IT Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Cisco introduced innovative solutions intended specifically for small company IT networks and designed to provide outstanding security and collaboration for a budget-friendly price. Solutions announced by Cisco included the Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker, the Cisco Small Business series NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the latest release of the SBCS.

The Cisco Spam Blocker is a purpose-built email security device that virtually eliminates email threats as shipped. The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are economical small-footprint network-attached storage (NAS) appliances that offer protection for important data and enable workers to access shared files easily. The Cisco SBCS Version 1.4, a full sharing and communications system that seamlessly connects sites, employees, and customers however dispersed. The latest release features the industry's debut of a wireless small-footprint Internet Protocol (IP) handset with Bluetooth wireless capabilities. To read Cisco's press release, visit Cisco Introduces Connectivity and Collaboration Solutions for Small Businesses.

Cisco Spam Blocker Appliance
The Spam Blocker appliance safeguards small companies by providing extensive defense against junk mail, viruses and phishing as well as other email threats to secure your network and business information and simultaneously improve efficiency. Since the product blocks spam with minimal set up and stays current automatically, it avoids the expense and time with initial configuration and ongoing and management. By eliminating spam, Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance increases the throughput of networks, servers, and workstations. The Spam and Virus Blocker represents a comprehensive solution email-born attacks by including hardware, software, continuous patches, and technical support in a single bundle.

Notable features of the Spam and Virus Blocker are:

• Efficiency: Assists to make sure that email-borne threats and junk mail are caught while legitimate messages are accepted.
• Ongoing self-installed patches: Non-stop communication with SenderBase security, an online library of email security risks, ensures that the Cisco Spam Blocker appliance installs the latest patches to safequard your corporate email.
• Easy installation and use: User-friendly browser-based installation wizards allow you to install Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker in almost any network within 15 minutes, providing instant protection for your network.
• Effortless administration: From the moment you installs the the Spam and Virus Blocker, you get spam and malware protection with minimal additional effort required of your IT group.

Cisco Small Business NSS2000 and 3000 Network Storage Systems
The Cisco Small Business NSS2000 and 3000 Network Storage Systems offer the robust protection and advanced backup features that your company needs, at a price small businesses can handle. The Cisco NSS3000 supports as much as to 4 terabytes of data and as many as 15 simultaneous clients on each chassis, provides the ideal answer for holding, accessing, and backing up your vital corporate information. Unlike less sophisticated network-attached storage systems, the Cisco NSS3000 delivers the state-of-the-art archiving, encryption, client validation, and service continuity your business needs.

The Small Business NSS3000 4-Bay Gigabit Storage System enclosure handles any certified drive. The product provides a range of features in a desktop-size footprint engineered specifically for small businesses. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 Storage System enclosure also offers you the flexibility to deploy the system without any attached drives, to reconfigure the product at any time, and to chain multiple Cisco NAS chassis together, offering a platform that can continually grow with your business.

You can utilize the Cisco Small Business NSS2000 or NSS3000 Network Storage Systems to:

• Automatically back up vital information from each desktop and server in your company
• Provide unified storage and distribution of key files
• Run Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to copy unattended every version of every file saved by workers, allowing your company to restore information quickly
• Record and archive video from your video security system

Cisco Smart Business Communications System
The Cisco Smart Business Communications System Release 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and comprehensive sharing and communications system that enables small organizations to connect telecommuters, on-the-road workers and office workers in separate locations to improve their ability to communicate with clients and teammates. In Release 1.4, the affordable system offers improved wireless capabilities including the first wireless desktop VoIP handset with built-in Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G IP phone, which allows companies to expand cost-effectively by adding handsets in places where conventional phone lines or network cables are missing or cannot conveniently be run.

Additional new pieces of the Cisco SBCS 1.4 version are:

• Cisco's 520 Secure Router to help protect the company's infrastructure and give employees safe access to the Internet and important corporate data remotely or locally
• The Cisco Configuration Assistant Version 1.9 to allow partners to simplify the setup and installation of solutions designed custom for individual companies

How Progent's Cisco-certified Engineers Can Help Your Business to Take Advantage of Cisco Networking Technology
Progent's Cisco-qualified support professionals and CCIE accredited network engineers can help your company to evaluate new Cisco technologies to understand their usefulness for your environment, integrate Cisco solutions to enhance the security and performance of your network, and troubleshoot Cisco devices both onsite and remotely to keep your network operating dependably. Progent's consulting experts offer a range of low-cost services to enhance the availability, security, performance, and manageability of a small business IT system:

Quick Online Access to Cisco Registered CCIE Network Engineers
Progent delivers convenient, immediate, and affordable help from Cisco CCIE engineers. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are highly-qualified networking gurus who are awarded this prestigious accreditation only through exhaustive testing by Cisco. CCIEs can handle even the most challenging issues surrounding IT network planning, implementation, repair, and management. Progent’s CCIE professionals work intimately with Cisco engineers in analyzing issues with Cisco's IOS software and finding workarounds or obtaining software updates to resolve problems. Progent your company immediate access to a CCIE by phone so that you can get instant help for complex network troubles that are affecting worker efficiency but are outside the expertise of your local network support resources. Progent's CCIE consulting experts can link to your environment via state-of-the-art remote connectivity technology in order to provide fast and affordable diagnosis and repair of critical infrastructure difficulties.

Cisco VoIP Phone and IP Video Phone Integration
Progent's Cisco-certified VoIP phone and video IP phone consultants can assist your business to integrate, maintain, and debug Cisco VoIP phones, desktop video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide support for all versions of Cisco's IP phones from legacy Voice over IP devices to the latest media phones. Progent's IP telephony experts can also assist your organization to integrate your IP phones with Cisco Unified CM, originally named CallManager, or with Cisco Unified CM Express to create a state-of-the-art IP-PBX environment for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can deliver support with any facet of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including designing dial plans, resolving QoS, configuring SIP gateways, installing Cisco ISR routers with CUBE VoIP networking support, and designing UCS server clustering and Cisco SRST solutions for survivability. For more details about Progent's technical support for Cisco's IP voice and video technology, visit Cisco VoIP and Unified Communications Professional Expertise.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager, previously named CallManager, is the center of Cisco's collaboration portfolio. CUCM and Cisco Unified CM Express provide a modern IP-PBX solution by integrating with unified messaging applications like Cisco Unified CM IM and Presence Service with Jabber support, Cisco Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail, Mobile Connect for Single Number Reach, and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE) for building a highly automated customer contact solution. Progent's Cisco-certified CUCM experts can assist with any facet of Unified Communications Manager setup and debugging in areas that include integrating Voice over IP phones and video phones, reviewing dial plans, configuring SIP connections and PSTN calling, deploying Cisco ISR routers with CUBE networking support, creating Cisco UCS server clustering solutions for high availability, and integration with Exchange Server.

Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Support
Progent’s experienced Cisco IT security consultants offer expert PIX Firewall and ASA Firewall consulting support including architecture, integration, and management of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewall products delivers strong user and software policy enforcement, mutlivector attack protection, and safe access services. Ranging from compact, easy-to-install desktop devices for small and home offices to modular enterprise-grade appliances, Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls provide a high level of protection, performance, and excellent availability for network environments of all sizes. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, purpose-built operating system, minimizing possible OS-specific security holes.

Security Inventory and Assessment Packages
Progent's CISM and CISSP-certified security consultants can provide a variety of budget-friendly security Inventory service bundles and network security assessment service bundles designed to give organizations of any size a chance to receive a professional opinion about the effectiveness of their security profile. These packages range from low-cost external network security scan and internal network security scan options for small companies up to a high-end network security assessment solution for institutions who have to meet security levels required by government regulators or by vendors. For every security assessment package, consultants with high-level security accreditations analyze and summarize collected data and make suggestions for effective improvements.

Cisco SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Configuration Consulting
Progent's Cisco-certified SIP infrastructure consultants and CUBE integration experts can assist organizations of any size to plan, integrate, maintain, troubleshoot and upgrade Cisco's SIP connectivity technology and Cisco's CUBE-connected IP PSTN trunks. Progent offers affordable remote or onsite expertise to help companies to move smoothly to an advanced unified communications environment that delivers accelerated ROI. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft collaboration experts can help you to set up interfaces between Cisco's CUBE SBC and Microsoft's rich media applications like Skype for Business and Lync for access to a SIP PSTN trunk.

Consulting and Support Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise for Cisco Wireless Infrastructure
Progent can give you access to a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) or certified CCNP to assist you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation plan that integrates a broad range of wireless appliances and technologies and offers the identical security, scalability, and ease of management you demand from your wired network. Progent can assist you to implement transparent integration between Cisco wireless technology and wireless devices and software from other suppliers to give your company the functionality you require plus the most protected, reliable, and cost-effective WLAN solution available. Progent's CISM and CISSP security professionals can advise you about how to build security into your WLAN and your company's operations.

Simplified Management Solutions for Cisco-based Small Business Networks
Progent's Cisco-Premier network management consultants can provide help with Cisco's management technology alongside a selection of powerful third-party applications to build a comprehensive management automation solution to keep your environment running smoothly, fully utilize limited resources, protect your data, recover rapidly from device failure or malicious attacks, and enable you to expand or reassign valuable resources sensibly and economically as your business evolves.

To find out more details about Progent's support services for Cisco networking and communications technology, phone 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.