Yonkers Work at Home Employees Configuration Support and Consulting

Expanding your telecommuter workforce may have a major impact on IT architecture, security, and corporate workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting SMBs to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Yonkers organization to select the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns top value. Progent offers support services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Yonkers, New York companies to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk augmentation, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be particularly complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of personal equipment such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both outdated as well as current technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to create a safe connection for authorized at-home employees to use IT assets located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide range of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This provides network managers significant control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for configuring home routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these problems by providing expertise that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Vital applications might require backup Internet connections in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for selecting ISPs, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume packages, and configuring redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Extending the corporate phone system to include teleworkers is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other mixed media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your current CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed integration and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies support virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local users and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio 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 expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to set up and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for additional IP video products 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 information with features that include IP voice and video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist businesses to deploy 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to allow collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-based delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that allows remote workers to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to 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 services, see deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can share them safely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to co-author documents. Revisions made offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers affordable online support for enabling businesses to create, maintain and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that include physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure connections to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity applications and cloud-based services available by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and easy remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to plan, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to create a high-availability network model so your users have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your critical applications cloud ready so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline identity control for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your business to utilize GCP's management technology to administer and track your GCP environment. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, company-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which might be activated by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations to outsource or augment their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center services utilize Progent's nationwide network of online IT support experts combined with world-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, modern Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests to trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to monitor or update their active tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex issues. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service allows you to supplement your existing Help Desk Call Center organization by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk support seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collective support model based on the leading professional services automation tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver world-class desktop support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home employees typically utilize their personal computers and usually operate in a poorly secured physical space. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware attacks and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the creation of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of data security support experts can help you to design, configure and maintain an effective security solution that protects critical information resources in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to assign and control appropriate access rights to various classes of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly complex. Progent works with both new and older security devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, visit firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices used by remote workers and either block or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are requested to verify your identity via a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all types of external and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity inventory software for quickly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by network security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your operations and governance policies and review your network infrastructure to allow you to design top-level protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, rank, fix, and verify security vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to focus on for protecting an IT environment that supports telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection involves saving and recovering vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage system failures resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must cover diverse kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from experts familiar with a wide array of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly anticipate circumstances that call for a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity consultants can assist you to produce, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a unified solution for protecting critical information by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and erase sensitive information from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, go to Intune remote endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management product that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home environment for your Yonkers, New York organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.