San Jose Work from Home Employees Connectivity Advisor

Expanding your remote workforce may have a significant impact on IT architecture, security, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and debug IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your San Jose company to select the right tools and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand guidance for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist San Jose, California organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be particularly complicated if you must manage a mix of personal equipment such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online help for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authenticated remote employees to access IT resources situated at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a telecommuter to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online support for integrating home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by an entire household and guests, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by providing services like Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point setup assistance.
• Internet access methods affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Line-of-business applications might demand redundant Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for picking Internet service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Teleworkers
Expanding the business PBX environment to accommodate telecommuters is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see CUCM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for current 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 assist you to update your WAN infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver on-demand integration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major technology companies support virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. 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. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams and for additional 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 provide integration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and assist your business to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful environment of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging information throughout 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 first releases and can assist your company to tune these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, 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 Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to facilitate collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build secure portals that enables remote workers to see and update consolidated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint configuration and application development consulting.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, visit planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can access them securely through a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to jointly author files. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote assistance for enabling organizations to create, maintain and troubleshoot cohesive network architectures that incorporate physical data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, and 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 remote workers fix issues with public cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features more than one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create secure access to Azure for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity applications and cloud services offered by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to build hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed assistance to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's biggest source of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your critical applications cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your organization to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist your organization to use GCP's unified management technology to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, enterprise-wide transition to a teleworker business model, which might be the result of a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even the most efficient internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's extensive team of online IT support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from service requests to ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to track or revise the status of their active tickets, add details, and append screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve complex issues. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your business to expand your current Call Desk staff by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center services transparently between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service uses a collaborative support solution based on the number one PSA platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home employees commonly utilize their personal computers and usually work in a poorly secured physical space. This multiplies their susceptibility to malware threats and requires judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support experts can help you to design, implement and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects critical IT resources in environments that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to configure and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks become more complex. Progent works with both current and older firewall appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall configuration and support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate computers used by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted device from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are on a device that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of outside and internal security threats for a network that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by data security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your processes and governance policies and review your WAN architecture to allow you to design the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, rank, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your current security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's threat analysis services powered by on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for securing a network that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical information in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage problems due to hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, human error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for an at-home workforce must address diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online access to experts familiar with a broad range of products for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly envision circumstances that require a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can assist your company to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share data, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune can be used with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, refer to Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that helps network managers to keep off-premises endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. For details about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your San Jose, California organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.