Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Cisco introduced new products targeted especially for small business networks and engineered to deliver high levels of security and collaboration for an affordable cost. Solutions announced by Cisco were Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, the Cisco Small Business series NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the latest release of the Smart Business Communications System.

The Cisco Spam Blocker is a purpose-built antispam and antivirus security product that essentially eradicates email attacks right out of the box. Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable small-footprint network-attached storage (NAS) devices that provide protection for important information and allow workers to exchange files easily. Cisco's SBCS Release 1.4, a complete sharing and communications solution that seamlessly interconnects sites, workers, and clients anywhere. The latest version incorporates the debut of a wireless small-footprint Internet Protocol (IP) handset with Bluetooth support. To view Cisco's news release, refer to Cisco Introduces Networking Solutions for Small Companies.

Cisco Spam Blocker
The Spam and Virus Blocker safeguards small organizations by offering extensive defense against junk mail, viruses and other email threats to secure your system and business data while at the same time improve productivity. Because the device stops spam with minimal set up and stays current automatically, it avoids the cost and hassle with setup and continuing and administration. By eliminating spam, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance increases the performance of network connections, application servers, and workstations. The Spam and Virus Blocker appliance is a comprehensive defense against email-born attacks by including hardware, software, ongoing updates, and technical assistance in a unified bundle.

Key benefits of the Spam Blocker are:

• Accuracy: Helps to make sure that email threats and junk mail are caught while business email is accepted.
• Ongoing automatic updates: Non-stop interaction with SenderBase security, a network library of email safety threats, ensures that your Spam & Virus Blocker installs the most current updates to safequard your corporate email.
• Easy setup and operation: User-friendly web-based installation tools permit you to install the Spam and Virus Blocker in almost any environment in minutes, delivering instant protection for your company.
• Streamlined management: As soon as your company installs the Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance, you get spam and malware filtering with minimal additional effort required from your IT group.

Cisco Small Business NSS2000 and 3000
The Cisco NSS2000 and 3000 offer the robust protection and comprehensive backup features that your company needs, at a price small organizations can handle. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 supports up to 4 TB of data and as many as 15 simultaneous clients on each enclosure, offering the ideal solution for storing, sharing, and archiving your mission-critical business data. As distinct from less advanced NAS alternatives, the Small Business NSS3000 provides the advanced archiving, encryption, client authentication, and service continuity your business needs.

The Cisco NSS3000 4-Bay Gigabit Storage enclosure supports any approved disk drive. The chassis offers a range of features in a desktop system engineered for small companies. The Cisco NSS3000 Storage enclosure also provides your business the versatility to configure the product without any attached disks, to modify it easily, and to chain several NAS chassis together, providing a solution that can smoothly grow with your company.

Your company can utilize the Small Business NSS2000 or NSS3000 to:

• Intelligently copy vital information from each workstation and application server in your organization
• Offer centralized preservation and sharing of key files
• Run Continuous Data Protection to copy unattended each version of every file saved by employees, permitting you to restore files easily
• Store and save video from your company's surveillance cameras

Cisco Smart Business Communications System
The Smart Business Communications System Release 1.4 is a simple and comprehensive collaboration and communications solution that allows small organizations to connect at-home workers, mobile workers and employees in disparate locations to enhance their options to interact with customers and colleagues. In Release 1.4, the affordable system offers improved wireless features such as the first wireless desktop VoIP handset with Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G wireless IP phone, which enables businesses to grow cost-effectively by deploying phones in places where conventional phone wires or network wiring is not present or cannot easily be added.

Other innovative components of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) 1.4 version are:

• The Cisco Model 520 Secure Router product to help guard a small business infrastructure and provide employees safe access to the Internet and key business information from either side of the firewall
• The Configuration Assistant v. 1.9 to permit partners to simplify the configuration and installation of solutions created custom for individual businesses

How Progent's Cisco-certified Experts Can Assist You to Deploy Cisco Networking Technology
Progent's Cisco support professionals and Cisco CCIE engineers can assist you to evaluate the latest Cisco products to understand their value for your IT system, install Cisco solutions to enhance the protection and efficiency of your network, and provide tech support for Cisco products both in person and remotely to keep your IT network operating smoothly. Progent's consultants offer a range of cost-effective services to enhance the availability, protection, speed, and maintainability of your IT network:

Quick Online Access to Cisco CCIE Network Engineers
Progent is the leading source of easy, quick, and cost-effective help from Cisco CCIE support professionals. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are recognized networking gurus who are awarded this top-level certification only through strenuous examination by Cisco. CCIEs are able to tackle the most complex issues encountered with network design, setup, repair, and management. Progent’s CCIE consultants interact closely with Cisco engineers in identifying issues with Cisco's IOS platform and finding workarounds or obtaining software updates to resolve anomalies. Progent can provide quick contact with a CCIE by phone so that you are able to get instant help for tough network problems that are impacting worker efficiency but are beyond the scope of your usual network service providers. Progent's CCIE support professionals can link to your network via state-of-the-art remote support tools to deliver timely and affordable diagnosis and repair of critical network problems.

Cisco Voice over IP Phone and IP Video Phone Solutions
Progent's Cisco-certified VoIP phone and video IP phone consultants can assist your business to configure, manage, and troubleshoot Cisco VoIP phones, video IP phones and wireless IP handsets. Progent offers support for all models of Cisco's IP phones from discontinued VoIP devices to the latest HD media phones. Progent's IP telephony experts can also help your organization to integrate your VoIP phones and video IP phones with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, formerly known as CallManager, or with Unified Communications Manager Express (CME) to build a modern IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can provide expertise with all aspects of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including designing dial plans, solving QoS, configuring SIP gateways, installing Cisco ISR routers with CUBE internetworking support, and designing UCS server failover and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) systems for high availability. For more details on Progent's offerings for Cisco's collaboration technology, refer to Cisco VoIP and Unified Communications Engineering Expertise.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco CallManager Collaboration
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), formerly named CallManager, acts as the heart of Cisco's communications and collaboration platform. Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Unified CM Express provide a modern IP-PBX solution by integrating closely with apps that include Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service with Jabber support, Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail management, Cisco Unified Mobility for Single Number Reach, 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 Unified Communications Manager setup and debugging in areas that include integrating VoIP phones and desktop video phones, designing dial plans, configuring SIP trunking and PSTN calling, installing ISR G2 routers with CUBE support, designing UCS server failover systems for survivability, and integration with Microsoft Exchange and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA Firewall and PIX Firewall Support
Progent’s certified Cisco network security consultants offer high-level PIX Firewall and ASA Firewall consulting services including infrastructure design, configuration, and management of Cisco firewall and Cisco security solutions. The PIX and ASA Series of Cisco firewalls delivers robust user and software policy enforcement, sophisticated attack protection, and secure access services. Ranging from compact, plug-and-play desktop appliances for small and home businesses to modular enterprise-level products, Cisco PIX Firewall and ASA Firewalls provide advanced protection, performance, and excellent availability for network environments of any size. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, purpose-built operating system, minimizing possible OS-specific security gaps.

Security Inventory and Audit Packages
Progent's GIAC and CISA-certified security engineers can provide a variety of cost-effective network security Inventory service bundles and security evaluation service packages designed to offer businesses of any size an opportunity to get an impartial opinion about the effectiveness of their security profile. The packages vary from ultra-affordable external security scan and internal network security scan options for small and midsize businesses up to a high-level network security assessment solution for enterprises who have to meet security levels demanded by state regulators or by customers. For each security assessment package, engineers with high-level security accreditations evaluate and summarize collected data and provide recommendations for effective improvements.

Cisco SIP Infrastructure Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Integration Consulting
Progent's Cisco-certified SIP trunk experts and CUBE configuration consultants can help you to design, integrate, manage, debug and upgrade Cisco's SIP connectivity technology and Cisco's CUBE-based SIP trunks. Progent offers affordable remote or onsite support to help businesses to move efficiently to a productive unified communications environment that delivers fast return on investment. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft unified communications experts can assist you to configure interfaces between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's rich media applications like Skype for Business or Lync Server for access to a SIP PSTN trunk.

Consulting Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise for Cisco Wireless Technology
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 strategy that integrates a broad range of wireless products and technologies and offers the same security, expandability, and manageability you expect from a wired environment. Progent can help you to achieve transparent integration between Cisco wireless technology and wireless products from other suppliers to give your company the features you require plus the most secure, dependable, and cost-effective wireless networking system available. Progent's CISM and CISSP security specialists can advise you about how to build protection into your WLAN and into your company's operations.

Automated Administration Solutions for Cisco-based Small Business Networks
Progent's Cisco-Premier network consultants can provide assistance with Cisco's management utilities alongside a selection of powerful third-party applications to build a complete network management strategy to keep your network running smoothly, fully utilize limited resources, protect your data, revive quickly from hardware breakdown or deliberate assaults, and enable you to add or reassign valuable resources intelligently and affordably as your business evolves.

To learn more details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco connectivity and security technology, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.