3 Silly Myths About “Digital Marketing” (From Non-Marketers)
We’re busting 3 common myths surrounding digital marketing, and preaching the importance of investing in DM for your business!
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From Steel City to Smart City
The city of Pittsburgh has undergone many transformations throughout its history. From being a steel industry titan to becoming a cultural center for food and the arts, Pittsburgh has always managed to successfully reinvent itself by remaining relevant in modern culture. Now, it seems another transformation has already begun. Over the last few years, Pittsburgh […]
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Heat Advisory: How To Keep Your Data Cool This Summer
July has arrived and you know what that means… so has the heat. While you’re pulling out the fans and air conditioners, it’s important to note that you’re not alone in needing to stay cool this summer. Your data is also prone to feeling the adverse effects of extreme heat. Now you may be asking, […]
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June Employee Spotlight: Becca Hays
The role of Project Manager is vital to the ongoing success of any business or organization, and at Sierra Experts this is no exception. From handling customer inquiries to making sure new projects are being completed in an accurate and timely manner, the person in this role helps to keep the business running smoothly. Our […]
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What is a Veteran?
The term “Veteran” means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable. That doesn’t come anywhere close to explaining it does it? A veteran is a person that one point in their life chose to write a blank check payable […]
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June Employee Spotlight: Kelsey Lucas
At Sierra Experts, we’re proud that our sales team works hard to find the best possible solutions to solve our customers’ problems and optimize their IT performance. This month in our employee spotlight, we’re featuring Kelsey Lucas, an Account Executive who always puts the customer first. To explain how Kelsey started in sales, we need […]
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January Employee Spotlight: Miles McLaughlin
In a company with complicated systems in place, sometimes a fresh perspective makes all the difference. At Sierra, we’re excited for the opportunity to help teach young professionals, and we learn a lot from their new perspective. In this month’s employee spotlight, we’re featuring one of our younger team members, Miles McLaughlin, Server and Network […]
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Technology to be Thankful for on Thanksgiving
Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a day to relax, eat too much turkey, and spend time with family. Technology might be the furthest thing from your mind on Thanksgiving, but chances are that you’re relying on it anyway. Before you gather around the table to give thanks, let’s take a minute to appreciate the technology that helped […]
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Two-Factor Authentication: What it is and Why it Matters
Two-factor isn’t new, and it definitely isn’t going away anytime soon. Two-factor authentication (2FA), also called multi-factor authentication, has seen a rise in adoption as cybercrime also increases. Social media platforms have even joined the party, like LinkedIn and Twitter. Anyone who’s used 2FA knows that it’s supposed to keep your data secure, but how […]
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Halloween Special: Spookiest Malware of 2016
Happy Halloween from the Sierra Experts team! For anyone working in IT, there are things that are scarier than ghosts and ghouls, like malware. 2016 has been a busy year for cybercrime, so picking the worst threats is not an easy task. Below, we’ve rounded up the spookiest malware this year. Mirai The Internet of […]
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Shadow IT
In the age of the cloud, it’s become easy to find software to solve any problem. Further, it’s generally really easy to setup and begin using cloud applications without any help. Making this type of decision without discussing it with your company’s IT department can be a grave mistake, though. In the industry, this is […]
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6 Creative VoIP Uses, That You’ll Actually Use
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is changing the way businesses handle communication everywhere. Along with saving tons on your phone bill, VoIP gives you access to features unheard of with traditional phone lines. Businesses already using VoIP for communications are probably well-aware of the numerous practical benefits, but what about some of the more creative […]
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October Employee Spotlight: Michael Chernay
Sierra has been proud to be named one of the Best Places to Work in PA every year since inception. One of the biggest reasons that Sierra is a great place to work, is our outstanding team. We’ve been very lucky to have multi-talented team members like this month’s featured employee, Michael Chernay, Server and […]
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Security In-Depth: Passwords
There is a lot of advice floating around the internet about picking passwords. A quick search will yield thousands of articles about the dangerous prominence of weak passwords. Most websites have password requirements before setting up an account. Generally, it’s become well known that it’s important to pick a strong password. There seems to be […]
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Maintenance Window Basics
In information technology, everything revolves around uptime. Uptime is the percentage of time that systems run without interruption. High availability (HA, meaning all services are available), is essential for the majority of businesses’ core functions. This study by Emerson Network Power and Ponemon Institute suggests that the average cost of a single minute of data […]
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Prevent Malware: Proactive vs. Reactive
By now, everyone knows not to click suspect emails, and use passwords like ‘12345’ right? Actually, ‘12345’ is still the most commonly used password, followed directly by ‘password’. Malware prevention efforts seem to be lacking despite the risks, on a large scale. Training is only one, albeit important, part of malware prevention. Prevent Instead of […]
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The Dwindling Windows GUI
For those systems administrators who love the familiarity of the Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI), we’re sorry. Folks have been predicting the end of the Windows GUI since 2011, but now it seems that Microsoft has taken the steps to make it happen, slowly. The Windows GUI has been around since 1985, which was at […]
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September Employee Spotlight: Noelle Snebold
How does a company get brand recognition, produce sales materials that convert, and craft marketing assets that engage an audience? It definitely helps to have a great graphic designer on your team. At Sierra Experts, we’re lucky to have some of the best. This month in our employee spotlight, we’re featuring Noelle Snebold, Creative Designer […]
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Patch Automation
It’s incredible to imagine how many security exploits are avoidable just by patching systems. According to Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, 85% of successful exploits stem from the top 10 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE’s) only. Those are known vulnerabilities with a patch readily available. Patch management is extremely important to avoid security breaches, […]
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August Employee Spotlight: Louis Kuntz
There’s a special mix of skills that make up a successful inside sales representative. They must be driven, personable, and possess the logic and intellect to find the right solution to any problem quickly. In this month’s employee spotlight, one of Sierra’s most successful inside sales representatives, Louis Kuntz, is being featured. Louis notes that […]
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Penetration Testing – Know Your Network
What are you doing to make sure that your network is secure? How do you know that it’s enough? New strains of malware are popping up constantly. The headlines are only getting worse, and organizations that exploit networks are cashing in. Ransomware, malvertising, malware as a service – with all of the threats that are […]
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Pokémon Go Security Risks
Pokémon Go Security Risks Everyone is talking about Pokémon Go, the game that caused Nintendo’s value to increase by $23 billion in less than a month. Players are spending more time per day playing the game than some of the most popular apps, like Twitter and Google Maps. Companies stand to benefit from the massive marketing […]
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May Employee Spotlight: Gregory Crout
If you ask a business owner what the most important aspect of their business is, you might get a plethora of answers. At the root of any answer you get will be the most obvious and important part of business: customers. How you keep customers happy defines your business. In this month’s employee spotlight, we […]
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Spring Cleaning: Time to Clear Out Old Technology
We see it all the time – companies procrastinating when it comes to buying new technology. Who can blame them? It’s always a tough choice when new options are springing up constantly and pricing changes just as frequently. On top of that, the shelf life for new tech is not staggeringly long. On average, it’s […]
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March Employee Spotlight: Chad Koehler
Business Development at Sierra w/o Wires combines a passion for new technology and a strong desire to help customers solve the tough problems. This month in our employee spotlight, we would like to feature someone who exemplifies those qualities, Chad Koehler, Sierra’s Business Development Manager. Chad grew up in sunny Florida, where he acquired his […]
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February Employee Spotlight: Chris Chappel
At Sierra, custom software development is one of our core services. Our software engineering team loves a challenge, so they’re usually handling complex projects. We’re proud of the team, and this month in our Employee Spotlight, we’d like to honor Chris Chappel, Senior Application Engineer at Sierra w/o Wires. Before he joined the Sierra team, […]
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5 Common Technology Issues for Small Business
Let’s face the facts – while technology provides a measurable benefit to business of all sizes, it can be difficult for small business to know how much to budget, and where to invest in technology. With great benefit comes great responsibility, as well. Technology related security has become as important as a business’ physical security. […]
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Pittsburgh – A City of Many Names Turns 200
Pittsburgh’s history is as rich and diverse as the landscape surrounding it. Pittsburgh has been aptly nicknamed the City of Bridges and Three Rivers as a tribute to the terrain the city grew around. It’s also been called Iron City, and later Steel City, for the industry that made it a powerhouse. This year, as […]
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Introducing xBert!
One of our engineers was cleaning out old IT equipment to be recycled when he came across an old 128k memory chip from our CEO’s Tandy 1000. After some soldering, some twinax cables, a little bit of CPU grease to include our logo and some hot gluing capacitors together the end result was truly amazing… […]
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Knowing the Risks of Cyber Security
Cyber Security is always a treat waiting around the corner, and Sierra wants you to be aware of the risks your business could face. Educating the public about the threats that could be imposed should a cyber incident occur is a must. With the world being as connected as it is today, we need to […]
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A little History for the Holiday: Thanksgiving!
Bet you don’t know who declared Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November. Hint: It’s the same person to serve as the first President of the United States… and no, it is not George Washington as many believe! The United States declared its independence in 1776, yet Washington did not take […]
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National Veterans Small Business Week
This week, November 2nd- 7th, is recognized for the second year as National Veterans Small Business Week. It is conducted by the U.S. Small Business Administration, where they host events across the country, to celebrate and support current and future veteran owned businesses. Small businesses are crucial to our nation’s economy. In the US, there […]
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Sierra’s Top 5 Techy Costume Picks!
Are you a true nerd at heart, where technology just seems to always be surrounding you? Halloween is the perfect chance to go all out and blow those boring costumes out of the water with your super cool tech costume. Here is our top five list of tech costume ideas for 2015: 1. Mario and Luigi: […]
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Adobe Confirms Major Flash Vulnerability
With Adobe releasing their monthly security patches including Flash Player, they confirmed a major security vulnerability that impacts all versions of Flash for Windows/Mac/Linux. Yes…ALL versions. The security vulnerability has been used by a limited amount of hackers that are crashing computers or taking full control of them. “A critical vulnerability (CVE-2015-7645) has been identified […]
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Back to the Future: October 21, 2015
Today is October 21, 2015. This is the same date on which a time traveling Marty McFly arrived in the future within the 1985 film Back to the Future. In case you are too young to remember the 80’s, here’s an IMDB link: http://imdb.to/1HwWIs4 In the film, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back in […]
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Keep Calm and Maintenance On
Chances are your work environment will have scheduled maintenance done within. No need to panic, you can easily be prepared and keep your businesses valuable data safe and save yourself a lot of headaches. It is key to not only let everyone in the office know of the scheduled down time, but also you’re MSP […]
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Spam, it’s for the birds.
Become an expert at identifying spam in your inbox. We all know to delete the standard **Free 60’ TV!!** in the subject line, however there are times when SPAM isn’t written in black and white. Spam emails have become very challenging to read, because it seems like it is coming from a legitimate source. There are […]
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3 Questions to Ask About Your Business Website
In today’s technology driven world, every successful business has a website, but is their website successful? When it comes to a website there are three questions to ask yourself: Is my website appealing to my customers? Is my website’s data safe and secure? Is my website device agnostic? You can’t just slap your logo into […]
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July Employee Spotlight: Megan McGregor
Whether it be a website or logo, a t shirt or a pen, a table top sign or a banner, our Creative Services Lead, Megan McGregor, is the girl for the job. Megan has been Sierra’s in-house graphic designer for over 3 years now. She received her BFA in Graphic Design and a Minor in […]
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WARNING: Severe Storm Watch!
We all know it has been and stormy and wet summer here in Pittsburgh. We never know if we will have to shut down our plans to be outside for the day due to severe weather, should your business fear the same? Let’s take a look at the forecast: we see mass amounts of rain […]
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June Employee Spotlight: Andy Boggess
This month we put the spotlight on a member of our sales team, Andy Boggess. Andy has been working at Sierra for a little over 2 months and is our business Development Manager. He attended Gannon University and earned a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Marketing. Andy’s interests inside of work consist of working closely […]
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Do You Know What Industries Sierra Serves?
Do you know what industries the Sierra companies serve? We can guarantee there are about 25 you never would image that are taking place in businesses all around you. Have you ever stayed at a hotel and connected to their Wi-Fi, or get an awesome new hairstyle? We were probably behind the scenes. Ever known […]
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May Employee Spotlight: Ryan Flynn
This month we are putting the spotlight on our Director of Sales, Ryan Flynn. Ryan has been with Sierra for 2 years, but has been working in the IT industry for over 15 years. Before coming to Sierra, Ryan worked in programming and system management. He also ran a staff of 15 employees that oversaw 450+ servers. To […]
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April Employee Spotlight: Justin Marks
Here at Sierra w/o Wires, we take pride in getting to know our employees, we’re like a family here! This month we wanted to put the spotlight on one team member, Justin Marks. Justin has been with the SWOW family for 2 months working as a Server Operations Engineer. Justin has an associate’s degree in […]
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A Little History for the Holiday: New Year!
Why do we drop a ball on New Year’s Eve at midnight? The tradition began because American’s wanted a way to light up the city of New York without the threat of fireworks endangering the city goers below. The Ball Countdown and Dropping at midnight is most famously known to take place at Times Square […]
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Email Marketing: What and Why?
Email marketing is sending an email to a group of potential or current customers that advertises service offerings, requests business, solicits sales or donations, or just offers a news update. Sending email campaigns can help to build loyalty, trust, and brand awareness. Some of the benefits of email marketing are: 1. It’s marketing with a […]
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Three Key Benefits of Remote IT Support
Remote IT support allows a technician to diagnose a problem, troubleshoot possible solutions, and verify an implemented solution has resolved the issue, all via the internet through desktop sharing. Below we’ve outlined the three key benefits that having a remote IT support team will provide for your business. Three key benefits of remote IT support […]
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Heartbleed Scare
I’m sure you all have heard now about & the ‘Heartbleed’ security bug, however, many of you might not know what it means or what it is. The Heartbleed security bug makes individuals all across the web cheap nfl jerseys vulnerable to having Full their passwords, credit t?t card information, and other sensitive wholesale jerseys […]
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Security Update for Windows 8.1 & RT 8.1
Since Microsoft wants to ensure that customers benefit from the best support and servicing experience and to coordinate and simplify servicing across both Windows Server 2012 wholesale mlb jerseys R2, Windows 8.1 RT and Windows 8.1, cheap nfl jerseys this cheap nba jerseys update will be considered a cheap nba jerseys new servicing/support baseline. What […]
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Happy Earth Day from Sierra Experts!
A great way to keep our Earth clean is to recycle or even donate your technology. This can include CDs, cell phones, computers, inkjet cartridges, batteries, and more. By recycling or donating your electronics you can prevent lead, mercury, cadmium, and other toxic materials that are present in electronics to leak from landfills and then […]
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World Wide Web Easter Eggs
With Easter just passing can you think of a symbol that kids recognize during Easter? How about Easter Eggs? Easter Eggs aren’t just something children recognize or have fun with but programmers and developers have fun with them as well. Easter eggs however, have a different meaning to developers and programmers, they are unexpected hidden […]
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IT Myth Busted: You…
December 5, 2017
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Incident Management: What Is…
May 23, 2018
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Prevent Malware: Proactive vs.…
September 28, 2016
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Sierra Experts Hosts the…
December 15, 2017
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June Employee Spotlight: Kelsey…
June 23, 2017
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3 Silly Myths About “Digital Marketing” (From Non-Marketers)
July 18, 2019
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Interview Series, Episode 1: Marketing & IT Relationships
July 9, 2019
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Fireworks In The Sky, Not In Your Network
July 2, 2019
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Your Marketing Person: Dynamic, Detailed, and Data-Driven
June 26, 2019
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Going On Vacation? Stay Secure… Cybersecure!
June 18, 2019
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