Thousand Oaks Work from Home Employees Connectivity Support

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a major impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to design, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Thousand Oaks company to pick the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers top business value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand guidance for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Thousand Oaks, California companies to succeed with any facet of building a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk services, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote workforce can be particularly complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of personal equipment like PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from different vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing remote support for both outdated and current IT products in remote office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for making necessary updates. Services available from Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authenticated at-home employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers more control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote support for integrating home routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by providing services like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Business-critical processes may require redundant Internet access in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for selecting ISPs, choosing appropriate service bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the company PBX environment to include telecommuters is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP platforms are popular with SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy products for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to help businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help you to support your existing CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, see CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with users working outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your wide area network infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver on-demand deployment and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a powerful environment of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can assist businesses to tune these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your remote workers.

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 deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement 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, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly 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, see planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based delivery of data, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that allows at-home workforce 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 expertise, refer to SharePoint configuration and application development consulting.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, refer to deployment expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author documents. Edits made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced remote assistance for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes over one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected access to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional help to get you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network architecture so your users have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your business to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, enterprise-wide transition to a teleworker business model, which could be the result of a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support specialists along with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from help requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to monitor or edit the status of their active tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and attachments. Desktop support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. For more information, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables your company to supplement your current Call Desk team by splitting responsibilities for Call Desk services transparently between your in-house IT support staff and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a collaborative support solution utilizing the leading PSA platform for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
At-home staff members commonly use their own computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and calls for judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user training, and the creation of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of data security solutions consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT assets in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and control appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall appliances from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers used by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the impacted endpoint device from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and give your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this added form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of external and internal security attacks for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis software for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with top certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your workflows and governance policies and review your WAN infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, rank, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to perform thorough pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional details about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest products, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for securing a network that supports telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers saving and recovering critical data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for an at-home workforce must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online help from experts knowledgeable about a wide range of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and features fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies typically envision scenarios that require a temporary switch to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help your company to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for safeguarding corporate information by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote devices and software. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For information about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, see Intune telecommuter endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management platform that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing an efficient work-from-home solution for your Thousand Oaks, California company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.