Brooklyn At Home Workers Configuration Consulting Experts

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a significant impact on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Brooklyn company to select the right tools and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers top business value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand guidance for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to full project management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Brooklyn, New York businesses to with any aspect of building a high-performing work-from-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be particularly complex if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote help for both outdated and current technologies in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authenticated at-home workers to use IT resources located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a teleworker to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This gives network managers substantial control over the computing environment of at-home employees and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote support for configuring home routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by an entire household and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can create performance and security issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these issues by delivering services that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Vital applications may require backup Internet access in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying ISPs, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company PBX environment to accommodate remote users is vital to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the flexibility, transparency and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional mixed media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, see CUCM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your wide area network architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed deployment and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities such as voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these products and help your business to tune your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can assist your company to tune these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your at-home workers.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven access to data, business processes, and utilities for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build protected web portals that enables remote workforce to see and update aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint configuration and application development consulting.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to deployment consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them safely through a web browser. Included with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-author files. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote support for enabling organizations to build, manage and optimize cohesive network models that combine physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading family of cloud services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish protected connections to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services available by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and households to major corporations. Progent offers fast and easy online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's leading source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-availability network architecture so your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud is a popular suite of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify identity control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist your business to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A fast, organization-wide transition to a telecommuter business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk support services utilize Progent's extensive team of online IT support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or revise the status of their current tickets, enter details, and append screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. For details, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables you to augment your existing Help Desk staff by splitting delivery of Help Desk services transparently between your in-house IT support staff and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collective support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for handling help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class desktop support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers commonly use their personal computers and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user education, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of IT security support consultants can assist your business to design, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that protects critical IT resources in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile users, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall devices permit you to configure and manage different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as network attacks become more complex. Progent supports both new and older firewall appliances from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices utilized by at-home workers and either block or identify and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on each protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the impacted device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay secure even when they are offline. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA managed services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and give your password you are asked to verify your identity on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this second form of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate multiple verification devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis scanning for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your workflows and governance policies and assess your WAN architecture to enable you to implement top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper about critical things to focus on for protecting a network that supports telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage system failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must address multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from consultants familiar with a broad array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically envision circumstances that call for a quick changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can help you to produce, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized solution for safeguarding critical information by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share information, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and erase corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For information about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, visit Intune teleworker endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a one-time purchase. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Brooklyn, New York organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.