San Mateo Remote Workforce Solutions Support

Expanding your remote workforce may have a major impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your San Mateo organization to select the right technologies and follow best practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services ranging from as-needed expertise for helping you past challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist San Mateo, California businesses to with any facet of creating a high-performing remote work environment by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk augmentation, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the network infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be particularly challenging if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online support for both outdated and modern technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Services available from Progent to assist your company to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authenticated remote employees to use IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to configure and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This gives IT managers more control over the digital environment of telecommuters and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online consulting for integrating routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting families and visitors, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by delivering expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration help.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Line-of-business processes might demand redundant Internet access in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying ISPs, selecting sensible service bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company PBX environment to include remote users is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer high-level support to help organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, refer to CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help your company to support your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, see CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these VoIP solutions and deliver online integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors support online discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and at-home workers. Many companies use a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent can help you to maintain your current conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications platform that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for other IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that create a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can assist businesses to tune these critical collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that enables at-home workforce to view and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange support services, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can share them securely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote workers to jointly author files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable online assistance for enabling organizations to create, manage and optimize integrated hybrid network architectures that include internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix issues with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes more than 100 services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create secure access to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and households to large enterprises. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to assess the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers quick and affordable online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading suite of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your key applications cloud friendly so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with GCP Storage services, and simplify identity control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A fast, company-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be driven by an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overwhelm even the most efficient in-house Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support specialists along with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to monitor or edit their active tickets, add details, and append screen captures and relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex problems. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service enables your business to augment your current Help Desk Call Center organization by splitting delivery of Support Desk support services transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive pool of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a collaborative support model utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and producing reports. To learn how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver world-class technical support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Support Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly use their own computers and often operate in a poorly secured physical space. This increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough user training, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and manage an effective security solution that guards vital information resources in environments that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to build a network that can be safely accessed by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and manage appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to scale your network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as network attacks become more complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, visit firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices utilized by an at-home workforce and either block or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each protected endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the targeted endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification on iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register several validation devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of external and internal security attacks for a network that incorporates remote workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security inventory software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by data security professionals with advanced certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your procedures and policies and assess your IT architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, fix, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's threat analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Network
To view or download a white paper about critical areas to focus on for protecting a network that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for telecommuters must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast remote help from experts familiar with a wide range of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and features granular restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often anticipate circumstances that require a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can assist your business to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by managing on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for accessing information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, control how home-based workers share information, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For details about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint computers of your telecommuters, go to Intune teleworker device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your San Mateo, California organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.