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Business Benefits of Progent's Hosting and Management Services for Microsoft Exchange
By utilizing an outsourced hosting service for Microsoft Exchange, small companies can gain an array of advantages. The most obvious benefit is saving money. Gartner Group has calculated that colocation can eliminate from 20-35% of the cost of building and operating an in-house data center. Benefits like reducing executive distraction and enhancing network reliability and security are harder to quantify, but these are clearly major advantages. Examples of the specific advantages of utilizing a hosting provider for Microsoft Exchange include:

• Lower Capital Requirements
  By utilizing a hosting service for critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange, small companies on a restricted budget can avoid the substantial expense of planning and building a data center with adequate physical security, environmental control, uninterruptible power, fire protection, and fault-tolerant Internet access. Hosting services also save the expense of software licenses and of non-stop computer equipment like clustered servers and fault-tolerant disk arrays. Increasing IT system capability when your company grows is also inexpensive and easy.

• Savings on Operational Expenses
  Progent's Hosting and Management Services for Exchange cut operational costs by leveraging the services of Progent's network support engineers and Help Desk Call Center team. Small and midsize businesses receive the advantages of having a big network support staff without needing to pay for one. Small and midsize businesses also avoid the cost of the computer facility's round-the-clock internal security staff and 24-hour operations team.

• Better Executive Management Focus
  By using Progent's Hosting and Management Services for Microsoft Exchange a small or midsize organization's executive management team is spared the distraction and stress of making sure the crucial email system stays continually operational, protected,up to date, safely archived, and effectively administered. Actual or imagined user problems can be resolved by Progent's Helpdesk, and administrative tasks like adds, deletions, and security authorization modifications can be taken care of by Progent's Microsoft-certified professionals. All of these support services free managers to focus on fundamental business issues where they know how provide the greatest help to the enterprise.

• Enterprise-class Security
  The onsite security provided by Progent's enterprise-class hosting facility is far beyond the quality that typical small companies could reasonably expect to attain within an internal facility. In conjunction with a 24x7 staff of onsite security officers, Progent's hosting facility offers state-of-the-art intrusion monitoring and prevention systems as well as reinforced barriers to prevent unauthorized access. Progent also provides software protection that includes an advanced firewall, round-the-clock server monitoring, spam filtering, fast and thorough security patch installation, and an experienced online group of system recovery experts.

• Greater Availability and Dependability
  Progent's facility for hosting Exchange features UPS electrical power, redundant cooling, and failover Internet access to achieve a high level of fault tolerance. The data center is also situated in a seismically neutral area for protection against earthquakes. Progent's virtual server architecture for supporting Microsoft Exchange offers even greater fault-tolerance through mechanisms such as server clustering and non-stop disk arrays.

• Regulatory Adherence
  If your business needs to or wishes to comply with regulatory standards such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, or SAS 70, using Progent's Hosting Services for Microsoft Exchange helps you to meet even the toughest security requirements.

• Business Recovery
  The fault-tolerant and secure infrastructure of Progent's data center lowers the likelihood that an event will disrupt your Exchange system. In case of a disastrous breakdown, Progent's consistent data back up routines and virtual architecture allow fast system restoration to ensure that you can quickly resume operations.

World-class Data Center
No small company can justify the cost of planning, building, and maintaining an enterprise-class data center. Progent enables small businesses to leverage their IT investment by offering Exchange Hosting and Management Services based in a hosting facility trusted by some of the world's largest businesses for hosting crucial applications. Key features of the facility Progent uses for hosting Exchange include:

• 24x7 Onsite Security Plus Sophisticated Security Systems
  Progent's hosting facility provides tight security for managing and tracking personal access to the facility. Onsite security officers are present on a 24-hour basis and a sophisticated security infrastructure incorporates cameras, motion detectors, badge readers, and biometric access control systems. The perimeter of the facility is protected with armored glass and internal areas are protected by steel mesh protective screens.

• Round-the-Clock Staffed Operations Center
  Progent's hosting facility for Exchange includes a 24x7 staffed operations center with certified engineers and technicians who monitor and manage the operations and security of the facility and solve problems.

• Fault-tolerant High-speed Internet Access
  Progent's facility for Exchange hosting offers redundant Internet access via an advanced failover architecture that incorporates double, spatially separated fiber vaults connected to a variety of network carriers. Each cabinet is supported by a different TELCO office. Two fault-tolerant SONET rings provide totally diverse fiber routing to host equipment. Internet access is supported by multiple tier 1 ISPs.

• In-depth Electrical Power Backup Systems
  The data center used by Progent for Exchange hosting has a dedicated municipal utility district substation on the property. The substation is fed by multiple regional substations. The data center has four diesel generators, each with backup failover components. The generators have switch units for fast delivery of backup power and have the fuel to run the entire data center for a week. The data center also has uninterruptible power supply systems, power distribution units, and gel cells capable of handling the entire facility while the diesel generators come on line.

• Fail-safe Computer Room Air Conditioning
  Progent's data center for application hosting features backed up server room air conditioning units set up in a closed loop system with water-cooled chiller components that are rotated monthly.

• Fire Control
  Progent's facility for application hosting includes a Very Early Smoke Detection System tracked by the round-the-clock operations center staff and by an external third-part service. The fire control mechanism includes a dual interlock dry pipe system that is divided into 10' x 10' grid areas to minimize damage to servers adjacent to any actual fire.

• Seismically Neutral Site
  The facility that supports Progent's Microsoft Exchange hosting equipment is situated in a seismically stable region with no known faults and no recorded earthquakes. The data center building is also fitted with a steel-beam superstructure engineered to withstand a substantial earthquake.

Progent's Configuration and Support Services for Exchange Hosting
Progent's hosting services for Exchange include full incorporation of Microsoft Exchange with your existing IT network and also feature an array of continuing support services that will keep your messaging solution performing optimally with enterprise-class security, fault tolerance, management control, and client service. All software products are purchased by Progent and are the property of Progent, and all maintenance of servers and other equipment is performed at no charge to clients. Progent's high-speed and non-stop Internet connections deliver 3 MBPS performance.

Integration and support services provided as part of Progent's Microsoft Exchange hosting include:

• Transparent Integration with Your Network
  Progent's hosting service for Exchange is transparent to your workers, clients, and partners. Your current email domain name is preserved in addition to your internal email addresses, contacts, file organization, and group configurations. Your email will also be available anywhere and any time via Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Microsoft Exchange mobile service. Progent will also configure Exchange to support synchronization with Window Mobile-based handheld appliances including PDAs and Smartphones.

• Spam and Virus Blocking
  Progent's hosting for Microsoft Exchange includes E-Mail Guard spam filtering. E-Mail Guard is based on Postini’s Perimeter Manager, a pass-through managed service that routes all your email to secure data centers — ones also used by world class companies like Google, eBay, and Yahoo — where messages and file attachments are filtered by means of advanced rules technology. E-Mail Guard supports the security management of enterprise email by providing constantly updated spam and malware screening, content filtering, and safety from mail-based directory harvesting and DoS attacks. E-Mail Guard also features traffic monitoring, management reporting, and content management utilities as well as transmission screening to help you to troubleshoot your email system and set and police corporate messaging policy.

• Continual Network Monitoring
  Progent's hosting service for Microsoft Exchange includes continual monitoring of the efficiency and security of Exchange Server by means of Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager, a sophisticated network management solution that automatically uncovers network problems and trends. Microsoft Operations Manager works by automatically scanning event records, then filtering, organizing, and evaluating these system events based on an extensive built-in database. When Operations Manager detects problems or a potentially harmful trend, the software can run special repair processes or generate alarms to notify Progent's messaging maintenance personnel.

• Update Management
  Included with the services offered with Progent's Exchange hosting, Progent's Exchange administrators ensure that software patches, security revisions, and service packs are implemented promptly and non-disruptively. Progent will also ensure that additional software supportive of Exchange Server stays current. In the event that the Microsoft Exchange Server host system must be temporarily shut down for ordinary maintenance, Progent uses a support window from 10:00 Friday evening to 6:00 am Saturday morning Pacific Time. Progent alerts clients before any scheduled downtime so as to minimize business impact.

• Regular Data Backup and Fast Disaster Recovery
  Progent's backup practices for hosted Microsoft Exchange systems feature one month of daily backups, complete server backups once a week, differential backups each, and complete backups with off-premises replication monthly. Progent's virtualized architecture allows fast data restoration in the event of a catastrophic failure, and in case a severe hardware failure Progent will move the hosted Exchange Server system to a different host system within four business hours.

• Help Desk Call Center Support
  Progent's Help Desk services are provided to maintain Progent's hosted Microsoft Exchange environment. Progent's (Technical Response Center provides all Contact Center services and is accessible by phone, email, or Progent's web site. Staffed by Microsoft-certified professionals who are expert at providing Exchange help, Progent's TRC group can quickly resolve almost any problem associated with Microsoft Exchange and can also offer high-level help for a broad array of IT areas including network architecture, business software, mixed-platform interoperability, and system security. Progent's Help Desk Call Center can also escalate the most complicated issues to Progent's top-level engineering group which offers Cisco CCIE network experts, CISSP and CISM accredited security engineers, Linux OS experts, and Apple Mac consultants.

• Email Administration Support
  Progent's TRC handles all email administration services including adding or removing mail boxes, changing security privileges, or resolving capacity problems. As with any service provided by Progent based on Progent's Contact Center model, Progent's Technical Response Center offers the broad and deep technical knowledge and dependable service of an enterprise-class service organization, as well as the visible trouble-ticket tracking and follow-up of an efficiently run Help Desk.

Progent's Virtual Server Hosting and Management Services
Progent's Virtual Server Hosting and Management service offers full-service hosting for all of a small company's servers in an environment that delivers the top degree of dependability, security, and expandability and is also economical and easy to move to a different environment. Progent's Data Center Hosting services are based on proven virtualization architecture that permits small companies with mixed environments to save significantly on the costs of capital equipment, network support, and system management while benefiting from world-class reliability and an unprecedented level of host independence.

Unlike common Software as a Service (SaaS) hosting models, Progent's Virtual Server Hosting supports all network and application servers in a single centrally managed solution and can handle mixed platform and non-standardized environments that are typical of small companies but are troublesome for conventional hosting providers. Progent's Virtual Server Hosting services keep ownership of the software platforms in the client's hands so that moving to a different virtualized host is quick, safe, and inexpensive. This prevents becoming captive to your initial hosting provider while still offering all the cost benefits inherent with Application Service Provider and SaaS hosting service models.

Find out additional information about Progent's Virtual Data Center Hosting Services.

Contact Progent for Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange 2007 Solutions
If you need help with Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange 2007 or want to learn more about Progent's hosting services for Microsoft Exchange, call 800-993-9400 or contact exchange-help@progent.com