Chatsworth At Home Workers Configuration Consulting

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a significant impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Chatsworth company to pick the right tools and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand guidance for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Chatsworth, California businesses to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning remote work environment by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk services, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be especially complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of personal hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote help for both outdated and current technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Services offered by Progent to help you to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• VPN connectivity allows you to establish a safe tunnel for authorized at-home employees to access IT resources located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can assist your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide range of endpoint devices such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This gives network managers significant control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for setting up routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as security problems. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by providing expertise that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Vital processes may demand backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting service providers, picking sensible service packages, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. See Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the corporate PBX system to include telecommuters is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based VoIP platforms are used by SMBs to support teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to design or tune a remote VoIP environment that provides the versatility, convenience and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to help organizations tune their current Cisco IP voice environments to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends enterprise IP telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed across the network. CUCM supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can assist you to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for other IP video solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms 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 network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a cohesive user experience for sharing information throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can help your company to tune these critical collaboration products to maximize 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that permits at-home workforce to see and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint integration 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to integration consulting for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely through a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-author files. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent can provide advanced online support for enabling businesses to create, maintain and troubleshoot integrated network architectures that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise 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 remote workers resolve problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for public cloud services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure connections to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy remote contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide occasional help to get you through challenging IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management services to make sure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud integration experts who can help your organization to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to build a high-availability network architecture so your employees have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to expand your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your critical applications cloud ready so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline identity management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to control and monitor your GCP environment. To learn, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for At-Home Workers
An emergency, company-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which might be the result of an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or augment their Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive network of online technical support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to provide an affordable, modern Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from service requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to monitor or revise the status of their current tickets, add information, and append screen captures and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced problems. To learn more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables you to expand your existing Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support services seamlessly between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collective support model based on the number one PSA tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver world-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, refer to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
At-home employees typically utilize their own computers and often work in a poorly secured physical area. This multiplies their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user education, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of data security solutions experts can help you to plan, configure and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that protects vital information resources in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile users, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy security devices from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration expertise, see firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers utilized by remote workers and either reject or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoints stay protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to verify your identity via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to 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 incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by data security experts with top credentials such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your operations and policies and assess your network infrastructure to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, fix, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security posture. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional information about Progent's vulnerability analysis services based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper about key areas to focus on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage failures resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for an at-home workforce must address multiple types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast remote help from consultants familiar with a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly anticipate circumstances that call for a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled 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 computers. Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for protecting critical information by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing off-premises devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for accessing information and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how telecommuters share data, set up threat protection, verify compliance, and delete corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, go to Intune mobile endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home solution for your Chatsworth, California company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.