Brasília At Home Workers Connectivity Support Partner

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a significant impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate processes. Progent has two decades of experience helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Brasília company to pick the appropriate tools and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns top value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand expertise for helping you over occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Brasília, Federal District organizations to succeed with any facet of building a high-performing remote work environment by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, helpdesk outsourcing, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support an at-home workforce can be particularly complex if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote support for both legacy and modern technologies in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• VPN technology allows you to establish a safe tunnel for authenticated at-home workers to use IT resources situated at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to configure and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a teleworker to view and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers more control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers expert online consulting for integrating routers from all major vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by an entire household and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can create throughput and security issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by providing services that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Vital applications may require backup Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for identifying ISPs, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume packages, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Remote Workers
Expanding the business phone environment to accommodate teleworkers is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are popular with SMBs to server remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for IP voice management. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and security needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice systems to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. CUCM manages additional combined media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, visit CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver online integration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from leading vendors enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports 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, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help your company to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides 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 support services for Microsoft Teams and 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 provide integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration products to maximize 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include 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 Azure Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to enable collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create protected portals that enables at-home workers to view and update consolidated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, 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. For information about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, see planning and configuration consulting for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows home employees to jointly author documents. Revisions created offline are synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's support services for OneDrive, visit Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote assistance for enabling organizations to create, manage and repair integrated network models that combine internal data centers, at-home workers, branches, and public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers fix problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular family of public cloud services that enables you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure for remote workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and services are provided in a variety of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to ensure your telecommuters have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's leading source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-availability network model so your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your key applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's experts can also assist your business to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your GCP environment. To find out, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration expertise.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A rapid, organization-wide transition to a from-home workforce, which could be activated by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to check or update their current tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. To learn more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service allows your company to expand your existing Support Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Call Desk services transparently between your in-house support personnel and Progent's nationwide roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a collective support model based on the leading PSA tool for handling help requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. For information about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to provide best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for At-Home Workers
At-home staff members commonly utilize their own computers and often work in a poorly secured physical area. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber attacks and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of data security support experts can help your business to design, implement and maintain a compliant security solution that guards critical IT resources in networks that include at-home workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage different access rights to different groups of users and to scale your network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers used by teleworkers and either block or spot and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is installed on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the infected endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 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 is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several verification devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and internal security threats for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by network security experts with top credentials such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your processes and policies and review your network infrastructure to enable you to design top-level security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, prioritize, remediate, and verify security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your present security posture. Progent can also assist you to harden your network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more information about Progent's vulnerability assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper describing critical things to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical information so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage system failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, human error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for an at-home workforce must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick online help from consultants familiar with a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and includes fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision scenarios that require a rapid changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled 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 local computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized environment for protecting critical information by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share information, establish threat protection, ensure compliance, and delete sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, visit Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, 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 product via a perpetual license. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Brasília, Federal District organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.