Cloud Solutions

Progent has helped organizations of all types and sizes to design, deploy, and manage information networks based on a range of hybrid models that mix Azure cloud infrastructure and services with local facilities, private clouds, and other public clouds like Amazon AWS or Google Cloud Platform. Progent is unique in the ability to offer fast and affordable online help from Technology experts to assist you to understand the possible advantages of different Azure products and services for your particular organization. Progent's virtualization consultants can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines. Progent's certified information security consultants can help you centralize identity management with Azure Active Directory. Progent's data protection consultants can assist you to configure backup and restore systems based on Azure Backup. In addition, Progent's VPN and security appliance specialists can show you how to create safe and dependable connections to Microsoft Azure.

About Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, formerly branded Windows Azure, is a popular public cloud service that lets you utilize network infrastructure, servers, and business-critical application software residing on Microsoft's vast public cloud. Microsoft Azure includes dozens of cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand storage, messaging, development, and backup/restore. Azure services are offered by subscription and allocated as-needed, so you can immediately expand or ratchet down compute and storage capacity. Because you pay only for the computer resources you need, utilization is very high, which is one of the major attractions of cloud computing.

Popular Azure Cloud Services
Microsoft Azure provides dozens of IaaS and PaaS products and many hundreds of services. This expanding line of integrated cloud services covers virtually all facets of IT including processing, data and storage, network infrastructure, administration, cybersecurity, web, mobile, applications, and development. Other popular offerings like Office 365 Exchange rely on Microsoft Azure network infrastructure. (See Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online integration and technical support consulting services.)

Key Azure offerings for which Progent can deliver high-level consulting expertise and technical support services include:

Azure Virtual Machines hosting service allows you to deploy, scale and manage virtual machines on the Azure cloud. Your Azure Storage subscription takes care of storage for the operating system disk and associated data disks. Azure Virtual Machines works with Microsoft Windows Server, major distros of Linux, IBM, Oracle Database, and additional platforms. Various classes of virtual machines are available and priced based on CPU performance, memory and disk size, and I/O latency. You can access Microsoft Azure VMs through Remote Desktop Connection (RDP). The Platform-as-a-Service features of Azure Virtual Machines permits you to run Windows applications like SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint plus mainstream Linux distributions such as Red Hat, Debian, CoreOS, and FreeBSD.

The enhanced deployment model for Azure Virtual Machines, branded Azure Resource Manager, replaces what is now called Azure Classic and offers more efficient virtual machine management by supporting VM groups with a common lifecycle. Before, Azure cloud services for deploying, sizing, and managing virtual machines had to be handled one VM at a time. Resource Manager deployment features include a cloud portal, Azure Resource Manager template, Azure PowerShell, and Azure Tools for Visual Studio. Progent's consultants can show you how to create and maintain Azure environments efficiently and economically by delivering expertise with these tools for supporting Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.

Microsoft Azure Storage offers dynamic scale and load balancing for primary storage hosted on the Azure cloud. A General Purpose Storage account gives Azure clients the use of storage services for Blobs, Tables, Files, Queues, and virtual machine disks. Each account includes a 500 terabyte capacity limit. To get higher throughput, you can upgrade to Azure's Premium storage tier 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. Azure Blobs are managed as containers, which makes it easy to designate security policies to object groups. To transfer blobs that are impractical to upload over the Internet, you can ship a physical drive to Microsoft.

A special category of Blob Storage is available for apps that only require block or append blob storage. You can designate frequently used or infrequently used access characteristics for block and append blobs (not page blobs). Being able to classify data access characteristics in Azure Storage enables you to achieve an appropriate trade-off between price and throughput.

Table storage is affordably-priced cloud storage designed for developers using NoSQL metadata such as contact lists, device information, or web apps. Azure Table Storage supports the OData protocol for querying and allows JSON and XMLd AtomPub formats. Queue storage simplifies the creation of messaging apps by handling asynchronous communication between application components across cloud-based and physical environments. Microsoft Azure File storage accommodates SMB shares, which streamlines moving older applications to the Azure cloud.

Azure Active Directory is a cloud-based directory and identity control service that enables password synchronization and single sign-on (SSO) spanning local and cloud infrastructure. Microsoft Azure Active Directory is built into Office 365, Salesforce.com, Concur, Dynamics 365, and many other cloud applications. Features include multi-factor identification, device registration, self-service password management across cloud-hosted and local environments, group management, granular role-based access control (RBAC), application usage monitoring, security monitoring and reporting, and alerts. Azure AD integrates transparently with your Windows Server AD to make it simple to combine on-premises and cloud-based authentication. Azure offers high availability by storing your directories on at least three geo-dispersed datacenters.

The Azure AD Connect tool has superseded Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync), Azure AD Sync and Forefront Identity Manager as the preferred way to integrate on-premises directories and synchronize identity information with AD, Office 365 and SaaS cloud-hosted applications.

Azure Backup is a managed backup service for offsite backup of local, cloud, and hybrid data. Three backups are kept in the same Azure datacenter, and three additional copies can optionally be housed in a geographically separate Azure region. Microsoft offers Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for 99.9% reliability, and retention in Azure is available for as long as 99 years. Backups can be scheduled for daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly periods, and recovery time is quicker and more affordable than traditional tape solutions. Backups are encrypted before to being sent across a protected connection to Azure, and backups are stored in their encrypted state. The encryption key is stored and managed locally for better security compliance. Other features include throttling to take advantage of low-traffic hours, compression to improve throughput and lower storage requirements, and incremental backups to conserve bandwidth. Azure Import/Export enables you to perform your initial backup on-premises and deliver a physical drive to the closest Azure facility.

Azure Backup integrates closely with System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) to provide targeted support for Microsoft's key workloads like Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Hyper-V. Data Protection Manager works transparently with Windows Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) to protect virtual machines without interfering with their accessibility. SCDPM also offers platform-specific granular recovery features such as mailbox recovery for Exchange, database-level recovery for Microsoft SQL Server, and Item Level Recovery for SharePoint Server. Azure Backup solutions integrated with Data Protection Manager can be monitored with SCOM to watch over system health, throughput, and utilization.

How Progent Can Assist You with Azure Environments
If you intend to move your organization's network to the Azure cloud or create a hybrid ecosystem that integrates on-premises and cloud-based components, Progent can help you evaluate the benefits of the Microsoft Azure family of products and services compared to competing public cloud platforms or alternative architectural models like using colo centers. Progent can assist you with every phase of Microsoft Azure integration such as benefits assessment, system design, proof of concept, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, license management, disaster recovery strategies, security planning, and compliance validation.

Progent can assist you to determine which of your mission-critical applications are appropriate for Microsoft Azure and help you make your older apps are cloud compatible. Progent can provide affordable on-demand support to help you quickly get past stubborn technical roadblocks or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing expertise to ensure your Azure integration initiative is completed on time and on budget.

To help you implement unified management of a hybrid cloud network that incorporates Microsoft Azure services, Progent can provide Microsoft System Center consulting services including SCDPM expertise, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) support services, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) expertise, SCVMM hybrid cloud management consulting, and Microsoft Intune mobile device management consulting.

Cloud-integrated solutions have to furnish a secure, easy-to-manage, user-friendly, and reliable way for user to connect to both on-premises cloud resources. Progent has extensive experience configuring IPsec VPN tunnels and implementing or troubleshooting firewalls to connect to Microsoft Azure. Progent can provide fast online access to Cisco-certified CCIE network integration consultants and to firewall experts certified by leading suppliers such as Symantec, Barracuda, and Check Point to help you to set up or troubleshoot firewalls for connecting your on-premises resources with Microsoft Azure. Progent also supports mobile users by offering the help of iPhone and iPad technology experts as well as Android connectivity consultants to show you how to set up and administer handheld devices connected to your Microsoft Azure ecosystem. If you encounter problems with your Microsoft Azure solution, Progent has extensive experience working with Microsoft's Azure technical personnel to resolve issues with Azure.

Some examples of online consulting services Progent has provided to organizations to help them integrate and manage their Azure-connected information systems include:

• Set up and troubleshoot IPsec VPN tunnels forsecure access to Microsoft Azure
• Plan or review the system architecture of hybrid Azure/local environments
• Assemble Virtual Machine images for Windows or Linux technology to be located on Microsoft Azure
• Implement Azure Active Directory, AD Connect, and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
• Design and test backup/restore solutions based on Azure Backup services
• Prep and troubleshoot VHDs for Microsoft Azure
• Specify and deploy security rules
• Identify and resolve problems involving IP addresses
• Resolve sync problems associated with Office 365
• Configure, patch, and troubleshoot firewalls from Cisco, Barracuda, WatchGuard and other providers
• Set up Cisco AnyConnect for remote access to Azure resources
• Streamline license administration
• Resolve issues with certificate management
• Select and configure centralized management, monitoring and reporting platforms that span hybrid cloud/on-premises networks
• Implement System Center Configuration Manager to deploy apps
• Configure SCVMM locally and on Microsoft Azure
• Plan and configure hybrid Exchange solutions
• Optimize query performance on SQL Server hosted by Azure
• Migrate Citrix XenDesktop to the Azure cloud
• troubleshoot PowerShell issues for uploading modules to Azure

Additional Public Cloud Services Supported by Progent
Products and services offered on public clouds like Azure are growing rapidly in number and complexity. Selecting the best solution can be a challenge. The majority of large businesses maintain hybrid IT networks that use multiple public cloud and at the same time maintain corporate datacenters. Microsoft's Office 365 family of applications, such as Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online, rely on the Azure cloud and offer alternatives to Azure's Infrastructure-as-a-Service products. Progent can provide guidance for you to assess the potential benefits of the services offered by. many options available from the major cloud vendors and can show you how to design, configure, and manage IT environments that incorporate a variety of public and private clouds along with physical local facilities.

Additional public cloud platforms supported by Progent include:

Microsoft supports transparent hybrid ecosystems that integrate Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and on-premises Exchange deployments. This allows you to have certain Exchange mailboxes located at your on-premises datacenter and other mailboxes hosted by Microsoft 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting team can assist you with any facet of designing, integrating and debugging your hybrid Exchange solution. Progent's Exchange specialists can deliver occasional expertise to help you through stubborn technical issues and also offer extensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Exchange solution is completed on time and on budget. To find out more about Progent's consulting expertise for hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-premises Exchange environments, refer to Exchange Online integration solutions with on-prem Exchange.

Progent's certified Office and Microsoft 365 experts can assist companies of any size to incorporate Microsoft Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Visio and OneNote into a cohesive solution that provides quick ROI and enables better business outcomes. Progent can help you to integrate Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 applications with each other and with other core Microsoft platforms such as SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running locally or hosted in the cloud. Progent can also assist you to resolve compatibility problems between various versions of Microsoft Office and can provide customized online Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 training to individual users or groups.

Progent's Amazon Web Services (AWS) integration consultants can provide cost-effective remote consulting to help companies to integrate Amazon AWS cloud services such as Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for scalable high-performance storage, and Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can help your IT team with every phase of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, system design, testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, backup/restore solutions, and security strategies. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN technology and can help you create all-cloud or hybrid environments that efficiently integrate Amazon AWS resources. Progent offers as-needed expertise or Progent can provide project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you migrate efficiently to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is an integrated library of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their business processes by automating crucial sales activities such as listings, orders, payments, fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's extensive online ecosystem and automating their sales, vendors can expand their reach, lower their cost of sales, improve response time to customers, and increase their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can work with your development team and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can cut development time and costs and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration experts offer cost-effective remote and onsite consulting to assist businesses of any size to move any part of their core network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save time and hardware expense and enable access to Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning technology. Progent can assist you with every aspect of Google Cloud Platform integration including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design and review, testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, software license management, backup/restore mechanisms, and security and compliance.