Blog & Tools

What do Brookings, Beresford and Faith have in common? They have city-owned telecommunications systems. In fact, they are the only municipalities in South Dakota with their own phone companies.

Dakota State University is making slow but noteworthy headway in its quest to get more women in college to study cybersecurity and other computer fields. It's a significant but worthwhile challenge.

I checked Amazon.com and several other online gift sites and product columns to come up with a few other suggested gifts for the techy-minded. Some are practical; some are quirky.

Health care organizations have discovered benefits in connecting with patients online for mental health appointments, especially in rural communities.

Filling a gap in broadband coverage near the state capital of South Dakota might carry symbolic value. However, the real winners in an infrastructure build-out made possible by a state grant will be hundreds of people who live or work in a rural area north and east of Pierre.

To encourage wellness in its workforce, SDN Communications gives employees the opportunity to earn bonuses through voluntary, annual health screenings.

Victims of almost any type of disaster face one common risk: the possibility that they will lose or suffer a disruption of a technological service, such as electrical power or a computer network.

SD-WAN service can simplify network administration, consolidate infrastructure, centralize control of resources, and provide flexible topology, which in computer-talk refers to the size and shape of a network.

The history of the telecommunications industry in South Dakota is currently one of the featured exhibits in the South Dakota Hall of Fame in Chamberlain.

Every day of the year is designated for some kind of holiday or special observation at the local, state, national or international level. November 8th is STEM/STEAM Day.

SDN Communications and Five Star Call Centers had a friendly competition to help raise money for the Sioux Empire United Way, a community impact organization that strives to improve lives. Five Star won the contest, but the two companies agree that the United Way was the real winner.

Developing a good, emergency management plan is critical to the survival and future well-being of businesses of all sizes. But a plan is worthless if it isn’t updated regularly...

Shutting down your computer system isn’t a realistic solution to protecting businesses against fraudulent emails. Instead, businesses must find other ways to keep email scams from deceiving employees.

The locally focused, grass-roots nature of co-ops is celebrated throughout October, which is National Co-op Month in the United States. The theme is “Co-ops: By the Community, For the Community.” Twelve of the 17 telecommunications companies in South Dakota that own SDN Communications are cooperatives.

Bedford Industries built its business on being flexible. Its founders set out to be the world leader in twist ties, packaging reclosures, and Bendable Components®. But it credits the flexibility of one of its service providers for getting the company through a recent unexpected challenge.

Email scammers have bilked U.S. businesses and organizations out of more than $3 billion since 2016, according to the Better Business Bureau Inc., and the cyber thieves tried to get $23 billion more.

Will 5G communications technology live up to all the advance hype and fuel the newest industrial revolution? Probably, according to a national telecommunications analyst, but...

Sioux Falls might discard its current system of running buses on regularly scheduled routes. A team of city employees is exploring ways to make public transportation more responsive to riders, and they’re counting on data and technology to help them create a better and more efficient system.

Chris Aeilts, a sales engineer at SDN, pulled me out of the figurative rabbit hole, dusted me off, and explained what Ethernet is and isn’t, and how the definition can vary.

Employees at SDN Communications have a special relationship with several hundred elementary school students and their teachers. The students attend Garfield Elementary School, a public school near SDN’s headquarters in west-central Sioux Falls.