Baltimore At Home Workers Connectivity Consultants

Expanding your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on network architecture, security, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Baltimore company to pick the appropriate tools and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand guidance for getting you over occasional technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Baltimore, Maryland companies to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be especially complex if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from various vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both legacy and modern IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help you to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to create a secure connection for authenticated remote workers to use IT assets situated at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to configure and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a teleworker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the computing environment of at-home employees and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for integrating routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting the whole family and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by delivering expertise that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes may require backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying ISPs, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Expanding the company PBX environment to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based IP voice platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or maintain a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and protection needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services like messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, see CUCM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to maintain your current CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, refer to CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your wide area network infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver online integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies enable virtual meetings, video conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both onsite users and at-home workers. Many companies use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent can assist you to manage your current conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone app for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include voice/video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to 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 debugging services for these products and help you to tune your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing information throughout multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness 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 with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of data, business processes, and tools for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create secure portals that permits remote workers to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint integration and development expertise.

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

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can share them safely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows home employees to jointly author documents. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote support for helping organizations to build, manage and optimize cohesive network models that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for public cloud services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than one hundred services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create protected connections to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from students and households to major corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange experts are available for as-needed assistance to get you past challenging IT roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading suite of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your business to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP environment. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which could be the result of a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services utilize Progent's extensive team of online IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or update the status of their active tickets, add information, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your current Support Desk organization by sharing delivery of Help Desk support services transparently between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive pool of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one PSA tool for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class technical support to your at-home employees, refer to Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
At-home staff members typically utilize their personal computers and often work in a poorly secured physical space. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough end-user training, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity solutions experts can help you to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that guards critical IT assets in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network that can be safely utilized by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and control different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as network attacks become increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, go to firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers utilized by teleworkers and either reject or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the targeted device from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this second form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security threats for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy remote, automated security inventory software for quickly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by network security experts with top certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your procedures and policies and review your WAN infrastructure to enable you to design top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Network
To view or download a white paper describing key things to concentrate on for securing a network that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring critical information so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from consultants knowledgeable about a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly anticipate scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning specialists can assist your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for protecting critical data by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft 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 protecting off-premises computers and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network admins managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for accessing information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, verify security compliance, and delete sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To find out about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Baltimore, Maryland business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.