Technology News and Progent IT Solutions

Cisco unveiled innovative solutions targeted especially for small business IT networks and designed to provide outstanding security and collaboration at a budget-friendly cost. Solutions introduced by Cisco were Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, the Small Business series NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the latest version of the Smart Business Communications System (SBCS).

The Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker is a dedicated antispam and antivirus security product that virtually eliminates email attacks with no set up. The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable desktop network-attached storage appliances that provide protection for valuable information and enable workers to exchange information easily. The Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Release 1.4, a full collaboration and communications system that seamlessly connects sites, workers, and clients anywhere. Cisco's current release features the first wireless small-footprint IP handset with Bluetooth capabilities. To see Cisco's press release, visit Cisco Unveils Networking and Security Solutions for Small Businesses.

Cisco Spam Blocker
The Spam and Virus Blocker appliance protects small businesses by offering extensive defense against junk mail, malware and other email threats to secure your network and corporate data while at the same time improve productivity. Because the device blocks spam with minimal set up and updates automatically, it does away with the cost and hassle required for initial configuration and ongoing and administration. By filtering out spam, Cisco's Spam Blocker helps the performance of networks, servers, and computers. The Spam Blocker appliance is a comprehensive defense against email attacks by including hardware, intelligent software, continuous updates, and product support in a unified package.

Key features of the Spam Blocker appliance are:

• Accuracy: Assists to ensure that email threats and spam are intercepted and business messages are delivered.
• Continuous automatic updates: Constant interaction with SenderBase services, a network database of email safety risks, makes sure that the Spam & Virus Blocker incorporates the latest patches to safequard your business email.
• Simple installation and use: Easy-to-use browser-based installation tools permit you to configure Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance in almost any network in minutes, delivering instant protection for your business network.
• Effortless management: As soon as your company deploys the Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance, you benefit from junk mail and virus filtering with minimal additional hassle required from your IT group.

Small Business NSS2000 and 3000
The Cisco NSS2000 and 3000 offer the dependable security and advanced data backup features that your company requires, at a cost small businesses can handle. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 accommodates up to four TB of data and as many as 15 concurrent users per enclosure, provides the optimal solution for holding, sharing, and archiving your vital corporate information. As distinct from less advanced network-attached storage alternatives, the Cisco NSS3000 provides the state-of-the-art archiving, encryption, user authentication, and high availability your company requires.

The NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage System enclosure supports any approved hard drive. The product offers a range of features in a desktop-size system designed for small businesses. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 Storage System enclosure also gives your business the versatility to configure the system without any attached drives, to reconfigure the product at any time, and to chain several NAS chassis with one another, offering a solution that can continually expand with your business.

You can use the Cisco NSS2000 or 3000 to:

• Automatically copy vital information from each workstation and application server on your network
• Offer unified storage and distribution of key files
• Run Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to back up automatically every revision of every file saved by employees, permitting you to recover data with ease
• Store and archive digital video from your company's video surveillance cameras

Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS)
The Cisco SBCS Release 1.4 is a simple and comprehensive collaboration and communications solution that allows small organizations to connect telecommuters, on-the-road workers and employees in separate locations to enhance their options to collaborate with clients and teammates. In the latest release, the aggressively priced system has enhanced wireless capabilities such as the first wireless desktop VoIP phone with Bluetooth, the Cisco SPA525G wireless IP phone, which allows businesses to grow easily by deploying handsets in locations where traditional telephone wires or Ethernet cables are missing or cannot conveniently be run.

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

• Cisco's Model 520 Secure Router to help protect the company's network and give workers secure access to the Internet and important corporate information any time, anywhere
• Cisco's Configuration Assistant Version 1.9 to allow partners to simplify the configuration and deployment of solutions created custom for certain companies

How Progent's Consulting Engineers Can Assist Your Business to Deploy Cisco Networking Technology
Progent's Cisco-qualified consultants and Cisco CCIE network engineers can help you to evaluate new Cisco technologies to understand their value for your environment, deploy Cisco security and communication platforms to enhance the security and efficiency of your information network, and provide tech support for Cisco devices both onsite and online to keep your IT network operating dependably. Progent's consulting experts can provide a variety of affordable technical services to enhance the availability, security, efficiency, and manageability of your information system:

Immediate Access to Cisco Registered CCIE Engineers
Progent delivers convenient, quick, and economical access to registered CCIE engineers. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are elite networking gurus who earn this top-level accreditation only as a result of exhaustive testing by Cisco. CCIEs are able to handle the most sophisticated issues associated with network design, implementation, troubleshooting, and support. Progent's CCIE professionals cooperate intimately with Cisco engineers in identifying issues with Cisco's IOS platform and devising fixes or acquiring software updates to correct anomalies. Progent offers quick access to a CCIE by telephone so that you can receive emergency assistance for complex network problems that are affecting worker efficiency but are outside the expertise of your ordinary network support providers. Progent's CCIE support experts can access your environment via state-of-the-art off-site connectivity tools to provide timely and cost-effective analysis and repair of critical network difficulties.

Cisco Voice over IP Phone and IP Video Phone Solutions
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified IP phone and video IP phone experts can assist your business to integrate, manage, and troubleshoot Cisco VoIP phones, desktop video IP phones and wireless IP handsets. Progent can provide expertise for all models of Cisco's IP phones from discontinued VoIP devices to the latest media phones. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to integrate your VoIP phones and video IP phones with Cisco Unified CM, originally named CallManager, or with Cisco Unified CM Express (CME) to create a modern IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can deliver expertise with all aspects of Cisco IP Phone integration including reviewing dial plans, resolving IP phone registration issues, configuring SIP trunking, installing ISR routers with CUBE internetworking capability, and creating UCS server clustering and Cisco SRST systems for high availability. For additional details on Progent's engineering help for Cisco's Unified Communications solutions, go to Cisco IP Telephony and Unified Communications Professional Expertise.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), formerly known as CallManager, acts as the center of Cisco's communications and collaboration portfolio. CUCM and Unified CM Express provide an advanced IP-PBX by integrating tightly with unified messaging applications like Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service with Jabber support, Cisco Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail management, Mobile Connect for Single Number Reach, and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE) for creating a highly automated customer contact solution. Progent's Cisco-certified CUCM experts can assist with any facet of Unified CM setup and troubleshooting in areas such as integrating Cisco VoIP phones and video phones, designing dial plans, setting up SIP trunking and PSTN calling, installing ISR G2 routers with CUBE support, designing Cisco UCS server clustering solutions for survivability, and integration with Exchange Server.

Cisco ASA Firewall and PIX Firewall Support
Progent's certified Cisco network security consultants offer expert PIX Firewall and ASA Firewall consulting services covering architecture, integration, and management of Cisco firewall and Cisco security solutions. The PIX and ASA Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewall products delivers robust user and application policy enforcement, mutlivector attack defense, and secure connectivity services. Ranging from economical, plug-and-play desktop appliances for small and home businesses to scalable enterprise-grade products, Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls offer advanced security, high throughput, and excellent availability for IT systems of any size. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, specially designed operating system, minimizing common OS-specific security holes.

Network Security Inventory and Audit Packages
Progent's GIAC, CISA and CISM-certified security engineers can provide a variety of cost-effective security Inventory service packages and network security evaluation service packages created to give businesses of any size an opportunity to get an objective opinion about the effectiveness of their security environment. The packages vary from low-cost external network security scan and internal network security scan packages for small companies up to a high-level network security assessment solution for institutions who need meet security standards demanded by state regulators or by vendors. For each security inventory or evaluation package, engineers with top security credentials analyze and report on scanned data and make suggestions for effective remediation.

Cisco SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Integration Consulting
Progent's Cisco-certified SIP trunk consultants and CUBE integration consultants can assist organizations of any size to design, integrate, manage, troubleshoot and enhance Cisco's SIP connectivity technology and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-connected IP PSTN trunks. Progent can provide cost-effective remote or on-premises support to assist you to migrate smoothly to a modern unified communications environment that delivers fast ROI. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft unified communications consultants can assist you to configure connections between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's rich media platforms like Skype for Business Server and Lync Server for connectivity to a SIP-based IP PSTN trunk.

Consulting and Support Consulting and Troubleshooting Services for Cisco Wireless Infrastructure
Progent can provide a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert or Cisco Certified Network Professional to assist you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation plan that incorporates a wide range of wireless products and technologies and offers the same protection, scalability, and ease of management you demand from a wired network. Progent can help you to implement seamless integration between Cisco wireless technology and wireless technology from other suppliers to offer your company the functionality you require as well as the most secure, reliable, and economical WLAN solution available. Progent's CISM and CISSP security professionals can advise you about how to design protection into your wireless network and into your business processes.

Simplified Administration Solutions for Cisco-based IT Network Infrastructure
Progent's Cisco-Premier network management consultants offer assistance with Cisco's management technology alongside a range of powerful third-party products to create a complete management automation solution to keep your network running smoothly, conserve limited resources, guard your data, recover quickly from device failure or deliberate assaults, and enable you to expand or reassign network resources intelligently and economically as your business evolves.

To learn more details about Progent's consulting support for Cisco networking and security solutions, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.