Cloud Integration Services

Progent offers quick and economical access to cloud integration experts to assist your business to plan, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based products and services with local resources and with additional popular clouds like Azure.

Progent can help you evaluate the benefits and weaknesses of Amazon AWS services relative to competing vendors, move applications to Amazon AWS, design backup/restore solutions that utilize Amazon AWS cloud storage services, and resolve firewall and VPN connectivity problems. Progent offers help from Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you build a high-availability network infrastructure so your clients have a productive computing environment whether they are working at your corporate headquarters, a remote site, at home, or in transit.

Amazon is an innovator in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading vendor of public cloud computing services. Amazon AWS can provide a broad range of cloud services including Elastic Compute Cloud for as-needed compute capacity for virtual servers, Amazon Simple Storage Service for dynamically expandable low-latency cloud storage, and Amazon Glacier for low-cost long-term backup and archiving. These Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) products allow businesses of all sizes to move some or all of their network infrastructure to the cloud, taking advantage of a pay-for-use model to minimize hardware expenses while simplifying management overhead and cutting the time required to roll out new apps.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions
For the majority of businesses, utilizing public cloud products and services is a given. The only issue is how to determine the right trade-off between cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure. Many businesses have developed custom mission-critical apps which are difficult to adapt to the cloud. Performance-driven transaction processing applications may require local systems to provided the highest possible throughput. In addition, corporate culture or government and industry regulations could demand more direct control over key IT resources than can be achieved with public cloud environments. Consequently, hybrid networks, which integrate local and cloud-based resources, are frequently adopted as the right 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 (IaaS) options as well as a Platform-as-a-Service model optimized for Windows environments. Basically, serious research and planning is required for any organization to select the right cloud solution.

Progent's veteran system architects can help your company to plan and configure a hybrid cloud environment that incorporates Amazon AWS so that it maximizes business value. Progent can help you with every phase of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness assessment, system design, pilot testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, backup/restore mechanisms, and security strategies. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN access and can show you how to deploy cloud-centric or hybrid cloud ecosystems that seamlessly incorporate Amazon AWS services. Progent can provide occasional expertise or deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing to help you migrate smoothly to the Amazon AWS platform.

Key Amazon AWS Cloud Services
The Amazon AWS family of cloud services includes more than 70 infrastructure services that address processing, storage, databases, analytics, mobility, application development, administration, IoT, and security, Amazon AWS services popular with organizations of all sizes and for which Progent offers advanced expertise include:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or Amazon EC2, is a virtual machine hosting product that lets you configure, expand, and administer cloud-hosted virtual machines, known as EC2 instances. Subscribers can deploy any quantity of instances and you pay just for the capacity you use. You can control the individual server and cluster-level features of a variety of operating systems, deploy your cloud-hosted apps, and control access rights. You also administer your own software licenses according to Amazon's Bring-Your-Own-License policy. You can use a standard Amazon Machine Image template and deploy a virtual server immediately or you can build your own AMI that includes your applications, software libraries, data, and configurations. Amazon EC2 can scale compute capacity immediately to accommodate up or down spikes in workloads, avoiding the hassle of complex capacity planning. You can request separate geographic locations for improved resilience and you can use fixed IP addresses to accommodate your application requirements.

Amazon Simple Storage Service, called Amazon S3, is a cloud storage service that offers high-performance storage for any amount of data. Amazon S3 expands or contracts dynamically and you are billed only for the capacity you consume. Amazon S3 is commonly implemented as offsite storage for disaster recovery but is also well fitted for high-demand applications, most prominently Amazon's vast retail web. Amazon S3's interface supports multiple storage classes meant for various use scenarios. These include Amazon S3 Standard for general-purpose storage of primary data, Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access for long-lived but rarely used data, and Amazon Glacier for archives. You can also define your own lifecycle parameters so your S3 data automatically and transparently moves to a different storage class without forcing you to make modifications to your applications. Amazon S3 cloud storage can be integrated with Amazon EC2 or as an independent service.

Amazon Glacier is a cloud storage service intended to offer affordable data archiving and long-term storage for data that is seldomly retrieved. Glacier does not deliver the low-latency of Amazon S3 cloud storage and is not appropriate for real-time apps. But recovery time is slow and can take hours, storage costs are lower than a penny per GB each month, which is less expensive than local storage. Also, you can cut overall storage expense by defining lifecycle rules to migrate groups of Amazon S3 objects automatically to Glacier. Amazon Glacier can also help companies to meet regulatory requirements for archival data by offering highly-dependable offsite backup with features that include periodic, systematic integrity checks and self-healing functions.

How Progent's Experts Can Assist You Integrate Amazon AWS Services
If you intend to incorporate Amazon's AWS cloud services into your information network using either a cloud-centric or a hybrid architecture, Progent can help you assess the business benefits of the Amazon AWS cloud platform vs. alternative cloud products. Progent can provide expertise for every aspect of your cloud integration migration including needs analysis, system design, feasibility testing, deployment, management, performance optimization, license management, and disaster recovery planning. Progent also offers access to certified data security consultants to ensure. make sure your environment is protected and in compliance with applicable standards.

Progent can help your business to identify which of your critical applications are suitable for Amazon AWS and help you update legacy applications so they can be moved to the Amazon AWS cloud. Progent can provide affordable online and onsite consulting to help you deal with stubborn technical bottlenecks, or Progent can provide end-to-end project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to make sure you complete your cloud integration initiative on schedule and on budget.

A common technical issue confronted while integrating your information system with Amazon AWS, or with any other cloud platform, is setting up secure access for different end points situated either within or outside your corporate firewall. Progent can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE network consultant or firewall configuration experts certified by Symantec, Barracuda, WatchGuard, Check Point and others to show you how to deploy and administer firewalls for accessing Amazon AWS services. Progent can also provide the support of iOS technology specialists and Android configuration experts to help you to connect mobile endpoints for your Amazon AWS environment.

Examples of remote integration support available from Progent to assist businesses integrate with Amazon AWS include:

• Propose or analyze the solution architecture for hybrid networks that incorporate Amazon EC2 and Simple Storage Service
• Install and debug VPN connections to AWS
• Deploy Cisco AnyConnect and Symantec AWS Gateway Service
• Deploy and troubleshoot firewalls from Barracuda, Cisco, SonicWall, Check Point and others
• Plan, deploy, and test backup and recovery solutions integrated with Amazon S3 storage
• Create and verify AMI images for Windows or Linux virtual servers and applications
• Set up Java utilities for AMI images
• Define, configure and test security policies
• Resolve dynamic and static IP address problems
• Troubleshoot DNS and load balancing problems
• Configure NATs for headquarters and branch offices
• Create PHP routines for signing Amazon AWS requests
• Create Active Directory instances for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
• Provide expertise for Amazon SQS service

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

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is a library of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their operations by automating crucial sales activities such as listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By tapping into Amazon's extensive online ecosystem and automating their sales processes, merchants can expand their market, lower their cost of sales, improve reaction time to customers, and increase their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can collaborate with your development staff and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can cut development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Azure cloud planning and integration consultants can assist you with any stage of Microsoft Azure integration such as needs analysis, prerequisites assessment, system architecture, pre-production testing, deployment, automated administration, performance tuning, license management, disaster recovery preparedness, security planning, and compliance assessment. Progent can help you to configure and troubleshoot firewalls and VPN connections so your clients can safely connect to Azure-based services, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help you set up critical Microsoft technologies to work in Azure including Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and Skype for Business. Progent can also help your organization to set up a hybrid ecosystem that transparently integrates physical datacenters with Azure resources.

Microsoft has made a strong effort to enable seamless hybrid networks that combine Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and local Exchange. This permits you to have some Exchange mailboxes located on your corporate datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes resident on Microsoft 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting team can assist your organization with any phase of designing, implementing and troubleshooting your hybrid Exchange solution. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional expertise to help you resolve stubborn technical problems and also can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Exchange solution is successfully completed on schedule and within budget. For more information about Progent's consulting services for hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-premises Exchange systems, see Exchange Online integration solutions with on-prem Exchange.

Progent's Office and Microsoft 365 experts can assist companies to integrate Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including Office Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Project and Publisher into a cohesive productivity solution that offers quick return on investment and enables better business results. Progent can assist you to integrate Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 applications with one another and with other key Microsoft platforms such as SharePoint, Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running on-premises or hosted in the cloud. Progent can also help you to resolve compatibility issues with various releases of Office and can provide customized online Office and Microsoft 365 training to individuals and teams.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration experts offer affordable online and on-premises support to assist businesses of any size to migrate any portion of their critical network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save time and hardware expense and enable access to Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning technology. Progent can assist you with every aspect of Google Cloud Platform integration including requirements analysis, preparedness evaluation, architectural design, testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security and compliance.