Reno Telecommuters Configuration Consultants

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security, and corporate workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to design, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Reno organization to select the right tools and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you over occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Reno, Nevada companies to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing online help for both legacy and modern technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary updates. Services available from Progent to help you to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to create a safe connection for authorized at-home employees to access IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This gives IT managers significant control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online support for configuring home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by families and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can create throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Line-of-business processes might demand redundant Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers guidance for selecting service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and setting up redundant Internet connections. See Internet access solutions.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the corporate PBX system to accommodate teleworkers is critical to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to help organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications used across the network. CUCM supports other combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, see Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your wide area network architecture to support these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide selection of video conferencing products from major vendors enable online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to manage your existing conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with features such as IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing information throughout multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can assist businesses to tune these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute 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 closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-based access to content, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create protected portals that enables remote workforce to view and edit consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, 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 learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can share them securely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote employees to jointly author documents. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide advanced remote support for enabling businesses to build, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish protected access to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, go to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans intended for users ranging from students and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used 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 additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to plan, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to create a high-uptime network architecture so your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading set of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your key apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and streamline access management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist your business to use GCP's unified management technology to control and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
A fast, organization-wide switchover to a telecommuter workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations to outsource or expand their Call Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote IT support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to monitor or revise the status of their current tickets, add details, and append screen captures and relevant files. Support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex issues. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service enables you to augment your current Call Desk team by splitting delivery of Help Desk Call Center services seamlessly between your in-house IT support staff and Progent's nationwide team of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collaborative support solution based on the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. To learn how Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver world-class technical support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees typically use their own computers and often work in an unsecured physical space. This increases their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user education, and the development of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of data security solutions experts can help your business to design, configure and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users and by teleworkers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage appropriate access rights to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices utilized by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks before they can spread. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and local security threats for a network that incorporates remote workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be managed by security experts with advanced credentials such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your operations and policies and assess your network infrastructure to enable you to design top-level security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security profile. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides maximum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional information about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and recovering critical data in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time in case of storage problems resulting from hardware issues, software glitches, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for remote workers must cover diverse types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast remote help from experts familiar with a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often anticipate scenarios that require a rapid changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to produce, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified solution for safeguarding corporate data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for accessing data and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how home-based workers share information, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use this platform to manage the devices of your at-home workers, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management product that allows network managers to keep off-premises endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, app management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Reno, Nevada business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.