Workplace Recovery Support for

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.

Other High Availability Technologies Supported by Progent's Experts
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco consulting experts can help you to implement an efficient, high-availability system that addresses key challenges covering a wide array of infrastructure technologies and operations such as:

Business Continuity Planning
Progent's business continuity professionals can show you how to create a disaster recovery strategy in order to resume network functionality in case of an information system disaster. Progent can assist you to develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that incorporates periodic disaster recovery evaluations and testing. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-authorized professionals can also show you how to create an affordable, fault-tolerant system architecture that addresses reliability issues involving a wide array of infrastructure technologies and processes. For more information, see Business Continuity Consulting.

Fully Managed Cloud Backup: ProSight Data Protection Services
ProSight Data Protection Services provide small and medium-sized businesses an affordable end-to-end service for reliable backup/disaster recovery. Available at a fixed monthly rate, ProSight Data Protection Services automates your backup processes and allows rapid restoration of critical data, applications and virtual machines that have become unavailable or corrupted due to component failures, software glitches, natural disasters, human error, or malicious attacks such as ransomware. ProSight DPS can help you back up, retrieve and restore files, folders, apps, system images, plus Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware images/. Critical data can be protected on the cloud, to a local device, or to both. Progent's cloud backup specialists can deliver world-class expertise to configure ProSight Data Protection Services to be compliant with government and industry regulatory standards like HIPAA, FIRPA, PCI and Safe Harbor and, whenever necessary, can help you to recover your business-critical information. Learn more about ProSight Data Protection Services Managed Backup.

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery/business continuity experts can assist your organization to plan and deploy a disaster recovery system built around Microsoft's most advanced Failover Clustering tools such as Cluster OS Rolling Upgrade for non-intrusive migration to Windows Server 2016, Storage Replica for zero-data-loss recovery, Storage Spaces Direct for high-performance network-attached storage using low-cost hardware, VM Load Balancing for improving the speed and resilience of Failover Clusters while reducing TCO and management overhead, and Cloud Witness for easy, economical creation of a failover cluster quorum arbitration point. For more information, go to Windows Server 2016 Disaster Recovery Expertise.

Microsoft Server 2012 Failover Clusters
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 brought enterprise-class availability and recoverability to Microsoft's clustering platform. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 adds to this foundation and delivers important enhancements offering increased expandability, better disk storage availability for server applications, streamlined management, faster failover, and additional options for designing failover clusters. For details, visit Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Clustering Integration.

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager is a component of VMware vCenter that allows you to define, automate and test a repeatable runbook for recovering services quickly after a breakdown. SRM provides centrally managed and automated disaster recovery, application mobility, and transparent site relocation, failback and site re-protect. Site Recovery Manager also allows transparent testing for site recovery, updates and fixes and can generate audit reports to verify full service restoration, validate SLAs and prove disaster recovery compliance. Progent offers the support of a VCDX certified VMware SRM consulting expert to help your organization to plan, deploy, test and maintain a DR solution powered by VMware Site Recovery Manager.

NetApp MetroCluster High Availability and Disaster Recovery Technology
NetApp MetroCluster is a disaster recovery software suite that combines array-based storage clustering along with continual replication to provide rapid, zero RPO disaster recovery between datacenters located as far as 185 miles away from one another. Progent can provide access to a certified NetApp MetroCluster expert who can help your business to design, configure, manage, 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 meets your technical needs and IT budget. Progent can ensure you follow best practices for installing your MetroCluster solution by providing help with tasks such as assigning disk pools and shelf IDs, determining aggregate and plexes layout, setting up volumes, setting up Data ONTAP configuration replication service, installing switches, implementing a tiebreaker mechanism, designing a TCP/IP configuration replication network between your storage clusters, and testing your DR solution to prove compliance with information assurance standards and government requirements.

Network Load Balancing
Progent offers high availability load balancing consulting that addresses network load balancing, load balanced programs, network infrastructure routing, and content dispatching technology such as F5 Networks 3DNS. Fault tolerant load balancing products for which Progent offers consulting expertise include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Network Load Balancing Manager, Citrix Access Suite and Presentation Server, Cisco CSS, Cisco Content Distribution Manager and ACNS, and F5 Networks 3-DNS. To find out more, see Fault Tolerant Load Balancing.

Zero Downtime Internet Data Centers
Progent's Data Center professionals can help you select high availability data centers that meet the specific requirements of your company. Fault tolerant off-site data centers are especially attractive to small and mid-size companies due to of their low cost and convenience compared to taking a do-it-yourself approach. Attempting to create an on-site data center with even a basic level of fault tolerance is too expensive for typical small businesses. Progent can show you how to reap all the benefits of non-stop data centers by providing a full range of consulting and maintenance services. To learn more, visit Non-stop Colocation Consulting.

High-Availability Inter-office Connectivity
Progent’s inter-site connectivity engineers can help companies achieve zero-downtime interoffice connections by means of redundant system architectures with transparent failover. Progent’s Cisco-premier CCIE network engineers can design and deploy fault-tolerant Inter-office networks supported by fault tolerant EIGRP network routers or zero-downtime OSPF deployment of Cisco routers. Progent can show you how multi-path connections and automatic fail-over offers economical non-stop interoffice networking. To find out more, see Failsafe Interoffice Networking.

Backup and Restore Technology Consulting
Progent can provide economical online support from engineers with expertise in a broad array of products and services that deliver solutions for protecting Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops plus notebooks and handhelds. Progent can provide expertise for all major data protection platforms such as Acronis Backup and Recovery, Symantec Backup Exec, BackupAssist Software, CrashPlan PRO, Double-Take Backup, Mozy, Retrospect for Macintosh, Apple Time Machine, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), and Oracle Solaris FLARs. Progent's consultants can help your company to install, enhance, or troubleshoot backup solutions for a range of environments including on-premises, edge to datacenter, cloud-based, or a mix. To learn more, see Backup and Restore Technology Consulting Services.

System Center Data Protection Manager Data Recovery Consultants
Progent's expert System Center Data Protection Manager consultants can assist your company to develop an effective workplace recovery strategy, design an affordable high-availability IT infrastructure, install a Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager-based backup and recovery system, comprehensively test your system, educate your IT staff or regular service providers how to maintain Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, or provide extensive information technology support outsourcing including remote housing of virtual or physical SCDPM servers in Progent's data center facility. For details, see Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager Consulting Services.

Barracuda Backup Cloud and Offsite Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is a low-cost, subscription backup/restore platform for small and medium-size businesses. A Barracuda Backup deployment can include a custom-designed hardware storage device manufactured by Barracuda or a software-based appliance with similar functionality but which utilizes your own storage hardware. Barracuda Backup protects vital company data produced locally, at one or multiple remote locations, or in the cloud. For disaster recovery, you can replicate data to the Barracuda Cloud, to Amazon Web Services (AWS), or to any location with a Barracuda appliance. Progent is a Barracuda partner and Progent's Barracuda Backup consultants can provide a wide range of consulting services to assist you to plan, configure, manage and repair a backup and disaster recovery solution based on Barracuda Backup. For additional information, visit Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consulting and management.

Altaro VM Backup Software for Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Altaro VM Backup offers small and mid-size businesses a dependable and budget-friendly solution for backing up and restoring Hyper-V and VMware-powered virtual machines. Altaro VM Backup can be used for on-premises, offsite, multi-site, and cloud architectures and also enables cost-effective cloud backup to Microsoft Azure storage. Top capabilities include industry-leading inline deduplication to cut backup storage needs, Continuous Data Protection (CDP) with backup intervals as little as five minutes for reducing your Recovery Point Objective, advanced encryption, granular recovery capability for specific files and emails, extensive support for Windows Server Cluster Shared Volumes and VMware vCenter for managing larger environments, and support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service to back up online VMs with zero downtime. Progent is an Altaro partner and can provide a wide array of consulting services to assist you to plan, install, optimize and troubleshoot a backup/restore system based on Altaro VM Backup software. For more information, see Altaro VM Backup Certified Consultants.

Consulting for Double-Take Solutions for Data Backup
Double-Take publishes a family of tools intended to deliver small and midsize companies a variety of affordable alternatives for backing up and recovering vital applications including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL, Blackberry, and Microsoft Office SharePoint. Progent’s disaster recovery planning consultants have extensive backgrounds incorporating Double-Take Software technology into small company information networks to create a high state of availability and business continuity readiness at an affordable cost. For details, go to Consulting for Double-Take Software for Data Backup.

CRISC-Premier Network Risk Management
The CRISC program was initiated by ISACA in 2010 to verify a consultant's ability to design, implement, and support IS controls to mitigate risk. Progent offers the expertise of a CRISC-certified engineer to assist your company to create and carry out a business continuity or disaster recovery strategy that follows leading practices promoted by CRISC and geared to align with your organization's risk appetite, business objectives, and IT budget. To learn more, see CRISC-Certified network risk control experts.

Why Choose Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning?
Since Progent is a Microsoft Partner and provides professional application consulting for a broad variety of small business software programs, Progent is able to assist clients to arrive at complete information technology solutions that maximize the productivity of your IT network. As a Registered Partner with Cisco, Progent can provide the support of certified engineers and specialists with expertise in designing, installing and maintaining networking environments based on Cisco products. The depth and 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 building and running an affordable, fault-tolerant information system.

How to Get Help from Progent's Engineers for High Availability Network Support
To ask Progent about consulting expertise for fault tolerant LAN design, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.