Technology News and Progent IT Solutions

Cisco introduced new products targeted especially for small business networks and designed to deliver exceptional levels of protection and collaboration for a budget-friendly cost. Solutions unveiled by Cisco included Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, the Small Business series 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 email security product that virtually eradicates email threats with no set up. The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable small-footprint network-attached storage (NAS) appliances that offer protection for valuable data and allow workers to exchange information effortlessly. The Cisco SBCS Version 1.4, a full sharing and communications solution that easily connects offices, workers, and clients anywhere. The latest release incorporates the industry's debut of a wireless small-footprint Internet Protocol (IP) handset with Bluetooth capabilities. To see Cisco's news release, visit Cisco Announces Connectivity and Collaboration Products for Small Companies.

Cisco Spam Blocker Appliance
The Spam Blocker appliance protects small organizations by providing powerful defense against junk mail, viruses and phishing and other email threats to guard your system and business data while improve efficiency. Because the device stops spam right out of the box and updates on its own, it does away with the cost and hassle associated setup and ongoing and administration. By filtering out unwanted email, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance helps the performance of networks, application servers, and computers. The Spam and Virus Blocker is a comprehensive defense against email threats by including a physical appliance, software, continuous updates, and technical support in a single bundle.

Key benefits of Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance are:

• Efficiency: Helps to make sure that email-borne attacks and junk mail are caught while legitimate email is accepted.
• Ongoing self-installed updates: Constant interaction with SenderBase services, an online library of email security threats, ensures that the Cisco Spam Blocker appliance incorporates the latest updates to guard your corporate email.
• Easy setup and operation: Easy-to-use browser-based installation wizards permit you to install Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance in nearly any network in 15 minutes, providing immediate security for your network.
• Streamlined administration: From the moment you deploys the the Spam and Virus Blocker appliance, you benefit from spam and virus filtering with minimal additional hassle demanded from your network support group.

Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems
The Cisco Small Business NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems offer the dependable protection and comprehensive backup capabilities that your company requires, at a cost small companies can afford. The NSS3000 supports as much as to four terabytes of data and up to 15 simultaneous users per chassis, offering the ideal solution for holding, accessing, and backing up your vital corporate data. Unlike ordinary network-attached storage (NAS) alternatives, the Cisco NSS3000 delivers the advanced archiving, encryption, user authentication, and high uptime your company needs.

The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage enclosure supports any certified hard disk. It offers a range of features in a desktop system designed for small organizations. The Cisco NSS3000 Storage enclosure also offers your company the versatility to configure the system without any attached disks, to modify it at any time, and to link multiple NAS chassis with one another, providing a solution that can smoothly grow with your business.

You can utilize the Small Business NSS2000 or 3000 to:

• Automatically copy vital data from each PC and server on your network
• Offer unified preservation and sharing of important information
• Employ Continuous Data Protection to copy automatically every version of every file archived by workers, allowing your business to recover files quickly
• Record and save digital video from your video surveillance cameras

Cisco Smart Business Communications System
The Smart Business Communications System Release 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and comprehensive sharing and communications solution that allows small organizations to interconnect telecommuters, mobile workers and office workers in disparate sites to improve their ability to interact with customers and colleagues. In Release 1.4, the aggressively priced system has enhanced wireless features such as the first wireless desktop IP phone with Bluetooth, the Cisco SPA525G wireless IP phone, which allows companies to grow easily by installing handsets in places where conventional telephone lines or Ethernet wiring is not present or cannot conveniently be run.

Other new components of the Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Release 1.4 are:

• Cisco's Model 520 Secure Router to help guard the company's network and provide employees secure access to the Internet and important business data from inside or outside the office
• The Configuration Assistant Release 1.9 to permit partners to simplify the setup and deployment of solutions designed specifically for individual companies

How Progent's Consulting Experts Can Help Your Company to Deploy Cisco Networking Solutions
Progent's Cisco consultants and Cisco CCIE networking experts can help you to evaluate new Cisco technologies to determine their appropriateness for your IT system, integrate Cisco solutions to enhance the protection and efficiency of your information network, and maintain Cisco devices both onsite and online to keep your IT network running dependably. Progent's consulting experts offer a range of affordable technical services to improve the dependability, security, performance, and maintainability of a small business information network:

Quick Access to Cisco CCIE Certified Engineers
Progent delivers easy, quick, and economical access to CCIE support professionals. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are elite networking experts who earn this prestigious classification only through thorough testing by Cisco. CCIEs can resolve the most complicated issues encountered with network design, integration, troubleshooting, and management. Progent's CCIE professionals work closely with Cisco in-house staff in analyzing issues with Cisco's IOS platform and devising workarounds or obtaining software updates to resolve problems. Progent offers immediate access to a CCIE by telephone so that you can receive urgent assistance for complex network problems that are affecting worker productivity but are outside the expertise of your local IT support providers. Progent's CCIE consulting engineers can link to your network via advanced off-site connectivity technology in order to deliver fast and affordable analysis and repair of critical network problems.

Cisco VoIP Phone and IP Video Phone Solutions
Progent's Cisco VoIP phone and video IP phone consultants can assist you to integrate, manage, and debug Cisco VoIP phones, video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide expertise for all models of Cisco's IP phones from legacy Voice over IP products to the latest HD media phones. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to integrate your IP phones with Cisco Unified CM, previously named CallManager, or with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (CME) to create a state-of-the-art IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and company-wide collaboration. Progent can provide support with all aspects of Cisco IP Phone integration including designing dial plans, resolving QoS, configuring SIP trunking, installing Cisco ISR routers with CUBE internetworking support, and designing Cisco UCS server clustering and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony systems for survivability. For more details concerning Progent's technical support for Cisco's Unified Communications solutions, refer to Cisco Voice over IP and Unified Communications Engineering Expertise.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), previously named CallManager, is the core of Cisco's communications and collaboration platform. CUCM and Cisco Unified CM Express offer a modern IP-PBX solution by integrating tightly with apps like Cisco Unified CM IM and Presence Service, Unity Connection for voicemail, Cisco Unified Mobility for Single Number Reach (SNR), and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE) for creating a highly automated customer contact center. Progent's Cisco-certified Cisco Unified CM consultants can help with any aspect of Unified Communications Manager configuration and troubleshooting in areas such as integrating Voice over IP phones and desktop video IP phones, reviewing dial plans, configuring SIP connections and PSTN calling, deploying ISR routers with CUBE support, designing UCS server failover systems for high availability, and integration with Exchange and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA Firewall and PIX Firewall Consulting Expertise
Progent's experienced Cisco IT security consultants offer high-level PIX and ASA Firewall consulting support covering infrastructure design, integration, and management of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewalls delivers strong user and software policy enforcement, mutlivector attack protection, and safe connectivity services. Ranging from economical, plug-and-play desktop devices for small and home businesses to modular enterprise-class products, Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls offer a high level of security, high throughput, and excellent availability for IT systems of all sizes. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a proven, specially designed platform, eliminating common OS-specific security holes.

Security Inventory and Audit Packages
Progent's GIAC, CISA and CISM-premier security consultants can deliver a range of cost-effective security Inventory service packages and network security assessment service bundles created to give businesses of all sizes an opportunity to get an independent opinion about the quality of their security environment. The packages vary from low-cost external network security scan and internal security scan packages for small and midsize businesses up to a high-end network security assessment package for corporations who have to meet security standards demanded by government agencies or by customers. For each security assessment bundle, consultants with high-level security credentials evaluate and summarize scanned data and provide recommendations for effective remediation.

SIP Infrastructure Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Consulting
Progent's Cisco-certified SIP trunk experts and Cisco CUBE integration experts can assist you to design, deploy, maintain, debug and enhance Cisco's SIP infrastructure technology and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-based SIP trunks. Progent offers affordable remote or on-premises support to assist you to move smoothly to a productive unified communications ecosystem that delivers fast ROI. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft collaboration experts can help you to set up connections between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's VoIP and IP video platforms such as Skype for Business Server and Lync Server for connectivity to a SIP-based IP PSTN trunk.

Consulting Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise for Cisco Wireless Products
Progent can give you access to a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert or Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) to help you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation strategy that integrates a broad array of wireless appliances and technologies and offers the same protection, expandability, and manageability you expect from a wired environment. Progent can assist you to implement transparent integration between Cisco wireless technology and wireless products from third-party vendors to offer your company the features you need plus the most protected, dependable, and economical WLAN solution available. Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security consultants can advise you about how to design security into your WLAN and your company's processes.

Simplified Administration Tools for Cisco-powered Small Business Networks
Progent's Cisco-Certified network management engineers can provide help with Cisco's management technology along with a variety of powerful third-party products to build a comprehensive management automation solution to keep your environment running smoothly, conserve expensive resources, protect your data, revive rapidly from hardware breakdown or deliberate assaults, and allow you to expand or reassign valuable resources sensibly and economically as your company evolves.

For more information concerning Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco networking and security solutions, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.