Microsoft-certified Consultants

Business Benefits of Progent's Hosting and Management Services for Microsoft Exchange
By using an outsourced hosting provider for Exchange, small and midsize companies can gain a range of advantages. The most obvious advantage is monetary. Gartner Group has estimated that colocation can save from 20-35% of the cost of building and maintaining an in-house data center. Advantages such as decreasing management hassle and increasing system reliability and security are more difficult to quantify, but these clearly represent significant benefits. Some of the specific benefits of utilizing an outsourced hosting provider for Exchange include:

• Reduced Capital Requirements
  By utilizing a hosting service for vital applications like Microsoft Exchange, small companies on a restricted budget can eliminate the significant expense of designing and constructing a computer facility with adequate physical security, environmental control, power backup, fire detection and suppression, and fault-tolerant Internet access. Outsourced hosting services also save the cost of software and of non-stop technology like clustered servers and zero-downtime hard disk arrays. Increasing network capacity as your business grows is also inexpensive and easy.

• Lower Operational Expenses
  Progent's Hosting Services for Microsoft Exchange cut operational costs by utilizing the expertise of Progent's IT support engineers and Contact Center team. Small and midsize companies receive the benefits of having access to a big IT support staff without needing to pay for one. Small and midsize companies also avoid the cost of the computer facility's round-the-clock on-site security personnel and 24-hour operations team.

• Improved Executive Management Focus
  By using Progent's Hosting and Management Services for Microsoft Exchange a small or midsize company's management group is spared the distraction and hassle of ensuring that the crucial messaging system is always available, protected,current, dependably backed up, and efficiently managed. Real or supposed user problems can be resolved by Progent's Help Desk, and administrative tasks such as additions, deletions, and security modifications can be taken care of by Progent's Microsoft-certified professionals. All of these support services free executive to focus on core business challenges where they know how add the greatest value to the company.

• World-class Protection
  The site security offered by Progent's enterprise-class hosting facility is well above the quality that typical small to midsize businesses could reasonably expect to attain with an in-house facility. In addition to a 24x7 staff of security officers, Progent's hosting facility features advanced access detection and prevention devices plus secure barriers to prevent unapproved access. Progent also provides software protection that includes an advanced firewall, 24x7 network monitoring, spam and virus blocking, fast and complete security update management, and an experienced online group of data recovery professionals.

• Greater Fault Tolerance and Dependability
  Progent's data center for hosting Exchange offers UPS electrical power, redundant cooling, and failover Internet access to deliver a high degree of availability. The hosting facility is also located in a seismically stable region for protection from earthquakes. Progent's virtualized architecture for supporting Exchange offers additional fault-tolerance through technologies such as clustering and non-stop hard disk subsystems.

• Regulatory Compliance
  If your company must or wishes to adhere to regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, GLB, or SAS 70, utilizing Progent's Hosting Services for Microsoft Exchange positions you to meet even the strictest security requirements.

• Business Recovery
  The non-stop and secure infrastructure of Progent's hosting facility reduces the likelihood that an event could bring down your Exchange system. In case of a catastrophic failure, Progent's disciplined backup procedures and virtualized architecture enable fast system restoration to ensure that your company can immediately continue business operations.

World-class Hosting Facility
No small business can afford the expense of designing, building, and managing an enterprise-class hosting facility. Progent enables small and midsize businesses to leverage their IT budget by providing Exchange Hosting and Management Services based in a data center trusted by some of the world's largest companies for hosting crucial applications. Important features of the facility Progent uses for hosting Microsoft Exchange include:

• 24-hour Staffed Security Plus Advanced Security Electronics
  Progent's hosting facility features high-level security for managing and tracking personal entry to the site. Onsite security personnel are on duty on a 24x7 basis and an advanced electronic security infrastructure incorporates cameras, motion detectors, badge readers, and biometric identification devices. The exterior of the data center is protected with armored glass and inside locations are secured within steel reinforced protective screens.

• Full-time Operations Center
  Progent's hosting facility for Exchange features a full-time staffed operations center with Premier engineers and technical experts who oversee the operations and security of the data center and troubleshoot problems.

• fault-tolerant High-speed Internet Access
  Progent's facility for applicatiion hosting offers fault-tolerant Internet connectivity via an advanced switching architecture that incorporates dual, spatially isolated fiber cabinets connected to multiple carriers. Each vault is serviced by a separate TELCO office. Two fault-tolerant SONET rings support totally diverse network routing to hosting systems. Internet access is supported by tier 1 providers.

• In-depth Electrical Power Backup Infrastructure
  The facility used by Progent for Microsoft Exchange hosting has its own municipal utility district substation on the property. The substation is fed by redundant area substations. The data center has four diesel generators, each configured with backup failover components. The generators have switch and paralleling gear units for rapid delivery of emergency power and are fueled to run the entire data center for a week. The facility also has uninterruptible power supply units, power distribution units, and gel cells capable of handling the whole data center while the backup generators come on line.

• Fail-safe Computer Room Air Conditioning
  Progent's data center for application hosting features redundant computer room cooling units set up in a closed loop configuration with water-cooled chiller components that are rotated each month.

• Fire Control
  Progent's data center for Microsoft Exchange hosting includes a VESDA detection system monitored by the round-the-clock facility operations center staff and by an outside third-part service. The fire suppression system includes a dual interlock dry pipe system that covers 10' x 10' zones to reduce damage to computer equipment adjacent to any fire.

• Seismically Stable Location
  The data center that houses Progent's Microsoft Exchange hosting equipment is situated in a seismically stable area with no known faults and no recorded earthquakes. The data center building is also built with a steel-beam superstructure engineered to withstand a substantial earthquake.

Progent's Configuration and Support Services for Microsoft Exchange Hosting
Progent's hosting services for Exchange include full incorporation of Exchange with your existing IT network and also feature a variety of continuing services that will keep your messaging solution operating optimally with enterprise-level security, fault tolerance, administration efficiency, and end user service. All operating system and application products are purchased by Progent and are owned by Progent, and all maintenance of systems and other hardware is implemented at no charge to clients. Progent's fast and fault-tolerant Internet connections offer 3 MBPS throughput.

Configuration and support services offered with Progent's Exchange hosting services include:

• Transparent Integration with Your Network
  Progent's hosting for Exchange is invisible to your workers, clients, and associates. Your existing email domain name is retained in addition to your email addresses, contacts, file organization, and work groups. Your email will also be accessible anywhere and any time via Outlook Web Access or Microsoft Exchange mobile service. Progent will also set up Exchange Server to support remote synchronization with Window Mobile-powered handheld devices such as PDAs and smartphones.

• Spam Screening and Email Encryption
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's email spam and content filtering platform that uses the services and infrastructure of top data security vendors to provide web-based control and comprehensive security for your inbound and outbound email. The powerful structure of Email Guard combines a Cloud Protection Layer with a local gateway appliance to provide complete protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, DHAs, and other email-based threats. The Cloud Protection Layer acts as a preliminary barricade and blocks the vast majority of threats from making it to your network firewall. This decreases your vulnerability to inbound threats and conserves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's onsite gateway device adds a further level of analysis for incoming email. For outgoing email, the on-premises security gateway offers AV and anti-spam filtering, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also help Microsoft Exchange Server to track and protect internal email traffic that originates and ends within your security perimeter.

• 24x7 Server Monitoring
  Progent's hosting for Exchange features constant monitoring of the performance and security of Microsoft Exchange using System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), a sophisticated server management solution that automatically uncovers network trouble and tendencies. Microsoft System Center Operations Manager works by automatically scanning event records, then screening, consolidating, and evaluating these system events according to an extensive internal database. When Operations Manager comes across problems or a potentially dangerous tendency, it can initiate special remediation routines or transmit warnings to alert Progent's network support personnel.

• Update and Patch Management
  Included with the services offered with Progent's Exchange hosting, Progent's Microsoft-certified administrators make sure that software patches, security updates, and Microsoft service packs are installed consistently and non-disruptively. Progent will also ensure that all other software supportive of Exchange Server is kept up to date. In case the Microsoft Exchange Server host system must be temporarily turned off for ordinary maintenance, Progent uses a support interval from 10:00 Friday night to 6:00 Saturday morning Pacific Time. Progent alerts customers before any planned downtime so as to minimize business disruption.

• Regular Data Backup and Rapid Restoration
  Progent's data backup procedures for hosted Exchange systems include 30 days of per-day backups, full server backups once a week, differential backups daily, and complete backups with off-premises archiving monthly. Progent's virtualized architecture permits quick system recovery in case of a disaster, and in case a severe host collapse Progent will move the hosted Exchange Server system to a different virtual server within half a business day.

• Contact Center Support
  Progent's Help Desk Call Center services are available to maintain Progent's hosted Exchange systems. Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) provides all Help Desk services and is available via telephone, email, or Progent's web site. Supported by Microsoft-expert professionals who are experienced at delivering email support, Progent's TRC group can efficiently resolve almost any issue related to Microsoft Exchange and can also provide expert help for a wide range of network issues such as network architecture, business applications, multi-platform integration, and system security. Progent's Help Desk can in addition escalate the most complex problems to Progent's world-class engineering group which includes Cisco-certified CCIE network specialists, CISSP and CISM certified security professionals, Linux OS consultants, and Apple macOS and OS X consultants.

• Microsoft Exchange Administration Support
  Progent's Help Desk Call Center provides all Exchange administration needs such as adding or removing mail boxes, modifying security levels, or troubleshooting capacity problems. Like any service offered by Progent structured on Progent's Help Desk model, Progent's Technical Response Center delivers the extensive and deep technical expertise and consistent service of a world-class service organization, as well as the visible ticket tracking and follow-through of an efficiently run Contact Center.

Progent's Private Cloud Hosting and Management Services
Progent's Private Cloud Hosting service provides full-service hosting for all of a small company's servers in a setting that achieve the top levels of dependability, security, and scalability and is also economical and simple to move to another environment. Progent's Data Center Hosting services are based on proven virtual server architecture that allows small companies with non-standardized networks to save significantly on the expense of computers and peripherals, infrastructure maintenance, and IT management while achieving world-class reliability and an unparalleled level of vendor independence.

In contrast to conventional SaaS hosting models, Progent's Private Cloud Hosting supports all business servers in a single unified-management environment and can support mixed platform and non-standardized environments that are typical of small businesses but are troublesome for most hosting services. Progent's Virtual Server Hosting and Management services keep ownership of the OS and application software in the client's hands so that migrating to a new virtualized host is fast, reliable, and inexpensive. This avoids becoming captive to a specific hosting provider while still offering all the cost savings inherent with Application Service Provider and SaaS hosting service models.

Find out more about Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting and Management Services.

Contact Progent for Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange 2013 Solutions
If you need Exchange Server 2016 planning and support services or Exchange 2013 consulting or if you want to learn more about Progent's hosting services for Microsoft Exchange, call 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.