IT Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Cisco introduced innovative solutions intended especially for small company IT networks and designed to provide outstanding security and collaboration at a budget-friendly price. Products introduced by Cisco included Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, the Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the latest version of Cisco's Smart Business Communications System (SBCS).

The Cisco Spam Blocker appliance is a dedicated spam, virus, and phishing filter security product that essentially eliminates email-based threats right out of the box. Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable desktop network-attached storage (NAS) appliances that offer protection for important information and allow employees to exchange information effortlessly. Cisco's SBCS Release 1.4, a complete collaboration and communications system that easily interconnects sites, employees, and customers anywhere. The current release incorporates the industry's debut of a cordless small-footprint IP phone with Bluetooth wireless support. To see Cisco's news release, refer to Cisco Unveils Networking and Security Products for Small Companies.

Cisco Spam Blocker Appliance
The Spam and Virus Blocker appliance safeguards small companies by offering extensive defense against junk mail, malware and other email-borne threats to guard your system and business information while at the same time enhance efficiency. Because the device blocks spam and viruses with minimal set up and updates automatically, it eliminates the expense and hassle required for initial configuration and ongoing and management. By filtering out spam, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker helps the throughput of network connections, application servers, and workstations. The Spam and Virus Blocker is an end-to-end solution email-born attacks by featuring a physical appliance, intelligent software, ongoing patches, and technical support in a unified bundle.

Key features of the Spam and Virus Blocker appliance are:

• Accuracy: Assists to ensure that email-borne attacks and spam are caught and business email is delivered.
• Ongoing self-installed updates: Constant communication with SenderBase security, a network library of email security threats, makes sure that the Cisco Spam Blocker appliance installs the most current updates to guard your business email.
• Simple installation and operation: Easy-to-use browser-based installation wizards permit you to install Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker in almost any environment within minutes, providing immediate security for your company.
• Effortless management: As soon as your company installs the Cisco's Spam Blocker, you benefit from junk mail and malware filtering with no extra effort required from your network support staff.

Cisco NSS2000 and 3000 Network Storage Systems
The Cisco NSS2000 and 3000 offer the dependable security and comprehensive data backup capabilities that your business requires, at a cost small companies can afford. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 supports as much as to four TB of data and as many as 15 concurrent users on each chassis, provides the ideal solution for holding, accessing, and backing up your mission-critical corporate information. Unlike entry-level network-attached storage (NAS) alternatives, the NSS3000 delivers the advanced archiving, cryptography, client validation, and service continuity your business requires.

The Cisco NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage enclosure handles any certified hard drive. The enclosure offers a range of features in a desktop-size system designed specifically for small organizations. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 Storage System Chassis also offers you the versatility to deploy the product without any connected disk drives, to reconfigure it easily, and to chain multiple NAS chassis together, offering a solution that can continually grow with your company.

You can use the NSS2000 or 3000 to:

• Intelligently back up important information from each workstation and application server in your company
• Offer centralized preservation and distribution of key information
• Employ Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to back up automatically each revision of each file archived by workers, allowing you to restore information with ease
• Store and save digital video from your surveillance system

Cisco SBCS
The Cisco Smart Business Communications System Release 1.4 is a simple and comprehensive sharing and communications solution that allows small organizations to interconnect telecommuters, mobile workers and office workers in disparate locations to enhance their ability to communicate with clients and colleagues. In Release 1.4, the affordable system has enhanced wireless capabilities such as the industry's first wireless desktop VoIP phone with Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G VoIP phone, which allows businesses to grow easily by deploying handsets in locations where traditional phone wires or network wiring is not present or cannot easily be run.

Additional innovative components of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Release 1.4 include:

• The Cisco 520 Secure Router product to help guard a small business infrastructure and provide workers safe connectivity to the Internet and important business data any time, anywhere
• The Cisco Configuration Assistant Release 1.9 to allow stakeholders to simplify the setup and deployment of solutions created specifically for individual companies

How Progent's Certified Professionals Can Assist Your Business to Take Advantage of Cisco Technology
Progent's Cisco-qualified support professionals and CCIE engineers can assist your company to evaluate the latest Cisco technologies to determine their usefulness for your IT system, integrate Cisco security and communication platforms to enhance the security and efficiency of your information network, and provide tech support for Cisco products both in person and online to keep your IT network operating smoothly. Progent's IT professionals offer a range of low-cost services to improve the dependability, security, speed, and maintainability of a small business information system:

Immediate Access to Cisco Registered CCIE Network Engineers
Progent offers convenient, quick, and economical assistance from CCIE Certified engineers. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are highly-qualified networking gurus who earn this top-level certification only after intense testing by Cisco. CCIEs can handle even the most sophisticated problems associated with network infrastructure planning, setup, repair, and administration. Progent's CCIE experts cooperate closely with Cisco engineers in analyzing problems with Cisco's IOS platform and developing fixes or acquiring software updates to correct anomalies. Progent offers quick contact with a CCIE by phone so you are able to receive instant assistance for complex network problems that are impacting business efficiency but are beyond the expertise of your local network support resources. Progent's CCIE support engineers can access your network via advanced remote connectivity technology to provide timely and cost-effective analysis and repair of urgent infrastructure problems.

Cisco Voice over IP Phone and IP Video Phone Integration
Progent's Cisco IP phone and video IP phone consultants can help your business to integrate, maintain, and debug Cisco IP phones, video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide support for all versions of Cisco's IP phones from discontinued VoIP devices to the latest HD media phones. Progent's consultants can also assist you to integrate your VoIP phones and video IP phones with Cisco Unified CM, formerly known as CallManager, or with Cisco Unified CM Express (CME) to build a an advanced IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can deliver expertise with any facet of Cisco IP Phone integration including reviewing dial plans, resolving IP phone registration issues, setting up SIP trunking, installing ISR G2 routers with CUBE internetworking support, and creating UCS server failover and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) solutions for survivability. For additional details on Progent's services for Cisco's IP voice and video solutions, refer to Cisco Voice over IP and Unified Communications Engineering Services.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager, formerly named CallManager, operates as the core of Cisco's collaboration platform. Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express provide an advanced IP-PBX solution by integrating with apps like Unified CM IM and Presence Service with Jabber support, Cisco Unity Connection for voicemail management, Cisco Unified Mobility for Single Number Reach (SNR), and Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise for building an advanced customer contact solution. Progent's Cisco-certified Cisco Unified CM experts can assist with any aspect of CUCM configuration and troubleshooting in areas such as integrating Cisco VoIP phones and desktop video phones, designing dial plans, setting up SIP connections and PSTN calling, deploying ISR routers with CUBE networking support, designing UCS server failover solutions for high availability, and integration with Microsoft Exchange and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Support
Progent's certified Cisco network security consulting professionals provide expert PIX and ASA Firewall consulting support covering architecture, configuration, and support of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewall products delivers strong user and application policy enforcement, mutlivector attack defense, and secure connectivity services. Ranging from compact, plug-and-play desktop devices for small and home businesses to scalable enterprise-level products, Cisco PIX Firewall and ASA Firewalls offer a high level of protection, high throughput, and high reliability for network environments of any size. PIX Firewalls and ASA Firewalls are based on a proven, purpose-built platform, minimizing common OS-specific security holes.

Security Inventory and Audit Packages
Progent's CISM and CISSP-premier security consultants can provide a variety of cost-effective security Inventory bundles and security assessment bundles designed to offer businesses of any size an opportunity to get a professional look at the quality of their security profile. These packages vary from ultra-affordable external network security scan and internal security scan options for small businesses up to a high-end network security evaluation solution for institutions who need meet security standards required by government agencies or by customers. For every security assessment bundle, engineers with top security credentials analyze and report on collected data and make recommendations for effective improvements.

Cisco SIP Infrastructure Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Expertise
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified SIP trunk experts and CUBE integration experts can assist organizations of any size to plan, integrate, maintain, debug and enhance Cisco's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) connectivity technology and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-connected IP PSTN trunks. Progent can provide affordable online or onsite support to assist businesses to migrate smoothly to a productive communications environment that offers fast ROI. Progent's certified Microsoft unified communications experts can assist you to establish interfaces between Cisco's CUBE SBC and Microsoft's VoIP and IP video platforms such as Skype for Business Server and Lync for access to a SIP PSTN trunk.

Consulting Consulting and Troubleshooting Services for Cisco Wireless Technology
Progent can give you access to a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) or Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) to help you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation plan that incorporates a broad array of wireless appliances and technologies and provides the identical protection, scalability, and manageability you demand from your wired network. Progent can help you to achieve transparent interoperability between Cisco wireless technology and wireless devices and software from other suppliers to offer your company the functionality you require as well as the most protected, dependable, and cost-effective WLAN solution possible. Progent's CISM and CISSP security professionals can advise you about how to design protection into your WLAN and into your business operations.

Automated Administration Tools for Cisco-based Small Business Networks
Progent's Cisco-Premier network engineers can provide assistance with Cisco's network management tools alongside a range of specialized third-party applications to create a complete management automation strategy in order to keep your environment running reliably, fully utilize limited resources, protect your information, recover rapidly from hardware breakdown or malicious attacks, and enable you to expand or reassign valuable components sensibly and economically as your company evolves.

For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Cisco networking and security technology, phone 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.