Connectivity 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.
Non-stop Solutions Provided by Progent's Consultants
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-certified consulting experts can assist you to build a sensible, high-availability environment that resolves major issues encompassing a wide range of networking solutions and operations such as:
Business Continuity Planning
Progent's business continuity engineers can show you how to create a disaster recovery strategy in order to restore network functionality in the event of an information network catastrophe. Progent can assist you to create a complete disaster recovery plan that includes scheduled disaster recovery evaluations and drills. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-certified consultants can also show you how to create an affordable, zero-downtime system solution that takes into account reliability issues involving a wide range of infrastructure technologies and procedures. To find out more, go to Business Continuity Consulting Services.
CRISC-Premier Network Risk Management
The CRISC certification program was established by ISACA to validate an IT professional's ability to plan, deploy, and support IS control mechanisms to mitigate network risk. Progent can provide the services of a CRISC-certified consultant to assist your company to create and execute a business continuity or disaster recovery strategy based on leading practices identified by CRISC and crafted to match your organization's risk appetite, business objectives, and IT budget. For more information, see CRISC-Premier IT risk control specialists.
Windows Server 2019 High Availability Failover Clustering
Windows Server 2019 introduced significant improvements in capacity, throughput, management, security and compliance, application compatibility, Linux co-existence, container technology, and hybrid combinations of on-premises and cloud-hosted assets. Headline new features of Microsoft Windows Server 2019 include Windows Admin Center for unifying the management and monitoring of hybrid local/cloud resources, System Insights for utilizing advance predictive analytics to manage on-premises environments, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Exploit Guard for host-intrusion prevention, container orchestration with Kubernetes, Cluster Sets technology for deploying and managing large non-stop scale-out clusters, and Storage Migration Service for simplifying the upgrade process from legacy releases of Windows Server. For more information, see Microsoft Windows Server 2019 High Availability Failover Clustering Support.
Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery experts can assist you to design a disaster recovery solution based on Microsoft's latest Failover Clustering technologies including Cluster OS Rolling Upgrade for non-intrusive migration to Windows Server 2016, Storage Replica for zero-data-loss Recovery Point Objective (RPO), Storage Spaces Direct for enterprise-class storage clusters using commodity equipment, Virtual Machine Load Balancing for improving the speed and resilience of Failover Clusters while reducing capital investment and management overhead, and Cloud Witness for fast, economical deployment of a stretch cluster quorum witness. To learn more, see Microsoft Server 2016 Disaster Recovery Consulting.
VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is an extension to VMware vCenter that allows you to specify, automate and verify a repeatable runbook for recovering services rapidly following an outage. Site Recovery Manager supports centrally managed and automated recovery, application mobility, plus non-disruptive site migration, failback and re-protect. Site Recovery Manager also enables non-disruptive testing for site recovery, upgrades and patches and can produce audit reports to confirm full service recovery, validate SLAs and prove DR compliance. Progent offers the skills of a VCDX certified VMware SRM consultant to assist you to design, deploy, test and administer a disaster recovery solution powered by VMware SRM.
NetApp MetroCluster Disaster Recovery Platform
NetApp MetroCluster is a high-availability and disaster recovery software suite that uses array-based storage clustering along with replication to provide rapid, zero RPO disaster recovery (DR) between datacenters located as far as 185 miles away from one another. Progent can provide access to a certified NetApp MetroCluster expert who can assist you to plan, configure, manage, upgrade, test and repair a disaster recovery solution based on NetApp MetroCluster. Progent can assist you to choose an architecture for your MetroCluster deployment that meets your functional needs and budget. Progent can make sure you follow leading practices for installing your MetroCluster solution by providing guidance with tasks like assigning shelf IDs, arranging plexes layout, provisioning FlexVol volumes, setting up Data ONTAP configuration replication service, installing switches, implementing a tiebreaker, designing a configuration replication network between your storage clusters, and testing your disaster recovery solution to prove compliance with information assurance standards and government mandates.
High Availability Load Balancing
Progent provides high availability load balancing consulting that addresses system load balancing, load balanced applications, LAN/WAN backbone routing, and content dispatching technology such as F5 Networks 3DNS. Non-stop load balancing products for which Progent can provide consulting expertise include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Metaframe and Access Gateway, Cisco CSS, Cisco Distributed Director and ACNS, and F5 Networks 3-DNS. To read more, visit Fault Tolerant Load Balancing.
Fault Tolerant Colocation
Progent's Data Center professionals can show you how to find high availability data centers that meet the specific requirements of your company. Fault tolerant colocation sites are especially appealing to small and mid-size businesses because of their affordability and convenience in comparison to taking a do-it-yourself approach. Trying to design an in-house data center with even a basic level of fault tolerance is too costly for typical small companies. Progent can help you reap all the benefits of 24x7 Internet data centers by offering a complete array of consulting and maintenance services. For details, visit Fault Tolerant Data Centers Solutions.
Fault Tolerant Inter-office Networking
Progent's branch office connection professionals can help companies create fault tolerant branch office connectivity solutions via fully redundant system architectures with automatic failover. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE engineers can design and deploy high-availability Inter-office connections based on fault tolerant EIGRP network routers or zero-downtime OSPF configurations of Cisco routers. Progent can show you how multi-path connectivity and transparent fail-over can provide economical 24x7 interoffice networking. To read more, go to Fault Tolerant Inter-office Networking.
Backup and Recovery Technology Consulting
Progent offers affordable online access to engineers with expertise in a broad array of utilities and technologies that provide solutions for backing up Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops plus laptops and handhelds. Progent can provide consulting support for all major data protection products including Acronis, Backup Exec, BackupAssist Software, HP Data Protector, Double-Take Software, MozyPro, Retrospect for Macintosh, Apple Time Machine, VMware Data Recovery (VDR), and FLARs. Progent can assist you to install, enhance, or troubleshoot data backup systems for a range of topologies such as local, edge to datacenter, cloud, or hybrid. To learn more, see Backup and Restore Technology Expertise.
System Center Data Protection Manager Backup and Restore Consulting and Support Services
Progent's expert Microsoft SCDPM engineers can help your company to develop an effective workplace recovery strategy, design a cost-effective fault-tolerante network infrastructure, configure a SCDPM-powered backup and recovery system, thoroughly validate your DPM system, educate your IT staff or regular service providers how to manage Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, or provide extensive information technology outsourcing such as remote housing of Microsoft SCDPM machines in Progent's world-class data center facility. For details, visit System Center Data Protection Manager Consulting.
Barracuda Backup Cloud and Offsite Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is a low-cost, subscription-based backup and disaster recovery platform for small and medium-size businesses. A Barracuda Backup deployment can incorporate a purpose-built hardware storage device built by Barracuda or a virtual appliance with comparable features but which uses your existing storage infrastructure. Barracuda Backup safeguards critical company data generated on-premises, at one or more remote locations, or in the cloud. For disaster preparedness, you can replicate data to the Barracuda Cloud, to Amazon Web Services (AWS), or to any location with a physical or virtual Barracuda Backup appliance. Progent is a Barracuda partner and Progent's Barracuda Backup consultants can provide a broad array of consulting services to help you to design, integrate, manage and troubleshoot a backup and disaster recovery system based on Barracuda Backup. For more information, visit Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consultants.
ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup Software for Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Hornetsecurity's Altaro VM Backup software offers small and mid-size businesses a dependable and budget-friendly platform for backing up and recovering Hyper-V and VMware-based virtual machines. Altaro VM Backup can be deployed in on-premises, remote, distributed, and cloud-hosted architectures and also enables low-cost cloud backup to Microsoft Azure storage. Altaro VM Backup supports high-end features such as Immutable Cloud Storage for an extra layer of protection from ransomware. Progent is a certified Altaro partner and can provide a broad range of remote or on-premises consulting services to assist you to design, deploy, optimize and troubleshoot a comprehensive backup/restore solution powered by Altaro VM Backup. With ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, Progent delivers a managed backup/recovery service powered by on Altaro VM Backup software. For details, see Altaro VM Backup certified consultants.
ProSight Data Protection Services 365 Total Backup Solutions for Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 offers rudimentary archiving but does not have integrated support for crucial data protection services such as Exchange Online backups or greater than 30-day point-in-time data recovery for OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online. Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Backup (previously branded Altaro O365 Backup) delivers a full-featured platform for programmable backup and rapid restoration of all your company's M365 mailboxes, Microsoft Teams Chats, SharePoint sites, OneDrive for Business data, and content on Windows endpoints. Progent is an authorized Hornetsecurity/Altaro partner and offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) 365 Total Backup to deliver end-to-end management services for Hornetsecurity's 365 Total Backup product. ProSight DPS 365 Total Backup delivers a low-cost backup-as-a-service (BaaS) solution that guards M365 components against data loss caused by human or software mistakes, malevolent sabotage, and cyber assaults such as ransomware. For more information, visit ProSight Data Protection Services 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 and fully managed solution for reliable backup/disaster recovery (BDR). Available at a fixed monthly rate, ProSight DPS ECHO automates and monitors your backup activities and allow fast recovery of critical files, applications and virtual machines that have become unavailable or damaged as a result of component breakdowns, software glitches, disasters, human error, or malware attacks like ransomware. ProSight DPS ECHO can help you back up, retrieve and restore files, folders, apps, system images, plus Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware images. Important data can be backed up on the cloud, to a local device, or to both. Progent's BDR consultants can provide advanced support to configure ProSight DPS ECHO to to comply with government and industry regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, FINRA, PCI and Safe Harbor and, when needed, can assist you to recover your critical data. Learn more about ProSight Data Protection Services ECHO managed cloud backup and recovery.
ProSight DPS 360 Backup Solutions
Progent can help your company to design, deploy and debug a backup solution based on MSP360 software. MSP360 enables file or image-based backup/recovery for virtual machines and physical computers, works with all leading public clouds, and permits businesses to build a data protection ecosystem with a minimum Recovery Time Objective and a defined Recovery Point Objective (RPO). With ProSight DPS 360 Backup, Progent can provide end-to-end monitoring and remote management of your backup environment to prevent data loss caused by human miscues, system glitches, malicious users, and malware assaults such as ransomware. To read more, visit ProSight Data Protection Services 360 Backup solutions.
Consulting for Double-Take Solutions for Backup
Double-Take publishes a selection of tools intended to deliver small companies a variety of affordable solutions for replicating and recovering business-critical workloads such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL, Blackberry, and SharePoint. Progent's disaster recovery planning experts have extensive experience incorporating Double-Take Software technology into small company IT networks to create an advanced state of availability and disaster recovery capability at a budget-friendly price. For details, see Consulting Services Double-Take Software for Data Backup.
Why Choose Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning?
Because Progent is a Microsoft Certified Partner and offers professional application consulting for a wide range of business software programs, Progent can assist clients to find complete IT solutions that substantially enhance the business value of your IT network. As a Registered Partner for Cisco, Progent can provide the expertise of premier consultants and specialists with expertise in architecting, configuring and troubleshooting infrastructure environments based on Cisco technology. The broad scope of Progent's technical experience and Progent's sensitivity to the needs of small and midsize companies make Progent the perfect partner for creating and maintaining a cost-effective, fault-tolerant information system.
How to Get in Touch with Progent's Experts for Help with High Availability IT Systems
If you wish to contact Progent about technical assistance for high availability architecture, call