Fault Tolerant Load Balancing ConsultingIn situations where a single server or cluster can’t provide the throughput required for a critical application, load balancing of multiple servers offers a solution that not only enhances performance but, as a natural byproduct, provides fault tolerance by working around failed servers in a load-balanced farm. Firewalls and routers can also be set up in a load-balanced and fault-tolerant configuration, so that failures of a single device have limited impact on overall system functionality. It is far easier for users and organizations to manage the impacts of reduced resources or bandwidth than to deal with complete outages.

Load balancing solutions area well suited for many web based applications where the front-end web servers can utilize the services of a back-end clustered SQL Server data repository. Applications such as web-based eCommerce are ideal candidates for a load-balanced configuration. Load balancing can provide greatly improved operational reliability because failed servers are transparently removed from the resource farm, thus making such failures nearly invisible to users.

Once you have established a base architecture for a load balancing environment, you have cleared the way for future growth and scalability because adding additional resources to the server farm is a seamless process.

Progent is experienced with a wide range of load balancing technologies covering server balancing, application balancing, and LAN/WAN infrastructure routing. Progent offers consulting expertise with products from the leading vendors of load balancing technology including Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, and F-5 networks.

Windows Server 2016 Virtual Machine Load Balancing
VM Load Balancing is a new feature of Windows Server 2016 that can automatically and non-disruptively migrate virtual machines between nodes within a Failover Cluster. VM Load Balancing improves Failover Cluster availability and performance and can help you avoid the need to add physical servers to peak workloads. Virtual Machine M Load Balancing automatically determines whether a node has become over utilized and moves virtual machines from the over-committed node to an under-committed node, for example a server that has been freshly rebooted. This entails no cluster downtime, adheres to failure policies such as fault domains, and uses advanced heuristics for measuring VM memory pressure and CPU utilization of the node. Virtual Machine Load Balancing can be set up to run every 30 minutes or on demand. You can use PowerShell to pick one of three thresholds for establishing the aggressiveness of load balancing.

Windows Server 2016 VM Load Balancing Consultants

VM Load Balancing automatically performs live migration of virtual machines from over-utilized to under-utilized nodes

Cisco Content Services Switches and Cisco IOS-based Routers
Through content fast switching and forwarding, the Cisco CSS 11500 Series switches improve utilization, responsiveness, availability, scalability, and security of Web sites, server farms, cache clusters, and firewall systems. Load balancing is a standard functionality of the Cisco IOS router software, and is available across all router platforms. It is based on standard routing protocols, such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP), RIPv2, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), and Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP), or derived from statically configured routes and packet forwarding mechanisms. Progent's Cisco-certified network engineers can help you select and deploy a Cisco-based network infrastructure that makes good business sense for your environment and can configure Cisco's IOS Server Load Balancing (SLB) service. To find out more about Progent's Cisco consulting services, see Cisco Consulting Support.

Citrix Metaframe, Presentation Server, and Access Gateway
Citrix Presentation Server is an application delivery system offering client-side and server-side application virtualization for enhanced application performance and flexible delivery options. Citrix Presentation Server allows organizations to centralize applications and data in secure data centers, reducing costs of management and support, increasing data security, and ensuring consistently high performance. MetaFrame Secure Access Manager technology has been integrated into Citrix Access Gateway, an SSL VPN that securely delivers any application with policy-based SmartAccess control. Users have easy-to use secure access to the applications and data they need to be productive. Organizations can cost effectively extend access to datacenter resources from outside the office while maintaining control through comprehensive SmartAccess policies. Progent's Citrix-certified consultants can help you implement Citrix products to help optimize application performance and availability.

F5 Networks BIG-IP and BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager
F5 Networks’ BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) is an application delivery networking system featuring a set of unified application infrastructure services. BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager removes single points of failure and virtualizes the network and applications using L7 intelligence. LTM improves application performance, increases the capacity of existing infrastructure, and lowers infrastructure costs. BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager uses topology-based load balancing to inspect a user's IP and determine the most efficient data center. When users try to access a data center that is overloaded or unreachable, BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager automatically and seamlessly directs them to a secondary data center. This capability makes BIG-IP GTM especially important for enterprises that need to maintain operations in the event of a natural disaster, power failure, or any other large-scale service disruption. Learn more about Progent's disaster recovery consulting.

Additional High Availability Technologies Provided by Progent
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco engineers can help you to create an efficient, high-availability network that addresses major issues encompassing a broad array of networking technologies and operations such as:

Workplace Recovery Planning
Progent's business continuity planning professionals can show you how to design a business continuity strategy that will allow you to resume IT functionality in case of an IT network catastrophe. Progent can assist you to define a complete disaster recovery strategy that incorporates scheduled disaster recovery evaluations and testing. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-authorized professionals can also help you build an affordable, fault-tolerant network architecture that takes into account reliability issues involving a broad range of infrastructure technologies and procedures. For more information, go to Workplace Recovery Consulting.

Managed Cloud Backup: ProSight Data Protection Services
ProSight Data Protection Services provide small and mid-sized organizations an affordable end-to-end solution for secure backup/disaster recovery (BDR). Available at a low monthly cost, ProSight DPS automates and monitors your backup processes and enables fast restoration of critical data, applications and VMs that have become lost or damaged due to component breakdowns, software glitches, disasters, human error, or malware attacks like ransomware. ProSight Data Protection Services can help you back up, retrieve and restore files, folders, applications, system images, plus Hyper-V and VMware virtual machine images. Critical data can be protected on the cloud, to a local device, or to both. Progent's backup and recovery consultants can deliver world-class expertise to set up ProSight DPS to to comply with government and industry regulatory requirements like HIPPA, FIRPA, and PCI and, when necessary, can help you to recover your business-critical data. Read more about ProSight Data Protection Services Managed Cloud Backup and Recovery.

Microsoft Server 2016 Disaster Recovery
Progent's Windows Server 2016 disaster recovery/business continuity experts can assist you to design a disaster recovery solution based on Microsoft's cloud-tested Failover Clustering technologies including Cluster OS 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 storage clusters using low-cost hardware, Virtual Machine Load Balancing for improving the performance and resilience of Failover Clusters while minimizing capital investment and operational expenses, and Cloud Witness for fast, affordable deployment of a stretch cluster quorum arbitration point. For more information, see Microsoft Server 2016 Disaster Recovery Expertise.

Windows Server 2012 Failover Clustering
Windows Server 2008 R2 introduced enterprise-class fault tolerance and recoverability to Microsoft's clustering solution. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 adds to this technology and delivers important new and enhanced features that offer more expandability, non-stop storage availability for server applications, easier administration, faster automatic failover, and more flexibility for architecting clusters. To find out more, see Windows Server 2012 R2 Failover Clustering Integration.

VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Disaster Recovery Solutions
VMware's Site Recovery Manager is an extension to VMware vCenter that allows you to orchestrate, automate and test a consistent process for recovering services quickly following a breakdown. SRM provides centrally controlled and automated disaster recovery, application mobility, plus non-intrusive site relocation, failback and re-protect. SRM also enables non-intrusive testing for disaster recovery, upgrades and patches and can generate reports to confirm full service restoration, validate Service Level Agreements and demonstrate disaster recovery compliance. Progent offers the skills of a VCDX certified VMware Site Recovery Manager consulting expert to help you to plan, configure, test and manage a disaster recovery system powered by VMware SRM.

NetApp MetroCluster High Availability and Disaster Recovery Platform
NetApp MetroCluster is a high-availability and disaster recovery software suite that uses failover storage clustering with continual replication to provide rapid, zero data loss disaster recovery (DR) between datacenters located as far as 300km apart from each other. Progent can provide access to a certified NetApp MetroCluster expert who can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, update, test and troubleshoot a disaster recovery solution based on NetApp MetroCluster. Progent can help you to choose a topology for your MetroCluster environment that aligns with your technical needs and IT budget. Progent can ensure you adhere to best practices for installing your MetroCluster solution by delivering guidance with procedures like assigning disk pools, arranging plexes layout, provisioning NetApp FlexVol volumes, setting up NetApp Snapshot, provisioning switches, implementing a tiebreaker, designing a configuration replication network between your storage clusters, and verifying your disaster recovery solution to show compliance with industry standards and government requirements.

High-Availability Colocation
Progent's Data Center engineers can show you how to select zero-downtime data centers that match the specific needs of your company. High availability Internet Data Centers are especially attractive to small and mid-size companies due to of their affordability and convenience in comparison to taking a do-it-yourself strategy. Attempting to design an on-site data center with even a basic level of fault tolerance is financially prohibitive for the majority of small organizations. Progent can help you reap all the advantages of high-availability colocation facilities by providing a full range of engineering and maintenance services. To read more, go to High-Availability Colocation Solutions.

24x7 Inter-office Connectivity
Progent’s branch office network infrastructure professionals can help businesses achieve zero-downtime interoffice connections through fully redundant system architectures with automatic failover. Progent’s Cisco-premier CCIE engineers can plan and implement high-availability Inter-office networks based on zero-downtime EIGRP routers or zero-downtime OSPF configurations of Cisco routers. Progent can demonstrate how multi-path connections and transparent fail-over offers affordable 24x7 interoffice networking. To read more, see 24x7 Inter-office Networking.

High Availability Internet Connections
Progent's Cisco-certified IT consultants can show you how to design an economical, high availability Internet connection solution that can deliver non-stop Internet connectivity via a wide range of high availability Internet access technologies including non-stop BGP, transparent fail-over, and multiple ISPs. Progent can provide Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert professionals to help you utilize the most up-to-date technology for high availability Internet connections to build a cost-effective, completely redundant Internet network with automatic failover and other features to create zero-downtime Internet availability. To find out more, visit High Availability Internet Access Solutions.

Backup and Restore Solutions Consulting
Progent can provide economical remote access to consultants skilled in a broad array of utilities and services that deliver solutions for backing up Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX servers and workstations as well as notebooks and smartphones. Progent can provide consulting support for leading data protection platforms including Acronis Backup and Recovery, Backup Exec, BackupAssist Software, CrashPlan, Double-Take Software, MozyPro, Retrospect, Time Machine, VMware Data Recovery, and FLARs. Progent's consultants can help your company to install, enhance, or maintain backup solutions for a range of environments including local, edge to datacenter, cloud-based, or hybrid. For details, go to Backup and Recovery Solutions Expertise.

System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) Backup and Recovery Consulting Services
Progent's expert Microsoft SCDPM support professionals can help your company to create an effective workplace recovery plan, design a cost-effective fault-tolerante IT infrastructure, install a System Center Data Protection Manager-based recovery solution, comprehensively validate your DPM system, train your IT staff or regular service providers how to maintain Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, or provide complete IT outsourcing such as off-site hosting of Microsoft SCDPM servers in Progent's secure data center facility. To learn more, visit System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) Expertise.

Barracuda Backup Multi-site and Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery
Barracuda Backup is a low-cost, subscription-based backup/restore platform for small and mid-size organizations. A Barracuda Backup deployment can include a purpose-built hardware storage device manufactured by Barracuda or a virtual appliance with comparable features but which uses your own storage hardware. Barracuda Backup safeguards critical company data produced on-premises, at one or multiple remote sites, or in the cloud. For disaster preparedness, you can replicate data to the Barracuda Cloud, to Amazon Web Services (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 offer a broad array of consulting support services to help your business to plan, configure, manage and troubleshoot a BDR solution built on Barracuda Backup. For additional information, visit Barracuda Backup and disaster recovery consulting.

Altaro VM Backup Software for Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Altaro VM Backup software provides small businesses a reliable and affordable platform for backing up and recovering Hyper-V and VMware-based virtual machines. Altaro VM Backup can be deployed in local, remote, multi-site, and cloud-hosted architectures and also supports cost-effective cloud backup to Azure Block Blob storage. Top capabilities include industry-leading Augmented Inline Deduplication to cut backup storage requirements, Continuous Data Protection (CDP) with backup intervals as low as five minutes for reducing your exposure to data loss, advanced encryption, item-level recovery capability for individual files and emails, extensive support for Windows Cluster Shared Volumes and for VMware vCenter for handling larger environments, and the ability to leverage Microsoft VSS technology to back up live virtual machines with zero downtime. Progent is a certified Altaro partner and offers a broad range of consulting services to help you to design, deploy, optimize and troubleshoot a backup and disaster recovery system powered by Altaro VM Backup software. To learn more, see Altaro VM Backup Consulting Services.

Consulting Services Double-Take Software for Backup
Double-Take Software publishes a family of products intended to deliver small and midsize companies a variety of cost-effective alternatives for replicating and recovering vital workloads such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL, RIM Blackberry, and Microsoft Office SharePoint. Progent’s disaster recovery planning consultants have in-depth experience incorporating Double-Take Software products into small business information networks to create an advanced state of fault tolerance and disaster recovery readiness at an affordable cost. For more information, go to Consulting for Double-Take Software for Data Backup.

CRISC-Premier IT Risk Control
The Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) certification program was established by ISACA in 2010 to verify a consultant's skills to plan, implement, and support information system control mechanisms to mitigate network risk. Progent can provide the services of a CRISC-certified engineer to assist you to develop and carry out a workplace continuity or disaster recovery plan that follows industry best practices identified by CRISC and crafted to align with your company's risk appetite, business objectives, and IT budget. To find out more, go to CRISC-Premier IT risk management specialists.

Why Choose Progent for Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning?
Since Progent is a Microsoft Certified Partner and offers high-level application support for a broad range of business software programs, Progent can assist customers to arrive at complete IT solutions that optimize the business value of your IT network. As a Registered Partner with Cisco, Progent can provide the support of premier consultants and specialists with expertise in designing, configuring and managing networking environments built on Cisco products. The depth and breadth of Progent's IT experience and Progent's sensitivity to the needs of small businesses make Progent the perfect partner for creating and maintaining a cost-effective, fault-tolerant information system.

How You Can Access Progent's Engineers for Fault Tolerant Computing Support
In order to get in touch with Progent about professional expertise for high availability infrastructure, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

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