Technology News and Progent IT Solutions

Cisco announced innovative products intended specifically for small business IT networks and engineered to deliver high levels of security and connectivity for an affordable price. Products introduced by Cisco were Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the newest version of the Smart Business Communications System.

The Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker is a purpose-built spam, virus, and phishing filter security product that essentially eradicates email threats as shipped. Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable small-footprint NAS devices that offer security for valuable data and allow workers to exchange information easily. Cisco's Smart Business Communications System Version 1.4, a complete collaboration and communications solution that seamlessly connects offices, workers, and clients however dispersed. The latest release incorporates the debut of a wireless small-footprint IP handset with Bluetooth wireless support. To read Cisco's news release, visit Cisco Announces Security and Collaboration Products for Small Companies.

Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker Appliance
The Spam and Virus Blocker protects small businesses by offering powerful protection against junk mail, viruses and worms as well as other email-borne threats to guard your system and business data while at the same time improve productivity. Since the product stops spam right out of the box and stays current on its own, it avoids the cost and time associated initial configuration and continuing and management. By eliminating unwanted email, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker helps the performance of network connections, application servers, and workstations. The Spam Blocker is an end-to-end solution email attacks by featuring a physical appliance, intelligent software, ongoing updates, and technical assistance in a unified package.

Notable benefits of Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance include:

• Precision: Helps to ensure that email-borne attacks and junk mail are caught while legitimate messages are accepted.
• Continuous automatic patches: Constant interaction with SenderBase security, an online library of email security risks, makes sure that your Cisco Spam Blocker incorporates the most current updates to safequard your business email.
• Simple installation and use: Easy-to-use browser-based installation wizards permit you to configure Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance in almost any environment in 15 minutes, providing instant protection for your business.
• Streamlined administration: From the moment your company deploys the Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, you benefit from junk mail and malware filtering with minimal additional hassle required from your network support staff.

Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000
The NSS2000 and 3000 offer the robust security and advanced data backup features that your business requires, at a price small businesses can afford. The Cisco NSS3000 accommodates up to four terabytes of data and up to 15 concurrent users on each chassis, offering the optimal answer for holding, accessing, and backing up your mission-critical business data. Unlike less advanced network-attached storage (NAS) alternatives, the Small Business NSS3000 delivers the state-of-the-art backup, cryptography, user validation, and high availability your organization needs.

The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage Chassis handles any certified hard disk drive. The enclosure provides a wealth of capabilities in a desktop footprint engineered for small organizations. The Small Business NSS3000 Storage Chassis also provides your business the versatility to configure the product without any connected hard drives, to reconfigure the product at any time, and to link multiple Cisco NAS chassis with one another, providing a platform that can continually grow with your business.

Your company can utilize the Cisco NSS2000 or 3000 Network Storage Systems to:

• Intelligently back up vital data from every workstation and server on your network
• Offer unified preservation and distribution of key information
• Employ Continuous Data Protection to back up unattended every revision of every file saved by workers, allowing your business to restore files quickly
• Record and save video from your video surveillance system

Cisco Smart Business Communications System
The Cisco SBCS Version 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and complete sharing and communications system that enables small businesses to interconnect at-home workers, mobile workers and office workers in separate locations to improve their options to collaborate with clients and colleagues. In the latest release, the affordable system offers enhanced wireless capabilities including the industry's first wireless desktop IP handset with Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G IP device, which enables businesses to grow easily by deploying phones in places where conventional telephone lines or network wiring is not present or cannot easily be added.

Additional new pieces of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System 1.4 version include:

• The Cisco Model 520 Secure Router to help guard a small business network and provide employees safe access to the Internet and important corporate data remotely or locally
• Cisco's Configuration Assistant Version 1.9 to enable stakeholders to simplify the configuration and installation of solutions designed specifically for certain businesses

How Progent's Consulting Experts Can Help Your Company to Take Advantage of Cisco Technology
Progent's Cisco-qualified support professionals and CCIE network engineers can help your company to assess new Cisco technologies to determine their value for your environment, deploy Cisco security and communication platforms to enhance the security and performance of your network, and provide tech support for Cisco devices both in person and remotely to keep your network operating smoothly. Progent's consultants offer a range of low-cost support services to enhance the dependability, protection, performance, and manageability of a small business IT network:

Immediate Access to Cisco CCIE Certified Network Engineers
Progent offers convenient, immediate, and cost-effective access to CCIE support professionals. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are elite network gurus who are awarded this top-level certification only after intense examination by Cisco. CCIEs can handle the most complex issues encountered with IT network planning, implementation, troubleshooting, and management. Progent’s CCIE experts cooperate closely with Cisco engineers in analyzing problems with Cisco's IOS software and finding workarounds or obtaining software updates to correct problems. Progent gives you immediate contact with a CCIE by phone so that you are able to receive instant assistance for tough network troubles that are affecting business productivity but are outside the expertise of your ordinary network service resources. Progent's CCIE support professionals can link to your environment via state-of-the-art off-site support tools to provide timely and cost-effective diagnosis and repair of urgent infrastructure difficulties.

Cisco Voice over IP Phone and IP Video Phone Solutions
Progent's Cisco-certified IP phone and video IP phone consultants can help you to integrate, maintain, and troubleshoot Cisco IP phones, desktop video IP phones and wireless IP handsets. Progent can provide expertise for all models of Cisco's IP phones from discontinued VoIP products to the newest media phones. Progent's IP telephony experts can also help your organization to integrate your IP phones with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, previously branded CallManager, or with Cisco Unified CM Express (CME) to create a state-of-the-art IP-PBX environment for unified messaging and company-wide collaboration. Progent can deliver support with any facet of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including designing dial plans, resolving QoS, setting up SIP trunking, deploying ISR routers with CUBE VoIP networking capability, and designing UCS server clustering and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) systems for survivability. For additional details about Progent's technical support for Cisco's IP voice and video technology, read Cisco Voice over IP and Unified Communications Consulting Help.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Collaboration
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), previously branded CallManager, is the foundation of Cisco's communications and collaboration solution. Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express offer an advanced IP-PBX by integrating with unified messaging apps such as Cisco Unified CM IM and Presence Service, Cisco Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail, Mobile Connect for Single Number Reach (SNR), and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE) for building a highly automated customer contact center. Progent's CCIE-certified CUCM experts can help with any aspect of Unified Communications Manager configuration and troubleshooting in areas that include integrating VoIP phones and video IP phones, designing dial plans, configuring SIP trunking and PSTN calling, deploying ISR G2 routers with CUBE support, creating UCS server failover solutions for high availability, and integration with Exchange Server.

Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Consulting
Progent’s experienced Cisco network security consultants provide expert PIX and ASA Firewall consulting support covering architecture, integration, and support of Cisco firewall and Cisco security solutions. The PIX and ASA Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewalls delivers robust user and software policy enforcement, mutlivector attack defense, and secure access services. Ranging from economical, plug-and-play desktop appliances for small and home offices to modular enterprise-level appliances, Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls offer advanced security, high throughput, and high reliability for IT systems of all sizes. PIX Firewalls and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, specially designed platform, eliminating common OS-specific security holes.

Network Security Inventory and Evaluation Packages
Progent's GIAC and CISA-premier security consultants can provide a variety of cost-effective security Inventory service bundles and security assessment service bundles designed to offer organizations of all sizes a chance to get an impartial look at the effectiveness of their security environment. The packages vary from ultra-affordable external security scan and internal network security scan options for small and midsize companies up to a high-level network security assessment solution for corporations who need comply with security standards demanded by government regulators or by vendors. For each security inventory or evaluation package, consultants with top security accreditations analyze and summarize scanned information and make recommendations for efficient remediation.

Cisco SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP Trunks and CUBE Integration Consulting
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified SIP infrastructure consultants and Cisco CUBE integration consultants can help your business to design, deploy, maintain, debug and enhance Cisco's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) connectivity solutions and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-connected IP PSTN trunks. Progent offers cost-effective remote or on-premises support to help you to migrate smoothly to a productive unified communications ecosystem that delivers accelerated ROI. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft collaboration experts can help you to configure interfaces between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's VoIP and IP video applications like Skype for Business and Lync Server for connectivity to a SIP PSTN trunk.

Consulting and Support Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise for Cisco Wireless Infrastructure
Progent can give you access to a certified CCIE or Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) to assist you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation plan that incorporates a broad range of wireless devices and technologies and offers the same protection, expandability, and manageability you expect from a wired network. Progent can help you to achieve seamless integration between Cisco wireless products and wireless technology from other suppliers to offer your business the functionality you need as well as the most secure, reliable, and cost-effective WLAN system possible. Progent's CISM and CISSP security consultants can show you how to build security into your WLAN and into your business processes.

Simplified Administration Tools for Cisco-based IT Network Infrastructure
Progent's Cisco-Certified network engineers can provide help with Cisco's management tools along with a variety of powerful third-party products to create a comprehensive management automation strategy in order to keep your environment running smoothly, fully utilize limited resources, guard your information, recover rapidly from hardware breakdown or deliberate attacks, and enable you to add or reassign network resources sensibly and economically as your company grows.

To find out additional information concerning Progent's consulting services for Cisco networking and communications products, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.