Carlsbad At Home Workforce Configuration Consulting Company

Expanding your remote workforce can have a significant impact on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of background helping small and mid-size businesses to design, configure, administer, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Carlsbad company to pick the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers top value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand guidance for getting you past challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Carlsbad, California businesses to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk services, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed for an at-home work environment can be especially challenging if you must manage a mix of personal hardware such as desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and wireless appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote support for both outdated and modern technologies in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to help you to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to create a safe connection for authorized remote employees to access IT resources located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to configure and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for deploying routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput and security problems. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these issues by delivering expertise that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Mission-critical processes may require redundant Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for picking Internet service providers, selecting appropriate service offerings, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet connections. See Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the business phone system to include remote users is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, visit CUCM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, visit CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating outside the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver as-needed deployment and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of video conferencing platforms from major technology companies support online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your existing conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex as well as for other video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities such as voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and assist your business to tune your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging information throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can assist your company to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

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 provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-based access to data, business processes, and tools for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create protected portals that enables at-home workers to see and edit aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, see SharePoint integration 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 learn about Progent's Exchange expertise, see planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them securely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author documents. Edits created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers advanced remote support for enabling organizations to build, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine internal data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix issues with public cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of public cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure access to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from students and households to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to evaluate the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to build hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to get you past tough technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your teleworkers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to build a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading collection of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your critical applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline access management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to use GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP environment. To find out, visit Google Cloud Platform integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A fast, enterprise-wide transition to a telecommuter business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as part of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive network of online technical support experts along with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to provide an affordable, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or update the status of their current tickets, add details, and append screenshots or relevant files. Support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with advanced issues. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service allows you to augment your current Call Center organization by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk support seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk Call Center service uses a collective support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class technical support to your telecommuters, refer to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers commonly utilize their personal devices and often operate in an unsecured physical space. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for careful deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user education, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of cybersecurity support consultants can assist you to plan, implement and manage a compliant security solution that protects critical information assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be securely utilized by local users and by telecommuters, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to assign and control appropriate access rights to different groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more complex. Progent supports both current and older security appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration services, go to firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices used by at-home workers and either reject or spot and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the targeted endpoint from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized for this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all classes of external and internal security threats for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory software for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by network security experts with advanced certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your workflows and policies and assess your network architecture to allow you to design the highest level of protection for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, remediate, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more information about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's penetration test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper about critical things to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage system problems due to hardware issues, software hiccups, human mistakes, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for at-home workers must address multiple types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate circumstances that require a temporary switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for safeguarding corporate information by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and erase sensitive data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, go to Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management platform that helps network managers to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, app management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Carlsbad, California organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.