Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Cisco announced innovative solutions intended specifically for small business IT networks and engineered to provide outstanding protection and connectivity for a budget-friendly price. Solutions announced by Cisco were the Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker, the NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the newest version of Cisco's Smart Business Communications System.

The Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker is a dedicated spam, virus, and phishing filter security product that essentially eliminates email-based attacks right out of the box. Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are economical small-footprint network-attached storage devices that provide protection for valuable data and enable employees to access shared files effortlessly. The Cisco Smart Business Communications System Release 1.4, a complete sharing and communications system that easily connects offices, workers, and customers however dispersed. The latest release features the first wireless desktop Internet Protocol (IP) phone with Bluetooth wireless support. To see Cisco's news release, visit Cisco Unveils Networking Solutions for Small Companies.

Cisco Spam and Virus Blocker
The Spam Blocker appliance safeguards small businesses by providing extensive protection against spam, viruses and worms as well as other email threats to secure your network and business data while improve productivity. Since the device stops spam right out of the box and stays current on its own, it does away with the expense and hassle associated setup and ongoing and administration. By eliminating spam, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker helps the performance of network connections, application servers, and workstations. The Spam Blocker appliance represents a comprehensive solution email-born attacks by featuring hardware, intelligent software, continuous patches, and product assistance in a single package.

Key features of the Spam Blocker appliance are:

• Precision: Assists to ensure that email attacks and spam are intercepted while legitimate email is delivered.
• Ongoing automatic updates: Constant communication with SenderBase services, a network database of email safety threats, ensures that your Spam & Virus Blocker appliance incorporates the most current updates to protect your corporate email.
• Easy setup and use: User-friendly web-based installation wizards allow you to install the Spam and Virus Blocker in practically any environment within 15 minutes, providing immediate security for your business.
• Effortless administration: As soon as your company deploys the the Spam and Virus Blocker appliance, you get junk mail and malware protection with minimal extra effort required of your IT group.

Cisco Small Business NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems
The Cisco Small Business NSS2000 and 3000 offer the dependable security and advanced backup features that your company needs, at a price small organizations can handle. The Cisco NSS3000 supports as much as to 4 terabytes of data and as many as 15 simultaneous users on each chassis, provides the optimal solution for holding, sharing, and archiving your vital business data. Unlike less advanced NAS systems, the Cisco Small Business NSS3000 delivers the state-of-the-art backup, encryption, client validation, and service continuity your organization requires.

The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 four-Bay Gigabit Storage Chassis handles any approved hard disk drive. The chassis offers a wealth of features in a desktop-size footprint designed for small businesses. The Cisco NSS3000 Storage enclosure also provides your company the versatility to configure the system without any attached hard drives, to reconfigure the product at any time, and to link multiple Cisco NAS chassis with one another, offering a platform that can smoothly grow with your company.

Your business can utilize the Cisco Small Business NSS2000 or 3000 to:

• Intelligently copy important data from every workstation and server in your organization
• Provide unified storage and sharing of important files
• Employ Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to back up unattended every version of every file archived by employees, permitting you to recover files quickly
• Store and archive video from your company's video security cameras

Smart Business Communications System (SBCS)
The Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Release 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and complete collaboration and communications solution that enables small businesses to interconnect telecommuters, on-the-road workers and office workers in separate sites to improve their options to interact with customers and teammates. In Release 1.4, the affordable solution offers enhanced wireless capabilities such as the first wireless desktop IP handset with Bluetooth technology, the SPA525G VoIP phone, which enables businesses to expand easily by adding handsets in places where traditional telephone lines or Ethernet cables are missing or cannot easily be added.

Additional innovative pieces of the Smart Business Communications System 1.4 version are:

• Cisco's 520 Secure Router product to help protect the company's network and give workers secure connectivity to the Internet and key business data from either side of the firewall
• The Configuration Assistant v. 1.9 to allow stakeholders to streamline the setup and deployment of solutions created specifically for individual businesses

How Progent's Consulting Engineers Can Help Your Company to Deploy Cisco Networking Technology
Progent's Cisco support professionals and CCIE network engineers can help your company to evaluate the latest Cisco products to determine their usefulness for your IT system, deploy Cisco security and communication platforms to improve the security and efficiency of your network, and provide tech support for Cisco devices both in person and remotely to keep your IT network operating smoothly. Progent's consultants can provide a range of low-cost support services to enhance the reliability, safety, speed, and manageability of your company's IT system:

Quick Online Access to Cisco CCIE Certified Engineers
Progent can provide easy, quick, and affordable help from registered CCIE support professionals. CCIEs are highly-qualified networking gurus who earn this top-level accreditation only through thorough examination by Cisco. CCIEs are able to tackle the most challenging issues encountered with network architecture, implementation, repair, and service. Progent's CCIE consultants interact intimately with Cisco in-house staff in analyzing issues with Cisco's IOS software and developing fixes or acquiring software updates to correct anomalies. Progent gives you immediate contact with a CCIE by phone so that you can get urgent assistance for complex network troubles that are impacting business efficiency but are outside the expertise of your ordinary IT support providers. Progent's CCIE consulting professionals can access your network via state-of-the-art off-site connectivity technology in order to deliver fast and cost-effective analysis and repair of urgent infrastructure problems.

Cisco Voice over IP Phone and IP Video Phone Solutions
Progent's Cisco VoIP phone and video IP phone consultants can help you to configure, maintain, and debug Cisco VoIP phones, desktop video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent offers expertise for all models of Cisco's IP phones from legacy Voice over IP devices to the newest HD media phones. Progent's consultants can also assist you to integrate your VoIP phones and video IP phones with Unified CM, previously branded CallManager, or with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (CME) to create a modern IP-PBX ecosystem for unified messaging and company-wide collaboration. Progent can deliver expertise with any facet of Cisco IP Phone integration including reviewing dial plans, resolving QoS, setting up SIP gateways, deploying Cisco ISR routers with CUBE internetworking capability, and designing Cisco UCS server clustering and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) solutions for high availability. For more details about Progent's services for Cisco's collaboration technology, refer to Cisco Voice over IP and Unified Communications Engineering Services.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), originally branded CallManager, acts as the heart of Cisco's collaboration portfolio. Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified CM Express provide an advanced IP-PBX solution by integrating with unified messaging applications that include Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service, Cisco Unity Connection for voicemail, Mobile Connect for Single Number Reach (SNR), and Cisco Contact Center Express (Unified CCX or CCX) for creating an advanced customer contact solution. Progent's CCIE-certified CUCM and CallManager consultants can assist with any aspect of CUCM setup and troubleshooting in areas that include integrating VoIP phones and video phones, designing dial plans, configuring SIP trunking and PSTN support, installing ISR routers with CUBE networking support, creating UCS server failover systems for survivability, and integration with Microsoft Exchange Server.

Cisco ASA Firewall and PIX Firewall Support
Progent's experienced Cisco IT security consulting professionals offer expert PIX and ASA Firewall engineering services including infrastructure design, configuration, and support of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Series of Cisco firewall products delivers strong user and software policy enforcement, sophisticated attack defense, and safe connectivity services. Ranging from economical, plug-and-play desktop devices for small and home offices to modular enterprise-grade products, Cisco PIX Firewall and ASA Firewalls offer a high level of security, performance, and high availability for network environments of any size. PIX and ASA Firewalls are based on a proven, purpose-built platform, eliminating possible OS-specific security holes.

Security Inventory and Evaluation Packages
Progent's GIAC and CISA-certified security engineers can deliver a range of cost-effective security Inventory service bundles and network security assessment service bundles designed to offer businesses of any size a chance to receive a professional look at the strength of their protection environment. These packages vary from ultra-affordable external network security scan and internal network security scan options for small and midsize companies up to a high-end network security assessment solution for institutions who have to comply with security levels demanded by government agencies or by customers. For each security assessment package, engineers with high-level security credentials analyze and summarize collected information and make suggestions for effective remediation.

Cisco SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Integration Expertise
Progent's Cisco-certified SIP trunk experts and CUBE configuration experts can help organizations of any size to design, deploy, manage, debug and upgrade Cisco's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) infrastructure technology and Cisco's CUBE (Cisco Unified Border Element)-connected SIP trunks. Progent offers cost-effective online or on-premises expertise to help you to move efficiently to a productive unified communications network that delivers accelerated return on investment. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft unified communications 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 and Lync for access to a SIP PSTN trunk.

Consulting Consulting and Troubleshooting Services for Cisco Wireless Products
Progent can give you access to a certified CCIE or Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) to help you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation plan that incorporates a wide range of wireless products and technologies and provides the same protection, expandability, and ease of management you expect from a wired environment. Progent can assist you to implement transparent integration between Cisco wireless products and wireless technology from third-party suppliers to give your company the features you need as well as the most protected, dependable, and cost-effective WLAN solution available. Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security professionals can show you how to design security into your WLAN and into your business processes.

Automated Administration Tools for Cisco-powered Small Business Networks
Progent's Cisco-Premier network management consultants can provide help with Cisco's network management technology alongside a selection of powerful third-party applications to create a complete network management strategy to keep your environment operating reliably, conserve expensive resources, protect your data, recover quickly from hardware failure or deliberate attacks, and enable you to add or repurpose valuable resources intelligently and economically as your company grows.

To learn additional details about Progent's consulting support for Cisco connectivity and communications products, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.