Midtown Manhattan At Home Workers Connectivity Consulting Experts

Expanding your remote workforce can have a major impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of background helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Midtown Manhattan organization to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Midtown Manhattan, New York companies to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Call Desk augmentation, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required to support a remote workforce can be especially complex if you must accommodate a combination of personal hardware like PCs and notebooks, routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated and current IT products in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement essential updates. Services available from Progent to assist you to implement a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity allows you to establish a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can assist your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a teleworker to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote support for setting up routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and security issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by delivering expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Vital processes might demand redundant Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for identifying ISPs, picking appropriate service bundles, and configuring redundant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Remote Workers
Expanding the company PBX environment to include telecommuters is vital to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and security required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer advanced support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can assist your company to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand configuration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of video conferencing products from major technology companies support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local users and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize multiple products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to manage your existing conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include voice/video conferencing, threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a rich environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can help your company to configure these flagship collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your remote 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 deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven access to content, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected web portals that allows remote workforce to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to 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. For information about Progent's Exchange support services, go to planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can share them securely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote employees to co-author files. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent can provide advanced remote assistance for enabling organizations to create, maintain and optimize integrated network models that include internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent offers expertise for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve problems with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud services that allows you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure features over one hundred services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure connections to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Azure, visit Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office apps and services are provided in a variety of plans intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to build hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed assistance to get you through challenging IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide fast and economical online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to build 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. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help you to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which could be the result of an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Support Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and follow-up software to provide an economical, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial service requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to monitor or update their active trouble tickets, enter details, and append screen captures and relevant files. Support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex problems. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows your company to augment your existing Call Desk team by splitting delivery of Help Desk Call Center support transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a collective support solution based on the number one PSA platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For information about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
At-home staff members commonly use their own computers and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough user training, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of IT security solutions consultants can help your business to design, configure and maintain a compliant security solution that protects vital IT assets in environments that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to build a network that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage different access rights to different classes of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall configuration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices used by remote workers and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each secured endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity on a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this second form of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be provided by network security professionals with top credentials including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your workflows and policies and assess your IT infrastructure to allow you to design top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, rank, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that supports telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital information in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage system failures resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, user error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore solutions for at-home workers must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online access to experts knowledgeable about a broad array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically anticipate circumstances that call for a temporary switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can help you to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for safeguarding corporate data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing off-premises computers and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified MDM platform that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home solution for your Midtown Manhattan, New York organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.