Cloud Integration Consulting

Progent can provide quick and affordable support from cloud integration consultants to help you to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that combine Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based products and services with local resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure.

Progent can help you evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Amazon AWS cloud services relative to competing providers, migrate applications to Amazon AWS, develop backup/restore strategies that utilize Amazon AWS cloud storage technology, and troubleshoot firewall and VPN configuration problems. Progent can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants to show you how to build a high-availability network infrastructure so your users have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working at your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road.

Amazon is a trail blazer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's top vendor of cloud computing services. Amazon AWS offers a broad range of cloud services such as Elastic Compute Cloud for as-needed compute capacity for virtual servers, Amazon Simple Storage Service for dynamically scalable primary storage, and Amazon Glacier for economical long-term backup and archiving. These Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions enable businesses of all sizes to move some or all of their IT infrastructure to the Amazon cloud, using a pay-for-use approach to rein in capital expenses while reducing administrative overhead and slashing the time needed to deploy new applications.

Hybrid Cloud Integration
For the majority of businesses, utilizing public cloud services is a given. The only issue is how to achieve the best trade-off between cloud-based and local infrastructure. Many businesses run legacy line-of-business applications which are tricky to migrate to the cloud. Performance-sensitive OLTP applications may call for local systems to provided the highest possible throughput. In addition, company culture or government and industry standards could demand more direct control over key types of data than can be achieved with public cloud environments. In these and other cases, hybrid networks, which integrate on-premises and cloud infrastructure, are commonly adopted as the best network model.

To make things even more complicated, Amazon AWS competes with other vendors of cloud services such as Microsoft, whose Azure offerings include Infrastructure-as-a-Service options as well as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model specially tuned for Windows-based applications. Essentially, careful evaluation is required for any business to select the appropriate cloud solution.

Progent's veteran system architects can help your company to define and deploy a hybrid cloud environment that incorporates Amazon AWS so that it optimizes business value. Progent can assist your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS integration including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design, pilot testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN access and can show you how to deploy cloud-based or hybrid cloud environments that seamlessly integrate Amazon AWS services. Progent offers occasional support or deliver end-to-end project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you migrate smoothly to the Amazon AWS cloud.

Key Amazon AWS Services
The Amazon AWS family of cloud products offers more than 70 infrastructure options that address computing, primary and archival storage, databases, networking, mobility, application development, management, IoT, and cybersecurity, Amazon AWS services used by businesses of any size and for which Progent provides advanced expertise include:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, called Amazon EC2, is a virtual machine hosting service that allows you to provision, scale, and administer cloud-hosted virtual machines, known as EC2 instances. You can deploy any quantity of EC2 instances and you are charged only for the capacity you use. You can control the server and the cluster-level functions of a range of OS platforms, add your cloud-hosted applications, and manage network access rights. You also manage your own software licenses according to a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model. You can utilize a standard Amazon Machine Image (AMI) template and deploy a virtual server immediately or you can build a custom image that incorporates your apps, libraries, data, and configurations. Amazon EC2 can scale processing resources immediately to align with variations in workloads, avoiding the hassle of sophisticated capacity management. You also can specify multiple geographic locations for improved resilience and you can request fixed IP endpoints to work with your application environment.

Amazon Simple Storage Service, or Amazon S3, is a cloud-hosted storage product that offers low-latency storage for any amount of data. Amazon S3 scales easily and you pay only for the capacity you actually need. Amazon S3 is commonly implemented as offsite storage for data protection but is also well fitted for high-use applications, most notably Amazon's giant commercial web. Amazon S3's web service interface can handle a range of storage classes intended for various use cases. Examples include S3 Standard for general-purpose storage of primary data, Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access for long-lived but infrequently accessed data, and Amazon Glacier for long-term archives. You can also define custom lifecycle parameters so your Amazon S3 data automatically and transparently migrates to a different storage category without requiring changes to your apps. Amazon S3 can be integrated with Amazon EC2 or as a standalone cloud service.

Amazon Glacier is a cloud storage service intended to offer low-cost data archiving and long-term storage for data that is infrequently accessed. Amazon Glacier does not offer the performance of Amazon S3 storage and is not suitable for online apps. But recovery time is glacially slow and can take hours, storage costs are lower than one cent per GB each month, which is less expensive than on-premises storage. In addition, you can cut overall storage costs by specifying lifecycle rules to move groups of Amazon S3 objects automatically to Amazon Glacier. Amazon Glacier can also assist businesses to comply with regulatory standards for archival data by offering ultra-dependable remote backup with features that include regular, systematic integrity audits and automatic self-healing capability.

How Progent Can Help You Integrate Amazon AWS Solutions
If you intend to incorporate Amazon's AWS cloud services into your information network using either a cloud-centric or a hybrid model, Progent can help you evaluate the advantages of Amazon AWS compared to competing cloud products. Progent can provide expertise for every facet of your cloud integration migration including preparedness assessment, solution design, pilot testing, deployment, management, performance optimization, license management, and disaster recovery planning. Progent can also provide the help of certified cybersecurity experts to ensure. make sure your system is safe and in compliance with applicable regulations.

Progent can assist your business to identify which of your key applications are appropriate for Amazon AWS and help you upgrade legacy or custom software so they can be hosted by the Amazon AWS cloud. Progent offers economical online and on-premises expertise to help you resolve stubborn technical bottlenecks, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure that you complete your cloud migration initiative on time and within budget.

A common technical issue confronted while extending your information system with Amazon AWS, or with any public cloud, is establishing secure links for various devices situated either inside or outside your corporate firewall. Progent can provide the expertise of Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers or firewall configuration experts certified by Symantec, Barracuda, WatchGuard, Check Point and others to help you set up and manage security appliances for accessing Amazon AWS services. Progent also offers the support of iPhone and iPad technology consultants and Android configuration consultants to help you to set up smartphones and tablets for your Amazon AWS solution.

Examples of online integration support provided by Progent to help businesses integrate with Amazon AWS include:

• Plan or analyze the solution architecture for hybrid environments that incorporate Amazon EC2 and Simple Storage Service
• Set up and troubleshoot VPN access to Amazon AWS
• Install Cisco AnyConnect and Symantec AWS Gateway Service
• Configure and debug firewalls from Barracuda, Symantec, SonicWall, and others
• Design, deploy, and test disaster recovery solutions based on Amazon S3 storage
• Create and verify AMI images for Windows or Linux VMs and applications
• Set up Java utilities for AMI images
• Define, implement and test security rules
• Troubleshoot elastic and static IP problems
• Resolve DNS and load balancing problems
• Configure NATs for headquarters and branch offices
• Create PHP routines for signing Amazon AWS requests
• Build AD LDS service instances for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
• Provide expertise for Amazon SQS

Additional Hybrid Cloud Integration Consulting Services Available from Progent
Progent offers expertise in all leading public cloud platforms and can provide fast online access to a hybrid cloud integration specialist. Popular public cloud platforms and services supported by Progent include:

Amazon Marketplace Web Service is a library of APIs that enables Amazon sellers to streamline their business processes by automating crucial sales functions including listings, orders, shipments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By tapping into Amazon's vast online selling environment and automating their sales processes, merchants can expand their market, reduce their operating costs, accelerate response time to customers, and increase their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can collaborate with your development team and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training to help you shorten development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Azure integration experts can help you with every phase of Microsoft Azure integration such as requirements analysis, readiness evaluation, system design, pilot testing, implementation, centralized administration, performance optimization, license controls, disaster recovery preparedness, security planning, and regulatory compliance assessment. Progent can help you to configure and troubleshoot firewall appliances and VPN tunnels so that your clients can securely access to Azure-based services, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help you set up key Microsoft technologies to work in Azure including Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and Skype for Business. Progent can also help you to create a hybrid environment that transparently combines on-premises datacenters with Azure services.

Microsoft supports seamless hybrid networks that combine Microsoft 365 and local installations of Exchange. This permits you to have specific Exchange mailboxes hosted on your corporate datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes resident on Microsoft 365. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can assist your organization with any phase of planning, integrating and debugging your hybrid Exchange solution. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional expertise to help you through stubborn technical bottlenecks and also can provide extensive project management outsourcing to ensure your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange initiative is successfully completed on time and on budget. For details about Progent's online consulting services for integrating Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-premises Exchange systems, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration solutions with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 experts can assist businesses of any size to incorporate Office desktop and Microsoft 365 apps such as Office Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Access, Project and OneNote into a seamless solution that offers fast return on investment and enables improved business results. Progent can help your company to interface Office or Microsoft 365 applications with each other and with other key Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running locally or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can also assist you to fix compatibility problems with different versions of Microsoft Office desktop and offers live online Office and Microsoft 365 instruction to individual users or groups.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration experts can provide cost-effective online and onsite support to help companies of any size to move any portion of their critical network resources to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and hardware expense and allow the use of Google's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technology. Progent can help your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, preparedness evaluation, system design, testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery solutions, and security strategies.