March 28, 2020 | DataYard

DataYard Drinks Beer

It’s National Drink A Beer day and we’re happy to throw one back with you on this fine Saturday in September. Just to clue you in on some of the cold ones we will be throwing down here is our list of favorites. Go ahead and let us know what you’re drinking today too!

Jacob C. – Whiskey Rebellion from Warped Wing

Joe D. – Coors Light

Dennis F.– Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

Tommy G. – Water

Phill H. – Shocktop

Natalie K. – Amaretto Sours

Ryan L. – Weihenstephaner Hefeweissen

Daniel L. – Angry Orchard

Alek M.- ISO Heaven from Toxic Brewery

David M. – Codebreaker Double IPA from Dayton Beer Company

Mike M. – Diet A&W Root Beer

Victor W. – Budweiser

Don W. – Root Beer

Eric W. – Hoppy Ending Pale Ale from Palo Alto Brewing Company

#nationaldrinkabeerday

Who Exactly Needs to be HIPPA Compliant?

HIPPA compliance can be a little intimidating for those who have never dealt with it before. Not only are the rules vast and complex, but failure to follow HIPAA can lead to major fines, lawsuits, and more. Before you dig too deeply into the ins and outs of HIPAA, it makes sense to wonder whether or not HIPAA is a factor for you in the first place.

Though HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, it of course extends to more than just health insurance providers.

Anyone working within the health or medical industry at any capacity will encounter some part of HIPAA. This includes physicians, dentists, counselors, and more. Additionally, companies that have vendors, customers, or third-party connections in the health industry may also be required to follow parts of HIPAA.

In today’s digital age, one area where businesses really need to be mindful of HIPAA compliance is regarding their online tools and services.

Do Your Online Services Need to be HIPAA Compliant?

Virtually every business or organization has a website these days. That website is hosted on a physical server somewhere. However, not all servers are the same.

In addition to different speeds, capacities, and software, some servers are HIPAA compliant while others are not. Now, just because you operate within the health industry does not necessarily mean you need HIPAA compliant hosting.

For example, let’s say you’re a dental office with a simple website explaining who you are, what you do, and how you can be reached. In this case, HIPAA compliant hosting isn’t required. However, if you wish to add digital intake forms, or you plan on storing current or potential client’s health information, HIPAA comes into play.

Of course, it’s not just websites that are hosted on servers. Email, online software, cloud storage, and more all fall under HIPAA compliance rules. It’s important to make sure you’re protected.

HIPAA Consultation Makes Compliance Easy

At DataYard, we provide HIPAA compliant hosting solutions and IT services to protect your clients’ information and keep you from facing hefty fines. We realize you might not exactly know what you need when it comes to maintaining HIPAA compliance. That’s why we also offer IT consultation services that we call the Discovery process to make sure you get exactly what’s needed.

Whether you know what you’re looking for, and you’re looking to talk to someone who does, DataYard is here for you.

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DataYard Network Maintenance 9/12

DataYard will be performing maintenance on our core internet infrastructure Thursday morning (9/12) at 12:00 AM to move connectivity back to our primary router now that we are fully recovered after last month’s outage. This will impact ethernet express, ethernet express metro, and regional ethernet services. Downtime is expected to be less than 15 minutes.

Let us know if you have any questions, concerns, or just want to chat: 1.800.982.4539 or support@datayard.us. Remember to follow us on Twitter (@datayardtechops & @datayard)!

September Maintenance week 2019

Throughout the week of September 9th 2019, we will be performing maintenance on DataYard’s infrastructure and customer servers. This will include performing updates to all managed server infrastructure, including tasks that require reboots/shutdowns/service interruptions. Maintenance will begin at 2:00AM EST and will be completed by 8:00AM EST throughout various days this week. Making IT Better!

Let us know if you have any questions, concerns, or just want to chat: 1.800.982.4539 or support@datayard.us. Remember to follow us on Twitter (@datayardtechops & @datayard)!

Your Business Needs a Next Generation Firewall

As we mentioned in a recent post, a firewall is your first line of protection against malicious presences on the internet. A firewall is the gatekeeper to what’s entering your network or device, keeping the bad things out while letting the safe information in.

At least, that’s what it should be doing. But as malware, viruses, and hacking techniques evolve, the tools that protect against them need to evolve as well. A traditional firewall might not be enough to protect you.

For example, once upon a time, malware and hackers exploited holes in networks and security systems. Now, however, most exploit weaknesses in applications, which make them harder to flag and block.

That’s where Next Generation Firewalls come in.

What Makes a Firewall “Next Gen”?

A next generation firewall (or NGFW) isn’t simply the newest version or model of firewalls on the market. It’s a complete evolution, redefining how a firewall operates and what it protects you from.

Yes, a NGFW performs all of the traditional functions of firewalls, filtering traffic based off port, protocol, preset admin filters, etc., but that’s only the beginning.

The exact capabilities of a NGFW can vary, but they all must meet certain criteria. Gartner, one of the most senior authorities in IT, defines them as deep-packet inspection firewalls that move beyond port/protocol inspection and blocking to add application-level inspection, intrusion prevention, and bringing intelligence from outside the firewall.

In many ways, NGFW combines the features of traditional firewalls with features found in additional security tools, combining them into one efficient, streamlined package. This reduces complexity while enhancing control and improving performance.

For businesses where data security and system integrity are top priorities, having a NGFW is a must.

Do Small Businesses Need Next Generation Firewalls?

There’s no question that every business should have firewalls in place, no matter the size. But do small businesses benefit from the power of next generation firewalls? Absolutely. The level of control and security featured in a NGFW is something traditional firewalls simply can’t compete with.

That said, it can depend on what type of data you’re storing online and within your internal system. For certain smaller businesses, it could be overkill. Then again, when it comes to digital security, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to properly caring for your customers data.

Ultimately, it doesn’t hurt to talk to a professional team about what level of firewall you should have in place for your business. As it happens, we are a professional IT team that would be happy to answer those questions for you. Our Discovery process is a perfect health check for your security level while getting a great picture of your IT environment.

At DataYard, we provide IT consultation in addition to private cloud hosting, cybersecurity, colocation in Dayton, Ohio, and more. Big or small, we can scale our services to meet your needs on a reasonable budget.

Contact us today!