Cloud Solutions

Progent offers fast and economical access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based products and services with on-premises resources and with additional popular clouds like Azure.

Progent's experts can help you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Amazon AWS services compared to competing cloud platforms, migrate applications to Amazon AWS, develop disaster recovery solutions that leverage Amazon AWS cloud storage technology, and troubleshoot firewall and VPN configuration problems. Progent can provide help from Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants to assist you create a high-availability network architecture so your clients have a consistent experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the road.

Amazon is an innovator in the cloud computing market and is the world's leading provider of public cloud services. Amazon AWS offers a wide selection of cloud-based services including Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for on-demand compute power for virtual servers, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for instantly expandable low-latency storage, and Amazon Glacier for economical long-term archival backup. These Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions enable organizations of any size to move some or all of their IT infrastructure to the Amazon cloud, taking advantage of a pay-for-use model to minimize capital costs while reducing management overhead and cutting the time needed to deploy new applications.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions
For the majority of businesses, using public cloud services is a given. The question is how to determine the appropriate balance between cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure. Many businesses run legacy line-of-business apps which are tricky to migrate to the cloud. Performance-driven transaction processing database applications may call for on-premises systems to provided the highest possible throughput. Also, corporate culture or government standards could require more control over key types of data than is possible with public cloud environments. Consequently, hybrid networks, which combine local and cloud infrastructure, are commonly selected as the best solution.

To make things even more complicated, Amazon AWS is in competition with other vendors of public cloud services including Microsoft, whose Azure products include Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) options as well as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model optimized for Windows environments. Basically, careful research and planning is required for any organization to determine the appropriate cloud solution.

Progent's seasoned solution designers can help you to define and deploy a hybrid cloud strategy that includes Amazon AWS in a way that maximizes business value. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, system design, testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security strategies. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN technology and can help you create all-cloud or hybrid cloud networking models that seamlessly incorporate Amazon AWS resources. Progent offers as-needed support or deliver end-to-end project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you migrate efficiently to the Amazon AWS platform.

Key Amazon AWS Cloud Services
The Amazon AWS line of cloud products includes dozens of infrastructure services that cover processing, storage, databases, Business Information (BI), mobility, software development, administration, Internet of Things, and cybersecurity, Amazon AWS cloud services used by organizations of any size and for which Progent provides advanced expertise include:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or Amazon EC2, is a virtual server hosting product that lets you configure, scale, and administer cloud-hosted virtual machines, known as EC2 instances. Subscribers can commission any quantity of EC2 instances and you are charged just for the capacity you use. You can manage the individual virtual server as well as cluster-level functions of a range of operating systems, add your cloud-hosted apps, and control network access rights. You also manage your company's own software licenses under Amazon's Bring-Your-Own-License policy. You can utilize an Amazon Machine Image template and deploy a virtual server immediately or you can build a custom AMI that includes your apps, software libraries, data, and setup information. Amazon EC2 can expand or release processing capacity immediately to accommodate variations in workloads, eliminating the need for complex capacity management. You also have the option of multiple host sites for improved resilience and you can use static IP endpoints to work with your application environment.

Amazon Simple Storage Service, called Amazon S3, is a cloud storage service that offers high-performance storage for any amount of data. Amazon S3 scales easily and you pay only for the storage you actually utilize. Amazon S3 is commonly deployed as remote storage for data protection but is also appropriate for high-demand applications, most prominently Amazon's giant commercial web. Amazon S3's interface supports multiple storage types meant for various use cases. These include Amazon S3 Standard for general-purpose storage of primary data, Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access for long-lived but seldomly used data, and Amazon Glacier for archival data. You can also define custom lifecycle parameters so your S3 data automatically and transparently moves to another storage class without requiring modifications to your apps. Amazon S3 cloud storage can be integrated with Amazon EC2 VM hosting or as an independent service.

Amazon Glacier is a cloud storage service intended to offer low-cost data archiving and long-term backup for data that is rarely accessed. Amazon Glacier does not offer the performance of Amazon S3 storage and is not suitable for online applications. Although restore time is slow and can take hours, storage costs are lower than one cent per GB per month, which is less expensive than on-premises storage. In addition, you can cut overall storage expense by specifying lifecycle rules to migrate groups of Amazon S3 objects automatically to Amazon Glacier. Amazon Glacier can also assist businesses to comply with regulatory standards for archival data by providing ultra-dependable offsite archiving with features that include periodic, automatic integrity audits and automatic self-healing functions.

How Progent's Experts Can Help You Integrate Amazon AWS Solutions
If you are planning to integrate Amazon's AWS cloud services into your information network using either a cloud-centric or a hybrid cloud/on-premises architecture, Progent can help you assess the business benefits of the Amazon AWS cloud platform vs. alternative cloud solutions. Progent can help with every facet of your cloud integration migration including needs analysis, solution design, validation testing, deployment, management, performance optimization, license management, and disaster recovery planning. Progent can also provide the help of certified cybersecurity experts to ensure. make sure your system is safe and compliant with applicable regulations.

Progent can help you to determine which of your critical applications are appropriate for Amazon AWS and show you how to you upgrade legacy applications so they can be migrated to the Amazon AWS cloud. Progent offers economical remote and onsite expertise to help you resolve stubborn technical issues, or Progent can provide end-to-end project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure that you complete your cloud integration initiative on schedule and within budget.

A typical issue encountered while integrating your information system with Amazon AWS, or with any other cloud platform, is setting up secure links for different devices located either inside or outside your corporate firewall. Progent can provide the expertise of Cisco-certified CCIE infrastructure engineers as well as firewall integration consultants certified by Symantec, Barracuda, WatchGuard, Check Point and others to help you set up and administer security appliances for connecting safely to the Amazon AWS cloud. Progent also offers the services of iOS technology consultants and Android configuration experts to help you to set up mobile endpoints for your Amazon AWS environment.

Examples of online integration services provided by Progent to assist businesses interface with the Amazon AWS cloud include:

• Plan or analyze the solution design for hybrid environments that use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service
• Install and debug VPN connections to AWS
• Install Cisco AnyConnect and Symantec AWS Gateway Service
• Configure and debug firewalls from Barracuda, Symantec, WatchGuard, Check Point and others
• Plan, deploy, and test backup and recovery solutions integrated with Amazon S3 storage
• Build and test AMI images for Windows or Linux virtual servers and apps
• Set up Java utilities for Amazon Machine Images
• Define, implement and verify security policies
• Resolve dynamic and static IP issues
• Resolve DNS and load balancing issues
• Set up NATs for headquarters and remote sites
• Create PHP code for signing AWS requests
• Build Active Directory instances for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
• Help with Amazon Simple Queue Service

Additional Cloud Integration Support Available from Progent
Progent offers support for all leading public cloud platforms and can provide fast online access to a public cloud integration specialist. Key cloud platforms and products supported by Progent include:

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is a library of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to streamline their business processes by automating crucial sales activities including listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By tapping into Amazon's extensive online ecosystem and automating their sales, merchants can broaden their reach, lower their cost of sales, improve reaction time to customers, and increase their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can collaborate with your development team and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can shorten development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Azure cloud integration consultants can help you with every stage of Microsoft Azure integration such as needs definition, readiness evaluation, system design, pre-production testing, implementation, automated management, performance optimization, software license controls, disaster recovery preparedness, security policy enforcement, and compliance validation. Progent can help you to set up and debug firewalls and VPN connections so that your clients can safely access to Azure services, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you integrate critical Microsoft technologies to run in Azure including Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and Skype for Business. Progent can also help your organization to set up a hybrid ecosystem that transparently combines on-premises datacenters with Azure services.

Microsoft supports seamless hybrid environments that combine Microsoft 365 and on-premises installations of Exchange. This allows you to have specific Exchange mailboxes hosted at your on-premises datacenter and other mailboxes resident on Microsoft 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help your organization with any facet of designing, integrating and debugging your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange network. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional support to help you through stubborn technical bottlenecks and also can provide extensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange initiative is completed on time and on budget. For details about Progent's online consulting expertise for hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-prem Exchange environments, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration solutions with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 consultants can help companies of any size to incorporate Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Access, Visio and Publisher into a cohesive solution that offers fast ROI and promotes improved business results. Progent can assist your company to integrate Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 apps with each other and with additional key Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL Server running locally or hosted in the cloud. Progent's consultants can also help you to fix compatibility problems with various versions of Office desktop and offers customized online Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 instruction to individual users or teams.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration experts can provide cost-effective online and onsite consulting to assist businesses of any size to move all or part of their critical IT infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save time and equipment expense and enable access to Google's cutting edge machine learning tools. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, system design and review, pilot testing, configuration, administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security and compliance.