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.

Additional Fault Tolerant Technologies Offered by Progent's Consultants
Progent's certified support professionals can help your company to design an efficient, non-stop information network that resolves critical problems covering a wide range of networking solutions and processes such as:

Workplace Recovery Planning
Progent's business continuity planning engineers can show you how to design a workplace recovery plan that will allow you to resume IT functionality in case of an IT network catastrophe. Progent can assist you to define a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy that incorporates scheduled disaster recovery evaluations and testing. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-authorized engineers can also help you create an affordable, non-stop network solution that addresses reliability issues covering a broad array of network technologies and procedures. To read more, go to Disaster Recovery Consulting Services.

Managed Cloud Backup: ProSight Data Protection Services
ProSight Data Protection Services offer small and medium-sized organizations a low cost and fully managed service for secure backup/disaster recovery (BDR). Available at a low monthly cost, ProSight DPS automates and monitors your backup processes and allows fast restoration of vital data, apps and VMs that have become lost or corrupted as a result of hardware breakdowns, software bugs, natural disasters, human mistakes, or malicious attacks such as ransomware. ProSight Data Protection Services can help you back up, recover and restore files, folders, apps, system images, as well as Hyper-V and VMware images/. Critical data can be backed up on the cloud, to a local storage device, or to both. Progent's cloud backup specialists can deliver world-class expertise to set up ProSight Data Protection Services to be compliant with government and industry regulatory requirements such as HIPPA, FIRPA, PCI and Safe Harbor and, when needed, can assist you to restore your business-critical data. Find out more about ProSight Data Protection Services Managed Backup and Recovery.

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery experts can help you to design a DR system built around Microsoft's cloud-tested Failover Clustering tools including Cluster Operating System Rolling Upgrade for non-intrusive migration to Windows Server 2016, Storage Replica for zero-data-loss recovery, Storage Spaces Direct for high-performance storage clusters using commodity hardware, VM Load Balancing for enhancing the speed and fault-tolerance of Failover Clusters while reducing TCO and operational expenses, and Cloud Witness for easy, economical deployment of a failover cluster quorum witness. For details, visit Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery Expertise.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Failover Clusters
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 brought world-class fault tolerance and system recovery to Microsoft's clustering solution. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 adds to this technology and provides important enhancements that offer more expandability, non-stop storage uptime for server applications, simpler administration, faster failover, and additional options for designing failover clusters. To find out more, go to Windows Server 2012 Clustering Migration and Support.

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager is a component of VMware vCenter that lets you define, automate and test a consistent process for recovering applications and services quickly after a breakdown. SRM supports centrally managed and automated recovery, application mobility, and non-intrusive site migration, failback and re-protect. SRM also enables non-disruptive testing for site recovery, updates and fixes and can produce audit reports to verify full service recovery, validate SLAs and demonstrate compliance. Progent can provide the skills of a VCDX certified VMware Site Recovery Manager consultant to assist you to plan, configure, test and manage a disaster recovery solution based on VMware Site Recovery Manager.

NetApp MetroCluster Disaster Recovery Technology
NetApp MetroCluster is a disaster recovery software suite that uses array-based storage clustering with continual replication to deliver rapid, zero data loss disaster recovery between datacenters located as far as 185 miles away from one another. Progent offers online or on-premises access to a certified NetApp MetroCluster expert who can assist your business to plan, configure, administer, update, test and troubleshoot a disaster recovery system built around NetApp MetroCluster. Progent can assist you to select an architecture for your MetroCluster environment that aligns with your technical needs and budget. Progent can ensure you adhere to best practices for installing your MetroCluster solution by delivering guidance with procedures like assigning disk pools, arranging aggregate and plexes layout, setting up volumes, setting up NetApp Snapshot, provisioning Cisco and Brocade switches, implementing a tiebreaker mechanism, designing a TCP/IP configuration replication network, and verifying your disaster recovery solution to prove adherence with industry standards and regulatory mandates.

Network Load Balancing
Progent offers fault tolerant load balancing consulting covering network load balancing, load balanced applications, LAN/WAN infrastructure routing, and content dispatching technology including Cisco Content Engine. Fault tolerant load balancing solutions for which Progent offers consulting services include Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Metaframe and Presentation Server, Cisco CSS, Cisco Content Engine and ACNS, and F5 Networks BIG-IP. For more information, go to High Availability Load Balancing.

Non-stop Data Centers
Progent's Data Center consultants can show you how to identify zero-downtime data centers that meet the particular requirements of your company. High availability collocation sites are especially appealing to small and mid-size businesses due to of their low cost and simplified logistics compared to taking a do-it-yourself strategy. Attempting to create an in-house data center with even a minimum level of fault tolerance is financially prohibitive for typical small companies. Progent is ready to show you how to get all the advantages of 24x7 Internet data centers by providing a complete range of consulting and maintenance services. To read more, see High-Availability Colocation Consulting.

Failsafe Interoffice Networking
Progent’s multi-site connection professionals can help organizations achieve fault tolerant multi-site connectivity by means of fully redundant system architectures with transparent failover. Progent’s Cisco-premier CCIE network engineers can plan and deploy high-availability Inter-office networks based on non-stop EIGRP routers or non-stop OSPF deployment of Cisco routers. Progent can show you how redundant connections and transparent fail-over offers affordable 24x7 interoffice connectivity. To read more, go to High-Availability Interoffice Connectivity.

Backup and Recovery Technology Consulting
Progent offers affordable remote support from consultants with expertise in a wide array of products and services that deliver solutions for backing up Microsoft Windows, Mac, and Linux physical and virtual servers and desktops as well as notebooks and smartphones. Progent can provide help for leading data protection platforms such as Acronis, Backup Exec, BackupAssist, CrashPlan, Double-Take, Mozy, Retrospect, Apple Time Machine, VMware Data Recovery (VDR), and FLARs. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy, enhance, or maintain data backup systems for a variety of architectures including on-premises, remote, cloud-based, or a mix. To read more, visit Backup and Restore Solutions Expertise.

System Center Data Protection Manager Backup and Recovery Consulting Services
Progent's expert Microsoft SCDPM consultants can assist you to create a practical business continuity strategy, design an affordable fault-tolerante network infrastructure, install a SCDPM-powered backup and recovery system, thoroughly test your DPM system, educate your IT personnel or local service providers how to manage SCDPM, or provide extensive information technology outsourcing including off-site hosting of System Center Data Protection Manager machines in Progent's world-class data center. To find out more, go to Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager Consulting Services.

Barracuda Backup Local, Offsite and Cloud Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is an affordable, subscription-based backup/restore platform for small and medium-size businesses. A Barracuda Backup deployment can include a custom-designed physical storage device manufactured by Barracuda or a software-based appliance with comparable features but which uses your existing storage hardware. Barracuda Backup safeguards vital business data generated locally, at one or multiple remote sites, or in the cloud. For disaster preparedness, 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 Barracuda partner and Progent's Barracuda Backup consulting experts offer a broad range of consulting services to assist your business to design, configure, operate and repair a backup and disaster recovery system based on Barracuda Backup. For details, see Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consultants.

Altaro VM Backup Solutions for Backup and Disaster Recovery
Altaro VM Backup software provides small and mid-size businesses a reliable and affordable solution for backing up and restoring Hyper-V and VMware-based virtual machines. Altaro VM Backup can be deployed in local, remote, multi-site, and cloud architectures and also supports low-cost cloud backup to Azure Block Blob storage. Headline capabilities include state-of-the-art Augmented Inline Deduplication to reduce backup storage needs, Continuous Data Protection (CDP) with backup intervals as little as five minutes for minimizing your Recovery Point Objective (RPO), military-grade encryption, granular restore options for specific files and emails, support for Windows Server CSV and VMware vCenter for handling larger environments, and the ability to leverage Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to back up live virtual machines with zero downtime. Progent is an Altaro partner and can provide a broad array of services to assist you to plan, install, manage and troubleshoot a backup and disaster recovery solution powered by Altaro VM Backup. To read more, visit Altaro VM Backup Certified Consultants.

Consulting for Double-Take Solutions for Backup and Recovery
Double-Take offers a family of products designed to provide small businesses a range of cost-effective alternatives for backing up and recovering vital applications such as Exchange, Microsoft SQL, Blackberry, and Microsoft SharePoint. Progent’s disaster recovery planning experts have extensive experience integrating Double-Take Software products into small business information networks to achieve a high state of fault tolerance and business continuity capability at an affordable price. To read more, go to Consulting for Double-Take Solutions for Data Backup.

CRISC-Certified IT Risk Mitigation
The Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) certification program was established by ISACA in 2010 to validate an IT professional's ability to design, implement, and support IS controls to mitigate network risk. Progent can provide the services of a CRISC-certified engineer to assist your company to develop and execute a business continuity or disaster recovery strategy based on leading practices promoted by CRISC and geared to match your company's risk appetite, business goals, and IT budget. For more information, see CRISC-Certified IT risk management experts.

Why Choose Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning Solutions?
Since Progent is a Microsoft Certified Partner and offers high-level application support for a wide variety of small business applications, Progent is able to help customers to find complete information technology solutions that maximize the productivity of your network. As a Registered Partner with Cisco, Progent offers the services of certified consultants and specialists with expertise in architecting, implementing and maintaining infrastructure solutions built on Cisco technology. The extent of Progent's IT know-how and Progent's sensitivity to the requirements of small businesses make Progent a great resource for building and running an affordable, fault-tolerant network.

How You Can Access Progent's Engineers for Non-stop Computing Support
To get in touch with Progent about technical assistance for non-stop architecture, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

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