Technology News and Progent IT Solutions

Cisco introduced innovative products targeted especially for small company networks and designed to deliver exceptional protection and collaboration for an affordable price. Products introduced by Cisco included the Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker, the NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the 1.4 release of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS).

The Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker is a purpose-built spam, virus, and phishing filter security device that essentially eradicates email threats right out of the box. Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are economical desktop network-attached storage appliances that provide protection for important information and allow workers to access shared files easily. Cisco's Smart Business Communications System Version 1.4, a full sharing and communications solution that easily interconnects offices, workers, and customers anywhere. Cisco's latest release features the first cordless desktop Internet Protocol (IP) phone with Bluetooth capabilities. To read Cisco's press release, visit Cisco Introduces Networking and Security Solutions for Small Businesses.

Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker Appliance
The Spam and Virus Blocker safeguards small businesses by offering powerful defense against spam, malware and other email attacks to secure your network and corporate data and simultaneously enhance productivity. Since the product stops spam and viruses right out of the box and updates on its own, it does away with the cost and time required for setup and continuing and administration. By filtering out spam, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance helps the throughput of networks, servers, and workstations. The Spam and Virus Blocker represents an end-to-end defense against email attacks by featuring hardware, intelligent software, continuous patches, and product assistance in a single package.

Notable features of the Spam and Virus Blocker include:

• Precision: Assists to ensure that email attacks and junk mail are intercepted and business email is accepted.
• Continuous automatic updates: Constant communication with SenderBase services, a network library of email safety threats, ensures that your Spam & Virus Blocker appliance installs the latest patches to protect your corporate email.
• Simple installation and use: Easy-to-use web-based setup tools permit you to configure Cisco's Spam Blocker in nearly any network in 15 minutes, delivering immediate security for your business network.
• Streamlined management: As soon as your company installs the Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance, you benefit from junk mail and malware protection with no additional hassle demanded from your IT group.

Cisco NSS2000 and 3000
The NSS2000 and 3000 Network Storage Systems provide the robust security and advanced backup features that your company requires, at a price small companies can afford. The Small Business NSS3000 accommodates as much as to four terabytes of data and as many as 15 simultaneous users per enclosure, provides the ideal solution for holding, accessing, and archiving your vital business data. Unlike entry-level NAS alternatives, the Cisco NSS3000 delivers the advanced archiving, cryptography, user authentication, and high availability your company requires.

The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 4-Bay Gigabit Storage System Chassis supports any approved hard drive. The chassis provides a range of capabilities in a desktop-size footprint engineered for small organizations. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 Storage Chassis also provides your business the flexibility to configure the product without any attached disk drives, to reconfigure it easily, and to chain several Cisco NAS chassis with one another, offering a platform that can smoothly expand with your business.

Your business can utilize the Cisco Small Business NSS2000 or 3000 Network Storage Systems to:

• Intelligently copy vital data from every PC and application server on your network
• Offer centralized storage and sharing of key information
• Run Continuous Data Protection to copy unattended every revision of each file archived by employees, permitting your company to restore data quickly
• Record and save digital video from your company's video security system

Smart Business Communications System (SBCS)
The Cisco Smart Business Communications System Version 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and complete collaboration and communications solution that enables small businesses to interconnect telecommuters, mobile workers and office workers in disparate locations to improve their ability to collaborate with customers and colleagues. In the latest release, the affordable system has enhanced wireless capabilities such as the first wireless desktop IP phone with Bluetooth technology, the Cisco SPA525G VoIP device, which allows companies to expand easily by deploying handsets in locations where traditional telephone wires or network cables are not present or cannot easily be added.

Other innovative components of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System Release 1.4 are:

• The Cisco 520 Secure Router product to help guard a small business network and give workers secure access to the Internet and important corporate data wherever they are
• The Configuration Assistant Release 1.9 to permit stakeholders to streamline the configuration and installation of solutions designed custom for certain businesses

How Progent's Cisco-certified Professionals Can Help You to Incorporate Cisco Technology
Progent's Cisco certified consultants and CCIE accredited networking experts can assist you to evaluate new Cisco technologies to determine their business value for your IT system, configure Cisco security and communication platforms to improve the protection and performance of your network, and troubleshoot Cisco products both onsite and online to keep your IT network operating dependably. Progent's consultants can provide a range of affordable services to improve the reliability, safety, efficiency, and manageability of a small business IT system:

Quick Online Access to Cisco CCIE Certified Engineers
Progent is the leading source of easy, immediate, and economical support from Cisco CCIE consultants. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are highly-qualified networking gurus who are awarded this prestigious classification only after exhaustive testing by Cisco. CCIEs can handle even the most complex problems encountered with network infrastructure design, integration, repair, and support. Progent's CCIE professionals cooperate intimately with Cisco in-house staff in identifying issues with Cisco's IOS platform and developing fixes or acquiring patches to correct problems. Progent offers fast access to a CCIE by phone so you are able to get urgent help for complex network problems that are impacting business efficiency but are outside the scope of your ordinary network support resources. Progent's CCIE consulting professionals can link to your network using state-of-the-art remote support tools to provide timely and cost-effective analysis and remediation of urgent infrastructure problems.

Cisco Voice over IP Phone and IP Video Phone Solutions
Progent's Cisco IP phone and video IP phone experts can assist you to configure, manage, and troubleshoot Cisco IP phones, video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide support for all versions of Cisco's IP phones from discontinued VoIP devices to the newest media phones. Progent's consultants can also help you to integrate your IP phones with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, formerly known as CallManager, or with Cisco Unified CM Express (CME) to create a modern IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can provide expertise with all aspects of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including reviewing dial plans, solving QoS, setting up SIP trunking, installing Cisco ISR routers with CUBE internetworking support, and designing Cisco UCS server clustering and Cisco SRST systems for survivability. For additional details about Progent's support for Cisco's collaboration technology, refer to Cisco IP Telephony and Unified Communications Consulting Services.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco CallManager Collaboration
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), originally branded CallManager, acts as the center of Cisco's collaboration platform. Cisco Unified CM and Unified Communications Manager Express offer a modern IP-PBX solution by integrating tightly with unified messaging apps like Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service, Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail management, Cisco Unified Mobility for Single Number Reach, and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE) for building a highly automated customer contact center. Progent's Cisco-certified Cisco Unified CM experts can assist with any aspect of Unified Communications Manager support and debugging in areas such as integrating Cisco VoIP phones and desktop video phones, designing dial plans, configuring SIP connections and PSTN support, installing ISR G2 routers with CUBE networking support, designing UCS server failover systems for high availability, and integration with Microsoft Exchange and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA Firewall and PIX Firewall Support
Progent's experienced Cisco IT security consultants provide expert PIX Firewall and ASA Firewall engineering support including infrastructure design, configuration, and management of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Series of Cisco firewall products delivers strong user and software policy enforcement, sophisticated attack defense, and safe access services. Ranging from economical, easy-to-install desktop appliances for small and home businesses to modular enterprise-grade appliances, Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls provide a high level of protection, performance, and high availability for network environments of all sizes. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, specially designed platform, eliminating common OS-specific security gaps.

Network Security Inventory and Evaluation Packages
Progent's GIAC and CISA-premier security engineers can provide a variety of cost-effective security Inventory service bundles and network security assessment packages designed to offer businesses of any size a chance to receive an objective opinion about the quality of their security profile. These packages vary from ultra-affordable external security scan and internal network security scan packages for small companies up to a high-end security evaluation package for corporations who have to comply with security levels required by government agencies or by customers. For every security inventory or evaluation package, engineers with high-level security credentials evaluate and summarize scanned data and provide recommendations for effective improvements.

SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP Trunks and Cisco CUBE Configuration Consulting
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified SIP trunk consultants and CUBE configuration experts can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, debug and upgrade Cisco's SIP connectivity technology and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-based SIP trunks. Progent offers affordable remote or on-premises support to assist businesses to move smoothly to a modern unified communications ecosystem that delivers fast ROI. Progent's certified Microsoft collaboration consultants can help you to set up connections between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's rich media applications like Skype for Business Server or Lync Server for connectivity to a SIP-based IP PSTN trunk.

Consulting Consulting and Troubleshooting Services for Cisco Wireless Technology
Progent can provide a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) or certified CCNP to assist you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation strategy that integrates a wide array of wireless products and technologies and offers the identical security, scalability, and manageability you expect from a wired environment. Progent can assist you to implement transparent integration between Cisco wireless technology and wireless products from other suppliers to give your company the features you require plus the most protected, dependable, and economical wireless networking system possible. Progent's CISM and CISSP security specialists can show you how to build security into your wireless network and into your company's operations.

Automated Administration Solutions for Cisco-based Small Business Network Infrastructure
Progent's Cisco-Premier network management consultants can provide assistance with Cisco's network management utilities alongside a range of powerful third-party applications to create a comprehensive network management strategy in order to keep your environment running reliably, conserve expensive resources, guard your data, recover quickly from hardware breakdown or malicious assaults, and allow you to add or repurpose valuable components sensibly and affordably as your business grows.

For more information about Progent's support for Cisco networking and security solutions, phone 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.