Panama City Telecommuters Connectivity Advisor

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a significant impact on network architecture, security, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Panama City organization to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a secure virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns top value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Panama City, Panamá companies to with any aspect of building a high-functioning remote work ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required to support an at-home work environment can be especially complicated if you have to manage a mix of personal equipment like desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing online help for both legacy as well as current technologies in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authorized at-home employees to use IT resources located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can assist your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow an at-home worker to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent offers expert online support for configuring routers from all major vendors. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting families and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as security problems. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by delivering services that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Business-critical applications might require backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking service providers, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the corporate phone environment to accommodate remote users is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and security required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer advanced support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, see CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable virtual meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that supports presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex and for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to 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 voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and assist you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist businesses to tune these critical collaboration platforms to maximize 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly 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 complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected portals that permits at-home workers to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint integration and application development consulting.

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 consulting services, go to planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them securely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are synced when you go back online. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent can provide fast and affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, manage and optimize cohesive hybrid network architectures that include internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers resolve problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a popular platform for cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure features over one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure access to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are provided in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy remote access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist your business to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional help to get you through challenging IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud is a popular suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to use GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, company-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which could be the result of a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote IT support experts along with world-class ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to track or edit their active trouble tickets, enter information, and append screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. To learn more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables you to augment your current Call Desk team by sharing delivery of Help Desk Call Center support seamlessly between your regular support staff and Progent's extensive team of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution based on the leading PSA platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver world-class IT support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home employees typically use their personal computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical space. This situation increases their vulnerability to malware threats and requires careful deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user training, and the development of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of IT security support consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards vital information assets in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be safely accessed by local users and by teleworkers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and control appropriate access rights to different groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices utilized by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the targeted endpoint from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this added form of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register several validation devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of external and local security threats for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by data security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your procedures and policies and assess your WAN infrastructure to enable you to implement the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security posture. 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 simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper about key areas to focus on for protecting an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage failures due to hardware issues, software glitches, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for remote workers must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online access to consultants familiar with a broad range of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, 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, a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often anticipate scenarios that require a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning specialists can assist your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for protecting critical data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to provision and validate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for accessing data and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how home-based workers share information, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and wipe sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, see 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 endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud products. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing a productive telecommuter environment for your Panama City, Panamá company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.