Technology News and Progent Solutions

Cisco introduced innovative solutions targeted specifically for small company IT networks and designed to deliver exceptional levels of protection and collaboration for an affordable price. Products introduced by Cisco included the Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker, the Small Business series NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the latest release of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS).

The Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker is a purpose-built email security device that virtually eliminates email threats right out of the box. The Cisco NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are affordable small-footprint network-attached storage devices that offer security for valuable information and allow employees to exchange files effortlessly. Cisco's SBCS Release 1.4, a complete sharing and communications system that easily connects sites, workers, and clients however dispersed. The current version features the industry's debut of a wireless small-footprint VoIP handset with Bluetooth capabilities. To read Cisco's press release, refer to Cisco Introduces Security and Collaboration Products for Small Businesses.

Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker
The Spam Blocker protects small companies by providing powerful protection against junk mail, viruses and phishing as well as other email attacks to guard your network and business data while enhance productivity. Because the appliance stops spam and viruses with minimal set up and stays current on its own, it eliminates the expense and hassle required for setup and ongoing and administration. By eliminating spam, Cisco's Spam Blocker appliance helps the performance of network connections, servers, and computers. The Spam Blocker appliance represents an end-to-end solution email attacks by featuring hardware, intelligent software, continuous updates, and technical support in a unified package.

Key features of the Spam and Virus Blocker include:

• Accuracy: Helps to ensure that email attacks and spam are intercepted while business email is accepted.
• Ongoing self-installed updates: Constant communication with SenderBase services, a network database of email security risks, makes sure that your Cisco Spam Blocker appliance incorporates the latest updates to guard your business email.
• Easy setup and use: User-friendly web-based setup wizards permit you to install Cisco's Spam Blocker in nearly any network within 15 minutes, delivering immediate security for your business network.
• Streamlined management: As soon as your company deploys the the Spam Blocker, you benefit from spam and virus protection with minimal extra hassle demanded of your network support staff.

NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems
The Cisco NSS2000 and 3000 Network Storage Systems offer the dependable protection and advanced data backup features that your business needs, at a cost small businesses can afford. The Small Business NSS3000 supports up to four terabytes of data and as many as 15 concurrent users per chassis, provides the ideal solution for holding, sharing, and archiving your mission-critical business information. Unlike less sophisticated NAS alternatives, the Cisco NSS3000 delivers the state-of-the-art archiving, cryptography, user validation, and service continuity your company needs.

The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage System Chassis handles any approved hard drive. It offers a wealth of capabilities in a desktop-size footprint designed specifically for small organizations. The NSS3000 Storage System Chassis also offers your company the versatility to configure the product without any attached drives, to reconfigure it at any time, and to link multiple NAS chassis with one another, providing a platform that can continually grow with your company.

Your company can utilize the Cisco Small Business NSS2000 or 3000 Network Storage Systems to:

• Intelligently back up important information from each workstation and application server in your company
• Offer unified storage and distribution of key information
• Run Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to copy automatically every revision of each file saved by workers, permitting you to recover data with ease
• Record and archive video from your video security cameras

Cisco Smart Business Communications System
The Smart Business Communications System Version 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and comprehensive collaboration and communications solution that enables small businesses to connect at-home workers, mobile workers and office workers in disparate sites to improve their ability to interact with clients and teammates. In the latest release, the affordable system has improved wireless features including the industry's first wireless desktop IP phone with Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G wireless IP device, which allows companies to expand cost-effectively by deploying phones in locations where conventional phone lines or Ethernet cables are missing or cannot conveniently be run.

Additional new pieces of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Release 1.4 are:

• Cisco's 520 Secure Router to help guard a small business infrastructure and provide workers secure access to the Internet and key business information from inside or outside the office
• The Cisco Configuration Assistant Release 1.9 to permit partners to streamline the configuration and deployment of solutions created custom for certain businesses

How Progent's Cisco-certified Professionals Can Help You to Benefit from Cisco Networking Solutions
Progent's Cisco support professionals and CCIE accredited networking experts can help your company to evaluate the latest Cisco technologies to understand their usefulness for your IT system, deploy Cisco appliances to enhance the security and efficiency of your information network, and maintain Cisco devices both onsite and online to keep your network running smoothly. Progent's consultants can provide a range of cost-effective services to improve the dependability, protection, speed, and maintainability of your company's IT system:

Quick Online Access to Cisco CCIE Engineers
Progent is the leading source of easy, immediate, and economical support from registered CCIE engineers. Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts are recognized networking experts who are awarded this prestigious classification only after strenuous examination by Cisco. CCIEs can tackle even the most challenging issues surrounding IT network design, deployment, repair, and maintenance. Progent’s CCIE consultants work closely with Cisco in-house staff in analyzing problems with Cisco's IOS platform and finding workarounds or acquiring software updates to correct anomalies. Progent gives you immediate access to a CCIE by phone so that you are able to receive emergency assistance for complex network troubles that are undermining worker productivity but are outside the expertise of your local network service providers. Progent's CCIE support engineers can link to your environment using state-of-the-art off-site connectivity technology in order to provide timely and affordable 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 consultants can help you to configure, manage, and debug Cisco IP phones, desktop video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide expertise for all versions of Cisco's IP phones from discontinued Voice over IP products to the newest media phones. Progent's IP telephony experts can also help your organization to integrate your VoIP phones and video IP phones with Cisco Unified CM, formerly known as CallManager, or with Unified CM Express to build a state-of-the-art IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and company-wide collaboration. Progent's consultants can deliver support with all aspects of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including reviewing dial plans, solving QoS, configuring SIP gateways, deploying ISR routers with CUBE VoIP networking support, and designing UCS server failover and Cisco SRST solutions for survivability. For additional details concerning Progent's support for Cisco's Unified Communications solutions, visit Cisco IP Telephony and Unified Communications Consulting Expertise.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Collaboration
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), formerly named CallManager, functions as the core of Cisco's collaboration platform. Unified CM and Unified Communications Manager Express offer an advanced IP-PBX by integrating with unified messaging applications like Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service with Jabber support, Unity Connection for voicemail, Cisco Unified Mobility for Single Number Reach (SNR), and Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) for building a highly automated customer contact solution. Progent's CCIE-certified CUCM and CallManager consultants can help with any aspect of Unified Communications Manager configuration and troubleshooting in areas that include integrating Cisco Voice over IP phones and desktop video phones, reviewing dial plans, configuring SIP trunking and PSTN calling, installing ISR routers with CUBE networking support, designing Cisco UCS server clustering solutions for survivability, and integration with Microsoft Exchange and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Support
Progent’s certified Cisco IT security consultants offer expert PIX and ASA Firewall consulting services covering architecture, 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, sophisticated attack defense, and safe access services. Ranging from economical, plug-and-play desktop appliances for small and home offices to scalable gigabit appliances, Cisco PIX Firewall and ASA Firewalls provide advanced security, high throughput, and excellent reliability for network environments of any size. PIX Firewalls and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, purpose-built operating system, minimizing common OS-specific security holes.

Security Inventory and Evaluation Packages
Progent's GIAC and CISA-premier security engineers can deliver a range of cost-effective network security Inventory service packages and security evaluation bundles designed to give businesses of any size an opportunity to receive an impartial look at the strength of their protection profile. These packages vary from low-cost external network security scan and internal security scan options for small businesses up to a high-end network security assessment package for enterprises who have to meet security standards demanded by government regulators or by vendors. For each security inventory or evaluation bundle, consultants with high-level security accreditations analyze and summarize scanned data and make recommendations for effective remediation.

SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Configuration Consulting
Progent's Cisco-certified SIP trunk consultants and CUBE integration consultants can assist you to plan, deploy, manage, troubleshoot and enhance Cisco's SIP infrastructure solutions and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-based SIP trunks. Progent offers cost-effective online or on-premises support to help companies to migrate efficiently to an advanced communications environment that delivers fast return on investment. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft unified communications consultants can help you to establish connections between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's rich media platforms such as Skype for Business Server and Lync for access to a SIP-based IP PSTN trunk.

Consulting Consulting and Troubleshooting Services for Cisco Wireless Infrastructure
Progent can give you access to 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 devices and technologies and provides the identical protection, scalability, and manageability you expect from your wired network. Progent can assist you to implement transparent integration between Cisco wireless technology and wireless devices and software from third-party suppliers to give your company the functionality you require plus the most protected, reliable, and economical WLAN solution available. Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security specialists can show you how to design security into your wireless network and your company's processes.

Simplified Management Solutions for Cisco-powered Small Business Networks
Progent's Cisco-Premier network management consultants offer assistance with Cisco's management technology along with a selection of specialized third-party products to build a comprehensive management automation solution in order to keep your environment running reliably, fully utilize limited resources, protect your information, revive rapidly from hardware failure or malicious assaults, and enable you to expand or reassign valuable components intelligently and economically as your business grows.

For more information concerning Progent's support for Cisco connectivity and communications technology, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.