Petaluma At Home Workers Configuration Support Services

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on network infrastructure, security, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Petaluma company to select the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office solution for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over occasional technical roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Petaluma, California businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for a remote work environment can be especially complicated if you must manage a mix of personal equipment like PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from different manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online support for both legacy and current technologies in virtual office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad selection of devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a telecommuter to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online support for setting up home routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting families and visitors, are frequently utilized by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by delivering services like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Business-critical processes may require backup Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for identifying Internet service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company PBX system to include remote users is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or maintain a remote VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer advanced support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. CUCM manages additional mixed media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver online deployment and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies use a mix of products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your current conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities such as voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging expertise for these products and assist you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user experience for sharing data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

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 and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application 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 delivering its full range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure web portals that enables remote workforce to view and update aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To find out 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. For details about Progent's Exchange expertise, visit integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues can share them safely through a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote support for helping organizations to build, manage and repair integrated hybrid network models that combine physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus public cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers fix problems with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a popular family of public cloud services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes over one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand 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 AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish protected connections to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, see Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity software and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Office applications and services are marketed in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from individuals and households to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and easy remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to create a high-uptime network model so 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, visit Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular set of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your critical applications cloud ready so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline identity control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to use GCP's management tools to administer and monitor your GCP environment. For information, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A sudden, organization-wide switchover to a teleworker workforce, which could be motivated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Support Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote IT support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up software to provide an economical, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC technical support from service requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to track or edit their active tickets, add information, and append screen captures or attachments. Support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve advanced issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service enables you to expand your existing Support Desk team by sharing delivery of Support Desk services transparently between your in-house support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a collaborative support solution based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to provide best-in-class technical support to your teleworkers, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly utilize their personal computers and usually work in a poorly secured physical space. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the development of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security solutions experts can help your business to plan, configure and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that guards vital information assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to configure and control different permissions to various groups of users and to scale your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both current and older security devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the various computers used by remote workers and either block or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight 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 new threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and give your password you are asked to confirm your identity via a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this added form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all classes of external and internal security attacks for a network that incorporates remote workers. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with advanced certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your operations and policies and assess your WAN architecture to enable you to implement top-level security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough 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 uncover, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your current security profile. Progent can also help you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment services based on on NodeZero's PEN test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital data in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, human error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly envision scenarios that call for a quick changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can help you to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized platform for safeguarding critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can utilize Intune to provision and validate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for accessing data and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share information, set up threat defense, verify compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To learn about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your teleworkers, refer to Intune teleworker device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM product that helps network administrators to keep remote endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, 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. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home environment for your Petaluma, California business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.