Tampa At Home Workers Connectivity Consulting Experts

Expanding your remote workforce can have a significant impact on IT infrastructure, security, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Tampa company to pick the right technologies and follow leading practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers top value. Progent offers services that go from on demand expertise for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent can help Tampa, Florida organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required to support an at-home work environment can be especially complicated if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware like PCs and notebooks, routers, and wireless APs from different vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online help for both outdated and modern IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to help you to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authorized remote workers to use IT assets located at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can help you to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This provides network managers significant control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for integrating routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by an entire household and visitors, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can create performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet access methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Mission-critical processes might demand backup Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for selecting ISPs, picking appropriate service packages, and setting up redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the corporate phone system to accommodate teleworkers is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of any size to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, convenience and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer high-level support to help businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional mixed media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, see CUCM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide as-needed integration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to maintain your existing conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to set up and maintain 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 multiuser video phone app for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for other 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 portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities that include video conferencing, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can help businesses to tune these critical collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home 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 deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create protected portals that enables remote workforce to see and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit SharePoint integration and application 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 integration expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can access them securely via a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-author files. Edits created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and repair integrated network models that include physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers fix issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over 100 services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create secure access to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity applications and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Microsoft applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for occasional help to get you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to design, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud is a leading collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your business to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist you to use GCP's management technology to administer and track your GCP environment. For details, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
A sudden, organization-wide switchover to a from-home business model, which could be motivated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or augment their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and tracking technology to provide an affordable, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from initial service requests through ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to check or update their current trouble tickets, enter information, and append screenshots or attachments. Support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve complex issues. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows you to supplement your existing Support Desk team by sharing delivery of Help Desk support services seamlessly between your in-house support personnel and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service is based on a collective support model based on the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
At-home workers commonly use their personal computers and usually work in an unsecured physical area. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough end-user training, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of IT security support experts can help your business to plan, implement and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and control different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall configuration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices utilized by remote workers and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new attacks on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the infected endpoint device from the network to quarantine the malware. 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. To learn more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. For details about Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all types of external and internal security threats for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by data security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your operations and policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to design the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

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 so you can identify, prioritize, remediate, and verify security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional details about Progent's vulnerability assessment services powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to concentrate on for securing an IT environment that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering critical information so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage problems due to hardware issues, programming glitches, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for at-home workers must address diverse types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online help from consultants familiar with a broad range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies commonly envision circumstances that call for a quick changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and delete sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For information about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your teleworkers, refer to Intune remote device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product through a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud products. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go 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 Tampa, Florida organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.