Cloud Integration Consulting

Progent has assisted organizations of all types and sizes to design, configure, and administer information networks based on a range of hybrid architectures that mix Azure cloud resources with physical facilities, private clouds, and other public clouds like Amazon AWS or Google Cloud Platform. Progent is unmatched in the ability to offer immediate and affordable online help from Technology consulting experts to help you to understand the possible benefits of various Azure services for your particular organization. Progent's virtualization experts can assist you to plan and configure VMs on Azure Virtual Machines. Progent's certified data security consultants can help you unify identity management using Microsoft Entra ID (formerly called Azure Active Directory). Progent's data protection consultants can assist you to plan backup and restore systems based on Azure Backup. Also, Progent's VPN and security appliance experts can help you set up safe and dependable connections to Azure.

About Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, previously called Windows Azure, is a leading public cloud platform that lets you use IT infrastructure, servers, and key application software residing on Microsoft's massive public cloud. The Azure ecosystem supports over 100 cloud-centric services including hosting Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, development, and backup/restore. Azure services are available by subscription and provided as-needed, so organizations can immediately ramp up or reduce processing and data storage resources. Since you pay only for the computer resources you need, efficiency is high, which is one of the major attractions of public clouds.

Key Azure Cloud Services
Azure offers more than 60 IaaS and platform products and hundreds of cloud services. This expanding family of integrated cloud services covers practically all facets of IT including processing, data and storage, networking, administration, security, web, mobility, applications, and software development. Additional Microsoft products such as Office 365 Exchange depend Azure cloud infrastructure. (See Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online consulting and troubleshooting expertise.)

Key Azure offerings for which Progent can deliver advanced consulting expertise and troubleshooting services include:

Azure Virtual Machines allows organizations to deploy, expand and administer virtual machines (VMs) on Azure. Your Azure Storage subscription takes care of storage for the operating system disk and any data disks. Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines supports Microsoft Windows Server, major distributions of Linux, SAP, Oracle Database, and additional popular platforms. Different categories of virtual machines are offered and priced based on processor performance, memory size, and I/O latency. You can access Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines via RDP. The Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) features of Azure Virtual Machines allows you to run Windows applications like SQL Server, Exchange Server, and Microsoft Dynamics plus mainstream Linux distributions such as Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, and FreeBSD.

The current deployment model for Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, branded Azure Resource Manager, replaces what is now called Azure Classic and enables more efficient virtual machine management by allowing VM groups with a shared lifecycle. Before, Microsoft Azure cloud services for deploying, sizing, and managing virtual machines had to be handled individually. Resource Manager deployment features include Azure Portal, Azure Resource Manager template, Azure PowerShell, and Azure Tools for Visual Studio. Progent's consultants can show you how to build and maintain Azure solutions efficiently and affordably by delivering expertise with all these tools for supporting Azure Virtual Machines.

Azure Storage offers on-demand scale and automatic load balancing for primary storage on the Azure cloud. An Azure 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 TB storage limit. To get higher performance, you can upgrade to a Premium storage tier and run VM workloads on SSDs.

Azure Blob storage for General Purpose Storage accounts is designed for large volumes of unstructured data such as documents, social media, backups, web content, log files and Big Data. Azure Blobs are arranged as containers, which makes it easy to assign policies to object groups. To export blobs that are too massive to upload over the Internet, you can send a physical drive to Microsoft.

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

Table storage is affordably-priced cloud storage intended for developers using schemaless metadata like contact books, device information, or web applications. Azure Table Storage supports the OData protocol for advanced querying and supports JSON and XML-based AtomPub formats. Queue storage facilitates the creation of messaging applications by supporting asynchronous communication between application components that span cloud-based and physical systems. Azure File storage accommodates SMB file shares, which streamlines migrating older applications to the Azure cloud.

Microsoft Entra ID, formerly branded Azure Active Directory, is a cloud-based directory and authentication management service that provides password synchronization and single sign-on across on-premises and cloud infrastructure. Microsoft Azure Entra is incorporated in Microsoft 365, Salesforce.com, DropBox, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and many other popular apps. Features include multi-factor authentication (MFA), endpoint registration, self-service password management across cloud-hosted and local systems, group management, role-based access management, auditing, security monitoring and reporting, and automatic alerts. Microsoft Entra ID integrates transparently with Windows Server AD to make it easy to combine local and cloud-based identities. Azure provides high availability by locating your directories on a minimum of three separate facilities.

The Azure Entra Connect tool has replaced Windows Azure DirSync, Azure AD Sync (AAD Sync) and Forefront Identity Manager as the recommended way to integrate on-premises directories and synchronize identity data with Active Directory, Office 365 and SaaS cloud apps.

Azure Backup is a managed backup service for offsite backup of local, cloud, and hybrid data. Three backups are kept in a single Azure facility, and three additional copies of target data can be housed at a geographically separate Azure site. Microsoft offers SLAs for 99.9% availability, and retention in the Azure cloud can be up to 99 years. Backups can be scheduled for daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly cycles, and restoration is faster and less expensive than traditional tape-based solutions. Backups are encrypted before to being sent across a secure connection to Azure, and backups are retained encrypted. The encryption key is kept locally for enhanced compliance. Additional features include throttling to utilize off-peak periods, data compression for enhanced performance and reduced storage costs, and incremental backups to conserve bandwidth. Azure Import/Export allows you to perform your initial backup on-premises and deliver a physical drive to the closest Azure facility.

Azure Backup can be integrated seamlessly with System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) to provide targeted support for Microsoft's key platforms like Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Hyper-V. SCDPM works transparently with Windows Hyper-V VSS to protect VMs without interfering with their operation. SCDPM also offers platform-specific granular recovery capability like mailbox recovery for Exchange, database-level restore for SQL Server, and Item Level Recovery (ILR) for SharePoint Server. Azure Backup environments integrated with SCDPM can be monitored with SCOM to watch over system health, throughput, and efficiency.

How Progent Can Assist You with Microsoft Azure Solutions
If you intend to migrate your IT infrastructure to the Azure cloud or build a hybrid environment that integrates on-premises and Azure components, Progent can help you assess the benefits of the Azure family of services compared to other public clouds or alternative architectural models such as colocation. Progent can assist you with any phase of Microsoft Azure migration including benefits assessment, solution planning, pilot testing, implementation, unified administration, performance optimization, license management, disaster recovery strategies, cybersecurity solutions, and compliance validation.

Progent can assist you to determine which of your critical applications are a good fit for Microsoft Azure and help ensure your legacy apps are cloud ready. Progent offers cost-effective as-needed support to help you quickly get past stubborn technical roadblocks or Progent can provide end-to-end project management outsourcing services to ensure your Azure integration initiative is successfully completed on time and on budget.

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

Hybrid cloud solutions have to provide a secure, manageable, transparent, and resilient way for user to connect to both on-premises cloud resources. Progent has a wealth of experience configuring IPsec VPN tunnels and implementing or troubleshooting firewalls to connect to Microsoft Azure. Progent offers rapid online access to Cisco-certified CCIE network infrastructure consultants and to firewall experts certified by leading vendors such as Symantec, Barracuda, and WatchGuard to help you to configure or troubleshoot firewalls for integrating your on-premises resources with Azure. Progent also supports mobile users by offering the skills of Apple iPhone and iPad technology consultants and Android integration consultants to show you how to configure and manage handheld devices that utilize your Azure ecosystem. When you encounter glitches with your Microsoft Azure solution, Progent has extensive experience working with Microsoft's Azure technical engineers to fix issues with Azure.

Some examples of remote consulting services Progent has delivered to businesses to help them create and manage their Azure-connected ecosystems are:

• Configure and troubleshoot IPsec VPN connections forremote connectivity to Azure
• Design or review the system architecture of hybrid Azure/on-premises environments
• Build Virtual Machine images for Windows or Linux technology to be located on Microsoft Azure
• Configure Microsoft Entra (Azure Active Directory), Entra Connect (Azure AD Connect), and Federation Services
• Plan and test backup/restore solutions that utilize Azure Backup services
• Set up and troubleshoot virtual hard disks (VHDs) for Azure
• Define and implement policies
• Fix problems with IP addresses
• Resolve sync problems associated with Office 365
• Set up, update, and troubleshoot firewalls from Cisco, Barracuda, Symantec and other providers
• Configure Cisco AnyConnect for accessing Microsoft Azure products and services
• Streamline license management
• Resolve problems with certificate management
• Identify and configure centralized management, monitoring and reporting tools that span hybrid cloud/on-premises networks
• Set up System Center Configuration Manager to deploy apps
• Configure System Center Virtual Machine Manager locally and on Microsoft Azure
• Design and configure hybrid Exchange solutions
• Optimize query speed on SQL Server running on Microsoft Azure
• Move Citrix XenDesktop to the Azure cloud
• troubleshoot PowerShell issues for loading modules to Azure

Additional Public Cloud Services Supported by Progent
Services available on leading public clouds like Azure are expanding rapidly in number and sophistication. Selecting the right options can be increasingly difficult. Most enterprises have hybrid IT networks that utilize multiple public cloud and at the same time manage corporate datacenters. Office 365 family of applications, such as Exchange Online, rely on the Azure cloud and provide alternative paths to Azure's Infrastructure-as-a-Service options. Progent can provide guidance for you to evaluate the business benefits of the service portfolios of the major cloud vendors and can show you how to plan, integrate, and manage network environments that include a mix of public and private clouds plus physical local datacenters.

Additional public clouds supported by Progent's experts include:

Microsoft allows you to create transparent hybrid environments that combine Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and on-premises Exchange. This allows you to have certain mailboxes located at your physical datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes resident on Microsoft 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified Exchange consulting team can assist your organization with any facet of designing, implementing and debugging your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange solution. Progent's Exchange specialists can deliver occasional expertise to help you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer extensive project management outsourcing to make sure your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange initiative is carried out on schedule and within budget. To find out more about Progent's consulting services for hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-prem Exchange systems, refer to Exchange Online integration solutions with on-prem Exchange.

Progent's Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 experts can help businesses of any size to integrate Microsoft Office desktop and Microsoft 365 apps such as Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Access, Project and Publisher into a cohesive solution that offers fast return on investment and promotes better business outcomes. Progent can help your company to integrate Office or Microsoft 365 applications with one another and with other key Microsoft technologies including SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running locally or hosted in the cloud. Progent can also help you to fix compatibility issues with different releases of Office and can provide customized online Office and Microsoft 365 training to individuals or teams.

Progent's Amazon AWS cloud integration consultants offer affordable remote consulting to help companies to access Amazon AWS cloud services including Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual machine hosting, Amazon S3 for expandable high-performance storage, and Glacier for low-cost archival storage. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness assessment, architectural design, pilot testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, backup/restore mechanisms, and security and compliance. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN technology and can show you how to deploy all-cloud or hybrid networking models that seamlessly incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services. Progent can provide occasional support or Progent can deliver project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to help you move smoothly to the Amazon AWS cloud platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service is a library of APIs that enables Amazon sellers to streamline their operations by automating crucial sales functions including listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's vast online selling environment and automating their sales processes, merchants can expand their reach, lower their operating costs, accelerate response time to customers, and add to their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) consultants can collaborate with your development staff and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training to help you cut development time and costs and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration consultants can provide cost-effective online and on-premises consulting to help companies to move any part of their core IT infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save management hassle and equipment expense and enable access to Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning technology. Progent can assist you with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design, testing, deployment, administration, performance tuning, software license management, backup/restore solutions, and security and compliance.