Enlarging your remote workforce can have a major impact on IT infrastructure, security, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Bristol company to select the right tools and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top value. Progent can provide services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you over occasional technical roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.
Progent can help Bristol, United Kingdom businesses to with any aspect of building a high-functioning work-at-home environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.
Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be especially complex if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment such as PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from different manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated and current technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Services offered by Progent to assist you to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:
IP Voice Integration for Remote Workers
Expanding the company PBX environment to include telecommuters is vital to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to plan or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the versatility, transparency and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide advanced support to help businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding at-home workforce.
Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies support online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.
Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can assist businesses to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your remote workforce.
SharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-based access to data, business processes, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that enables at-home workforce to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to SharePoint configuration and development consulting.
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 information about Progent's Exchange expertise, see planning and configuration consulting for Exchange Server.
OneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them securely through a browser. Included with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to jointly author documents. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration consulting.
Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.
Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure features more than one hundred services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish protected access to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Azure consulting.
Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Microsoft applications and services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from students and households to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting support.
Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local Exchange environments, enabling customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for occasional assistance to get you past challenging IT roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.
Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-availability network model so your employees have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration services.
Google Cloud is a popular set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your business to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline identity management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist you to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.
Help Desk Services for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which could be driven by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations of any size to outsource or supplement their Call Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center services.
Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home staff members typically utilize their personal computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical area. This multiplies their vulnerability to malware threats and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to plan, configure and maintain an effective security solution that guards critical information assets in networks that include an at-home workforce.
Firewalls allow companies to build a network that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and the public. Modern firewall devices allow you to assign and control different access rights to various classes of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy security devices from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration services, refer to firewall support services.
Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices used by at-home workers and either block or spot and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify new attacks before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the infected endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.
Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate multiple verification devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.
Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of external and internal security attacks for an environment that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by security experts with top credentials including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your procedures and policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your an at-home workforce.
Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical areas to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)
Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital data so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage system problems due to hardware breakdowns, software glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.
Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for safeguarding critical information by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.
Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing information and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat protection, ensure compliance, and erase sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For information about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the devices of your at-home workers, go to Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.
VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.
Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing an efficient work-from-home environment for your Bristol, United Kingdom business, phone