Cloud Integration Services

Progent offers quick and economical support from cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based products and services with local datacenters and with additional public clouds such as Microsoft Azure.

Progent can help you assess the advantages and drawbacks of Amazon AWS services compared to competing providers, move apps and infrastructure to Amazon AWS, design backup/restore strategies that utilize Amazon AWS cloud storage technology, and troubleshoot firewall and VPN configuration issues. Progent can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you build a high-availability network infrastructure so your clients have a consistent experience regardless of whether they are working at your main office, a branch office, at home, or in transit.

Amazon is a trail blazer in the public cloud arena and is the world's leading vendor of public cloud services. Amazon Web Services offers a broad selection of cloud services such as Elastic Compute Cloud for on-demand compute capacity for VMs, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for instantly expandable high-performance storage, and Amazon Glacier for low-cost long-term backup. These Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions allow organizations of all sizes to transfer some or all of their IT infrastructure to the cloud, taking advantage of a pay-for-use model to rein in capital investments while reducing management overhead and cutting the time required to roll out new apps.

Hybrid Cloud Integration
For most organizations, using public cloud products and services is assumed. The only question is how to achieve the appropriate balance between cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure. Many companies have developed custom line-of-business apps which are tricky to adapt to a cloud environment. Performance-sensitive transaction processing database applications may require local systems to provided the highest possible throughput. In addition, corporate policies or government regulations may demand more direct control over key IT resources than is possible with public clouds. Consequently, hybrid architectures, which integrate on-premises and cloud resources, are frequently selected as the best network model.

To complicate things further, Amazon AWS competes with other providers of public cloud services including Microsoft, whose Azure offerings include Infrastructure-as-a-Service options as well as a Platform-as-a-Service model specially tuned for Windows-based applications. Simply put, serious research and planning is needed for any organization to select the best cloud solution.

Progent's seasoned solution architects can assist your company to plan and deploy a hybrid cloud strategy that incorporates Amazon AWS so that it maximizes business value. Progent can assist your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, preparedness assessment, system design and review, testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, software license management, backup/restore mechanisms, and security and compliance. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN access and can show you how to deploy cloud-based or hybrid cloud environments that efficiently integrate Amazon AWS cloud services. Progent offers as-needed expertise or provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to help you move smoothly to the Amazon AWS platform.

Popular Amazon AWS Services
The Amazon AWS line of cloud services offers dozens of infrastructure services that cover computing, primary and archival storage, databases, networking, mobility, enterprise applications, management, Internet of Things, and security, Amazon AWS cloud services used by organizations of any size and for which Progent offers advanced expertise include:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or Amazon EC2, is a virtual server hosting service that lets you provision, scale, and manage cloud-based virtual machines, known as EC2 instances. Subscribers can commission any quantity of EC2 instances and you are charged just for the resources you actually use. You can control the individual VM as well as cluster-level features of a variety of OS platforms, deploy your cloud-hosted applications, and manage network access permissions. You also manage your own software licenses based on a Bring-Your-Own-License policy. You can utilize a standard Amazon Machine Image template and deploy a virtual server instantly or you can build your own AMI that incorporates your apps, libraries, data, and configurations. Amazon EC2 can expand or release compute resources on demand to accommodate up or down spikes in workloads, avoiding the hassle of complex capacity management. You can specify separate geographic locations for high availability and you can use static IP addresses to work with your application environment.

Amazon Simple Storage Service, or Amazon S3, is a cloud-based storage product that provides high-performance storage for any amount of data. Amazon S3 scales dynamically and you are billed only for the capacity you consume. Amazon S3 is often deployed as offsite storage for data protection but is also well fitted for high-demand applications, most notably Amazon's vast retail web. Amazon S3's web service interface supports multiple storage classes meant for different use cases. Examples include Amazon S3 Standard for storage of frequently accessed data, Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access for long-lived but infrequently accessed data, and Amazon Glacier for long-term archives. You can also specify custom lifecycle parameters so your Amazon S3 data automatically and seamlessly migrates to a different storage category without forcing you to make changes to your applications. Amazon S3 cloud storage can be integrated with Amazon EC2 VM hosting or as a standalone service.

Amazon Glacier is a cloud-based storage service intended to provide low-cost data archiving and long-term backup for data that is seldomly retrieved. Amazon Glacier does not offer the low-latency of Amazon S3 storage and is not suitable for real-time apps. But restore time is slow and can take hours, storage costs are less than a penny per GB per month, which is less expensive than on-premises storage. In addition, you can reduce overall storage costs by specifying lifecycle rules to migrate groups of Amazon S3 objects automatically to Glacier. Amazon Glacier can also assist companies to meet regulatory requirements for archival data by providing ultra-dependable offsite backup with features like regular, automatic data integrity checks and self-healing capability.

How Progent's Experts Can Help You with Amazon AWS Solutions
If you are planning to incorporate Amazon’s AWS cloud services into your business using either a fully cloud-based or a hybrid model, Progent can help you evaluate the advantages of Amazon AWS compared to alternative public cloud solutions. Progent can provide expertise for every facet of your cloud integration project including preparedness assessment, system design, feasibility testing, deployment, management, performance tuning, software license management, and disaster recovery planning. Progent can also provide access to certified data security consultants to ensure. make sure your system is safe and in compliance with applicable standards.

Progent can assist your business to determine which of your critical applications are suitable for Amazon AWS and help you update legacy software so they can be migrated to Amazon AWS. Progent offers economical online and onsite consulting to help you resolve occasional technical issues, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure that you execute your cloud migration project on schedule and on budget.

A typical technical issue encountered while integrating your information system with Amazon AWS, or with any other cloud platform, is configuring secure access for different devices situated either within or outside your corporate firewall. Progent offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE infrastructure consultant as well as firewall integration consultants certified by Symantec, Barracuda, WatchGuard, Check Point and others to help you deploy and administer firewalls for connecting safely to the Amazon AWS cloud. Progent can also provide the support of iPhone and iPad technology specialists and Android integration consultants to help you to set up smartphones and tablets for your Amazon AWS solution.

Examples of online integration support offered by Progent to help companies integrate with the Amazon AWS cloud include:

• Propose or analyze the system design for hybrid networks that use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service
• Install and troubleshoot VPN access to Amazon AWS
• Configure Cisco AnyConnect and Symantec AWS Gateway Service
• Integrate and debug firewalls from Barracuda, Cisco, SonicWall, Check Point and others
• Plan, deploy, and validate backup/restore systems based on Amazon S3 storage
• Create and test AMI images for Windows or Linux virtual servers and apps
• Set up Java utilities for Amazon Machine Images
• Specify, implement and test security policies
• Debug elastic and static IP problems
• Resolve DNS and load balancing problems
• Set up NATs for headquarters and remote offices
• Generate PHP code for signing AWS requests
• Build Active Directory instances for Amazon EC2
• Provide expertise for Amazon Simple Queue Service

Other Cloud Integration Services Offered by Progent
Progent offers expertise in all major public clouds and can provide quick remote access to a hybrid cloud integration consultant. Key public cloud platforms and products supported by Progent include:

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is an integrated library of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to streamline their business processes by automating crucial sales activities such as listings, orders, payments, fulfillment, and finances. By tapping into Amazon's extensive online selling environment and automating their sales, vendors can broaden their market, reduce their cost of sales, accelerate reaction time to customers, and add to their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service developers can collaborate with your development team and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and mentoring so you can cut development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Azure integration experts can assist you with any stage of Microsoft Azure integration such as needs analysis, prerequisites evaluation, system design, pre-production testing, deployment, automated management, performance tuning, software license controls, disaster recovery strategies, security planning, and regulatory compliance assessment. Progent can assist you to set up and troubleshoot firewalls and VPN tunnels so that your users can securely access to Azure resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you integrate key Microsoft technologies to work in the cloud including Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL and Skype for Business. Progent can also assist your organization to create a hybrid environment that transparently integrates on-premises datacenters with Azure resources.

Microsoft supports seamless hybrid ecosystems that integrate Office 365 and local Exchange deployments. This allows you to have some Exchange mailboxes located at your on-premises datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes hosted by Office 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified Exchange consulting team can assist your organization with any phase of planning, implementing and debugging your hybrid Office 365/Exchange network. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed support to help you resolve stubborn technical problems and also offer extensive project management outsourcing to ensure your hybrid Office 365 initiative is completed on schedule and within budget. To find out more about Progent's consulting expertise for integrating Office 365 and on-premises Exchange systems, refer to Exchange Online integration with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Office and Office 365 experts can assist companies of any size to incorporate Microsoft Office desktop and Microsoft Office 365 apps including Office Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Access, Project and Publisher into a cohesive productivity solution that offers quick return on investment and promotes improved business outcomes. Progent can assist your company to integrate Office or Office 365 apps with each other and with additional key Microsoft technologies including SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running on-premises or in the cloud. Progent can also assist you to resolve compatibility problems between different versions of Microsoft Office desktop and can provide customized online Microsoft Office and Office 365 training to individuals and teams.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration consultants can provide affordable remote and on-premises support to assist companies of any size to move any part of their critical IT resources to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save time and hardware expense and allow the use of Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning tools. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, preparedness assessment, architectural design and review, testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance optimization, software license management, backup/restore solutions, and security and compliance.