Expanding your at-home workforce may have a major impact on network architecture, security, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting SMBs to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Austin organization to pick the right technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top business value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand guidance for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.
Progent's consultants can assist Austin, Texas organizations to succeed with any facet of building a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Help Desk outsourcing, data security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.
Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially complex if you must manage a mix of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering online support for both legacy as well as modern technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:
IP Voice Integration for Telecommuters
Extending the corporate phone system to include telecommuters is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or legacy products for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing at-home workforce.
Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.
Microsoft Collaboration Software for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing information across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can help your company to configure these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your remote workforce.
SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based access to content, business processes, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that allows at-home workforce to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint configuration and development expertise.
Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.
OneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author files. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.
Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote assistance for enabling organizations to build, maintain and optimize cohesive network architectures that incorporate physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus public cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.
Azure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create secure access to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.
Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are provided in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from students and households to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to evaluate the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.
Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional help to guide you past challenging technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your at-home workers have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.
Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and economical online access to cloud integration experts who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting expertise.
Google Cloud Platform is a leading set of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to expand your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your critical apps cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify identity management for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist you to use GCP's management technology to administer and monitor your Google Cloud environment. For information, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.
Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A sudden, company-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be driven by an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or augment their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center services.
Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly use their own devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security support consultants can assist you to design, configure and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT assets in networks that incorporate an at-home workforce.
Firewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be safely utilized by local users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and control different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older firewall devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration expertise, go to firewall configuration and support expertise.
Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices used by an at-home workforce and either block or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is put on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new threats on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.
Progent's Duo authentication managed services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized for this second form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.
Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for an environment that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by security experts with advanced certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your operations and policies and review your network architecture to allow you to design top-level security for your telecommuters.
Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper describing key areas to concentrate on for securing a network that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)
Data Protection for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring vital information so as to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, malware, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.
Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a centralized environment for safeguarding critical data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.
Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and wipe corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For information about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, see Intune remote endpoint management experts.
VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.
Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Austin, Texas business, phone