Salinas Telecommuters Solutions Support and Consulting

Enlarging your remote workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of background assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Salinas organization to pick the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and returns top value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for getting you over occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Salinas, California companies to with any aspect of creating a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk services, data security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Integrating the network infrastructure required to support a remote work environment can be particularly complex if you must manage a mix of personal hardware like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity makes it possible to establish a safe connection for authorized at-home workers to use IT assets located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to configure and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow a telecommuter to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives IT managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote support for deploying home routers from a range of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by families and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput and security problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Mission-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers guidance for selecting Internet service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet access. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the business PBX system to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are used by SMBs to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a remote IP voice service that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed throughout the network. CUCM manages additional combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to support your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand configuration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local users and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent can assist you to maintain your existing conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for other video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with features that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Teams as well as for other 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 integration and troubleshooting services for these products and help you to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for sharing information across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can assist businesses to tune these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based access to data, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build secure portals that permits remote workers to view and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, visit SharePoint configuration 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. For details about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers can share them safely through a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-author documents. Edits made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, see Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide advanced remote assistance for enabling businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for remote workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Microsoft applications and services are marketed in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to large corporations. Progent offers quick and easy remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for as-needed assistance to get you past tough technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to make sure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide fast and economical online contact with cloud integration experts who can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-availability network model so your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading suite of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline identity control for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. To learn, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter workforce, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of online technical support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from help requests through trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to monitor or edit their current trouble tickets, add information, and append screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables your business to expand your current Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk support services seamlessly between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive roster of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk Call Center service uses a collective support model based on the number one PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class desktop support to your at-home employees, go to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers typically use their personal computing devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical environment. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of cybersecurity support consultants can help you to plan, deploy and maintain an effective security solution that guards vital IT assets in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable you to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall integration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers used by telecommuters and either reject or identify and mitigate modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo authentication Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected online account and give your password you are requested to verify who you are via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register several validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for a network that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis software for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by network security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your operations and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, fix, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more details about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

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

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital information so as to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware issues, programming hiccups, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for telecommuters must cover diverse kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick remote access to experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate scenarios that require a rapid switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can assist you to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by controlling onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For details about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Salinas, California business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.