Cloud Integration Expertise

Exchange Online is one of Microsoft's cloud-based applications included in the Microsoft 365 product line enabled by Microsoft Azure. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier administration, on-demand scale, data protection, and other benefits inherent with public clouds vs. on-premises datacenters. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to work transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to build hybrid environments. Hybrid environments include on-premises resources with cloud services to create a unified IT solution.

Typical reasons for combining on-premises Exchange deployments with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online include compliance with government or industry mandates or internal policies that prevent certain mailboxes from being moved off site, throughput issues associated with server virtualization or cloud latency, the desire for greater administrative flexibility, the ability to accommodate certain home-grown or outdated environments, corporate culture, or disaster recovery strategies. In addition, hybrid deployments are often on the critical path for moving safely from a local to an Exchange Online cloud-based environment.

If you need a transitional hybrid Exchange Online deployment on the way to a full move to the cloud or you intend to build a robust hybrid environment, Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants are available assist you with every facet of designing, configuring, administering, and troubleshooting your hybrid solution. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed expertise to help you through challenging integration bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online implementation is completed on time and on budget.

Progent's Exchange consultants have valuable experience teaming with the Microsoft 365 technical support staff to fix complex integration problems and Progent can provide as-needed support services to help you to manage and tune your hybrid Exchange Online solution as your needs evolve. Progent has 20 years of experience providing organizations of all sizes high-level consulting services remotely, and Progent can also provide onsite support in major metropolitan regions throughout the U.S. (Refer to Progent's customer testimonials.)

Hybrid Integration Services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
A hybrid implementation of Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and onsite Exchange allows you to have a combination local and cloud mailboxes and offers other key features including:

• Secure mail transfer with a domain namespace and an Outlook on the Web address shared between on-premises and Microsoft 365 cloud networks
• A shared GAL with full recipient details
• A shared free/busy calendar
• Management of bi-directional mail flow across Microsoft 365 cloud organizations
• Simple movement of mailboxes between on-premises Exchange and Microsoft 365 Exchange Online including Exchange ActiveSync profile redirection
• Local Exchange Administration Center for centralized mailbox administration
• Multi-mailbox search across local and Microsoft 365 mailboxes
• Microsoft 365 Archiving for local and cloud-hosted mailboxes
• Seamless incorporation with local and/or cloud-hosted deployments of Skype for Business and SharePoint
• Support for Microsoft Edge Transport server to filter out junk mail and apply mail flow transport policies
• Single sign-on (SSO) via Microsoft Entra Connect (formerly called Azure AD Connect), password sync, or AD FS
• Active Directory FS allows multi-factor authentication and meets Federal Information Processing Standards

Microsoft 365 can be deployed under a variety of hybrid architectures. Careful analysis with Progent's solution design experts can save considerable effort and expense, since re-structuring a poorly conceived deployment can be complex and distracting. Creating an efficient hybrid Microsoft 365 solution can be challenging. The complexity depends on the design of your existing email environment and the functionality you want to have. Basic steps include:

• Decide on your strategic requirements for your hybrid Microsoft 365 solution
• Assess your current infrastructure and modernize as needed
• Plan and test your new system architecture
• Create an implementation plan and identify migration technologies
• Identify local vs. cloud users
• Select appropriate Microsoft 365 services and purchase subscriptions
• Add and verify the domain of the Microsoft 365 portal
• Update DNS records
• Utilize IdFix to resolve local AD and AD FS issues identified by Microsoft Entra Connect and configure on-premises Active Directory and optionally Feration Services
• Configure SSO and Directory Sync
• Assign licenses and create Accounts/mailboxes in Microsoft 365
• Export mailboxes to PSTs and move them from PSTs to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online mailboxes
• Integrate smartphones and tablets
• Move public folders
• Activate and Test services
• Tune system performance
• Patch and verify firewalls and proxy servers
• Educate IT support team and users

Microsoft provides an assortment of useful tools to help you to streamline many of the tasks needed to build a hybrid network for Microsoft 365. 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 utility. Realistically, many parts of setting up a hybrid Microsoft 365 deployment are prone to technical hiccups. Progent's Microsoft-certified experts have worked at length with problems associated with designing and rolling out hybrid Microsoft 365 projects and can help you follow best practices to anticipate problems, overcome them efficiently, and shield your clients from downtime.

How Progent Can Assist You to Integrate Microsoft 365 Exchange Online with Your On-premises Resources
Progent's consultants can help you in every stage of moving to Microsoft 365 and integrating your local Exchange system with cloud-hosted Exchange. Progent can assist you to define your operational goals, assess the readiness of your current network infrastructure, plan the topology for a hybrid environment, create a deployment process, set up and verify a pilot deployment, install your hybrid system, centralize administrative functions, optimize performance, organize licenses, provide consulting for business continuity plans, validate regulatory compliance, and provide training for your IT team and users. Progent offers cost-effective remote consulting and troubleshooting to help you to resolve stubborn technical issues, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing services to help you finish your hybrid integration of Microsoft 365 on schedule and on budget.

In addition to Exchange Online, Microsoft offers other applications that are part of the Microsoft 365 product family. These include Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business Online, SharePoint Online, and Project Online. These applications can be integrated with one another in cloud-centric or hybrid models. Progent's Microsoft-certified Microsoft 365 integration consultants can help you to build hybrid networks that incorporate Microsoft 365 products and local infrastructure by delivering advanced services such as Windows Server expertise, Exchange integration, Microsoft Teams planning and deployment consulting, Skype for Business maintenance and troubleshooting, SQL Server configuration and development, SharePoint planning and development, Microsoft 365 configuration and user training, Microsoft Project consulting, and Dynamics GP maintenance.

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

Common examples of remote and onsite consulting services provided by Progent to help organizations to integrate Microsoft 365 with on-premises Exchange environments include:

• Clean folders before moving them into Microsoft 365
• Configure authentication with Microsoft 365 and local Domain Users
• Configure Exchange Online and allocate licenses
• Rebuild profiles of Windows users
• Migrate Google Gmail accounts
• Carry out manual mailbox migrations when required
• Register email accounts to Apple iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets
• Plan and implement Exchange Online Archiving
• Install on-premises or hybrid spam filter appliances from other vendors
• Correct Microsoft 365 Exchange Online sync issues with AD Users and Active Directory Global Security Groups
• Troubleshoot Outlook autodiscover problems
• Resolve problems with MX and SPF records
• Define, implement, test, and rectify mail flow
• Resolve AD FS and AD Connect authentication problems
• Use PowerShell for management, repair, and email migration
• Work together with Microsoft support technicians to isolate and resolve issues at Microsoft's end (e.g., a corrupted Connector)
• Troubleshoot message encryption issues
• Update on-premises Exchange Servers to current versions of Exchange and upgrade equipment
• Train HR on steps to delete email accounts for terminated employees

Other Cloud Integration Services from Progent
The choices available for public cloud services are increasing continually, making it difficult for information system managers to determine the best cloud solution for their organization. Progent has worked extensively assisting companies ranging from startups to large enterprises to design, implement, and maintain hybrid environments that combine various cloud products and services from leading public clouds. Progent's cloud integration experts can help you to understand the comparative advantages and shortcomings of competing public cloud options and can help you build a cloud-based or hybrid ecosystem that delivers maximum business value.

Public cloud products and services supported by Progent include:

Progent's Azure cloud planning and integration consultants can help you with every stage of Microsoft Azure migration such as needs definition, readiness evaluation, solution design, pilot testing, implementation, centralized administration, performance tuning, license management, disaster recovery strategies, security planning, and compliance validation. Progent can assist your IT staff to configure and debug firewall appliances and VPN connections so that your users can safely connect to Azure resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can assist you set up critical Microsoft platforms to run in the cloud including Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL and SharePoint. Progent can also help your organization to set up a hybrid ecosystem that transparently combines physical datacenters with Azure resources.

Progent's certified Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 consultants can assist companies to incorporate Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Access, Visio and OneNote into a cohesive productivity solution that offers fast ROI and promotes improved business outcomes. Progent can assist you to integrate Office or Microsoft 365 apps with one another and with other core Microsoft platforms including SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running on-premises or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can also assist you to resolve compatibility problems between different versions of Office desktop and offers live online Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 instruction to individual users or teams.

Progent's Amazon AWS cloud planning and integration consultants offer affordable remote consulting to help businesses to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services such as Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for expandable high-performance storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Amazon AWS integration including requirements analysis, preparedness assessment, architectural design and review, testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, backup/restore solutions, and security strategies. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN connections and can show you how to create cloud-centric or hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly integrate Amazon AWS cloud services. Progent can provide occasional expertise or Progent can provide project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you move smoothly to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service is a collection of APIs that enables Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their business processes by automating crucial sales activities such as listings, orders, shipments, fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's vast online selling environment and automating their sales, merchants can broaden their reach, lower their cost of sales, accelerate response time to customers, and add to their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service developers can work with your development team and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and mentoring so you can shorten development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration consultants offer cost-effective online and onsite consulting to help businesses to migrate any part of their critical network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and hardware costs and allow access to Google's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technology. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, preparedness assessment, system design and review, testing, configuration, administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security and compliance.