Tukwila At Home Workers Connectivity Support Services

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a significant effect on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Tukwila company to pick the right tools and follow best practices in building and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you over challenging IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Tukwila, Washington organizations to with any facet of creating a high-performing remote work ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk services, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you have to accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote support for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement necessary upgrades. Services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated remote employees to access IT assets located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a wide range of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a telecommuter to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote consulting for configuring routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by an entire household and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by delivering services like Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless AP integration help.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Vital processes might demand redundant Internet connections in case the primary connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for identifying Internet service providers, selecting appropriate service bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Extending the corporate phone environment to include remote users is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to assist organizations tune their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia software used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can help your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with users 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 Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online configuration and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors support online discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many organizations use multiple products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for other 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 hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with features such as video calling, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, providing a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial publication and can help your company to tune these critical collaboration products 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-driven access to data, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that permits remote workforce to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint configuration and application 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 support services, see deployment consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can share them safely through a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote workers to co-author files. Edits made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent offers affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to build, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network models that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and public cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features more than one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office apps and services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from students and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide fast and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional help to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and economical online access to cloud integration consultants 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 offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to build a high-availability network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud is a popular collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage, and streamline access control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your GCP ecosystem. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Services for Remote Workers
A rapid, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker workforce, which might be the result of an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses to outsource or expand their Call Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's extensive network of online IT support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from help requests to ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to check or revise the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent offers optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve complex issues. To learn more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service enables your company to augment your existing Support Desk staff by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk support transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Desk service uses a collective support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to provide best-in-class IT support to your at-home employees, refer to Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home workers typically utilize their own devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware threats and requires careful configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran team of IT security support consultants can help you to plan, deploy and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that protects vital IT assets in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls allow you to create a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and manage different access rights to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and legacy security devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, visit firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers used by teleworkers and either block or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the targeted device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of devices can be used for this second form of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and local security threats for an environment that incorporates remote workers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by security professionals with advanced certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your workflows and governance policies and assess your IT infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, remediate, and verify security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, refer to 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 critical things to focus on for securing an IT environment that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage system problems resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore strategies for remote workers must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast remote access to experts familiar with a wide array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often anticipate circumstances that call for a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to create, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for safeguarding corporate data by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and software. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share information, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the devices of your teleworkers, visit Intune mobile device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management product that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading 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. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to 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 Tukwila, Washington business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.