Expanding your at-home workforce can have a significant impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Bakersfield organization to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for helping you past challenging technical bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Bakersfield, California businesses to succeed with any facet of building a high-functioning remote work environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk services, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Integrating the network infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be especially challenging if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering remote support for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for implement essential updates. Services offered by Progent to help you to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a safe connection for authenticated at-home workers to access IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist your company to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide range of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier online support for configuring home routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting families and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by delivering services that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration help.
  • Internet access methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Business-critical applications may require redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for picking Internet service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for At-Home Workers
Expanding the business PBX environment to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to help organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed throughout the network. CUCM manages other mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, refer to CUCM expertise.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from major vendors support virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your remote workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to tune your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help businesses to deploy these critical collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your at-home workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium Integration Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Server Configuration Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based delivery of content, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that enables remote workers to view and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, see SharePoint integration and application development consulting.

Exchange Integration Experts for Remote WorkersExchange 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, go to planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Exchange Server.

Onedrive Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can retrieve them safely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-author documents. Edits created offline are uploaded when you go back online. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide advanced remote support for helping businesses to build, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes over one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create secure access to Azure services for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services available by subscription. Microsoft applications and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters to achieve maximum business value. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for TeleworkersExchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to get you through tough technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's support services for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your organization to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to build a high-availability network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Integration Services for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud (GCP) is a popular suite of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to scale your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your business to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage, and streamline identity control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to use GCP's management technology to administer and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For details, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A fast, company-wide transition to a telecommuter business model, which could be driven by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Call Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of online IT support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or update their current tickets, add information, and append screenshots or relevant files. Support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex problems. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
  • Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to augment your existing Help Desk organization by sharing delivery of Call Desk support services transparently between your in-house IT support personnel and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collective support solution based on the number one PSA tool for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver world-class IT support to your from-home workers, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home staff members typically use their own computers and often operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive user education, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity support consultants can help you to plan, implement and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects critical IT resources in networks that include remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly complex. Progent works with both current and older security appliances from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring for TelecommutersRemote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers utilized by teleworkers and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify new attacks before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the impacted device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of outside and internal security threats for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis software for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security experts with advanced certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your operations and governance policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your remote workers.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's threat analysis services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper describing critical areas to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that supports telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical data so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for an at-home workforce must address multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online help from experts familiar with a broad range of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision scenarios that require a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can assist your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for protecting critical information by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and software. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share information, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate information from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To learn about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune remote device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management product that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product through a one-time purchase. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing an efficient work-from-home environment for your Bakersfield, California business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.