Bakersfield Work from Home Employees Configuration Support Services

Enlarging your remote workforce may have a significant effect on network architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Bakersfield organization to pick the right tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual office solution for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand guidance for getting you over challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Bakersfield, California companies to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-at-home environment by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home work environment can be especially challenging if you have to manage a combination of personal equipment such as PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote support for both outdated as well as current IT products in virtual office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Services available from Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity allows you to create a safe connection for authorized remote workers to use IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a wide range of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives network managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and offers remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online support for deploying routers from all major vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by families and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as security issues. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by providing services like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point setup assistance.
• Internet access solutions impact the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Business-critical processes may demand backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for identifying Internet service providers, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet access solutions.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Expanding the business PBX environment to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX products are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP platforms, refer to CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online integration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for exchanging information across multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist businesses to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your remote workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build secure web portals that enables at-home workers to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint configuration and development expertise.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To find out about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, see Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers affordable remote support for enabling businesses to build, maintain and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that include physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix problems with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features more than 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish protected connections to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and cloud services are marketed in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with local Exchange environments, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's top source of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network model so your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist you to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your business to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to use GCP's management tools to control and monitor your GCP environment. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
A fast, company-wide transition to a telecommuter workforce, which could be activated by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive network of online technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to monitor or revise the status of their current trouble tickets, add details, and upload screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent offers the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex problems. To learn more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service enables your business to augment your current Call Desk staff by sharing delivery of Call Center services seamlessly between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collaborative support model based on the number one PSA tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your at-home employees, see Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers typically use their own computers and often work in a poorly secured physical environment. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity support consultants can assist you to design, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that guards vital IT assets in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and control appropriate access rights to different classes of users and to scale your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older security devices from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, refer to firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers used by teleworkers and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted endpoint device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to verify your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of external and internal security threats for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with top credentials such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your workflows and policies and assess your IT architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, rank, remediate, and verify security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-prem, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper about key things to concentrate on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection involves saving and restoring vital data so as to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage system failures due to equipment issues, programming glitches, user error, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for at-home workers must address diverse types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast online access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide array of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly anticipate circumstances that call for a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist your business to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified solution for protecting critical information by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share data, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For information about Intune and how Progent can help you to use this platform to administer the devices of your telecommuters, go to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a one-time purchase. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your Bakersfield, California company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.