Cloud Integration Expertise

Exchange Online is one of Microsoft's cloud-based applications included in the Microsoft 365 product line supported by Azure. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower investment in physical infrastructure, simplified administration, dynamic capacity, high-availability, plus other advantages associated with public clouds vs. local IT facilities. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to work seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid information systems. Hybrid networks combine on-premises servers and storage with cloud products and services to create a cohesive network.

Common reasons for combining on-premises Exchange deployments with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online include compliance with regulatory standards or internal restrictions that prohibit specific types of mailboxes from being moved off premises, performance issues related to virtualization or cloud latency, the need for more management control, the need to support certain home-grown or outdated environments, corporate culture, or business continuity plans. In addition, hybrid systems are commonly on the critical path for migrating smoothly from an on-premises to an Exchange Online cloud-centric environment.

Whether you need a transitional hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online implementation as part of a migration to Azure or you want to build a robust hybrid ecosystem, Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help you with every phase of designing, integrating, administering, and debugging your hybrid system. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional expertise to help you through stubborn integration issues and also can provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your hybrid Exchange Online initiative is completed on schedule and within.

Progent's Exchange specialists have extensive experience working with the Microsoft 365 technical support personnel to resolve complex integration problems and Progent can provide as-needed support services to assist you to manage and tune your hybrid Exchange Online solution as your requirements change over time. Progent has two decades of experience delivering companies of all sizes advanced consulting support online, and Progent can also provide onsite expertise in major metropolitan regions across the U.S. (See Progent's customer testimonials.)

Hybrid Solutions for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
A hybrid deployment of Exchange Online and onsite Exchange supports a mix of local and cloud-hosted mailboxes and brings other important capabilities such as:

• Protected mail routing with a domain namespace and an Outlook on the Web address shared between local and Microsoft 365 networks
• A shared global address list (GAL) with full recipient information
• A shared free/busy calendar
• Management of inbound and outbound mail travel across Microsoft 365 cloud organizations
• Simple movement of mailboxes between on-premises Exchange infrastructure and Microsoft 365 Exchange Online including automatic Exchange ActiveSync profile redirection
• On-premises Exchange Administration Center for unified mailbox administration
• Multi-mailbox search across local and Microsoft 365 mailboxes
• Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Archiving for local and cloud-hosted mailboxes
• Transparent integration with local and/or cloud-hosted implementations of Skype for Business and SharePoint server
• Support for Microsoft Edge Transport server to protect against junk mail and enforce mail flow transport policies
• Single sign-on via Microsoft Entra Connect (formerly called Azure Active Directory Connect), password synchronization, or AD Federation Services
• AD FS allows multi-factor authentication and complies with FIPS

Microsoft 365 can be deployed under a variety of hybrid architectures. Judicious analysis with Progent's network design consultants can save you considerable time and expense, since re-architecting an inappropriate implementation can be difficult and distracting. Building an efficient hybrid Microsoft 365 solution can be challenging. The degree of difficulty depends on the makeup of your existing email system and the features you want to achieve. Major tasks include:

• Define your strategic requirements for your hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment
• Evaluate your existing network resources and update as necessary
• Plan and test your new network architecture
• Design a deployment plan and select migration technologies
• Identify local vs. Microsoft 365 clients
• Choose appropriate Microsoft 365 services and acquire subscriptions
• Add and test the domain of the cloud portal
• Update DNS records
• Use IdFix to clean up on-premises AD and AD FS errors identified by Microsoft Entra Connect and configure on-premises Active Directory and optionally Feration Services
• Set up SSO and Directory Sync
• Assign licenses and create Accounts/mailboxes in Microsoft 365
• Export mailboxes to PSTs and import them from PSTs to Exchange Online mailboxes
• Register smartphones and tablets
• Move public folders
• Activate and Test services
• Tune performance
• Patch and test firewalls and proxy servers
• Educate IT support staff and clients

Microsoft has developed a variety of useful tools to help you to automate many of the steps needed to create a hybrid environment for Exchange Online. These utilities include the Microsoft 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW), PowerShell, the Exchange admin center (EAC), the Microsoft 365 Deployment Readiness Toolkit, and the IdFix Directory Synchronization utility. Realistically, many phases of setting up a hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online solution are subject to technical missteps. Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants have dealt extensively with issues related to designing and implementing hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployments and can show you how to you follow leading practices to avoid problems, resolve them efficiently, and shield your users from downtime.

How Progent Can Assist You to Integrate Microsoft 365 Exchange Online with Your On-premises Resources
Progent can assist you in every stage of moving to Microsoft Microsoft 365 and combining your local Exchange system with Exchange Online. Progent can help you to prioritize your strategic objectives, evaluate the readiness of your current network infrastructure, design the topology for a hybrid environment, create an implementation process, configure and test a pilot system, install your hybrid system, centralize management functions, optimize performance, organize licenses, provide expertise for business continuity plans, validate security compliance, and deliver training for your network management team and clients. Progent offers affordable online consulting and troubleshooting to help you to deal with occasional problems, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure you complete your hybrid deployment of Microsoft 365 Exchange Online on schedule and on budget.

Besides Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, Microsoft offers other software packages that are part of the Microsoft 365 product line. These include Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business Online, SharePoint Online, and Project Online. All of these packages can be integrated with one another in cloud-centric or hybrid models. Progent's Microsoft-certified Microsoft 365 configuration consultants can assist you to create hybrid networks that combine Microsoft 365 packages and on-premises infrastructure by delivering services that include Windows Server expertise, Exchange integration, Microsoft Teams migration support, Skype for Business maintenance and troubleshooting, SQL Server configuration and application development, SharePoint design and integration, Microsoft 365 integration and training, Microsoft Project consulting, and Dynamics GP support.

To help you to manage your hybrid network, Progent can provide System Center 2016 consulting services, System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) expertise, SCOM support, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) support, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud configuration consulting,

Common examples of online and on-premises consulting services offered by Progent to help organizations to combine Microsoft 365 Exchange Online with on-premises Exchange deployments include:

• Clean email before moving them into Microsoft 365
• Configure authentication with Microsoft 365 and local Domain Users
• Configure Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and assign purchased licenses
• Rebuild profiles of Windows clients
• Migrate Gmail accounts
• Carry out manual mailbox exports as required
• Add email accounts to Apple iOS and Android devices
• Plan and implement Exchange Online archival storage
• Install local or hybrid spam filter appliances from other vendors
• Fix Microsoft 365 synchronization issues with AD Users and Active Directory Global Security Groups
• Troubleshoot Outlook autodiscover issues
• Fix problems related to .PST and .OST files
• Define, implement, test, and troubleshoot mail flow
• Resolve AD FS and AD Connect authentication issues
• Utilize PowerShell scripts for administration, repair, and email migration
• Work with Microsoft support technicians to identify and resolve issues at Microsoft's end (for example, a misconfigured Connector)
• Troubleshoot Microsoft 365 Message Encryption issues
• Update on-premises Exchange Servers to current versions of Exchange and upgrade equipment
• Train HR on procedure to disable email accounts for terminated workers

Additional Public Cloud Integration Solutions from Progent
The options offered for public cloud services are increasing continually, making it difficult for IT managers to determine the best cloud strategy for their business. Progent has in-depth experience assisting companies of all sizes to plan, implement, and maintain hybrid environments that integrate multiple cloud products and services from major public clouds. Progent's cloud integration consultants can help you to understand the relative benefits and shortcomings of different public cloud offerings and can show you how to create a cloud-based or hybrid network that delivers maximum business value.

Public cloud products supported by Progent include:

Progent's Microsoft Azure integration consultants can assist you with every phase of Microsoft Azure integration such as needs analysis, prerequisites evaluation, solution architecture, pre-production testing, deployment, automated management, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery preparedness, security policy enforcement, and compliance assessment. Progent can help your IT staff to configure and debug firewall appliances and VPN tunnels so that your users can safely access to Azure-based resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can assist you set up key Microsoft platforms to run in Azure including Windows Server, Exchange, SQL and Skype for Business. Progent can also help you to create a hybrid ecosystem that seamlessly integrates on-premises datacenters with Azure-based services.

Progent's Office and Microsoft 365 experts can assist businesses to integrate Microsoft Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Access, Visio and Publisher into a seamless productivity solution that offers quick ROI and enables better business results. Progent can assist your company to integrate Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 applications with one another and with other key Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running on-premises or in the cloud. Progent can also assist you to resolve compatibility issues between different versions of Microsoft Office and can provide live online Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 instruction to individuals and groups.

Progent's Amazon Web Services (AWS) planning and integration experts can provide cost-effective online consulting to assist businesses of any size to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services including Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual server hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for scalable low-latency storage, and Glacier for low-cost archival storage. Progent can help you with every phase of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, preparedness evaluation, system design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, backup/restore solutions, and security and compliance. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN access and can help you deploy all-cloud or hybrid environments that seamlessly integrate Amazon AWS services. Progent can provide as-needed support or Progent can provide project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you migrate efficiently to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is a collection of APIs that enables Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their business processes by automating crucial sales functions including listings, orders, shipments, fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's extensive online selling environment and automating their sales, vendors can expand their market, lower their cost of sales, accelerate reaction time to customers, and increase their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) consultants can collaborate with your development staff and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can cut development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform integration experts can provide affordable online and on-premises consulting to assist businesses of any size to migrate any part of their critical IT infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and hardware costs and enable the use of Google's state-of-the-art machine learning tools. Progent can assist you with every phase of Google Cloud Platform integration including requirements analysis, readiness assessment, system design and review, pilot testing, configuration, administration, performance tuning, software license management, backup/restore solutions, and security and compliance.