Sandy Springs Remote Workers Connectivity Consultants

Expanding your telecommuter workforce may have a significant impact on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of background helping small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Sandy Springs company to select the right technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand guidance for getting you over occasional IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Sandy Springs, Georgia organizations to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-performing telecommuting environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned equipment such as PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing online support for both outdated as well as current IT products in remote office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Services available from Progent to help you to implement a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authenticated at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to see and use a data center PC's desktop. This gives network managers more control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters 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 VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for deploying home routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these problems by providing services that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Line-of-business applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for picking ISPs, selecting sensible service bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the business PBX environment to accommodate telecommuters is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or tune a telecommuter IP voice service that provides the flexibility, transparency and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can assist you to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed configuration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies support virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many companies utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional IP video products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities such as voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see 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 deliver configuration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can assist businesses to deploy these critical collaboration platforms 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and supports 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, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-driven access to data, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create secure portals that permits remote workforce to see and edit consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to planning and configuration expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them securely via a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows home workers to co-author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, visit Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable remote support for helping organizations to create, maintain and repair integrated network models that combine internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create protected access to Azure for telecommuters by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans intended for users ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your at-home workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to get you past tough technical roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-availability network model so your users have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to expand your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A fast, company-wide transition to a from-home 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 in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Call Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's extensive network of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests to trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to check or edit their current tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex problems. For details, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service allows you to augment your current Support Desk team by splitting delivery of Help Desk support transparently between your in-house support organization and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collaborative support model based on the leading professional services automation tool for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and generating management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class IT support to your from-home workers, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly utilize their personal devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the development of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to design, implement and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT resources in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile users, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and control different access rights to different classes of users and to scale your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall devices from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, visit firewall integration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate computers used by teleworkers and either block or identify and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint device from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint security monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are on a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used as this added means of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all types of outside and local security attacks for an environment that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by security professionals with top certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your workflows and governance policies and review your network architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, rank, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's threat analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for securing a network that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves saving and recovering critical data in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage system failures resulting from hardware issues, programming glitches, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must address multiple types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast remote access to experts knowledgeable about a wide array of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often envision scenarios that call for a quick changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning specialists can help you to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for safeguarding corporate data by controlling local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile computers and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and resources, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and wipe corporate data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint computers of your teleworkers, see Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Sandy Springs, Georgia business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.