FortMesa’s Continurisk GRC (governance, risk and compliance) platform will be deployed to support the new Trustmark program from CompTIA, the Downers Grove, Ill.-based, nonprofit association for the global technology industry and workforce.

“The work CompTIA is doing in building a scalable cyber credibility model for MSPs and other IT providers is core to the FortMesa ethos and an essential part of rebuilding public trust in outsourced information technology systems – we’re all very excited to support this mission,” said Mathew Fisch, founder and CEO of FortMesa, in a statement.

FortMesa’s GRC platform will:

•  Allow CompTIA Cybersecurity Trustmark applicants to track progress in addressing and completing the standards outlined in Trustmark documentation.
• Be accessible to CompTIA members as they enroll in the Trustmark program.
• Provide actuarial insights and feedback to the Trustmark program.

“MSPs will be able to measure the effectiveness of their evolving security program as they progress through the Trustmark process. The addition of FortMesa as a Cybersecurity Programs partner and the inclusion of its GRC platform are exciting and important developments for our Trustmark program and for the global MSP community,” said Wayne Selk, vice president, cybersecurity programs at CompTIA, in a statement.

The CompTIA Cybersecurity Trustmark details a clear path for MSPs to achieve foundational cybersecurity hygiene, laying the groundwork for a functional security program within the organization.

The Trustmark maps to several control frameworks recognized as industry-accepted best cybersecurity practices, including the Center for Internet Security Critical Security Controls, ISO/IEC 27001, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-171, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Cybersecurity Regulation.

The post FortMesa Joins CompTIA to Strengthen Cybersecurity Culture Throughout MSP Community appeared first on My TechDecisions.

This year’s conference is set for Aug. 1-3 at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.

CompTIA, the Downers Grove, Ill.-based, nonprofit association for the information technology industry and workforce, also issued a call for speakers for ChannelCon 2023.

ChannelCon 2023 Conference

“This year’s conference is all about building the impossible and reaching new heights,” said MJ Shoer, chief community officer, CompTIA, in a statement. “It’s an opportunity to be inspired by innovators and visionaries and connect with industry leaders and peers to share ideas on how to overcome business challenges and develop groundbreaking solutions for customers.”

The three-day conference will feature a mix of collaborative sessions where leading tech business executives and technologists will offer insights into the latest growth opportunities in today’s market. Four education tracks are planned – on cybersecurity resilience, workforce tactics to help build your business, tools for tech vendors, and sales and marketing strategies. AI will also be a hot topic throughout the event.

Complete conference details and registration options are available CompTIA ChannelCon 2023.

Call for Speakers

Thought leaders and industry professionals with expertise and experience in any of the four education tracks are invited submit a speaking proposal for CompTIA ChannelCon 2023. All submissions should be education focused and not promote specific products or services. The full list of topic areas and the speaker submission form are available here. Questions regarding speaking opportunities may be directed to speakers@comptia.org. The deadline for speaker submissions is May 5.

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While large tech firms have made headlines for announcing large layoffs, job opportunities remain abundant across all over industry sectors, according to trade groups and industry analysts.

According to IT trade organization CompTIA, tech-related employment fell slightly in February as previously announced layoffs are now finally appearing in data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Tech sector employment, which includes all types of workers employed by tech companies, fell by 11,184 positions in February. In addition, tech occupations in all industry sectors declined by 38,000 positions, representing a 0.6% decline of the total base of tech employment across the U.S, according to CompTIA.

Now, the tech unemployment rate sits at 2.2%, the trade group says. Job postings for tech positions declined by about 40,000 to just over 229,000 last month, CompTIA says. Further, most metropolitan markets saw tech employment declines, while some smaller markets saw gains.

Across industry sectors, the largest number of job postings for tech positions was in the professional, scientific and tech services industry at 35,000.

In addition, IT consulting firm Janco Associates says the IT job market has shrunk by nearly 45,000 jobs in the first two months of 2023, and this is the first loss in the number of IT professionals employed in over 27 months.

In January, there were 10,000 IT jobs lost, and another 13,400 jobs were lost in February, the firm says.

However, the tech talent crunch is not over, says Gartner Senior Director Analyst Mbula Schoen. In a recent Q&A, Schoen says current demand for tech talent greatly outstrips supply, which Gartner expects will be the case until at least 2026, based on the firm’s IT spending forecast.

However, many of those highly publicized layoffs were in business functions at tech companies rather than tech roles, Schoen says, adding that there are still opportunities for IT jobs outside of tech companies. Many of those job cuts were largely driven by public companies seeking to optimize share prices and show shareholders that they are reducing spending after seemingly over hiring over the past three years.

However, new hires are not necessarily being impacted, Schoen says.

“Instead, recent layoffs affected a broader range of employees and initiatives as organizations prioritize key products and services to position their company for specific market opportunities,” Schoen says. “In fact, Gartner research found that the companies behind the 10 largest layoffs in tech talent still employ over 150,000 more people in total than at the beginning of 2020.”

CIOs and IT leaders should look beyond those headlines, because the competition for IT talent will continue to rise, especially in areas such s data science, software engineering and cybersecurity.

“Delivering on digital growth opportunities will only be achievable with the recognition that the IT talent crunch continues unabated,” Schoen says. “While the overall supply of tech workers in the labor market has increased by only a few percentage points at most, CIOs can take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their recruiting efforts.”

To attract and retain top talent, Schoen recommends casting wider nets to tap into a large pool of “passive” IT candidates, ramping up employee referral programs, or use talent intelligent capabilities that leverage AI to source passive candidates from social search.

In addition, CIOs should target laid-off workers in adjacent categories and train them to build the necessary IT skills. For example, organizations could hire data and business analysts and train them on more technical skills to become data scientists.

Schoen also recommends that organizations improve their employee value propositions by focusing on factors other than compensation, such as flexibility and growth opportunity.

The post Despite Tech Layoffs, IT Talent Crunch Persists appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Through the acquisition, the two mission-driven organizations will join forces to extend their learning solutions, industry-recognized certifications and career accelerators to students, professionals and academic institutions all around the world.

Utah-based TestOut Corporation, launched in 1991, has helped millions of individuals acquire the skills they need to progress in their education and careers. TestOut’s learning platform, LabSim, enables students to access a broad range of hands-on learning content that builds “career-ready IT skills” while providing educators with the tools they need to help students succeed.

“TestOut has an amazing team of dedicated professionals driven by a customer-first mindset,” says Todd Thibodeaux, CompTIA president and CEO. “They’ve built a great company, developing world-class learning solutions for a broad array of students and instructors. The combination of our two companies will greatly accelerate CompTIA’s training and certification offerings into more and more tech and IT job roles.”

TestOut CEO Noel Vallejo believes the two companies are well aligned.

“Over the past 10 years, I have often thought that if I were going to sell TestOut, CompTIA would be at the top of my list of potential buyers,” Vallejo says. “We fit well together. Both organizations are committed to helping individuals build a better life for themselves through technology education and certification.”

Employer hiring activity for technology and digital job roles reached an all-time high in 2022 with over four million employer job postings, according to CompTIA. Over the next decade, projections indicate demand for tech workers will grow at twice the rate of the overall labor force. In areas such as cybersecurity, data, cloud infrastructure and software development growth rates are even higher, while momentum continues to build for digital literacy across all occupation categories.

“There is a critical economic need to break the cycle of persistent talent shortages, and an equally critical need to expand opportunity and diversity in the tech workforce,” Thibodeaux says. “CompTIA and TestOut share a passion and commitment to unlocking the potential of every student, instructor, career changer or tech professional reaching for the next rung.”

The post CompTIA Acquires TestOut appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Tech industry companies added 17,600 workers in December, with job gains recorded in four of five sector categories, CompTIA’s analysis of today’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport reveals. It was the 25^th straight month of net employment growth in the tech industry.

Employers throughout the economy added an estimated 130,000 tech workers in December, helping to drive down the tech occupations unemployment rate to 1.8%, compared to the overall national rate of 3.5%, according to CompTIA research.

Job postings for future tech hiring declined for the second consecutive month, but still totaled more than 246,000 in December. Positions for software developers and engineers accounted for nearly 30% of last month’s jobs postings. IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and network engineers were also in demand.

“Another wave of positive tech employment data speaks to the many moving parts of a complex labor market,” says Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Despite the layoffs there continues to be more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it.”

Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas led the list of metro markets with the highest volumes of tech jobs postings, which Richmond (Va.), Tallahassee (Fla.), Las Vegas (Nev.) and Lansing (Mich.) recorded the largest month-over-month increases in employer job postings. Among industry sectors, professional, scientific and technical services (38,654), finance and insurance (33,538) and manufacturing (26,763) reported the most activity.

CompTIA’s analysis also shows that 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles requiring emerging tech skills.

Within the tech sector three occupation categories paced December hiring – IT services and custom software development (+7,200), other information services, including search engines (+6,600) and data processing, hosting and related services (+5,600).

The post CompTIA: Tech Industry Employment Holds Steady Heading Into 2023 appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Tech companies added 14,400 workers last month and tech sector employment has increased by 207,200 this year, according to CompTIA’s analysis.

“The hotter-than-anticipated tech jobs report confirms there are still many more employers hiring tech talent than shedding it,” says Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “It’s certainly premature to dismiss concerns over the health of the economy, but this should be a reassuring sign for the tech workforce.”

Monthly occupational data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals tech occupations in all industry sectors grew by 137,000 positions, pushing the unemployment rate for tech workers down to 2%, from 2.2% in October.

November hiring by technology companies was broad-based across occupation categories, led by IT services and custom software development (+8,100). Employment growth also occurred in data processing, hosting and related services (+4,100), other information services, including search engines (+2,100) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+1,900).

Employer job postings for future tech hiring fell back in November, but still totaled nearly 270,000. Openings for software developers and engineers accounted for about 28% of all tech jobs postings. Demand for IT support specialists, systems engineers, IT project managers and network engineers was also solid.

While major tech hubs recorded the largest numbers of job postings for tech positions, ‘under the radar’ markets showed notable increases in employment opportunities, including Topeka (KS), Virginia Beach (VA), Worcester (MA) and Riverside (CA). Among industries, the professional, scientific and technical services sector had the most tech job postings (41,188), followed by finance and insurance (35,132) and manufacturing (31,036).

CompTIA’s analysis also reveals that 30% of all tech jobs postings are for positions in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or in roles that require emerging tech skills.

CompTIA’s complete Tech Jobs Report can be found here.

The post CompTIA: Strong Tech Employment Figures Counter Layoffs Narrative appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Microsoft releases SQL Server 2022

Microsoft has announced the general availability of SQL Server 2022, which it calls the most Azure-enabled release of SQL server yet with improvements to performance, security and availability.

The connections to Azure, including Azure Synapse Link and Microsoft Purview, allow customers to drive deeper insights, predictions and governance from their data at scale. Azure integration includes managed disaster recovery to Azure SQL Managed Instance, enabling database administrators to manage their data estates with more flexibility and minimal impact to end users.

Built-in query intelligence enhances performance and scalability, and the company says the solution is fortified with Ledger for SQL Server, which uses blockchain to create a tamper-proof track record of tie of all changes to the database.

Read this Microsoft blog to learn more.

Microsoft announces Teams Shared Device License

Microsoft says it is evolving its software offerings to accommodate new workplace use cases and is rebranding its Common Area Phone license to the Teams Shared Device license to enable broader functionalities involving shared devices.

The Teams Shared Device license will continue to support the existing user experience for phones in common areas, but the license will now also support use cases for Microsoft Teams Displays and Microsoft Teams Panels to address the evolving use cases for shared and common spaces that don’t need a full Teams Rooms license.

The rebranded license will be available at the end of 2022. Read this blog to learn more.

CompTIA launches Tech Job Posting Optimizer

IT Industry association CompTIA has launched the Tech Job Posting Optimizer, a new free web-based platform that provides a library of tech job templates and smart data tools to help employers optimize job postings for skills, qualifications and inclusivity oriented to the U.S. labor market. The tool also provides a check of bias language, salary curves and a job posting best practices guide.

The tool is free and available to any employer in any industry looking to recruit technology professionals.

Learn more about the Tech Job Posting Optimizer.

U.S. agencies warn of Hive ransomware attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services have issued a joint advisory on the Hive ransomware group that has victimized over 1,300 organizations globally, securing about $100 million in ransom payments. The group targets critical infrastructure, including healthcare, government facilities, communications, critical manufacturing and IT.

Read the joint advisory to learn more about the Hive ransomware group’s operations.

DDoS attacks up in October as ransomware declines

A new report from the NCC Group finds DDoS attacks are continuing to increase, with October seeing the highest number of incidents so far this year with 2,090, a 14% rise from September. This comes as ransomware attacks decreased by 7% in October from the previous month.

“We are seeing a vast growth in DDoS attacks, with the numbers in October hitting an all-time high,” says Matt Hull, global head of threat intelligence at NCC Group. “This shift is even more notable this month as overall ransomware attacks decrease.”

Read the report to learn more about cyberattack trends.

The post This Week in IT: SQL Server 2022, Teams Licenses, Tech Jobs, Cyberattacks appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The Ticket to Tech training initiative links ConnectWise partners with a talented new crop of job-ready tech learners seeking employment. The program was revealed at IT Nation Connect 2022, a thought-leadership conference for technology solution providers presented by ConnectWise.

The first pilot cohort of 35 job seekers begins this month with training in the technical skills needed for success in entry-level tech support jobs, coupled with durable skills training in critical thinking, problem solving, communications and related areas. Nine additional cohorts are planned for early 2023.

“Tech support professionals have greater responsibilities, and greater skills requirements, than ever,” said Amy Kardel, vice president, strategic workforce relationships, CompTIA, in a statement. “They are actively engaged in cloud computing, cybersecurity, data, networking and other disciplines, making tech support the ideal learning ground for career advancement.”

Ticket to Tech students will prepare for the CompTIA A+ certification exam, the industry standard for launching an IT career, and train on the ConnectWise Manage platform. Career readiness skills, including LinkedIn and social media lessons, mock interviews and resume assistance, are all included in the 17-week program.

Graduates will have two pathways to employment:

• Traditional full-time hire to fill open desktop support positions
• Apprenticeship, where they will be full-time employees who receive additional training, structured, on-the-job learning, mentorship and will earn a nationally recognized credential from the U.S. Department of Labor

“The industry is in need of skilled IT professionals. Providing a solid path to employment instills confidence while serving as a boon to the hiring market,” said Jen Locklear, chief people officer at ConnectWise, in a statement. “This pre-apprenticeship program is just the beginning; we’re excited to watch it grow as the momentum builds. With a culture of positivity and learning embedded in the program, these talented and eager individuals will be assets to the entire industry.”

IT Nation Evolve partners have the exclusive opportunity to join the employer contact list for graduates, working with the career services that will help students find employment, interview candidates and make hiring decisions.

To learn more about the Ticket to Tech, visit comptia.org/T2T.

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CompTIA’s analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics #JobsReport reveals that tech companies added 20,700 workers in October, the 23^rd straight month of job growth. Industry employment has increased by 193,900 in 2022, 28% higher than the same period last year.

After a five-month slide, employer job postings for new tech hiring rebounded in October, with nearly 317,000 openings, an increase of more than 10,000 from September.

Across the entire economy, tech occupation jobs declined by 116,000 but remain in solidly positive territory for the year. The unemployment rate for tech occupations increased a tenth of a point to 2.2%, paralleling the increase of the national unemployment rate.

“The data is roughly in line with expectations,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA, in a statement. “Tech hiring activity remains steady, but there are undoubtedly concerns of a slowing economy.”

Within the tech industry the bulk of new hiring occurred in three sector categories: IT services and custom software development (+8,800), other information services, including search engines (+6,800) and computer and electronic products manufacturing (+5,400). Tech manufacturing employment is up 43% compared to the same period last year.

Remote work hiring trends upward

Remote work shows no signs of slowing down. Employer job postings for tech positions that specify remote work or work from home options continue to increase, with a year-to-date rate of 34% compared to 27% in 2021 and 22% in 2020.

Major tech hubs saw significant month-over-month increases in tech jobs postings, including Boston (+2,732), New York City (+1,459), San Francisco (+884) and San Jose (+864). The top industries for tech job postings were professional, scientific and technical services (50,688), finance and insurance (35,500) and manufacturing (34,488).

Positions for software developers and engineers led the October job postings (85,796). There is also strong demand for IT support specialists, IT project managers, systems engineers and network engineers.

The post CompTIA: Tech Hiring Moving at Steady Pace appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The new career training program to help “justice-impacted individuals” find a job in IT will at first include up to 35 people in a free online training program. The training is designed to help individuals find work as a help desk technician, IT specialist and junior system administrators.

The 22-week, part-time program will be administered by CompTIA and help people learn the necessary skills and certifications to pursue those IT careers, which CompTIA says have average starting salaries between $50,000 and $60,000.

According to the organizations, the training package covers computer curriculum geared toward the CompTIA IT Fundamentals and CompTIA A+ certifications. The organization defines CompTIA IT Fundamentals is an introduction to basic IT knowledge and skills that provides digital literacy to help individuals determine if a career in IT is right for them. Meanwhile, CompTIA A+ is called “the industry standard” for launching IT careers in today’s digital world and is the preferred qualifying credential for technical support and IT operational roles.

According to CompTIA’s monthly Tech Jobs report, there is a strong market demand for tech workers, including 23,000 job openings for IT support specialists last month.

The Center for Economic Opportunities will cover the cost of the program for up to 35 participants, including a computer, hotspot and ongoing services and support during and after the training with the goal of helping individuals earn jobs.

The first cohort of the program is expected to begin this month and run through April 2023. The response to the program has been strong and there is currently a waiting list for the next training cohort, the organizations say.

“As organizations increase their reliance on technology, tech support professionals have taken on greater responsibilities,” says Courtney Fong, CompTIA’s chief operating officer and CEO of the CompTIA Tech Career Academy. “They have hands-on involvement in cloud computing, cybersecurity, data and other technology solutions that are vital to business operations. Participants who complete this program will be well prepared for the challenges and opportunities they will encounter.”

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