Matthew Stern's Posts

As an optician solving problems is Arlo Ely’s specialty. But as his recently-awarded CompTIA A+ certification indicates, glasses and contact lenses aren’t the only forms of technology he troubleshoots.

Building a solid foundation with your channel partners will help your business go down countless avenues in the future. For a vendor, finding the right channels to sell cloud services can play a key role in expanding business and reaching new, untapped markets. Local markets and others formerly out-of-reach for a cloud provider can open up with the right partnership. But the prospect of forging partner relationships can be intimidating. PartnerPath has created a helpful three-step process that d ...

There’s no denying it: cloud is growing. IBM just announced an aggressive expansion of its cloud services, and TheInfoPro’s “Wave 5 Cloud Computing Study” predicts a 36 percent compound annual growth rate for cloud into 2016, according to Forbes. Moreover, 69 percent of enterprises with cloud budgets in 2013 are expecting to increase them in 2014. These expanding market projections also mean expanding budgets for cloud computing, so if you’re not in the game already ...

Pat Martin, a national account manager at SmartSource, spends her days with her two dogs — her “big babies,” she calls them — developing business relationships for her company and recruiting IT staff from the comfort of her own home. Martin’s two-pronged role gives her plenty of satisfaction. She’s been at it for about three years now, after a mutual contact put her in touch with the owners of Illinois-based SmartSource Inc. “It was just love,” Mar ...

When Lindsay Dick first dipped her toes in the IT channel, she expected — in fact, invited — the challenge. Her professional expertise wasn’t geared toward information technology, but what she lacked in a formal technical background she made up for in pluck. But when it came right down to it, the initial experience turned out to be a bit more overwhelming than she’d imagined. Luckily, Dick had the good fortune to connect with Lori Berry, an executive council member of Com ...