CompTIA Volley

Episode 117: Network Management

05 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with Steve Petryschuk, Technology Advocate at Auvik, about some of the latest trends in network management based on data from Au...

Episode 116: The State of Social Media

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Kelly Stone, CompTIA's senior director of digital strategy, for a discussion on how social media has evolved. The conversatio...

Episode 115: Trends in Managed Services

05 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth start the show with a lightning round covering the GameStop stock saga, Jeff Bezos stepping down as CEO of Amazon, and the Apple-Face...

Episode 114: Partner Programs

22 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with Mark Brigman, founder and CEO of Partnernomics, about building successful partner programs. As the value of partnering has ...

Episode 113: Solarwinds Attack

08 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth discuss the Solarwinds attack that has affected a wide range of companies. For both MSPs and end users, there are many things to cons...

Episode 112: 2020 in Review

11 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look back at the big tech stories of 2020. Without dwelling too much on COVID or elections, there were plenty of other things ...

Episode 111: COVID changes

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at the changes that have taken place in the business world due to COVID and share their opinions on whether those changes...

Episode 110: IT Industry Outlook 2021

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at CompTIA's latest research, the IT Industry Outlook for the upcoming year. As always, the Outlook report covers 10 tren...

Episode 109: Happy Volleydays

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Randy Gross, CompTIA's CIO and EVP of Certification Operations, for the annual holiday episode. For Halloween, the scary thin...

Episode 108: Tech Policy Issues

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give their review of the technology issues that should be considered by candidates running for office in the upcoming U.S. election. ...

Episode 107: State of Cybersecurity

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome James Stanger back to the podcast to talk about the state of cybersecurity for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. James ...

Episode 106: Trajectory of Technology Part 3 - Workforce Enablement

18 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth wrap up the series on the trajectory of technology with a look at workforce enablement. Companies have found that they are able to be...

Episode 105: Trajectory of Technology Part 2 - Automation

04 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth continue their series on the future trajectory of technology with a look at automation. As a natural next step after integration, com...

Episode 104: Trajectory of Technology Part 1 - Integration

21 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth start a three-part series looking at the trajectory of technology. As the COVID pandemic continues, businesses are beginning to recog...

Episode 103: IT pathways

07 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth speak with Juan Fernandez, VP of Managed IT Services at ImageNet Consulting, about various pathways in the IT industry. First, Juan t...

Episode 102: ChannelCon 2020

24 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look ahead at CompTIA's ChannelCon event. Running August 5-7, the virtual event covers the dynamics of the IT industry, the th...

Episode 101: What's Next

10 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux about what lies ahead for business and technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive di...

Episode 100: Memory Lane

26 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth celebrate Volley's 100th episode by looking back at some of their favorite shows. From the first episode talking about cloud computin...

Episode 99: Emerging Tech and Artisan IT

12 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth discuss the latest whitepaper from CompTIA, "The Role of Emerging Technology in Digital Transformation." A focus on emerging technolo...

Episode 98: IT Advocacy During COVID

29 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Cinnamon Rogers, CompTIA's Executive VP of Public Advocacy, to discuss what her team is focused on during the COVID-19 pandem...

Episode 97: IT Distribution

15 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Frank Vitagliano, CEO of Global Technology Distribution Council, to talk about the changes taking place in IT distribution. T...

Episode 96: Online Testing and Education

01 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome back Randy Gross, CompTIA's CIO and EVP of Certification Operations, to discuss CompTIA's recent pivot to online testing. As ...

Episode 95: Managed Services During COVID

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with MJ Shoer, the executive director of the CompTIA Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (CompTIA ISAO, formerly Techn...

Episode 94: IT Employment

03 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Tim Herbert, CompTIA's executive vice president of research, to discuss the new IT employment report. Using data from the Bur...

Episode 93: Remote Work

20 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth tackle a topic on everyone's mind: remote work. With so many people working remotely thanks to COVID-19, there are a lot of challenge...

Episode 92: Trends in Managed Services

06 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at CompTIA's new research, Trends in Managed Services. The managed services space has become very complex, with most firm...

Episode 91: Trends in Data Management

21 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review CompTIA's newest research, Trends in Data Management. The study looks at the capabilities companies have around managing their...

Episode 90: Code Schools and Software Ethics

07 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about software development with Sarah Mei, Software Architect and Director of Design System Enablement at Salesforce. The conver...

Episode 89: Apple and Privacy

24 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth have a discussion around privacy in the wake of the recent focus on Apple's encryption capabilities. Even though there are conflictin...

Episode 88: CompTIA Communities

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with Jim Hamilton, CompTIA's vice president of member communities, about the structure of CompTIA communities and the plans thes...

Episode 87: 201x in review

13 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For the last episode of 2019, Carolyn and Seth take a look back at the biggest tech trends of the past decade. From cloud/mobile changing IT infrastru...

Episode 86: 2019 in Review

29 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look back at the year in tech, discussing the adoption (or lack thereof) of emerging technologies, the rise in importance of c...

Episode 85: IT Industry Outlook 2020

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review CompTIA's IT Industry Outlook 2020, which has a fresh new design. Along with ten trends for the new year and the statistics ar...

Episode 84: Volley Holidays

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Randy Gross, CompTIA's CIO and Executive VP of Certification Operations, for the annual holiday episode. The group covers one...

Episode 83: CompTIA Individual Membership

18 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Spencer Bone, director of marketing at CompTIA, to discuss the new individual membership programs at CompTIA. CompTIA now off...

Episode 82: Cybersecurity Awareness Month

04 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Ian Thornton-Trump, head of cybersecurity for Amtrust International, to discuss the major cybersecurity issues he sees in the...

Episode 81: Enterprise Mobility

20 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth follow up on the announcement of the iPhone11 by examining the state of enterprise mobility. The topic is not nearly as hot as it onc...

Episode 80: 8th State of the Channel Research

06 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's upcoming State of the Channel research. In its eighth iteration, this study looks at the sentiment of cha...

Episode 79: Cybersecurity Research

23 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's upcoming research report on cybersecurity. Companies are showing signs that their security is improving, ...

Episode 78: Tech Names and Terms

09 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fresh off a great ChannelCon event, Carolyn and Seth discuss the naming that is used in the technology industry. The early days of the industry that w...

Episode 77: CompTIA World

26 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome back Nancy Hammervik, CompTIA's EVP of Industry Relations, to discuss the upcoming issue of CompTIA World. This issue focuses...

Episode 76: Thoughts from DattoCon

12 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome John Tippett, VP of Product at Datto Networking, to talk about some of the main themes that emerged at this year's DattoCon e...

Episode 75: ChannelCon19

28 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's ChannelCon event, taking place August 5-7 in Las Vegas. With attendees coming from technology vendors, ma...

Episode 74: Overrated and Underrated

14 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

To kick off Volley's fourth year, Carolyn and Seth welcome back Dave Sobel, the Sr. Director of MSP Evangelism at Solarwinds. Dave shares his thoughts...

Episode 73: Customer Experience

31 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's upcoming research on customer experience (CX). This research looks specifically at the way that IT compan...

Episode 72: Artificial Intelligence

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about CompTIA's new research on artificial intelligence. The idea of AI has been around for a while, and most of computing is so...

Episode 71: Tech Industry Maturity

03 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at where the overall tech industry is from a growth cycle perspective. On one hand, there are elements of maturity, such ...

Episode 70: Creating the Tech Workforce

19 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome David Hyman, President of the Center for Technology and Workforce Solutions, to talk about the steps needed to best prepare c...

Episode 69: Skills and Training

22 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Teresa Varela, CompTIA's Director of Workforce Development, to talk about the IT skills gap. Teresa shares her experience in ...

Episode 68: Diversity and Inclusion (Part 1)

08 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Cristina Greysman, the chair of CompTIA's Advancing Women in Technology community, to discuss the problem of diversity and in...

Episode 67: SMB and Technology

22 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at CompTIA's latest research on the technology usage of small and mid-sized businesses. Technology is playing a huge role...

Episode 66: Internet of Things

08 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review the highlights from CompTIA's latest research on Internet of Things, including adoption rates and skills that companies need f...

Episode 65: Platform Lockin

25 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth discuss the challenges with massive tech platforms, including unintended consequences, changes to the model, and the potential for lo...

Episode 64: 2019 Trends

11 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's 2019 IT Industry Outlook, looking at three of the trends that will be featured. Cloud computing, edge com...

Episode 63: 2018 in Review

14 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look back at the year in technology. As tech has become more ingrained in business and society, the big story is that there is...

Episode 62: The New CompTIA A+

30 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with Teresa Sears, CompTIA's senior director of product development, about the upcoming A+ certification. The A+ certification i...

Episode 61: Vendors and MSPs

16 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review some work done by CompTIA's board of directors around successful vendors and MSPs. In building partner programs and working wi...

Episode 60: CompTIA Membership

02 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth sit down with Nancy Hammervik, CompTIA's Executive Vice President of Membership. Nancy describes the 2019 strategies that came out of...

Episode 59: A Holiday View of Tech

19 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at the technology landscape through the lens of the upcoming holidays. We talk about one thing that scares us about the c...

Episode 58: Building Cybersecurity Teams

05 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about CompTIA's latest research report, which focuses on how companies are forming teams focused on cybersecurity. Improving ski...

Episode 57: Creating IT Futures

21 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk with Charles Eaton, Executive VP of Social Innovation for CompTIA and CEO of the Creating IT Futures Foundation. Charles talks a...

Episode 56: State of the Channel

07 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's upcoming research study on the state of the IT channel. Emerging technology and vertical specialization a...

Episode 55: Back to School

22 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome their daughters Olivia and Kate to the podcast. As the girls head off to college, we have a discussion about technology usage...

Episode 54: Human Values in Design

10 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Bryn McCoy, founder of LuxLab, to talk about incorporating human values into technology design. As AI and IoT create new and ...

Episode 53: ChannelCon 2018

27 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's ChannelCon event, taking place July 31-August 3 in Washington, DC. Catch a sneak peek of sessions coverin...

Episode 52: PenTest+

13 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth interview CompTIA's Patrick Lane about the new certification coming at the end of the month. PenTest+ certifies skills that are used ...

Episode 51: Modern Distributors

29 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth chat with Tim Fitzgerald, VP of Cloud Channel Sales at Ingram, about the evolution of the distributor in the modern IT industry. As a...

Episode 50: Strategic IT

15 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Gail Holmberg, area managing partner at Fortium Partners, to discuss the shift companies are taking towards strategic IT. Com...

Episode 49: GDPR and data practices

01 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Randy Gross, CompTIA's CIO and EVP of Certification Operations, to discuss the impact of GDPR on data policies and the greate...

Episode 48: Cloud Computing and IT Operations

18 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at CompTIA's latest research study focusing on cloud computing. After a decade of experience with cloud, companies are mo...

Episode 47: Operational Efficiency

04 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about the latest research from CompTIA, exploring operational efficiency within IT channel firms. If customer demand is driving ...

Episode 46: Channel Definitions

20 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Forrester's Jay McBain live from Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. The three analysts discuss the IT channel...

Episode 45: Techlash and Humanity

06 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth discuss the growing pains that are taking place as the tech sector reaches a new stage of maturity and achieves unprecedented scope. ...

Episode 44: Cyberstates

23 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome CompTIA's Sr Vice President of Research, Tim Herbert, to discuss the upcoming Cyberstates report. Cyberstates is CompTIA's pr...

Episode 43: Diversity in the Tech Sector

09 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Aaron Leveston, national account manager at RingCentral. The three of them take a look at CompTIA's latest research, Diversit...

Episode 42: Olympics and Advertising

23 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about how technology has changed the Olympic experience. When time zones can be flattened and attention spans are shorter, the o...

Episode 41: iPhone X and Tech Fatigue

09 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth discuss whether or not Apple has had missteps with the iPhoneX, given the disappointing sales numbers and the rumors of cuts in produ...

Episode 40: Youth Interest in Tech Careers

26 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome fellow CompTIA researcher Anna Matthai to talk about Anna's latest study on Youth and Technology. The interest in t...

Episode 39: 2018 Trends

12 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth preview CompTIA's 2018 IT Industry Outlook with a look at two of the trends in the report. First, they talk about the democratization...

Episode 38: 2017 in Review

15 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth look back at the big technology trends from 2017. First they discuss the reputation of the technology industry and how it has been so...

Episode 37: iPhone X and Net Neutrality

01 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a quick review of iPhone X based on Seth's first impressions of the new phone, then discuss the different variables in the argum...

Episode 36: Emerging Tech and Sexual Harrassment

17 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about the potential confusion surrounding emerging technology. Rather than talking about individual topics, conversations may be...

Episode 35: Telecommuting and Mergers

03 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk through various pros and cons of telecommuting, looking at how companies must balance the culture they want with the flexibility...

Episode 34: Security and Big Data

20 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review some of the major themes from this week's Cyber Security Chicago event, such as automation and cloud configurations. Then they...

Episode 33: The Next Iteration of IT

06 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Sal Patalano, Chief Revenue Officer for Lenovo Software. They start with a discussion about the changing nature of the IT cha...

Episode 32: The Workforce Chasm

22 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome their research colleague Amy Carrado to the podcast to discuss workforce issues. What is the root cause?Is there such a thing...

Episode 31: SaaS and Work-Life Balance

08 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth discuss the upcoming research report from CompTIA, which looks at how traditional channel firms are incorporating SaaS into their por...

Episode 30: IT Architecture and Tech Behemoths

25 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth talk about CompTIA's latest research study, Planning a Modern IT Architecture. Cloud computing and IoT are driving a need to be more ...

Episode 29: ChannelCon17

11 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give their review of ChannelCon17, touching on the expansion of the IT channel, the focus on operations for technology firms, and the...

Episode 28: The CHANCE in TECH Act

28 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome Geoff Lane from CompTIA's advocacy team to discuss The CHANCE in TECH Act. This proposed legislation aims to simply the proce...

Episode 27: Microsoft Inspire

14 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth look at some of the big announcements coming out of the Microsoft Inspire partner event, including the Microsoft 365 bundles, the One...

Episode 26: Amazon and Whole Foods

30 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review three different articles with different takes on Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, eventually discussing possible implicati...

Episode 25: Uber and Rural Broadband

16 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth review the current mess that Uber is facing and discuss why it's become such a big deal and how we are treating technology these days...

Episode 24: Ambient Technology

02 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth wish a fond farewell to Walt Mossberg and discuss his final column, which looks forward to a world filled with ambient tech...

Episode 23: LOB Buyers and Google IO

19 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth start with a quick discussion on last week's ransomware attacks (get off Windows XP, people). Then they dive into the new research fr...

Episode 22: Digital Disruption

05 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth are joined by TC Doyle, Senior Director of Content for Penton and co-author of The Digital Revolution, to discuss digital disruption....

Episode 21: Security Skills and Monopolies

21 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's upcoming research study, The Evolution of Security Skills. Then they turn their attention to Amazon and F...

Episode 20: Channel Partners and Unintended Consequences

06 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth take a look at the agenda for the Channel Partners conference taking place April 10-13. Carolyn will be speaking on channel trends, a...

Episode 19: AMM and What's Next

24 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth share their thoughts from CompTIA's Annual Member Meeting, then they review some upcoming studies on cloud and Internet of Things wit...

Episode 18: CIA Hacking and Tech Skills

10 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carolyn and Seth welcome CompTIA's James Stanger to discuss the recent revelations of CIA hacking and the implications for product security. Then the ...