IT Technology News and Progent Solutions

Cisco announced new products targeted specifically for small company IT networks and engineered to deliver outstanding security and collaboration at an affordable cost. Products unveiled by Cisco included Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker, the Small Business series NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems, and the newest release of Cisco's Smart Business Communications System (SBCS).

The Cisco Spam Blocker is a purpose-built email security device that virtually eliminates email threats with no set up. Cisco's NSS2000 and NSS3000 Small Business Network Storage Systems are economical desktop network-attached storage (NAS) appliances that provide security for important data and allow workers to access shared files effortlessly. The Cisco SBCS Release 1.4, a full collaboration and communications solution that seamlessly interconnects sites, employees, and clients however dispersed. The latest version features the first cordless 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 and Virus Blocker Appliance
The Spam Blocker appliance safeguards small companies by providing powerful protection against spam, viruses and phishing as well as other email attacks to guard your network and business information while enhance efficiency. Because the appliance blocks spam with minimal set up and updates on its own, it eliminates the cost and time associated setup and continuing and management. By eliminating unwanted email, Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker appliance increases the throughput of networks, servers, and computers. The Spam and Virus Blocker appliance is an end-to-end solution email attacks by featuring a physical appliance, software, continuous patches, and product assistance in a unified package.

Notable benefits of the Spam Blocker include:

• Precision: Helps to ensure that email-borne attacks and spam are caught and business messages are delivered.
• Continuous self-installed patches: Non-stop interaction with SenderBase services, an online library of email security risks, ensures that your Spam & Virus Blocker incorporates the most current patches to protect your business email.
• Easy setup and use: User-friendly browser-based setup tools allow you to configure Cisco's Spam and Virus Blocker in practically any environment in 15 minutes, providing instant security for your network.
• Streamlined management: From the moment your company installs the the Spam and Virus Blocker, you get spam and malware filtering with minimal extra effort required of your IT group.

Small Business NSS2000 and NSS3000 Network Storage Systems
The NSS2000 and NSS3000 provide the robust protection and comprehensive backup capabilities that your company needs, at a cost small businesses can afford. The Cisco Small Business NSS3000 accommodates up to 4 terabytes of data and up to 15 simultaneous users on each enclosure, provides the ideal answer for holding, accessing, and backing up your mission-critical business data. Unlike entry-level NAS alternatives, the Cisco Small Business NSS3000 provides the advanced archiving, cryptography, user authentication, and service continuity your company needs.

The Small Business NSS3000 4-Bay Gigabit Storage enclosure handles any certified hard disk drive. The enclosure provides a wealth of features in a desktop form factor designed specifically for small businesses. The Small Business NSS3000 Storage Chassis also gives your business the versatility to deploy the product without any attached hard disk drives, to modify the product easily, and to link multiple Cisco NAS chassis together, providing a solution that can continually grow with your company.

Your business can use the Cisco Small Business NSS2000 or NSS3000 to:

• Automatically copy important data from each PC and application server on your network
• Provide centralized storage and sharing of key files
• Employ Continuous Data Protection to back up automatically each revision of every file saved by employees, permitting your business to recover data with ease
• Store and save digital video from your company's video security cameras

Smart Business Communications System
The Smart Business Communications System Version 1.4 is an easy-to-manage and complete sharing and communications solution that enables small organizations to connect at-home workers, mobile workers and office workers in disparate locations to enhance their options to communicate with customers and colleagues. In Release 1.4, the aggressively priced system offers enhanced wireless capabilities including the industry's first wireless desktop VoIP handset with Bluetooth, the SPA525G wireless IP device, which enables companies to grow easily by installing handsets in locations where conventional telephone lines or Ethernet cables are not present or cannot conveniently be added.

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

• The Cisco 520 Secure Router to help protect the company's network and give workers secure access to the Internet and key business data from inside or outside the office
• Cisco's Configuration Assistant Release 1.9 to enable stakeholders to streamline the configuration and deployment of solutions designed custom for certain companies

How Progent's Cisco-certified Professionals Can Help Your Business to Get the Most Out of Cisco Networking Technology
Progent's Cisco-qualified consultants and Cisco CCIE network engineers can assist you to assess new Cisco technologies to determine their appropriateness for your IT system, install Cisco solutions to enhance the protection and performance of your information network, and maintain Cisco products both onsite and remotely to keep your network running smoothly. Progent's consulting experts can provide a variety of low-cost support services to enhance the dependability, security, speed, and maintainability of your information network:

Quick Access to Cisco CCIE Certified Network Engineers
Progent is the premier provider of convenient, quick, and economical support from Cisco CCIE consultants. CCIEs are elite networking experts who earn this prestigious accreditation only as a result of intense testing by Cisco. CCIEs can resolve even the most complicated issues encountered with network infrastructure architecture, setup, repair, and support. Progent’s CCIE consultants cooperate closely with Cisco engineers in analyzing problems with Cisco's IOS software and developing workarounds or obtaining software updates to resolve anomalies. Progent your company fast contact with a CCIE by telephone 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 IT service resources. Progent's CCIE support experts can link to your network via state-of-the-art off-site connectivity tools in order to provide timely and cost-effective diagnosis and repair of critical network difficulties.

Cisco VoIP Phone and IP Video Phone Integration
Progent's Cisco VoIP phone and video IP phone consultants can help you to integrate, manage, and troubleshoot Cisco IP phones, video IP phones and wireless IP phones. Progent can provide expertise for all versions of Cisco's IP phones from legacy Voice over IP products to the latest HD media phones. Progent's IP telephony experts can also help your organization to integrate your IP phones with Cisco Unified CM, originally named CallManager, or with Unified CM Express (CME) to build a modern IP-PBX environment for unified messaging and collaboration. Progent can provide expertise with all aspects of Cisco VoIP Phone integration including designing dial plans, resolving IP phone registration issues, configuring SIP gateways, installing ISR routers with CUBE internetworking capability, and creating Cisco UCS server clustering and Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony solutions for high availability. For more information on Progent's support for Cisco's IP voice and video technology, see Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications Consulting Expertise.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco CallManager Unified Messaging
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), formerly named CallManager, is the center of Cisco's collaboration platform. Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express offer a borderless IP-PBX by integrating with unified messaging apps that include Cisco Unified CM IM and Presence Service, Unity Express (CUE) for voicemail management, Cisco Unified Mobility for Single Number Reach, and Cisco Contact Center Express (Unified CCX or CCX) for creating a highly automated customer contact center. Progent's Cisco-certified CUCM experts can help with any aspect of CUCM setup and debugging in areas that include integrating Cisco Voice over IP phones and desktop video IP phones, reviewing dial plans, configuring SIP trunking and PSTN calling, installing ISR routers with CUBE networking support, designing UCS server clustering systems for high availability, and integration with Microsoft Exchange Server and Skype for Business.

Cisco ASA Firewall and PIX Firewall Consulting Expertise
Progent’s experienced Cisco network security consultants provide high-level PIX and ASA Firewall engineering services including infrastructure design, integration, and support of Cisco firewall and Cisco security technology. The PIX and ASA Series of Cisco firewall products delivers robust user and software policy enforcement, sophisticated attack defense, and safe access services. Ranging from compact, plug-and-play desktop appliances for small and home offices to scalable enterprise-level appliances, Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls provide advanced protection, high throughput, and excellent reliability for IT systems of any size. PIX Firewalls and ASA Firewalls are based on a hardened, purpose-built platform, eliminating possible OS-specific security gaps.

Security Inventory and Evaluation Packages
Progent's CISM and CISSP-certified security consultants can deliver a variety of budget-friendly network security Inventory service bundles and security assessment bundles designed to give businesses of all sizes a chance to get a professional look at the effectiveness of their protection profile. The packages vary from low-cost external security scan and internal network security scan options for small businesses up to a high-end network security evaluation solution for corporations who have to comply with security levels demanded by government regulators or by vendors. For each security inventory or evaluation bundle, engineers with top security credentials analyze and report on scanned information and make recommendations for effective improvements.

SIP Connectivity Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Configuration Consulting
Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified SIP trunk consultants and Cisco CUBE configuration experts can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, debug and enhance Cisco's SIP infrastructure technology and Cisco's CUBE-connected SIP trunks. Progent offers affordable remote or onsite expertise to assist you to move efficiently to a modern communications network that delivers accelerated return on investment. Progent's Gold-certified Microsoft collaboration experts can help you to establish interfaces between Cisco's CUBE Session Border Controller and Microsoft's rich media applications such as Skype for Business Server and Lync Server for access to a SIP-based IP PSTN trunk.

Consulting and Support Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise for Cisco Wireless Products
Progent can give you access to a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) or Cisco Certified Network Professional to help you to develop a comprehensive wireless network design and implementation strategy that integrates a broad range of wireless devices and technologies and offers the identical protection, scalability, and manageability you demand from your wired network. Progent can help you to achieve seamless interoperability between Cisco wireless products and wireless technology from other suppliers to offer your business the features you need plus the most protected, dependable, and cost-effective WLAN system possible. Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security professionals can advise you about how to build protection into your wireless network and into your company's processes.

Automated Administration Tools for Cisco-powered IT Network Infrastructure
Progent's Cisco-Premier network consultants can provide help with Cisco's network management utilities alongside a variety of specialized third-party products to create a comprehensive management automation strategy in order to keep your network running reliably, conserve expensive resources, guard your data, recover quickly from device breakdown or deliberate attacks, and enable you to expand or repurpose network components intelligently and affordably as your company evolves.

For additional details about Progent's support services for Cisco connectivity and security products, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.