Huntington Beach Remote Workforce Configuration Consulting Partner

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on network infrastructure, security, and company culture. Progent has two decades of background assisting SMBs to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Huntington Beach company to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you over occasional IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent can help Huntington Beach, California businesses to with any aspect of building a high-performing remote work ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of personal equipment like PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated as well as current technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to create a safe connection for authenticated at-home employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a broad selection of devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a telecommuter to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online support for setting up routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting the whole family and visitors, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and security issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by providing services like Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Vital processes may require backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying ISPs, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the corporate phone environment to include teleworkers is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older products for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP environment that provides the versatility, 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 existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice platforms, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and provide online deployment and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your existing conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to set up and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's support services for Webex and for other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and content with features that include voice/video calling, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help you to tune your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can assist your company to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity 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 supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build protected web portals that allows remote workforce to view and update consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to SharePoint configuration and 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. For information about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to deployment consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can share them safely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to co-author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent offers advanced online support for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair integrated network models that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes more than one hundred services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish protected connections to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are provided in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and households to large corporations. Progent can provide fast and easy online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting 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 benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough IT bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the world's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and economical online contact with cloud integration experts who can help your business to design, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to build a high-availability network model so your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline access management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your organization to utilize GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration expertise.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A fast, organization-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be driven by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations of any size to outsource or supplement their Call Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support experts combined with world-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 PC technical support from service requests to ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or edit their current trouble tickets, enter details, and append screen captures or attachments. Support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex problems. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables your business to augment your current Call Center team by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk services transparently between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service is based on a collaborative support model based on the number one professional services automation platform for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
At-home employees commonly use their own devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical space. This multiplies their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user training, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of cybersecurity support experts can help your business to design, implement and manage a compliant security solution that guards critical IT assets in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances permit you to assign and control different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy security appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, see firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate devices utilized by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats before they can spread. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted device from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give 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 wide selection of devices can be utilized as this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis software for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by network security professionals with top certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your operations and policies and assess your network infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information in order to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time in the event of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, human error, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for teleworkers must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick online help from consultants familiar with a wide 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 smartphones. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often envision scenarios that require a temporary switch to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can assist your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for protecting corporate information by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, establish threat defense, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Intune and how Progent can help you to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, see Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

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