Business Continuity Consulting for
Small and Midsize Business Computer Networks:
System Center Data Protection Manager
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) offers near-continuous backup and rapid recovery for environments centered on Microsoft technology. SCDPM provides small and mid-size organizations application-aware protection for key workloads such as Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange and SharePoint. SCDPM can be used to back up Windows and Linux virtual machines and supports VMs hosted on Hyper-V and VMware. SCDPM can back up and restore files, folders and volumes and can replicate and restore data between separate localities. For streamlined offsite backup, SCDPM can take advantage of Microsoft Azure Backup for temporary backup and the Azure Recovery Services vault for low-cost, long-term archival backup. (Learn about Progent's Microsoft Azure planning and cloud integration consulting services.)
Current versions of SCDPM include support for Windows Server 2019, SQL Server 2019, Exchange 2019, and SharePoint 2019. Current releases also feature greater storage efficiency, higher performance with tiered storage, support for ReFS volumes, offline Backup using Azure Data Box, and enhanced security.
Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting team can help businesses to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot a backup system built on System Center Data Protection Manager. Progent can assist you to upgrade from prior versions of Data Protection Manager or from a different backup platform, and Progent can tune your SCDPM environment for on-premises, hosted, cloud-based, or hybrid deployment models. Progent offers remote or onsite consulting expertise and can deliver as-needed help in resolving your most challenging issues, or end-to-end project management or co-management services to ensure your Data Protection Manager initiative is successfully completed on schedule and on budget.
Data Protection Manager Architecture
Microsoft designed Data Protection Manager with special attention to protecting Microsoft servers and workloads. By supporting Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) and other key protection features built into Microsoft servers and applications, SCDPM can transparently back up and rapidly restore Microsoft-specific entities such as Exchange DAG groups, the distributed components of SharePoint farms, and Windows Hyper-V Clustered Shared Volumes (CSVs). This allows administrators who are not experts in any or all of these technologies to recover data easily and accurately. SCDPM continuously protects the core Microsoft server workloads to a SCDPM server, which then allows disk-based recovery and tape-based, long-term archival storage for a complete backup and recovery solution. A single SCDPM server can support up to 800 virtual machines of 100 GB each and 3,000 Windows client computers.
Using System Center Data Protection Manager with Microsoft SQL Server
SCDPM can protect Microsoft SQL Server including SAP workloads, and handles advanced SQL Server cluster configurations. For enhanced reliability and performance, SCDPM supports the use of clustered SQL Server nodes for its database. DPM supports SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) using Cluster Shared Volume (CSV). SCDPM includes the ability to protect an entire instance of SQL Server so all new databases are protected automatically, expanded capacity to handle up to 2,000 databases, and a self-service restore capability that allows administrators to restore their own databases.
SCDPM can back up regular data files as well as the system state of a server, and it also works efficiently with servers that maintain databases/transactional log files. SCDPM is especially efficient as a backup and restore mechanism for Microsoft SQL Server because it intelligently integrates with the SQL Server VSS writers. Since SCDPM uses core VSS services, it will back up all files, open or not, to at least a snapshot recovery level. As a result, you never have to worry about open file issues. SCDPM can also protect SQL Server databases that use the AlwaysOn feature, including database clusters and SharePoint farm databases with SQL Server AlwaysOn enabled.
In between express full copy captures, the standard SQL Server transaction logging mechanism is used to offer up-to-the-minute protection. The log files themselves are replicated by SCDPM. In case a recovery is required, the most recent SCDPM differential backup can be combined with the most recent set of transaction logs to provide rapid restoration.
For information about Progent's Microsoft-certified support services for SQL Server, refer to Microsoft SQL Server Consulting.
Using System Center Data Protection Manager with Microsoft Exchange Server
Current versions of SCDPM support Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 and 2016, and can protect Exchange database availability groups (DAGs). SCDPM includes the ability to provide tailored, application-aware protection for Exchange Server and addresses a granularity problem that has historically been a major headache for Exchange administrators. Exchange backup APIs are designed to back up entire databases. However, if you want to restore an individual mailbox or public folder, you have in the past had two choices: either restore the entire database or switch to third-party mailbox-level backup tools. SCDPM allows you to protect one or more storage groups as a whole, while still giving you the ability to restore individual mailboxes.
SCDPM also offers 'lossless recovery' of Exchange Server data. This means that after SCDPM has restored your email databases to the latest recovery point, and updated all of the synchronized transaction logs, SCDPM can automatically reapply the surviving Exchange transaction logs from the production server to the very last committed email message, bringing the Exchange server completely forward.
SCDPM improves the performance of your Exchange Server by offloading the typical ESEUTIL operations that most backup applications impose on the production server. The SCDPM server takes car of this on the redundant data, conserving the bandwidth on the production Exchange Server.
To learn more about Progent's support for Microsoft Exchange Server, see Microsoft Exchange Server Consulting.
Using Data Protection Manager with Virtual Servers
SCDPM offers continuous protection for virtual machines (VMs) powered by Windows Server Hyper-V and through integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) can provide consistent protection even during a Hyper-V Live Migration process. For users of VMware, a way to reduce disaster recovery time drastically is to build an SCDPM server with enough CPU and RAM resources to create a system that allows you quick recovery from a failed virtual machine host server. Since the SCDPM server always has an exact replica of all the virtual machine guest files, in the event the virtual machine host fails, and by having a virtual server installed on the SCDPM server, you can choose to boot those replica images as running machines and take your time in restoring the original failed virtual machine host server. This means you could be up in minutes with all your virtual machine guests even with a complete failure of the original virtual machine host. Adding to the time savings, the entire operation can be accomplished remotely.
How Progent Can Help You Benefit from Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Progent's Microsoft-certified Data Protection Manager consultants can help you create practical recovery plans, design an affordable fault-tolerant network infrastructure, deploy a SCDPM-based backup and restore solution, thoroughly test your system, show your IT staff how to manage Microsoft SCDPM, or handle complete IT outsourcing services including off-site hosting of virtual or physical SCDPM servers in Progent's datacenter.
Progent's consultants can use industry best practices to help you:
- Define your recovery goals and establish a protection policy to meet them
- Design an efficient multi-site plus cloud network topology for SCDPM
- Configure Windows Server SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint to run with SCDPM
- Configure Protection Groups and Storage Pools
- Calculate and allocate disk space for backup
- Define custom volumes
- Install Protection Agents on computers inside and outside your firewall
- Integrate SCDPM with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
- Integrate SCDPM with Microsoft's Azure Backup for cloud-based protection
- Optimize backup and recovery performance
Progent's cybersecurity experts have earned prestigious certifications from internationally recognized network security institutions. Progent can provide the support of CISA-certified security audit consultants, CISM-certified security management experts, CISSP-certified cybersecurity professionals, GIAC-certified information assurance consultants, and CISSP-ISSAP certified security architecture experts. To be awarded credentials from these organizations, security consultants must have both proven experience and demonstrated knowledge of industry best practices for business continuity planning and disaster recovery. For more information about Progent's security engineers and their services, visit Network Security Services.
Non-stop Technologies Provided by Progent
Progent's certified support professionals can assist your company to create an efficient, zero-downtime IT architecture that addresses key issues covering a wide range of infrastructure solutions and operations including:
Business Continuity Planning
Progent's disaster recovery consultants can show you how to design a workplace recovery plan that will allow you to restore network operations in the event of an IT system disaster. Progent can help you to develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that incorporates periodic disaster recovery evaluations and testing. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-certified engineers can also help you build an affordable, fault-tolerant network solution that takes into account reliability issues involving a broad range of network technologies and processes. To find out more, visit Disaster Recovery Consulting.
CRISC-Premier Network Risk Control
The CRISC program was initiated by ISACA to verify an IT professional's skills to plan, implement, and maintain information system control mechanisms to mitigate network risk. Progent offers the expertise of a CRISC-certified consultant to assist you to develop and carry out a business continuity plan that follows industry best practices identified by CRISC and geared to align with your company's risk appetite, business objectives, and IT budget. For more information, see CRISC-Certified network risk management specialists.
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Fault-tolerant Failover Clustering
Windows Server 2019 introduced significant improvements in capacity, throughput, manageability, cybersecurity, app compatibility, Linux co-existence, container technology, and hybrid integration of on-premises and cloud-hosted resources. Headline enhancements of Windows Server 2019 are Windows Admin Center for unifying the management and monitoring of hybrid on-premises/cloud-hosted resources, System Insights for utilizing advance predictive intelligence to manage on-premises environments, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Exploit Guard for host-intrusion prevention, container networking using Kubernetes, Cluster Sets for building and managing massive high-availability scale-out clusters, and Microsoft's Storage Migration Service for streamlining the migration from legacy releases of Windows Server. For details, go to Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Fault-tolerant Failover Clustering Support.
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery consultants can help your organization to design a DR system based on Microsoft's latest Failover Clustering technologies such as Cluster Operating System Rolling Upgrade for non-disruptive migration to Windows Server 2016, Storage Replica for crash-consistent Recovery Point Objective (RPO), Storage Spaces Direct for high-performance network-attached storage using commodity hardware, VM Load Balancing for improving the performance and resilience of Failover Clusters while minimizing TCO and operational expenses, and Cloud Witness for fast, affordable deployment of a failover cluster quorum arbitration point. For details, see Microsoft Server 2016 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Help.
VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is an extension to VMware vCenter that lets you orchestrate, automate and test a consistent runbook for restoring applications and services quickly after an outage. SRM supports centrally managed and automated disaster recovery, application mobility, plus transparent site migration, failback and re-protect. Site Recovery Manager also enables non-disruptive testing for site recovery, upgrades and patches and can generate audit reports to verify full service recovery, validate SLAs and demonstrate disaster recovery compliance. Progent can provide the support of a VCDX certified VMware SRM consultant to assist your organization to design, deploy, test and manage a disaster recovery solution based on VMware Site Recovery Manager.
NetApp MetroCluster High Availability and Disaster Recovery Platform
NetApp MetroCluster is a high-availability and disaster recovery platform that combines failover storage clustering with replication to provide fast, zero data loss disaster recovery (DR) between sites located as far as 185 miles (300km) apart from each other. Progent can provide online or on-premises access to a NetApp MetroCluster consultant who can help you to plan, configure, administer, upgrade, test and troubleshoot a disaster recovery solution built around NetApp MetroCluster. Progent can help you to select a topology for your MetroCluster deployment that meets your technical needs and budget. Progent can ensure you follow best practices for configuring your MetroCluster environment by delivering guidance with procedures such as assigning disk pools, determining aggregate and plexes layout, setting up NetApp FlexVol volumes, setting up Data ONTAP configuration replication service, provisioning Cisco and Brocade switches, implementing a tiebreaker, setting up a configuration replication network between your peered clusters, and verifying your DR solution to show compliance with industry standards and regulatory mandates.
High Availability Load Balancing
Progent provides high availability load balancing consulting covering system load balancing, load balanced programs, network backbone routing, and content delivery products such as F5 Networks 3DNS. Non-stop load balancing solutions for which Progent offers consulting expertise include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Access Suite and Access Gateway, Cisco CSS, Cisco Distributed Director and ACNS, and F5 Networks BIG-IP. To find out more, see High Availability Load Balancing.
Zero Downtime Internet Data Centers
Progent's Data Center consultants can help you find fault-tolerant data centers that match the specific needs of your company. High availability Internet Data Centers are especially appealing to small and mid-size organizations because of their low cost and convenience compared to taking a do-it-yourself approach. Trying to design an on-site data center that offers even a minimum level of fault tolerance is financially prohibitive for the majority of small organizations. Progent is ready to help you reap all the advantages of 24x7 colo sites by providing a complete array of consulting and support services. To find out more, go to High-Availability Internet Data Centers Solutions.
Failsafe Inter-office Connectivity
Progent's multi-site connectivity consultants can help organizations create non-stop multi-site connections by means of redundant system architectures featuring automatic failover. Progent's Cisco-premier CCIE engineers can design and deploy ultra-reliable Inter-office connections supported by non-stop EIGRP network routers or zero-downtime OSPF configurations of Cisco routers. Progent can demonstrate how redundant connectivity and transparent fail-over can provide affordable non-stop interoffice connectivity. To read more, visit Failsafe Interoffice Networking.
Non-stop Internet Connections
Progent's Cisco-authorized network consultants can show you how to create an affordable, high availability Internet configuration solution that can deliver non-stop Internet connectivity via a broad array of fault tolerant Internet access technologies including non-stop BGP, transparent fail-over, and multiple ISPs. Progent offers Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert consultants to show you how to utilize the latest techniques for 24x7 Internet connections to create a cost-effective, completely redundant Internet network with automatic failover and other features to create fault tolerant Internet availability. To find out more, go to 24x7 Internet Connectivity Solutions.
Backup and Recovery Solutions Consulting Experts
Progent can provide economical online support from IT engineers skilled in a wide array of products and technologies that provide solutions for protecting Microsoft Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX physical and virtual servers and workstations plus notebooks and handhelds. Progent can provide consulting support for all major backup platforms including Acronis Backup and Recovery, Backup Exec, BackupAssist, HP Data Protector, Double-Take Software, Mozy, Retrospect for Macintosh, Apple Time Machine, vSphere Data Protection, and Oracle Solaris FLARs. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy, enhance, or troubleshoot backup systems for a variety of architectures such as local, edge to datacenter, cloud, or a mix. To read more, visit Backup and Restore Technology Consulting Services.
Barracuda Backup On-premises and Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is a low-cost, subscription-based backup and disaster recovery service for small and mid-size organizations. A Barracuda Backup deployment can include a purpose-built hardware appliance manufactured by Barracuda or a virtual appliance with comparable functionality but which uses your existing storage infrastructure. Barracuda Backup protects critical business data generated locally, at one or multiple remote sites, or in the cloud. For disaster protection, you can replicate data to the Barracuda Cloud, to Amazon AWS, or to any site with a physical or virtual Barracuda Backup appliance. Progent is a certified Barracuda partner and Progent's Barracuda Backup consulting experts can provide a wide range of consulting services to help your business to design, configure, operate and troubleshoot a BDR system built on Barracuda Backup. For additional information, see Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consulting.
ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup Software for Backup and Disaster Recovery
Hornetsecurity's Altaro VM Backup offers small businesses a reliable and budget-friendly platform for backing up and restoring Hyper-V and VMware-powered virtual machines (VMs). Altaro VM Backup can be deployed in local, offsite, multi-site, and cloud-hosted architectures and also supports cost-effective backup to Azure storage. Progent is a certified Altaro partner and offers a wide array of online or onsite services to help you to plan, install, manage and troubleshoot a modern backup/restore solution powered by Altaro VM Backup. With ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, Progent delivers a fully managed backup/restore service based on Altaro VM Backup. To read more, visit Altaro VM Backup consulting.
ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup Services for Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 offers simple archiving but does not have native support for crucial data protection capabilities such as Exchange backups or long-term point-in-time data recovery for OneDrive or SharePoint Online. Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Backup (previously branded Altaro O365 Backup) provides a full-featured BDR solution for programmable backup and rapid recovery of all your company's M365 mailboxes, Microsoft Teams Chats, SharePoint documents, OneDrive files, and content on Windows desktops and laptops. Progent is a certified Hornetsecurity/Altaro partner and has designed ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup to provide comprehensive managed services for Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Backup suite. ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup provides a low-cost backup-as-a-service (BaaS) solution that guards M365 components against data loss caused by user or system error, malevolent corruption, and cyber attacks such as ransomware. For more information, see ProSight DPS 365 Total Backup solutions for Microsoft 365.
Managed Cloud Backup: ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO
ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO provide small and mid-sized organizations a low cost end-to-end service for secure backup/disaster recovery (BDR). Available at a low monthly cost, ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO automates your backup activities and enable rapid restoration of critical files, applications and virtual machines that have become unavailable or corrupted due to hardware breakdowns, software glitches, natural disasters, human error, or malicious attacks like ransomware. ProSight DPS ECHO can help you protect, recover and restore files, folders, applications, system images, as well as Hyper-V and VMware images. Critical data can be protected on the cloud, to a local device, or mirrored to both. Progent's BDR consultants can deliver world-class expertise to configure ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO to be compliant with government and industry regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, FIRPA, and PCI and, whenever necessary, can assist you to recover your business-critical information. Read more about ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO managed backup.
ProSight Data Protection Services 360 Backup Solutions
Progent's data protection experts can help your company to design, deploy and troubleshoot a backup solution based on MSP360 technology. MSP360 offers file/folder or image backup/recovery for VMs and physical machines, supports all popular public clouds, and allows businesses to create a data protection solution with a minimum Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and a defined RPO. With ProSight DPS 360 Backup, Progent offers end-to-end monitoring and remote management of your backup environment to prevent data loss caused by human miscues, system glitches, ill-intentioned insiders, and external assaults such as ransomware. For more information, visit ProSight DPS 360 Backup solutions.
Consulting for Double-Take Software for Backup and Recovery
Double-Take Software publishes a selection of products designed to deliver small companies a variety of affordable alternatives for replicating and recovering vital applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, RIM Blackberry, and SharePoint. Progent's disaster recovery planning experts have in-depth backgrounds incorporating Double-Take Software products into small business IT systems to create a high level of fault tolerance and disaster recovery readiness at an affordable price. For more information, see Consulting Services Double-Take Software for Backup.
Why Pick Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning Solutions?
Because Progent is a Microsoft Partner and offers specialized application consulting for a wide variety of business software programs, Progent can help customers to arrive at complete information technology solutions that maximize the business value of your information system. As a Registered Partner for Cisco, Progent offers the expertise of certified engineers and specialists with experience in designing, deploying and managing networking solutions based on Cisco products. The breadth of Progent's technical know-how and Progent's appreciation for the needs of small and midsize companies make Progent a great resource for creating and running a cost-effective, high-availability network.
How You Can Contact Progent's Consultants for Help with High Availability Networks
If you wish to contact Progent about engineering support for high availability LAN design, call
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MSP360 Backup IT Consultants
Support Services MSP360 Server Backup
Progent can assist you to create, implement and administer a backup solution based on MSP360 Backup technology to protect your assets residing on any major public cloud. Progent can provide monitoring and management to protect against data loss caused by human miscues, computer glitches, malicious insiders, and external attacks like ransomware.
Emergency SMS 2003 Upgrade Support Outsourcing
Support and Setup SMS Migration
Progent's Microsoft experts offer small and medium size businesses world-class consulting services for SMS Server and System Center Configuration Manager, Microsoft's standard tools for change and configuration management. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is the new title for the update management platform previously called SMS Server. System Center Configuration Manager provides a range of enhancements to SMS Server 2003 such as comprehensive automation, built-in Vista Microsoft Windows Server 2008 awareness, quarantine support, and boot image management. Progent's certified engineers can show you how to use Systems Management Server or Configuration Manager effectively for automated OS and application installation, security patch administration, software tracking, and licensing compliance. Progent's consultants can also assist you to migrate smoothly from Microsoft Systems Management Server to System Center Configuration Manager.
PCLinuxOS Linux Technology Professional
Engineer PCLinuxOS Linux
Progent's Linux support experts provide small and mid-size businesses and developers assistance with administering and supporting Linux computers that operate with Microsoft-powered technology. Progent offers your business access to Linux experts, consulting professionals certified by Microsoft and Cisco, and security specialists with CISA credentials. This wide range of experience offers you a convenient one-stop source to help you create and manage a secure and robust mixed-platform network and communications environment that supports Linux and Microsoft interoperability by combining MS Windows with major Linux variations such as RedHat, SUSE Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu Linux, PCLOS, fedora Linux, Gentoo Linux, Mandrake, Debian-GNU, and Slackware.
ProSight Phishing Protection Professionals
ProSight Ransomware Defense Engineer
ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection solution that incorporates cutting edge behavior machine learning technology by SentinelOne to guard endpoint devices as well as servers and VMs against modern malware attacks such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools. ProSight ASM protects on-premises and cloud resources and offers a unified platform to automate the entire malware attack lifecycle including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key features include one-click rollback with Windows VSS and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats.
Consulting Services Windows 8
Consultant Services Windows 8.1 Upgrade
Progent's Microsoft-certified experts can deliver a variety of network consulting services to assist companies of any size to install, administer, and troubleshoot environments that include desktops, laptops, tablets, or smartphones powered by Windows 8.1. For larger organizations, Progent's experienced project managers can assist to create test labs to assess Microsoft Windows 8.1 and plan and manage Windows 8.1 deployment plans based on leading practices.
Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Troubleshooting
Microsoft 365 Technology Consulting Services
Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of productivity applications and cloud services offered on a monthly or annual subscription basis. Microsoft 365 applications and cloud services are offered in a variety of product bundles intended for markets from students and home offices to enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote access to consultants with expertise in Microsoft, macOS, iOS, and Android platforms. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the many subscription options available with Microsoft 365 and integrate your information network with Microsoft 365 in a way that delivers maximum business value. Progent offers expertise with cross-platform networks that incorporate Windows, macOS or OS X, and Linux software. Progent can also help you to create and manage hybrid solutions that seamlessly integrate on-premises and cloud resources.
MS SQL 2008 Technical Support Services
SQL Server 2008 Professional
Progent's Microsoft-Certified SQL engineers can provide an array of support services to assist small and midsize businesses to plan, implement, manage, and repair Microsoft SQL Server 2008 solutions so that they gain the optimum competitive benefit from Microsoft's state-of-the-art information management technology. In addition, Progent offers consulting expertise for network architecture, company-wide protection, and application development to optimize the business benefit of your computer network.
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