Fault Tolerant Internet ConsultingConnectivity to the Internet has emerged as a mission-critical capability for many small businesses. The use of the Internet to distribute information has mushroomed to the point that many organizations are unable to perform day-to-day functions without Internet connectivity.

Traditional applications such as internal email clearly lose much of their value when they can’t be used to communicate with customers or vendors, but as organizations increasingly adopt Internet-based information delivery for line-of-business applications, even core functions can grind to a halt when Internet access becomes unavailable.

Until recently, only large organizations could afford to build fully redundant and transparent Internet connections that could survive a failed Internet link or router. Such seamless fault tolerance requires T1-class Internet lines, an option that in the past overstretched the budgets of most small businesses. As T1 prices have dropped to as low as a few $100 per month, and as alternative connections have become available, the opportunity for small businesses to achieve enterprise-class fault tolerance has become economically feasible. But even though the cost for lines has become affordable, the complexity of implementing these solutions has not.

Few small businesses have the in-house expertise required to work effectively with multiple ISPs, coordinate the necessary configuration steps with Internet numbering authority organizations, and implement advanced routing protocols such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP). Progent offers Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) consulting to help you apply the latest connectivity technology to implement a cost-effective fault-tolerant solution.

Today multiple options exist for building automatic and semi-automatic failover solutions. These can involve a mix of T1, DSL and wireless Internet connections. The viability of high-speed fixed-wireless links has recently opened up new alternatives for achieving transparent fault tolerance. By establishing diverse physical paths to the Internet, small businesses gain insurance against costly outages caused by events out of their control, such as a construction crew accidentally digging up phone lines.

As companies rush to deploy VoIP solutions, the potential productivity loss that could result from an interruption in Internet access increases dramatically. This creates another strong incentive to configure a fault-tolerant architecture. Current technologies from Cisco and other networking companies make it possible to build high-availability voice and data solution that have even better uptime potential than conventional voice and data services.

For small business with extremely limited budgets, fault-tolerant failover solutions are possible by utilizing redundant, low-cost DSL services. While not providing all the transparency of more complex and expensive solutions, this alternative can provide significant functionality and avoid costly productivity loss in the event of line failure.

As companies have shifted away from dedicated leased T1 and frame relay lines to Internet-based VPN connections, the demand for fault-tolerant Internet connectivity has accelerated. Businesses can apply the cost savings from retiring legacy leased circuits to upgrading their Internet infrastructure so that they will not only protect their connectivity to remote offices but also the Internet connectivity of office users. Absent those cost savings, many small companies are reluctant to invest in fault-tolerant Internet configurations.

Other Zero-Downtime Technologies Offered by Progent's Consultants
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-certified engineers can help your business to design an efficient, zero-downtime IT architecture that addresses key challenges encompassing a wide array of infrastructure solutions and operations such as:

Workplace Recovery Planning
Progent's disaster recovery professionals can show you how to create a business continuity strategy so you can resume network operations in the event of an information network catastrophe. Progent can help you to define a complete disaster recovery strategy that includes 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 addresses availability issues involving a broad range of infrastructure technologies and processes. To read more, visit Workplace Recovery Expertise.

Fully Managed Cloud Backup: ProSight Data Protection Services
ProSight Data Protection Services provide small and medium-sized businesses a low cost end-to-end service for reliable backup/disaster recovery (BDR). For a fixed monthly rate, ProSight DPS automates your backup activities and enables rapid restoration of vital data, apps and VMs that have become unavailable or corrupted due to hardware failures, software glitches, natural disasters, human mistakes, or malicious attacks like ransomware. ProSight DPS can help you protect, recover and restore files, folders, apps, system images, plus Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware images/. Critical data can be protected on the cloud, to an on-promises device, or mirrored to both. Progent's backup and recovery specialists can deliver advanced support to configure ProSight Data Protection Services to be compliant with regulatory standards such as HIPPA, FIRPA, PCI and Safe Harbor and, when needed, can help you to recover your critical data. Read more about ProSight Data Protection Services Managed Backup.

Microsoft Server 2016 Disaster Recovery
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery experts can assist you to plan and deploy a DR system based on Microsoft's cloud-tested Failover Clustering tools including Cluster OS Rolling Upgrade for non-disruptive migration to Windows Server 2016, Storage Replica for zero-data-loss Recovery Point Objective (RPO), Storage Spaces Direct for high-performance network-attached storage using industry-standard hardware, VM Load Balancing for enhancing the speed and resilience of Failover Clusters while reducing capital investment and management overhead, and Cloud Witness for easy, economical creation of a stretch cluster quorum witness. To learn more, go to Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Expertise.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering
Windows Server 2008 R2 introduced world-class fault tolerance and system recovery to Microsoft's clustering platform. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 adds to this technology and delivers significant improvements that offer increased expandability, non-stop disk storage availability for server applications, easier administration, faster failover, and additional options for designing clusters. For details, see Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Clustering Consulting Services.

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is a component of VMware vCenter that allows you to define, automate and test a consistent runbook for restoring services quickly following a breakdown. Site Recovery Manager supports centrally managed and automated recovery, application mobility, plus non-disruptive site relocation, failback and site re-protect. SRM also allows non-disruptive testing for site recovery, updates and fixes and can produce audit reports to confirm full service restoration, validate SLAs and prove compliance. Progent can provide the skills of a VCDX certified VMware SRM consultant to help you to plan, configure, test and administer a disaster recovery system powered by VMware Site Recovery Manager.

NetApp MetroCluster High Availability and Disaster Recovery Platform
NetApp MetroCluster is a disaster recovery software suite that uses array-based storage clustering with replication to deliver fast, zero RPO disaster recovery between sites that are as far as 185 miles (300km) apart. Progent offers access to a NetApp MetroCluster consultant who can assist your business to plan, configure, manage, update, test and repair a disaster recovery system built around NetApp MetroCluster. Progent can help you to select a topology for your MetroCluster environment that aligns with your technical needs and IT budget. Progent can make sure you adhere to leading practices for configuring your MetroCluster solution by providing help with tasks such as assigning disk pools, arranging plexes layout, setting up FlexVol volumes, setting up NetApp Snapshot, provisioning switches, designing a tiebreaker mechanism, designing a TCP/IP configuration replication network between your storage clusters, and verifying your disaster recovery system to show adherence with industry standards and government mandates.

High Availability Load Balancing
Progent provides fault tolerant load balancing support covering system load balancing, load balanced programs, LAN/WAN backbone routing, and content delivery technology including F5 Networks 3DNS. Non-stop load balancing products for which Progent can provide consulting services include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Access Suite and Presentation Server, Cisco Content Services Switch, Cisco Distributed Director and LocalDirector 400 series, and F5 Networks 3-DNS. To learn more, visit Fault Tolerant Load Balancing.

High-Availability Data Centers
Progent's Data Center consultants can show you how to find fault-tolerant data centers that meet the particular needs of your company. High availability co-location sites are particularly attractive to small and mid-size businesses due to of their affordability and convenience compared to pursuing a do-it-yourself approach. Trying to create an in-house data center that offers even a basic degree of fault tolerance is too costly for typical small organizations. Progent is ready to show you how to reap all the advantages of high-availability data centers by providing a full array of engineering and maintenance services. To learn more, go to High-Availability Internet Data Centers Consulting.

Fault Tolerant Inter-office Networking
Progent’s multi-site connectivity engineers can help organizations achieve zero-downtime multi-site connectivity by means of fully redundant networks featuring transparent failover. Progent’s Cisco-certified CCIE engineers can plan and implement high-availability Inter-office networks supported by zero-downtime EIGRP network routers or zero-downtime OSPF configurations of Cisco routers. Progent can show you how redundant connectivity and automatic fail-over offers affordable 24x7 interoffice networking. To find out more, visit High-Availability Interoffice Connectivity.

Backup and Restore Solutions Consultants
Progent can provide economical remote support from engineers with expertise in a wide array of products and services that deliver solutions for protecting Microsoft Windows, Mac, and Linux physical and virtual servers and workstations as well as laptops and smartphones. Progent offers consulting support for all major backup products such as Acronis Backup and Recovery, Symantec Backup Exec, BackupAssist, CrashPlan PRO, Double-Take, MozyPro, Retrospect, Time Machine, VMware Data Recovery, and Oracle Solaris FLARs. Progent can help you to deploy, upgrade, or troubleshoot backup systems for a variety of environments including local, remote, cloud, or a mix. To learn more, visit Backup and Recovery Solutions Expertise.

System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) Backup and Recovery Consulting
Progent's certified Microsoft SCDPM support professionals can help you to develop an effective business continuity strategy, implement a cost-effective high-availability IT architecture, install a Microsoft SCDPM-powered backup and restore solution, comprehensively validate your system, educate your IT personnel or local consultants how to maintain System Center Data Protection Manager, or provide complete information technology outsourcing services including off-site hosting of System Center Data Protection Manager machines in Progent's data center. For details, visit System Center Data Protection Manager Consulting.

Barracuda Backup Multi-site and Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is an affordable, subscription backup/restore service for small and medium-size businesses. A Barracuda Backup solution can incorporate a purpose-built physical storage device manufactured by Barracuda or a software-based appliance with comparable functionality but which uses your own storage infrastructure. Barracuda Backup protects vital business data generated on-premises, at one or more remote locations, or in the cloud. For disaster recovery, you can replicate data to the Barracuda Cloud, to Amazon AWS, or to any location with a Barracuda appliance. Progent is a Barracuda partner and Progent's Barracuda Backup consultants offer a wide range of consulting services to help your business to plan, configure, operate and troubleshoot a BDR solution based on Barracuda technology. For details, go to Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consultants.

Altaro VM Backup Solutions for Backup and Disaster Recovery
Altaro VM Backup software offers small and mid-size 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 Block Blob storage. Headline features include industry-leading Augmented Inline Deduplication to reduce backup storage requirements, Continuous Data Protection (CDP) with backup spacing as little as five minutes for reducing your Recovery Point Objective (RPO), military-grade encryption, item-level recovery options for individual files and emails, support for Windows Server Cluster Shared Volumes and for vCenter for managing large-scale environments, and the ability to leverage Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to back up live virtual machines without downtime. Progent is a certified Altaro partner and can provide a broad range of services to help you to plan, install, optimize and troubleshoot a backup/restore system powered by Altaro VM Backup software. For more information, see Altaro VM Backup Consulting.

Consulting Services Double-Take Solutions for Backup
Double-Take Software offers a selection of products intended to provide small and midsize companies a range of cost-effective alternatives for replicating and recovering vital applications such as Exchange, SQL Server, Blackberry, and Microsoft SharePoint. Progent’s disaster recovery planning experts have in-depth backgrounds integrating Double-Take Software technology into small business IT networks to achieve an advanced state of availability and business continuity capability at an affordable price. To read more, go to Consulting Services Double-Take Solutions for Backup.

CRISC-Certified Network Risk Mitigation
The Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) certification program was initiated by ISACA to validate an IT professional's skills to plan, implement, and support IS control mechanisms to reduce network risk. Progent can provide the expertise of a CRISC-certified engineer to assist you to create and carry out a workplace continuity plan that follows leading practices identified by CRISC and crafted to match your organization's risk appetite, business objectives, and budgetary guidelines. To find out more, go to CRISC-Certified network risk control experts.

Why Choose Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning Solutions?
Because Progent is a Microsoft Partner and provides specialized application consulting for a broad range of business software programs, Progent can help customers to find comprehensive information technology solutions that maximize the productivity of your information system. As a Registered Partner with Cisco, Progent can provide the support of certified engineers and specialists with expertise in designing, configuring and managing networking solutions based on Cisco products. The depth and breadth of Progent's technical experience and Progent's sensitivity to the needs of small businesses make Progent the perfect resource for building and maintaining an affordable, dependable information system.

How to Get Help from Progent's Consultants for High Availability Network Services
To ask Progent about technical help for high availability computing, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.

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