Clearwater Offsite Workforce Connectivity Consulting and Support

Expanding your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to plan, configure, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Clearwater organization to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent can provide support services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over challenging IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Clearwater, Florida organizations to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required to support an at-home workforce can be particularly challenging if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online help for both legacy and current technologies in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authorized at-home employees to access IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a teleworker to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This gives network managers substantial control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online support for configuring home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting families and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these problems by providing services that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes might demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting Internet service providers, picking sensible service bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for At-Home Workers
Extending the company phone environment to accommodate remote users is critical to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer advanced support to assist businesses optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, refer to CUCM consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, refer to CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with public telephony networks and with users working beyond the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to work with these solutions and deliver as-needed deployment and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies support online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that enables 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 offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see 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 content with features such as IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial publication and can assist your company to configure these flagship collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to promote collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven access to content, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that allows remote workers to view and update consolidated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer 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 support services, refer to integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them securely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-edit files. Revisions created offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent offers affordable remote assistance for helping businesses to create, manage and optimize cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, remote workers, branches, and public cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers resolve problems with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish protected access to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Microsoft applications and services are marketed in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy remote access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your remote workers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to get you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity experts who can help your business to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to expand your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your business to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help you to use GCP's unified management tools to control and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, visit Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker workforce, which might be the result of a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide network of online technical support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and tracking technology to provide an affordable, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from service requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to track or update their current trouble tickets, add information, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve advanced problems. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your business to supplement your current Call Desk organization by sharing delivery of Help Desk support transparently between your regular support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collaborative support solution utilizing the number one PSA platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class technical support to your from-home workers, refer to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
At-home staff members commonly use their own devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This multiplies their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough end-user training, and the development of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity support experts can assist your business to plan, deploy and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that protects vital information resources in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be safely utilized by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile users, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly complex. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support services, visit firewall support expertise.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers used by an at-home workforce and either reject or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized for this second means of ID validation including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate multiple verification devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory software for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be provided by security professionals with advanced certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your operations and policies and assess your network infrastructure to allow you to design the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, rank, fix, and confirm security weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your existing network security and can help you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical things to concentrate on for securing an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical data in order to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage system failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, human error, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for telecommuters must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online help from experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/restore products maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often anticipate scenarios that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can help your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified solution for protecting critical information by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and software. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and wipe sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, go to Intune remote endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM product that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a one-time purchase. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For details about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Clearwater, Florida business, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.