be found where the new model is simply replacing the old model. In later stages, though, new workflow or processes are often needed in order to get the most out of the new model. Solution providers should be sure they understand the long-term adoption curve, so that they are able to help their clients focus beyond the short term. One way that companies might try to save costs is by handing basic tasks over to software—the second benefit most companies are expecting from AI. In the short term, companies can use AI in this way to help reduce errors and improve repeatability. In the long term, companies should explore better ways to utilize the employees who were previously doing these tasks, possibly using the data gener...

Of course, getting certified is also another very good step in starting a career in cybersecurity. You can look at things like the Security+ certification from CompTIA. They’ve also got the Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) certification as well as the CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) certification. So those three have been around for quite a while now. The Cybersecurity Analyst is the newest out of those three. Now there’s actually a new certification coming out July 31st. It’s the PenTest+ certification. [Editor’s Note: This video was recorded before CompTIA PenTest+ came out in July 2018. Download the exam objectives to see what’s covered.] I haven’t seen the exam yet because it’s not out. But I am definitely looking forward to seeing the exam here very, very soon. Of course, beyond CompTIA there are other certifications out there as well. But there’s so many of them, so maybe we’ll talk about those in another video. But the CompTIA ones are definitely a very good way to ...

CompTIA IT Fundamentals (ITF+) is well worth your time and money if you either hope to start a career in IT or wish to change career paths within the tech field, according to CIO. Like CompTIA A+, CompTIA ITF+ provides foundational knowledge of IT and helps candidates determine whether or not a career in IT is a good fit for them. As an added bonus, the exam costs just $119. Career changers and new grads alike will find that this certification is worth every penny. Other top entry-level IT certifications, as mentioned by CIO: CompTIA A+ CompTIA Network+ CompTIA Security+ Cisco Certified Technician (CCT) Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) Aging infrastructure. Too many local governments are beginning to realize that deferred equipment upgrades turn out to be costlier in the long run. The notion that “if it isn’t broke why fix it?” is no longer valid. In fact, that statement was never a reflection of effective reasoning – even if it sound...

CompTIA's newly launched Drone Interest Group is focused on driving the adoption of drone technologies into business. Join for free and get access to virtual meetings and an online forum where you can discuss, debate and share best practices with other drone enthusiasts and experts. The best way to bust these myths and evangelize drone technologies and use cases is to keep communicating, building solutions and demonstrating value to customers and prospects, said council members. “As a council, we are doing quite a bit to reduce the lack of familiarity and present opportunities packaged for businesses,” Spotted Eagle said. “Frankly, that’s why you would work with a drone solution provider—to rely on them to help you understand and abide by regulations.” Meanwhile, CompTIA is planning to publish a library of drone use cases later this year, giving solution providers even more resources to take to customers to prove their worth. “It’s unfortunate that people might believe these myths...

Beyond rent and utilities, the cost of living includes things like how much it costs to get your dog groomed and the price of a plain cheese pizza: $14.79 in Buffalo, New York, compared to $8.99 in Orlando, Florida. According to the study, 82 percent of IT pros select cost of living as a most important factor when deciding where to live. When you compare Gen Z to Millennials, they both rank cost of living as the number one factor when deciding where to live and work. Affordability shows up again when tech pros rank the top 20 cities where they’d prefer to live, based on CompTIA’s 2018 Tech Towns a report, which ranks 20 cities according to cost of living, IT job opportunity and projected job growth. “IT pros liked the lower cost of living in areas like Austin and Colorado Springs in comparison to much higher cost of living areas like San Francisco and San Jose,” Carrado said. 2. The Local Economy The combination of available tech jobs, average tech salaries and projected job growth is...

So some resources that are out there for the PenTest+, if I hop on Amazon right now, these are the books that I found out there. Some of them haven’t been released yet. I have a link in the description tool, but since they’re so new, they really don’t have reviews, so you can be the first to review the books, and sign up for these books that are out there. And then if I hop on Udemy, I didn’t find too many courses on this, but there is one course that looks like it has 269 ratings. I have a link for this in the description also by Jason Dion. So if you all do check out this video course on Udemy, please let me know in the comments section below so I can let people know, and also leave a review so more people can have information about what’s out there for this PenTest+. [Editor’s Note: Check out the CompTIA training products available for PenTest+, including CompTIA CertMaster.] Now, I hope I provided you all the information that you need to be successful with the CompTIA PenTest+ exa...