Miami Offsite Workforce Connectivity Consulting

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on network architecture, security, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience helping SMBs to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and debug IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Miami company to select the appropriate technologies and follow best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent offers support services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you over occasional technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Miami, Florida companies to with any facet of building a high-functioning work-at-home environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the network infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially complicated if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote support for both outdated as well as modern IT products in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authorized remote employees to access IT resources situated at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a wide range of devices such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow an at-home worker to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for configuring home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by families and guests, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by delivering services like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Business-critical processes may demand backup Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for identifying ISPs, choosing appropriate service packages, and setting up redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for At-Home Workers
Extending the corporate PBX system to include telecommuters is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice service that provides the versatility, convenience and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to help businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed across the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, refer to Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, see CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver on-demand configuration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide range of video conferencing products from major technology companies enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can assist you to manage your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional IP video products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities such as voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these products and assist you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can assist your company to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to facilitate collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based access to content, business processes, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that enables remote workers to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, go to SharePoint configuration and 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 support services, go to integration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can access them safely via a web browser. Included with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to jointly author files. Edits made offline are synced when you go back online. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers fast and affordable online support for enabling organizations to build, maintain and optimize cohesive hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branches, and cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected access to Azure services for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, go to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers quick and affordable online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help your business to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional help to get you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline identity control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's experts can also assist you to utilize GCP's unified management technology to control and monitor your GCP environment. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, company-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be driven by an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 PC technical support from help requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to monitor or edit the status of their active tickets, add details, and append screen captures or relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve complex issues. To learn more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables you to augment your existing Call Center organization by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk support services seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service uses a collaborative support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to provide best-in-class technical support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for At-Home Workers
At-home workers typically utilize their own computing devices and often work in a poorly secured physical environment. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for careful deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough user education, and the creation of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to design, configure and manage an effective security solution that protects critical information assets in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users and by telecommuters, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and control appropriate access rights to various groups of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration services, refer to firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices used by teleworkers and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the infected endpoint device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and give your password you are requested to verify who you are on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register several verification devices. To learn more about Duo identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be provided by security professionals with top certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your processes and governance policies and review your WAN infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides maximum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's threat analysis services based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper describing critical things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves saving and restoring critical data in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must address diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick remote help from experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and features granular restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically envision circumstances that require a quick changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help your company to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for protecting critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share information, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and delete sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For information about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, go to Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment through a one-time purchase. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient work-from-home environment for your Miami, Florida business, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.