Santa Monica At Home Workers Connectivity Support Services

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of experience helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Santa Monica organization to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in building and operating a secure virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Santa Monica, California companies to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote workforce can be especially complex if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering remote help for both outdated as well as current IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated remote employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad range of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to view and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers significant control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert online support for integrating home routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Line-of-business processes may require redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for identifying Internet service providers, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and setting up redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the company PBX environment to accommodate remote users is vital to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based VoIP platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or maintain a telecommuter VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer advanced support to assist organizations tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications used across the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, visit CUCM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, see Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise 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 configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite users and at-home workers. Many companies use multiple products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex and for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and content with features that include video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and help your business to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a rich environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing information throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can assist your company to deploy these critical collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

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

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create secure portals that enables at-home workforce to see and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, see 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 services, visit deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to jointly author files. Revisions made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced remote assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and optimize integrated hybrid network architectures that include physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for cloud software and services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create secure connections to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and easy remote contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide as-needed assistance to get you through tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's top provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-uptime network architecture so your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify access control for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for At-Home Workers
An emergency, enterprise-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be driven by an epidemic or as part of a business continuity plan, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote IT support experts along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to track or update the status of their active trouble tickets, add details, and append screen captures or attachments. Support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service allows you to supplement your current Help Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk support transparently between your in-house IT support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service is based on a collective support model based on the number one professional services automation tool for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. For information about how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can help your business to provide world-class desktop support to your from-home workers, see Progent's Help Desk augmentation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly use their personal computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical area. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber attacks and calls for judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the creation of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of data security solutions experts can help your business to plan, implement and manage a compliant security solution that guards critical IT resources in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and control different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and legacy firewall devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall integration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers utilized by teleworkers and either block or spot and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify new threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay secure even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this added means of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for a network that incorporates remote workers. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by security experts with top certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your processes and governance policies and assess your network infrastructure to allow you to design top-level protection for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, remediate, and verify security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can assist you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more details about Progent's threat assessment services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage problems resulting from hardware issues, programming hiccups, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online help from consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and features fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically anticipate scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can assist you to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified solution for protecting corporate information by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To find out about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune remote endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter environment for your Santa Monica, California company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.