IT Technology News and Progent IT Solutions

Cisco announced new solutions targeted especially for small business networks and engineered to deliver outstanding security and connectivity at an affordable cost. Solutions introduced by Cisco included the Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker, the NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the newest version of Cisco's Smart Business Communications System (SBCS).

The Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker is a purpose-built email security product that essentially eradicates email threats as shipped. The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable desktop NAS appliances that provide security for valuable information and enable employees to access shared information easily. Cisco's SBCS Version 1.4, a full collaboration and communications solution that easily connects offices, workers, and clients however dispersed. The current version incorporates the industry's first wireless small-footprint VoIP phone with Bluetooth wireless capabilities. To read Cisco's press release, refer to Cisco Announces Connectivity and Collaboration Solutions for Small Companies.

Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker
The Spam and Virus Blocker appliance protects small businesses by offering powerful protection against junk mail, viruses and worms as well as other email threats to secure your network and business data and simultaneously enhance productivity. Since the appliance stops spam with minimal set up and updates on its own, it eliminates the expense and hassle associated setup and continuing and administration. By eliminating spam, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker helps the throughput of network connections, servers, and workstations. The Spam Blocker represents a comprehensive solution email-born threats by featuring hardware, software, continuous updates, and technical support in a single package.

Key features of Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance include:

• Accuracy: Helps to ensure that email threats and spam are caught and business email is allowed through.
• Ongoing self-installed patches: Constant interaction with SenderBase services, an online database of email safety threats, makes sure that your Spam & Virus Blocker installs the latest updates to safequard your business email.
• Easy setup and operation: User-friendly web-based setup tools permit you to install Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker in almost any network in 15 minutes, delivering instant security for your business network.
• Effortless administration: As soon as you deploys the Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance, you get spam and malware protection with minimal extra hassle demanded of your IT group.

Small Business NSS2000 and NSS3000
The Cisco NSS2000 and 3000 provide the dependable protection and comprehensive backup capabilities that your company needs, at a cost small companies can afford. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 accommodates up to four TB of data and up to 15 concurrent users on each enclosure, provides the optimal solution for storing, sharing, and backing up your vital business information. As distinct from entry-level network-attached storage (NAS) systems, the Cisco NSS3000 delivers the advanced archiving, encryption, user authentication, and service continuity your organization requires.

The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage System Chassis handles any certified disk. It provides a range of features in a desktop footprint engineered specifically for small organizations. The Cisco NSS3000 Storage Chassis also offers you the flexibility to configure the system without any connected drives, to reconfigure it easily, and to link several Cisco NAS chassis with one another, providing a solution that can smoothly expand with your business.

Your company can use the Cisco Small Business NSS2000 or NSS3000 Network Storage Systems to:

• Intelligently back up important information from every PC and application server in your company
• Offer unified preservation and distribution of key information
• Employ Continuous Data Protection to copy automatically every version of each file saved by employees, permitting your company to recover data quickly
• Store and archive video from your video security cameras

Cisco Smart Business Communications System
The Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Release 1.4 is a simple and comprehensive sharing and communications solution that permits small businesses to interconnect at-home workers, mobile workers and employees in separate locations to improve their ability to collaborate with clients and teammates. In the latest release, the aggressively priced solution offers improved wireless support such as the first wireless desktop IP phone with built-in Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G VoIP phone, which allows companies to expand easily by adding phones in locations where traditional phone wires or Ethernet wiring is missing or cannot easily be added.

Additional new pieces of the Cisco SBCS 1.4 version include:

• The Cisco Model 520 Secure Router to help guard a small business infrastructure and give employees secure access to the Internet and important corporate data remotely or locally
• The Cisco Configuration Assistant Release 1.9 to allow partners to simplify the setup and deployment of solutions created specifically for individual businesses

How Progent's Consulting Experts Can Assist Your Company to Take Advantage of Cisco Networking Technology
Progent's Cisco consultants and CCIE engineers can help you to assess the latest Cisco products to understand their business value for your environment, integrate Cisco solutions to enhance the security and efficiency of your network, and troubleshoot Cisco products both onsite and remotely to keep your IT network running dependably. Progent's IT professionals offer a variety of affordable services to improve the reliability, protection, efficiency, and manageability of your IT system:

Quick Access to Cisco CCIE Certified Engineers
Progent delivers easy, quick, and low-cost access to CCIE Certified engineers. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are recognized network gurus who are awarded this prestigious classification only as a result of exhaustive examination by Cisco. CCIEs are able to handle even the most complicated issues encountered with network infrastructure design, deployment, troubleshooting, and management. Progent’s CCIE experts work intimately with Cisco engineers in identifying problems with Cisco's IOS platform and finding fixes or acquiring patches to resolve anomalies. Progent gives you fast access to a CCIE by phone so that you can receive instant help for tough network troubles that are undermining worker efficiency but are beyond the scope of your ordinary network support resources. Progent's CCIE consulting professionals can link to your environment via state-of-the-art remote support tools in order to provide fast and affordable analysis and repair of critical network difficulties.

Cisco VoIP Phone and IP Video Phone Integration
Progent's Cisco-certified IP phone and video IP phone consultants can help your business to integrate, manage, and troubleshoot Cisco VoIP phones, video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide support for all versions of Cisco's IP phones from legacy Voice over IP products to the newest media phones. Progent's IP telephony experts can also help you to integrate your VoIP phones and video IP phones with Unified CM, formerly named CallManager, or with Unified CM Express (CME) to create a modern IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can provide support with all aspects of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including reviewing dial plans, resolving IP phone registration issues, setting up SIP gateways, installing Cisco ISR routers with CUBE VoIP networking capability, and designing Cisco UCS server clustering and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) solutions for high availability. For more details concerning Progent's engineering help for Cisco's IP voice and video technology, see Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications Professional Support.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager, originally named CallManager, functions as the center of Cisco's collaboration solution. Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Unified CM Express provide a modern IP-PBX solution by integrating closely with applications such as Unified CM IM and Presence Service, Cisco Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail, Mobile Connect for Single Number Reach, and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE) for creating a highly automated customer contact solution. Progent's CCIE-certified CUCM and CallManager consultants can help with any aspect of Unified Communications Manager support and troubleshooting in areas that include integrating Voice over IP phones and desktop video IP phones, reviewing dial plans, setting up SIP connections and PSTN support, installing ISR G2 routers with CUBE networking support, creating UCS server clustering solutions for survivability, and integration with Exchange and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Consulting
Progent’s certified Cisco network security consultants provide high-level PIX and ASA Firewall engineering support covering architecture, integration, and management of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Security Appliance Series of Cisco firewall products delivers robust user and software policy enforcement, mutlivector attack defense, and safe connectivity services. Ranging from compact, plug-and-play desktop devices for small and home offices to modular enterprise-level appliances, Cisco PIX Firewall and ASA Firewalls provide a high level of protection, performance, and high availability for IT systems of any size. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a proven, purpose-built operating system, minimizing common OS-specific security gaps.

Security Inventory and Assessment Packages
Progent's GIAC and CISA-certified security consultants can provide a range of cost-effective network security Inventory service bundles and security assessment packages designed to offer organizations of any size an opportunity to get an impartial look at the quality of their security profile. These packages range from ultra-affordable external network security scan and internal network security scan packages for small and midsize businesses up to a high-level security evaluation solution for corporations who have to comply with security standards required by government agencies or by vendors. For every security assessment package, consultants with high-level security credentials analyze and summarize collected information and provide suggestions for effective remediation.

SIP Infrastructure Solutions: SIP Trunks and Cisco CUBE Configuration Expertise
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified SIP trunk experts and Cisco CUBE integration experts can assist your business to design, integrate, manage, troubleshoot and upgrade Cisco's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) infrastructure solutions and Cisco's CUBE-based SIP trunks. Progent offers cost-effective remote or on-premises support to assist you to move efficiently to a productive unified communications ecosystem that offers accelerated ROI. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft collaboration experts can help you to configure connections between Cisco's CUBE SBC and Microsoft's VoIP and IP video applications like Skype for Business or Lync for access to a SIP-based IP PSTN trunk.

Consulting and Support Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise for Cisco Wireless Technology
Progent can provide a certified CCIE or Cisco Certified Network Professional to assist you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation plan that incorporates a wide array of wireless products and technologies and offers the identical protection, scalability, and manageability you demand from your wired environment. Progent can help you to implement seamless integration between Cisco wireless products and wireless devices and software from third-party suppliers to offer your company the features you need plus the most protected, reliable, and economical wireless networking solution available. Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security specialists can show you how to design security 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 network management technology along with a variety of specialized third-party applications to build a complete management automation strategy in order to keep your network running reliably, fully utilize limited resources, guard your information, recover quickly from hardware breakdown or malicious attacks, and enable you to add or reassign valuable resources intelligently and economically as your business evolves.

To learn additional details concerning Progent's consulting and support services for Cisco networking and security solutions, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.