What are Managed IT Services? The Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) defines managed services as “the practice of outsourcing day-to-day technology management responsibilities to a third party as a strategic method for improving operations and accelerating a return on their technology … Read More
Guide to PCI DSS – Part 1: What is PCI DSS?
Welcome to SandStorm IT’s 6-part series about Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In this series, we'll cover what PCI DSS is and the various requirements: Part 1 - What is PCI DSS? Part 2- Building and Maintaining a Secure Network (Coming Soon) Part 3 - Protecting Data … Read More
Data Breaches – What you need to know
Data breaches have been the subject of many news stories lately. Large companies like Target, Home Depot and even Equifax have been hit, exposing millions of pieces of our personal information. It's only normal to ask, "How do I protect my personal data?" Remember that most identity thieves are not … Read More
Windows Server 2008 R2 End-of-Life Support is Near
Windows Server 2008 R2 End-of-Life Support is near. Windows Server 2008 R2 end-of-life mainstream supported ended back on January 13, 2015. However, there is a more critical date looming. On January 14, 2020, Microsoft will end all support for Windows Server 2008 R2. It seems like 2020 is a … Read More
How can a multi-site “Voice over Internet Protocol” (VoIP) solution benefit your business?
Legacy public branch exchanges (PBX)s present a multitude of challenges if your business has multiple locations or remote users. A VoIP PBX solution can address many of those challenges. Multiple public branch exchanges (PBX)s to maintain, multiple bills from different tel-co providers, multiple … Read More
Why does my business need a next-gen firewall?
We've previously covered "What is a Firewall and Why do I Need One?". In this blog post, we will take a deeper look to see how a Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) can help protect your business. NGFW’s contain all the tried and true features of the firewalls before them but they also contain … Read More
When does your business need a server?
When does your business need a server? It may not, at least not in the traditional sense. In this blog post, we will first talk about on-premises servers and how servers can help you and your business. Later in the post, we will discuss why a cloud solution is sometimes a better … Read More