Microsoft-certified Consulting Services

Business Benefits of Progent's Hosting Services for Exchange
By using an outsourced hosting service for Microsoft Exchange, small businesses can gain a range of benefits. The most obvious benefit is saving money. Gartner Group has estimated that outsourced hosting can eliminate up to 35% of the expense of building and operating an in-house facility. Benefits such as reducing executive distraction and enhancing network availability and security are more difficult to estimate, but these clearly represent major benefits. Some of the specific benefits of using an outsourced hosting service for Microsoft Exchange include:

• Reduced Capital Expenses
  By using a hosting provider for vital applications like Exchange, small companies on a restricted budget can avoid the substantial expense of designing and constructing a data center with sufficient physical access security, cooling, power backup, fire protection, and redundant Internet connectivity. Outsourced hosting services also save the expense of software licenses and of fault-tolerant technology like clusters and non-stop hard disk arrays. Expanding IT system capacity as your business grows is also inexpensive and easy.

• Lower Operational Expenses
  Progent's Hosting Services for Microsoft Exchange reduce operational expenses by leveraging the expertise of Progent's IT maintenance professionals and Helpdesk group. Small businesses get the benefits of having access to a large network support staff without needing to finance one. Small companies also save the expense of the computer facility's round-the-clock internal security staff and full-time operations center.

• Improved Management Focus
  By utilizing Progent's Hosting Services for Microsoft Exchange a small organization's management group is spared the distraction and stress of ensuring that the crucial email environment stays always operational, secure,up to date, dependably archived, and efficiently administered. Real or imagined user issues can be resolved by Progent's Help Desk Call Center, and management duties such as adds, deletes, and security modifications can be implemented by Progent's Microsoft-certified professionals. These services allow executive to concentrate on core business challenges where they know how add the most value to the enterprise.

• Enterprise-class Security
  The onsite security provided by Progent's enterprise-class hosting facility is far beyond the quality that typical small to midsize businesses could reasonably expect to attain with an in-house data center. In addition to a full-time team of security officers, Progent's hosting facility features state-of-the-art access detection and prevention systems as well as secure barriers to prevent unapproved access. Progent also provides software protection that includes a high-level firewall, 24x7 server monitoring, spam filtering, prompt and complete security update installation, and an experienced online team of system recovery experts.

• Greater Availability and Reliability
  Progent's data center for hosting Microsoft Exchange features UPS electrical power, redundant air conditioning, and non-stop Internet access to achieve a high degree of fault tolerance. The site is also situated in a seismically stable area for safety against earthquakes. Progent's virtual server architecture for hosting Exchange provides even greater availability through mechanisms such as server clustering and non-stop hard disk subsystems.

• Regulatory Compliance
  In case your company must or wishes to comply with regulatory requirements like as SOX, GLB, or HIPAA, using Progent's Hosting Services for Exchange positions your IT organization to meet even the toughest security mandates.

• Business Recovery
  The non-stop and secure infrastructure of Progent's data center reduces the chances that an event could bring down your Exchange server. In case of a catastrophic breakdown, Progent's disciplined backup routines and virtualized architecture enable rapid data restoration to ensure that you can immediately continue operations.

World-class Data Center
No small company can justify the expense of designing, implementing, and managing an enterprise-class data center. Progent allows small organizations to get more from their information systems budget by providing Microsoft Exchange Hosting Services based in a data center trusted by some of the world's biggest businesses for hosting mission-critical applications. Important features of the facility Progent utilizes for hosting Exchange are:

• 24-hour Staffed Security Plus Advanced Security Systems
  Progent's data center features tight security for managing and tracking physical entry to the facility. Onsite security personnel are present on a 24-hour basis and a sophisticated electronic security infrastructure includes surveillance cameras, motion sensors, badge readers, and biometric identification systems. The exterior of the data center is surrounded by armored glass and inside locations are protected by steel mesh security screens.

• Full-time Operations Center
  Progent's hosting facility for Microsoft Exchange includes a 24x7 operations center with Certified engineers and technicians who monitor and manage the operations and security of the data center and resolve problems.

• zero-downtime Broadband Internet Connectivity
  Progent's data center for Exchange hosting offers fault-tolerant Internet routing via a sophisticated failover architecture that incorporates dual, spatially isolated fiber vaults interfaced to a variety of carriers. Each vault is supported by a different TELCO central office. Two fault-tolerant SONET rings support dual network routing to host equipment. Internet access is served by multiple tier 1 ISPs.

• 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 powered by multiple area substations. The data center has four diesel-powered generators, each with redundant parts. The generators have switch systems for fast transfer to backup power and are fueled to power the whole facility for a week. The data center also has UPS systems, power distribution units, and gel batteries capable of powering the entire data center during the interval when the generators are switching.

• Redundant Computer Room Air Conditioning
  Progent's data center for Microsoft Exchange hosting has backed up server area air conditioning units set up in a closed loop system with water-cooled chiller units that are rotated monthly.

• Smoke Detection and Fire Suppression
  Progent's facility for application hosting includes a Very Early Smoke Detection System tracked by the 24x7 network operations center team as well as by an outside third-part service. The fire suppression mechanism features a double interlock dry pipe system that is divided into 10-foot square grid areas to minimize the impact on servers adjacent to any fire.

• Seismically Stable Site
  The facility that houses Progent's Exchange hosting equipment is situated in a seismic-neutral region with no known tectonic faults and no history of earthquakes. The data center building is also fitted with a steel-beam superstructure designed to hold up against a substantial earthquake.

Progent's Integration and Support Services for Microsoft Exchange Hosting
Progent's hosting services for Exchange include complete integration of Exchange with your existing information system and also feature an array of continuing support services that will keep your email operating optimally with enterprise-level security, availability, management efficiency, and end user service. All software licenses are paid for Progent and are the property of Progent, and all servicing of servers and other hardware is performed at no charge to customers. Progent's fast and non-stop Internet interfaces offer 3 MBPS throughput.

Integration and support provided with Progent's Exchange hosting services include:

• Transparent Integration with Your Network
  Progent's hosting for Microsoft Exchange is transparent to your workers, customers, and associates. Your current email domain name is preserved in addition to your email addresses, contact information, file set up, and group configurations. Your email will also be available anywhere and any time through Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Exchange mobile service. Progent will also set up Exchange Server to handle synchronization with Window Mobile-powered handheld devices such as Pocket PCs and smartphones.

• Spam/Virus Blocking and Email Encryption
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's email spam and content filtering platform that uses the services and infrastructure of top information security vendors to provide centralized management and comprehensive protection for your email traffic. The hybrid structure of Email Guard managed service integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway appliance to provide complete defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, DHAs, and other email-based threats. The Cloud Protection Layer acts as a first line of defense and blocks most unwanted email from making it to your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises gateway device provides a deeper layer of inspection for inbound email. For outgoing email, the local gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, DLP, and encryption. The onsite security gateway can also assist Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic that stays inside your corporate firewall.

• 24x7 Network Monitoring
  Progent's hosting for Exchange features constant monitoring of the performance and security of Microsoft Exchange using Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager, an advanced server monitoring solution that automatically detects network problems and tendencies. Microsoft Operations Manager works by automatically scanning event records, then screening, consolidating, and analyzing these events according to a massive built-in knowledge base. When MS Operations Manager comes across problems or a potentially harmful trend, the software can run customizable repair routines or transmit warnings to notify Progent's messaging support experts.

• Update Support
  Included with the support provided with Progent's Microsoft Exchange hosting, Progent's Microsoft-certified support professionals make sure that patches, security updates, and Microsoft service packs are implemented consistently and non-intrusively. Progent will also make sure that additional software associated with Microsoft Exchange Server stays up to date. In the event that the MS Exchange Server host machine must be temporarily turned off for ordinary software maintenance, Progent uses a maintenance window from 10:00 Friday evening to 6:00 am Saturday morning PST. Progent notifies clients in advance of any scheduled downtime in order to reduce business impact.

• Regular Data Backup and Rapid Restoration
  Progent's data backup procedures for hosted Microsoft Exchange systems feature one month of per-day backups, complete server backups once a week, differential backups every day, and complete backups with off-site replication monthly. Progent's virtual server configuration permits quick system recovery in the event of a catastrophic failure, and in case a severe host collapse Progent will move the hosted Microsoft Exchange Server environment to another virtual server within half a business day.

• Contact Center Support
  Progent's Helpdesk services are provided to maintain Progent's hosted Exchange environment. Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) handles all Helpdesk support and is accessible via phone, email, or the web. Staffed by Microsoft-expert engineers who are experienced at providing Microsoft Exchange help, Progent's Help Desk Call Center can efficiently resolve virtually any issue associated with Microsoft Exchange and can also offer expert help for a broad array of IT areas such as network infrastructure, business applications, mixed-platform interoperability, and system security. Progent's Help Desk can in addition escalate highly complicated issues to Progent's world-class engineering group which offers Cisco-certified CCIE infrastructure experts, CISA, CISSP, CISM, and GIAC accredited security engineers, Linux consultants, and macOS and Mac OS X support professionals.

• Email Administration Services
  Progent's TRC provides all email administration needs including adding or removing users, modifying security privileges, or troubleshooting connectivity issues. Like any service provided by Progent based on Progent's Contact Center model, Progent's TRC offers the extensive and in-depth technical knowledge and consistent service of a world-class service group, plus the transparent trouble-ticket monitoring and follow-through of an efficiently managed Help Desk Call Center.

Progent's Private Cloud Hosting Services
Progent's Private Cloud Hosting and Management service provides full-service hosting for a small or midsize company's network and application in a setting that achieve the top levels of dependability, security, and expandability and is also affordable and simple to migrate to another host environment. Progent's Server Hosting services are based on proven virtual server technology that permits small businesses with mixed environments to save significantly on the costs of computers and peripherals, infrastructure maintenance, and IT management while benefiting from world-class reliability and an unprecedented level of vendor independence.

In contrast to common SaaS hosting packages, Progent's Private Cloud Hosting supports all business servers in a single unified-management environment and can handle mixed platform and non-standardized environments that are common for small businesses but pose a challenge to most hosting providers. Progent's Virtual Server Hosting services put ownership of the OS and application software in the customer's control so that migrating to a different virtual host is quick, reliable, and inexpensive. This prevents becoming a prisoner to your initial hosting provider while still providing all the investment savings associated with Application Service Provider and SaaS hosting models.

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

Progent's Consulting Services for Microsoft Technology
For businesses of any size throughout the U.S., Progent's Microsoft-certified experts offer low-cost online network help and IT consulting support for the entire array of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers. Progent offers Microsoft Windows Server 2022 solution design and migration help, Windows Server 2019 migration consulting, Windows Server 2016 hybrid cloud integration, Windows Server 2012 R2 upgrade help, Windows Server 2008 R2 consulting, and Windows Server 2003 technical support. Progent's migration, installation, update, and support services include system architecture, configuration, and administration outsourcing for project management and documentation, on-site and off-site IT help and system repair, Help Desk Outsourcing Support, certified security consulting, full-service outsourcing, and ProSight Virtual Hosting.

Progent in addition offers a wide range of online desktop services such as Windows 11 system design and migration assistance, Windows 10 configuration assistance, Windows 8.1 consulting, Microsoft Windows 7 support, upgrading to 64-bit computing, Office desktop and Microsoft 365 integration, and automating PC desktop image creation.

In case your business needs urgent remote support from a Microsoft certified engineer, go to Progent's Urgent Remote Computer Support.

Find out more about Progent's Consulting Services for Microsoft Servers.

To get in touch with Progent about engineering help for Microsoft Exchange Server integration, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.