Cloud Integration Consulting

Progent has assisted organizations of all sizes to plan, deploy, and administer networks based on a range of hybrid architectures that combine Microsoft Azure cloud-based resources with physical facilities, private clouds, and additional public clouds like Amazon AWS. Progent is unique in the ability to offer rapid and economical online help from Technology consulting experts to assist you to evaluate the possible advantages of different Azure services for your specific business. Progent's virtualization experts can help you to configure VMs on Azure Virtual Machines. Progent's certified information security consultants can help you unify identity management with Azure Active Directory. Progent's data protection experts can assist you to plan backup and restore systems based on Azure Backup. Also, Progent's VPN and security appliance experts can show you how to set up secure and dependable connections to Azure.

About Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, previously called Windows Azure, is a popular public cloud service that lets you use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's vast public cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand storage, unified messaging, application development, and backup/recovery. Azure products are delivered on a subscription basis and provided dynamically, so organizations can instantly ramp up or ratchet down processing and storage resources. Since you pay just for the computer resources you consume, efficiency is high, which is the key of public clouds.

Popular Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
Microsoft Azure provides dozens of infrastructure and PaaS products and many hundreds of services. This growing catalog of integrated cloud services addresses virtually all areas of IT including compute, data and storage, network infrastructure, administration, security, web, mobile, applications, and software development. Other Microsoft offerings like Office 365 Exchange depend Azure network infrastructure. (See Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting services.)

Key Azure products and services for which Progent provides advanced consulting expertise and troubleshooting services include:

Azure Virtual Machines makes it easy for you to deploy, expand and manage virtual machines on the Azure cloud. An Azure Storage account takes care of storage for the operating system disk and associated data disks. Azure Virtual Machines supports Windows Server, major distributions of Linux, IBM, Oracle Database, and additional leading platforms. Various classes of virtual machines (VMs) are offered and priced based on processor power, memory and disk capacity, and I/O latency. You can access Azure VMs through Remote Desktop Connection. The PaaS functionality of Azure Virtual Machines allows you to run Windows workloads such as SQL Server, Exchange Server, and SharePoint plus major Linux distributions like Red Hat, CentOS, Ubuntu, and RancherOS.

The enhanced deployment model for Azure Virtual Machines, branded Azure Resource Manager, replaces what is now called Azure Classic and offers streamlined VM management by supporting VM groups with a shared lifecycle. Before, Azure services for deploying, scaling, and managing virtual machines had to be handled one VM at a time. Resource Manager deployment options include a cloud portal, Azure Resource Manager template, Azure PowerShell, and Visual Studio support. Progent's Azure specialists can show you how to build and maintain Azure solutions quickly and affordably by delivering expertise with these tools for managing Azure Virtual Machines.

Azure Storage delivers dynamic scale and load balancing for primary storage on Azure. A General Purpose Storage account provides Azure subscribers access to storage services for Blobs, Tables, Files, Queues, and virtual machine drives. Every account has a 500 terabyte capacity maximum. For higher performance, you can upgrade to Azure's Premium storage class and run VM applications on solid state disks (SSDs).

Azure Blob storage for General Purpose Storage accounts is intended for massive amounts of unstructured object data such as documents, social media, archives, web pages, and logs. Blobs are arranged as containers, which makes it simpler to assign policies to groups of objects. To send blobs that are impractical to move over an Internet connection, you can mail a physical drive to Microsoft.

A separate category of Blob Storage is available for apps that use only block or append blob storage. You can designate Hot or Cool access characteristics for block and append blobs (not page blobs). Being able to classify data access patterns in Microsoft Azure Storage enables you to establish the right balance between cost and speed.

Table storage is economical storage designed for developers creating NoSQL metadata like contact lists, device information, or web apps. Azure Table Storage supports the OData protocol for advanced querying and supports JSON and XMLd AtomPub formats. Queue storage simplifies the creation of messaging solutions by supporting asynchronous exchanges between software components across cloud-based and physical environments. Microsoft Azure File storage supports SMB file shares, which streamlines migrating legacy apps to Azure.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory is a cloud-based directory and authentication management service that enables password synchronization and single sign-on (SSO) spanning local and cloud environments. Azure Active Directory (AD) is incorporated in Office 365, Salesforce.com, Concur, Dynamics 365, and many other popular applications. Features include multi-factor authentication, device registration, password management across cloud and on-premises environments, group management, role-based access control (RBAC), application usage monitoring, security monitoring, and automatic alerts. Microsoft Azure AD works seamlessly with Windows Server Active Directory to make it easy to unify local and cloud-based identities. Azure provides high availability by storing your directories on at least three separate facilities.

The Microsoft Azure AD Connect tool has superseded Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync), Azure AD Sync (AAD Sync) and Forefront Identity Manager as the preferred way to connect local directories and synchronize identity information with Active Directory, Office 365 and SaaS cloud applications.

Azure Backup is an automated backup service for offsite backup of on-premises, cloud, and hybrid data. Three backups are kept in one Azure facility, and three extra backups at additional cost be stored in a geographically separate Azure region. Microsoft offers Service Level Agreements for 99.9% reliability, and retention in Azure is available for up to 99 years. Backups can be scheduled for daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly periods, and restoration is quicker and more affordable than old-school tape technology. Azure encrypts backups prior to being sent across a protected connection to Azure, and backups are stored encrypted. The encryption key is stored and managed locally for better compliance. Additional features include throttling to utilize off-peak hours, data compression to improve throughput and lower storage requirements, and incremental backups to save bandwidth. Azure Import/Export allows you to perform your initial backup locally and deliver a physical storage device to the closest Azure datacenter.

Azure Backup integrates closely with System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) to provide in-depth support for Microsoft's key platforms like Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Hyper-V. System Center Data Protection Manager works seamlessly with Windows Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Services to backup virtual machines without interrupting their accessibility. SCDPM also offers platform-specific granular recovery capability like mailbox restoration for Exchange, database-level recovery for Microsoft SQL Server, and Item Level Recovery for SharePoint. Azure Backup environments integrated with Data Protection Manager can be monitored with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) to watch over system health, performance, and efficiency.

How Progent Can Help You with Microsoft Azure Solutions
If you intend to migrate your network to the Azure cloud or create a hybrid ecosystem that combines on-premises and Azure components, Progent's consultants can help you evaluate the benefits of the Microsoft Azure family of products and services compared to other public clouds or alternative networking models like using colo centers. Progent can help your business with every phase of Azure integration including ROI analysis, solution design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized management and monitoring, performance tuning, software license management, disaster recovery planning, cybersecurity solutions, and regulatory compliance validation.

Progent can help you to determine which of your line-of-business applications are a good fit for Azure and help you make your legacy applications are cloud ready. Progent offers affordable on-demand expertise so you can immediately deal with stubborn technical hurdles or Progent can deliver end-to-end project management outsourcing expertise to make sure your Microsoft Azure integration initiative is successfully completed on time and within your budget.

To help you implement unified administration of a hybrid network that includes Azure services, Progent can provide System Center consulting services including System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) expertise, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) support, System Center Configuration Manager consulting, System Center Virtual Machine Manager hybrid cloud management consulting, and Microsoft Intune mobility management consulting.

Hybrid cloud networks need to furnish a secure, manageable, transparent, and resilient environment for user to connect to both on-premises cloud-based applications and services. Progent has a wealth of experience deploying IPsec VPN connections and implementing or troubleshooting firewalls to link to Azure. Progent offers fast remote access to Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants and to firewall experts certified by leading vendors such as Symantec, Barracuda, and SonicWall to assist you to set up or troubleshoot firewalls for integrating your on-premises network with Microsoft Azure. Progent also supports mobile users by providing the skills of iPhone and iPad technology experts as well as Google Android connectivity experts to show you how to set up and administer smartphones and tablets connected to your Microsoft Azure environment. If you come up against glitches with your Azure solution, Progent has extensive experience working with Microsoft's Azure technical engineers to resolve problems with Azure.

Typical samples of remote consulting services Progent has delivered to businesses to create and manage their Azure-connected networks are:

• Set up and debug IPsec VPN tunnels forsecure access to Azure
• Plan or provide guidance for the architecture of hybrid Azure/local network models
• Assemble VM images for Windows or Linux systems to be hosted on Microsoft Azure
• Configure Azure AD, Azure AD Connect, and ADFS
• Plan and test data protection systems based on Azure Backup
• Prep and troubleshoot virtual hard disks (VHDs) for Microsoft Azure
• Specify and deploy security rules
• Identify and resolve issues involving IP addresses
• Resolve synchronization problems associated with Office 365
• Configure, update, and troubleshoot firewalls from Cisco, Barracuda, SonicWall and other leading vendors
• Set up Cisco AnyConnect for remote access to Microsoft Azure products and services
• Streamline license administration
• Resolve problems with certificates
• Identify and set up unified management, monitoring and reporting platforms that span hybrid cloud/on-premises environments
• Set up SCCM to deploy applications
• Configure SCVMM locally and on Microsoft Azure
• Design and configure hybrid Exchange deployments
• Optimize query speed on SQL Server hosted by Azure
• Migrate Citrix XenDesktop to the Azure cloud
• Resolve PowerShell problems for loading modules to Azure

Other Public Cloud Services Supported by Progent's Cloud Integration Experts
Products and services offered on public clouds like Azure are expanding quickly in volume and complexity. Choosing the right options can be increasingly difficult. The majority of large businesses maintain hybrid IT networks that use multiple public cloud and also maintain corporate facilities. Microsoft's Office 365 line of applications, such as Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online, rely on Azure infrastructure and provide alternative paths to Azure's IaaS products. Progent's cloud experts can assist you to assess the business benefits of the services offered by. many options available from the major public clouds and can help you plan, configure, and administer IT ecosystems that include an assortment of public and private clouds plus on-premises facilities.

Other public clouds supported by Progent's experts include:

Microsoft allows you to create transparent hybrid networks that combine Office 365 Exchange Online and local installations of Exchange. This permits you to have specific Exchange mailboxes hosted at your physical datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes resident on Office 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified Exchange consultants can help you with any facet of designing, integrating and debugging your hybrid Office 365 network. Progent's Exchange specialists can provide as-needed support to help you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer extensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to make sure your hybrid Office 365/Exchange initiative is carried out on time and within budget. For more information about Progent's online consulting expertise for hybrid Office 365 and on-premises Exchange environments, refer to Exchange Online integration solutions with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's certified Microsoft Office and Office 365 experts can assist companies of any size to incorporate Microsoft Office desktop and Office 365 apps such as Office Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Access, Project and Publisher into a cohesive productivity solution that provides quick ROI and promotes improved business results. Progent can assist you to integrate Microsoft Office or Office 365 applications with one another and with additional core Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL Server deployed locally or hosted in the cloud. Progent can also help you to resolve compatibility issues between different releases of Microsoft Office desktop and offers customized online Microsoft Office and Office 365 instruction to individuals or teams.

Progent's Amazon AWS planning and integration consultants offer affordable remote support to help companies of any size to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services such as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for expandable low-latency storage, and Glacier for value-priced long-term archiving. Progent can help you with every phase of Amazon AWS integration including needs analysis, preparedness assessment, architectural design, testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, software license management, backup/restore solutions, and security and compliance. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN technology and can show you how to create all-cloud or hybrid environments that efficiently integrate Amazon AWS services. Progent offers occasional support or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing to help you move smoothly to the Amazon AWS cloud.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service is a library of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their business processes by automating key sales functions including listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's vast online selling environment and automating their sales, merchants can broaden their market, reduce their cost of sales, improve reaction time to customers, and add to their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can collaborate with your development team and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can shorten development time and costs and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration consultants offer cost-effective online and on-premises consulting to assist businesses to move any portion of their core IT resources to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save time and hardware expense and enable access to Google's state-of-the-art machine learning technology. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design and review, testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security strategies.