Network Outsourcing for Mid-size Companies
Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud Solutions:
Planning, Integration and Troubleshooting Support for Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, formerly called Windows Azure, is a public cloud platform with a comprehensive suite of services that offer both Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) features. The Azure platform includes over 60 products and hundreds of services that cover a broad range of areas that include Windows and Linux virtual machine hosting, scalable cloud storage, data management, messaging, mobility, application development with Visual Studio, Internet of Things (IoT), content delivery, media encoding and streaming, and machine learning based on Cortana technology.
Public clouds have revolutionized computing but also present a raft of questions for business executives, chief information officers, network architects, and IT managers. Should public cloud services supplement or replace your private cloud or on-premises data center? How do you deal with legacy solutions that are not easily migrated to a public cloud? What about performance-driven applications that are not appropriate for virtualized servers? How much direct control are you comfortable handing off to a public cloud? What about security, compliance with data sovereignty regulations, management automation, application development, troubleshooting? How does Microsoft Azure compare to Amazon AWS, and what services should you use among the hundreds that are available? Most organizations dealing with these questions adopt hybrid solutions that incorporate private and public clouds in order to accommodate and modernize all their information assets. To find the cloud solution that maximizes business value for your company requires careful study and a thorough familiarity with modern IT technology.
Progent has extensive experience assisting organizations of all sizes to design, deploy and manage IT networks that incorporate various combinations of public and private clouds and physical datacenters. Progent offers online and onsite expertise to help you assess the benefits and risks of different cloud-centric and hybrid network models, and Progent can help you integrate your network with the Microsoft Azure cloud products and services that are right for you. Progent can help you deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, set up easily scalable cloud storage using Azure Storage services, simplify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and implement backup/restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure and convenient access between your stationary or mobile users and Azure cloud resources by helping you configure and troubleshoot VPN connections and firewalls.
Popular Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
Microsoft Azure offers more than 60 IaaS and PaaS products and many hundreds of services covering virtually all areas of information technology including compute, data and storage, networking, management, security, web, mobile, applications, and development. Azure services are available on a subscription basis. As with Amazon Web Services, you pay for what you use. Popular Azure products and services for which Progent offers advanced consulting and technical support include:
Azure Virtual Machines hosting service allows you to deploy, scale and manage virtual machines on the Azure cloud. An Azure Storage account provides storage for the operating system disk and any data disks. Azure Virtual Machines support Windows Server, SQL Server, Linux, IBM, SAP, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server, and other platforms. Various classes of virtual machines (VMs) are available and priced based on CPU performance, memory, disk capacity and I/O latency. You can access Windows VMs via Remote Desktop Connection (RDP). In addition to being able to run Windows enterprise applications such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics, R Server and System Center, you can run popular Linux distributions including Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE and CentOS plus open-source solutions like Chef, Puppet, and Docker.
In 2014, Microsoft Azure introduced Azure Resource Manager, which supersedes what is now called Azure Classic as the preferred VM deployment model. Resource Manager dramatically simplifies VM management by allowing you to provision, deploy, manage, and monitor all the services for your Azure VMs as a group whose members share a common lifecycle, rather than handling these services individually. Azure Virtual Machines deployment options with Resource Manager include Azure Portal, Azure Resource Manager template, Azure PowerShell and Azure Tools for Visual Studio.
Azure Storage provides massively scalable and automatically load balanced cloud storage. Subscribers with General Purpose Storage accounts have access to storage services for Blobs, Tables, Queues, Files, and Azure virtual machine disks. The capacity limit for each account is 500TB. An optional Premium storage tier is available for virtual machine disks and allows you to run VM workloads on high-performance solid state drives (SSDs).
Blob storage for a General Purpose Azure Storage account is intended for large amounts of unstructured object data such as documents, social data and media, backups, web content, logs, and Big Data. Blobs are organized into containers, which facilitates the assignment of security policies to groups of objects. To import or export very large blobs that are impractical to send over the Internet, you can ship a hard drive to Microsoft.
A special type of Blob Storage account is intended for applications that use only block or append blob storage. Blob Storage accounts allow you to specify Hot or Cool access patterns for block and append blobs (not page blobs). This allows you to classify frequently and infrequently accessed objects in your storage accounts in order to achieve an appropriate balance between performance and costs.
Table storage is low-cost storage for developers creating non-relational NoSQL data with a schemaless design such as data for web applications, address books, device information, and other types of metadata. Table storage supports a subset of the OData protocol for advanced querying and allows JSON and XML-based AtomPub formats. Queue storage simplifies the development of messaging solutions by supporting asynchronous communication between application components running inside or outside the cloud. Azure File storage supports SMB file shares so you can quickly can migrate legacy applications to the Azure cloud.
Azure Active Directory is a cloud-based directory and identity management service that enables password synchronization across on-premises and cloud-hosted environments. Azure AD is incorporated in Microsoft 365, Salesforce.com, DropBox, Concur, Dynamics CRM Online and thousands of other cloud applications. Capabilities include multi-factor authentication, device registration, self-service password and group management, privileged account management, role-based access control, application usage monitoring, plus auditing and security monitoring and alerts. Azure AD integrates seamlessly with your Windows Server Active Directory to simplify the integration of on-premises and cloud-based identities. Azure offers high availability by storing your directories on at least three geo-dispersed datacenters. Azure AD also allows you to monitor application usage, provides extensive security monitoring reporting, and enables secure mobile/remote access to on-premises applications.
The Azure AD Connect tool has replaced Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync), Azure AD Sync and Forefront Identity Manager as the preferred means to connect on-premises directories and synchronize identity data with Azure AD, Microsoft 365 and SaaS cloud applications.
Azure Backup is a managed backup service that simplifies offsite backup of physical, hybrid and cloud environments. Three copies of backup data are stored in a single Azure datacenter, and three additional copies can optionally be stored in a geographically separate Azure site. Backup reliability is rated at 99.9%, and retention in Azure can be up to 99 years. Backup schedules can be daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly, and recovery time is faster and less expensive than traditional tape-based solutions. Backup data is encrypted prior to being sent over a secure connection to Azure and is stored encrypted. The encryption key is stored and managed locally. Other features include throttling to take advantage of off-peak hours, compression to improve performance and lower storage costs, and incremental backups to conserve bandwidth. To save time and bandwidth, Azure Import/Export allows you to perform your initial (or seed) backup locally and deliver physical media to the nearest Azure datacenter.
Azure Backup can be integrated seamlessly with System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) to provide specialized support for Microsoft's mission-critical workloads including Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Hyper-V. DPM works transparently with Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) to protect virtual machines without disrupting their accessibility. DPM also offers platform-specific granular restore features such as Exchange mailbox recovery for Exchange, database-level recovery for SQL Server, and Item Level Recovery (ILR) for SharePoint. Azure Backup environments integrated with SCDPM can be monitored with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) to track system health, performance, and utilization.
How Progent Can Help You with Microsoft Azure Integration
If you want to integrate your network with Microsoft Azure, whether as a cloud-centric environment or as a hybrid on-premises/cloud solution, Progent can help you to evaluate the advantages of the Azure platform compared to other public clouds or alternative networking models such as colocation. Progent can assist you with every stage of a migration to Microsoft Azure including requirements analysis, readiness assessment, solution architecture, pilot testing, implementation, management automation, performance tuning, license management, disaster recovery strategies, security planning, and regulatory compliance validation.
Progent can help you decide which of your applications are appropriate for Microsoft Azure and can help you make your legacy applications cloud ready. Progent can provide cost-effective online consulting expertise for small tasks to help you quickly overcome technical hurdles or Progent can deliver end-to-end project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to ensure you Azure integration initiative is successfully completed on time and within your budget.
Microsoft Azure can host a wide variety of workloads from multiple vendors, and according to Microsoft one quarter of Azure virtual machines run Linux. But Azure includes many optimizations for Microsoft servers and applications as well as management and development platforms. Microsoft continues to improve Azure's ability to support hybrid on-promises/cloud environments centered on Microsoft technologies. A major initiative in this area is the Azure Stack powered by Windows Server 2016. Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting team offers expert support for Azure-optimized products by providing services that include Windows Server consulting, Exchange Server expertise, SQL Server integration and development, SharePoint design, Microsoft 365 integration and training, and Skype for Business integration. To help you set up unified management of your hybrid cloud network, Progent offers advanced System Center 2016 consulting services and System Center 2012 support including System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) consulting, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) support, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) consulting, SCVMM 2016 hybrid cloud management consulting, Microsoft Intune management, and Dynamics GP consulting and customization.
Among the most common technical problems organizations run into when migrating to Microsoft Azure or other public clouds is reconfiguring firewalls and VPN tunnels to provide users with secure access to cloud resources. Progent can provide the services of Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants and firewall experts certified by major vendors like Symantec, Barracuda, SonicWall, WatchGuard, and Check Point to help you set up or debug firewalls for connecting to Microsoft Azure. To support the modern BYOD computing model, Progent's iPhone and iPad technology consultants, Android integration experts and BlackBerry specialists can help you integrate and manage secure mobile endpoints for your Azure users. Progent can set up remote access to your Azure-connected computers and work in concert with your in-house technical staff and Microsoft's support engineers to resolve Azure-related problems quickly and affordably.
Examples of online consulting services provided by Progent to help businesses integrate their networks with Microsoft Azure include:
- Review hybrid system design for Azure Virtual Machines and Storage
- Build and test virtual machine images for Windows or Linux servers and applications
- Configure, update and troubleshoot IPsec VPN tunnels for access to Azure
- Configure and troubleshoot firewalls from Cisco, Barracuda, SonicWall, and others
- Set up and debug endpoints
- Configure Cisco AnyConnect for Azure access
- Install and use Azure Active Directory and Azure AD Connect
- Configure Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
- Design and manage backup vaults with Azure Backup
- Troubleshoot and repair VHDs
- Set up and verify security rules
- Resolve IP addressing issues
- Design long-term storage solutions based on Azure
- Set up System Center Data Protection Manager for disaster recovery preparedness
- Set up System Center Operations Manager for DPM monitoring
- Resolve synchronization issues with Microsoft 365
- Set up System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to deploy applications
- Install System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) locally and on Azure
- Design and configure Exchange hybrid deployments
- Tune query performance on SQL Server hosted by Azure
- Migrate to Azure with Citrix XenDesktop
- Configure and install XenDesktop VMs, Licensing Server, Delivery Controllers and Storefront
- Work on PowerShell issues for loading modules to Azure
- Automate software license management
- Resolve certificate issues
A growing selection of public cloud services compete with or complement Microsoft Azure and the range and capability of cloud services is evolving quickly. Microsoft's own Microsoft 365 family of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, including Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online, are based on the Azure infrastructure and offer alternatives to Azure's IaaS model. Progent can help you assess the business benefits of the major public cloud offerings and can help you integrate and manage IT ecosystems that incorporate an assortment of public and private clouds and physical datacenters.
Other public cloud platforms supported by Progent include:
Microsoft offers strong support for building hybrid environments that seamlessly combine Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and on-premises Exchange systems. These hybrid solutions allow you to locate some mailboxes on your local facilities, which may be necessary in order to comply with regulatory requirements, and assign other mailboxes to the Microsoft 365 cloud. Progent's Microsoft-certified Exchange consultants can assist your IT team with any aspect of planning, integrating and troubleshooting a hybrid deployment of Microsoft 365 and on-premises Exchange. Progent's can deliver as-needed support to guide you through especially complex technical road blocks, and Progent can also provide expert project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure that your hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange initiative is completed on time, within budget, and in accordance with leading practices. To learn about Progent's consulting services for hybrid Microsoft 365 and on-premises Exchange environments, see Microsoft 365 integration with on-premises Exchange.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a wide array of cloud services such as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for hosting virtual servers, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for cloud storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced long-term archival storage. Progent can help you create cloud solutions based on Amazon AWS and assist you to design and carry out partial or complete migrations of on-premises resources to the Amazon AWS Cloud, resolve connectivity problems, optimize performance, and implement centralized management tools. For details about Progent's integration consulting for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS Integration Consulting.
Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is a comprehensive library of APIs that enable companies that sell products through Amazon to integrate their in-house application software for product listings, orders, payments, fulfillment, and reporting with Amazon's services. By integrating in-house apps and processes with Amazon's retail network, businesses can grow their markets, cut operational costs, accelerate responsiveness to customers, and improve their bottom line. To learn about Progent's development consulting for Amazon Marketplace Web Service, refer to Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS) Development and Integration Consulting.
Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration experts offer cost-effective online and onsite support to help organizations of any size to migrate all or part of their core IT infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save time and hardware costs and allow access to Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning technology. Progent can help you with every phase of Google Cloud Platform integration including requirements analysis, preparedness evaluation, system design and review, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, backup/restore mechanisms, and security and compliance.
Contact Progent for Cloud Integration Consulting
If you need help with any aspect of integrating your network with Microsoft Azure or other public cloud platform, call Progent at
An index of content::
Internet Security and Acceleration Server Engineer
Internet Security and Acceleration Server Support and Setup
Progent's Microsoft-certified Internet Security and Acceleration Server consultants have extensive backgrounds developing Microsoft-based security solutions for IT networks with many locations, mobile workers, and line-of-business eCommerce applications. A Progent ISA 2004 Firewall engineer can help your small business design and implement an installation of Microsoft ISA Server 2004 that meets your information protection requirements without restricting your network.
Windows 2019 Hyper-V Remote Troubleshooting
Windows Server 2019 migration Troubleshooting
Progent's Microsoft-certified Windows Server 2019 consultants can assist your organization to plan and carry out an efficient migration to Windows Server 2019 using your current system architecture or a new cloud-based or hybrid model. Windows Server 2019 offers significant enhancements in scale, performance, ease of management, virtualization, cybersecurity, hybrid on-prem plus cloud deployments, availability, and container support.
After Hours SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups Network Consulting
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Online Help
Progent offers the support of Microsoft-certified engineers as well as seasoned database application programmers, database administrators, project management experts, Cisco-certified network architects, disaster recovery planning specialists, and security professionals to assist you to assess the potential benefits of SQL Server 2012 for your organization, install pilot environments at your site or at Progent's test lab, design and carry out a smooth transition to SQL Server 2012 from earlier releases of SQL Server or from other RDBMS solutions, and define a cost-effective and safe network infrastructure that lets you realize the full business benefit of SQL Server 2012.
SMS Migration Support and Integration
Remote Support and Integration Microsoft SMS
Progent's certified experts offer small and mid-size companies enterprise-class consulting support for Microsoft Systems Management Server and System Center Configuration Manager, Microsoft's standard tools for change and configuration automation. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is Microsoft's new title for the change management platform formerly called SMS Server. System Center Configuration Manager provides a variety of new features to Microsoft Systems Management Server such as full automation, integrated Vista Microsoft Windows Server 2008 awareness, quarantine support, and device driver management. Progent's Microsoft certified engineers can show you how to use SMS Server or Configuration Manager 2007 effectively for streamlined OS and application software deployment, security patch administration, application tracking, and licensing compliance. Progent's consultants can also assist your company to migrate efficiently from SMS Server to Configuration Manager 2007.
IT Outsourcing Advantages Whitepapers
IT Outsourcing Model Whitepaper
Progent's IT outsourcing packages offer affordable computer consulting for mid-size businesses. Whether it includes designing network infrastructure, creating an internal Help Desk or outsourcing a one, rolling out an updated email platform, monitoring your system, or building a web-based business solution, outsourcing your network engineering services can smooth out expenses and eliminate uncertainties, permitting network support expenses to grow in a more linear and controlled fashion than is feasible by amassing a bulky, all-purpose in-house network support organization. Progent's Outsourcing White Paper and flyers tell you how Progent can help you build a protected and robust system architecture for your vital Windows-powered business software including Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Exchange Server, and SQL Server.
Wireless Integration Case Studies
Proxim Wireless Example Application
Progent delivered a wireless networking solution that enabled a school to improve efficiency and eliminate the ongoing expense of a dedicated link. Progent recommended a Proxim Tsunami wireless 60Mbps bridge. The economical building-to-building Proxim bridge is intended for interfacing separate sites as far as 2.5 miles apart and can extend to even longer ranges. This wireless alternative offered improved performance and dependability than simply amplifying the 802.11b network, and since it utilizes the 5.8Ghz spectrum it provided protection against outside interference.
Server Management Professionals
Virtual Server Consult
Server proliferation puts pressure on IT budgets and administrative resources. Server consolidation via a virtual infrastructure promises lower total cost of ownership of hardware and quicker ROI, more leveraged utilization of servers, streamlined operations, increased network uptime, and easier management. Common usage scenarios for virtual machines include hardware consolidation, economical platforms for mission-critical legacy applications based on obsolete operating systems, and inexpensive quarantine of program development or evaluation environments from on-line systems.
Microsoft Server Virtualization Support and Setup
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Engineers
Microsoft Virtual Server, run on the Windows Server 2003 operating system and powered by software originally developed by Connectix, provides the performance necessary to carry out hardware reduction, application upgrade, and server isolation projects via virtualization techniques in an enterprise-class computing network with advanced expandability, manageability, and availability. Microsoft has targeted Virtual Server 2005 at companies who want to improve ROI in application programming and piloting, upgrading from outdated line-of-business software, and server consolidation. Progent's skilled Virtual Server consultants can assist your business to assess and integrate MS Virtual Server 2005.
Onsite Technical Support Ekahau Wi-Fi RF Spectrum Analysis
Ekahau Wi-Fi Site Survey and Design Configuration
Progent's Ekahau-certified Wi-Fi site design experts can assist your business to design, install, tune, manage and debug a Wi-Fi network optimized for your building. Progent can provide remote or on-premises support for Ekahau Pro for predictive Wi-Fi planning, Ekahau Sidekick for onsite RF signal measurement, Ekahau Analyzer for troubleshooting RF issues, and Ekahau Insights for monitoring the health of multiple Wi-Fi sites.
Check Point ZoneAlarm Security Audit Services
Security Organizations Check Point ZoneAlarm
Progent's Check Point firewall consultants can show you how to plan, integrate, and manage firewall environments built around Check Point Next Generation security gateways and Check Point's subscription-based security services. Progent can also assist you support legacy Check Point firewall models or upgrade efficiently to Check Point's next-generation firewalls.
SCCM 2012 Intune Integration Online Support
SCCM 2012 Windows Server Deployment Onsite Technical Support
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help your business to prepare for, deploy, and administer System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager. Progent can assist you to migrate efficiently to Configuration Manager 2012 from an older device management platform or assist you to enhance your current SCCM 2012 environment to accommodate your evolving IT requirements. Also, Progent can help you to create a software foundation that takes full advantage of SCCM by providing expertise with associated Microsoft platforms including Active Directory Domain Services, Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), and Internet Information Services (IIS).
High Availability Server Clustering Engineer
SQL Server Cluster Online Support Services
Progent offers Windows Cluster Server assistance to help your business implement high availability server clusters that can deliver 100% operation. Windows cluster servers for zero-downtime systems include Microsoft Windows Cluster Server, SQL Cluster, and Microsoft Exchange Cluster. By helping you create high availability server clustering solutions powered by Windows Server Cluster 2003, Progent's Certified Windows consultants ensure that your fault-tolerant server clusters are configured to optimize the business advantage of your information system.
Mac Online Technical Support Technology Professional
Engineers OS X Troubleshooting
Progent offers nationwide remote help and troubleshooting services for businesses who run Apple Mac networks or whose IT systems include a combination of Mac with Microsoft Windows products. Progent's experts can provide Apple macOS and Mac OS X clients a range of IT services such as desktop assistance, migration to the most recent version of Mac OS X from legacy versions of Apple macOS and Mac OS X, plus expertise with Mac applications. Progent's specialists in Apple technology can also assist you with Apple iPhone and Apple iPad integration and management, or migrating to Apple's iCloud services. Online network consulting provides optimum leverage for your IT budget by preserving user efficiency and shortening the time billed for computer repair services. Advanced remote support utilities and skilled service specialists and consultants combine to enable Progent to solve most IT problems without wasting time and expense by going to your location. In most of situations your IT problems can be remediated over the phone or via a mix of phone support and online access. Progent can offer the services of Cisco certified CCIE network experts and CISSP certified security professionals to assist with the toughest network issues.
Microsoft Expert
Microsoft Office XP Technical Consultant
Progent applies no service activation charge and asks no retainer for support services delivered during regular working hours. Progent's one-minute granularity does away with big invoices for fast solutions so you will not be forced to allow simple problems to fester.
CISSP Certified Security Online Troubleshooting Supplemental Helpdesk
24 Hour Supplemental Support Desk Technical Support Services
Progent's Shared Call Center service allows your business to split the load for Help Desk services transparently between your in-house IT staff and Progent's roster of certified desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk service is a collaborative service desk solution based on ConnectWise Manage, the top shared professional services automation platform for managing service requests, ticket lifecycle, ownership, progress tracking, and reporting.
System Consultant UNIX Online
Solaris Remote Specialist
Progent offers national urgent help and troubleshooting services for businesses who operate Sun Solaris networks or whose information systems include a mix of Sun Solaris and Microsoft products. Online network consulting offers optimum return for your information technology dollar by preserving client efficiency and shortening the time charged for network analysis and repair. Advanced remote access technology and experienced service specialists and engineers combine to enable Progent to solve the majority of network problems without squandering time and expense by traveling to your location. In most of cases your IT issues can be dealt with over the phone or through a mix of phone help and online network analysis. Progent can put you in touch with Cisco certified CCIE infrastructure engineers and CISA certified security specialists to assist you with the most challenging network problems.
Monitoring and Reporting Specialist
Remote Monitoring and Reporting Support
Progent provides a variety of network support bundles for small organizations. These information technology outsourcing and server monitoring solutions are based on the anticipatory problem handling abilities of Operations Manager 2007, a next-generation network and system management product that tracks the availability, performance, and security of your network and identifies potential troubles before they can bring down your system. With Progent's affordably priced IT service packages, small businesses can select a simple co-sourcing package built around Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 with server monitoring, reporting, Help Desk and online troubleshooting or a comprehensive 24x7 outsourcing solution.
Windows Server 2008 DirectAccess On-site Technical Support
Windows Server 2008 R2 IT Consultants
Progent's certified consultants can assist you you to calculate the advantages of Windows Server 2008 for your company, develop pilot programs and rollout strategies, install Windows Server 2008 with your network infrastructure and applications, train your IT personnel how to use new management utilities, and provide continuing consulting and technical support via low-cost options including Help Desk Call Center service and remote technical support.
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