Cloud Integration Solutions

Microsoft Exchange Online is one of Microsoft's cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line enabled by Microsoft Azure. Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic capacity, high-availability, plus other benefits associated with public clouds instead of on-premises IT facilities. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to work transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid environments. Hybrid environments include local resources with cloud-based services to create a unified network.

Common reasons for integrating on-premises Exchange installations with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online are adherence to regulatory mandates or business restrictions that prohibit certain mailboxes from being hosted off premises, throughput requirements associated with server virtualization or cloud connectivity, the need for greater administrative flexibility, the ability to support various home-grown or legacy environments, company culture, or recovery strategies. Also, hybrid systems are typically implemented for migrating safely from an on-premises to an Exchange Online cloud-centric environment.

Whether you need a temporary hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment on the way to a migration to the cloud or you intend to build a robust hybrid environment, Progent's Microsoft-certified experts are available help you with every facet of designing, integrating, administering, and debugging your hybrid system. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed expertise to help you through stubborn integration bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Exchange Online implementation is performed on time and within.

Progent's Exchange Server consultants have valuable experience teaming with the Microsoft 365 support staff to fix complex integration issues and Progent offers as-needed support services to help your business to manage and enhance your hybrid Exchange Online solution as your requirements evolve. Progent has two decades of experience providing organizations of all sizes advanced consulting services remotely, and Progent can also provide on-premises support in metro areas throughout the U.S. (See Progent's client testimonials.)

Hybrid Solutions for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
A hybrid implementation of Exchange Online and onsite Exchange supports a combination local and cloud-hosted mailboxes and offers other key features including:

• Protected mail routing with a domain namespace and an Outlook on the Web address shared between local and Microsoft 365 cloud networks
• A shared global address list (GAL) with complete recipient information
• A shared availability calendar
• Management of inbound and outbound mail flow across Microsoft 365 organizations
• Easy movement of mailboxes between local Exchange and Microsoft 365 Exchange Online including automatic Exchange ActiveSync profile redirection
• On-premises Exchange Administration Center for centralized mailbox management
• Multi-mailbox search on on-prem and Microsoft 365 mailboxes
• Exchange Online Archiving for on-premises and cloud-hosted mailboxes
• Seamless integration with on-premises and/or cloud-hosted deployments of Skype for Business and SharePoint server
• Support for Microsoft Edge Transport server to filter out junk mail and enforce mail flow transport rules
• Single sign-on via Microsoft Entra Connect (formerly called Azure AD Connect), password sync, or Active Directory FS
• Active Directory FS allows multi-factor authentication and adheres to Federal Information Processing Standards

Microsoft 365 supports several hybrid models. Careful planning with Progent's network design experts can save significant time and expense, since re-architecting a poorly conceived deployment can be difficult and disruptive. Creating an optimal hybrid Exchange Online solution can be challenging. The degree of difficulty depends on the design of your existing email system and the functionality you intend to have. Major steps are:

• Decide on your essential goals for your hybrid Exchange Online solution
• Evaluate your current network resources and modernize as necessary
• Plan and validate your new system architecture
• Design an implementation plan and select migration tools
• Identify on-premises vs. Microsoft 365 users
• Select appropriate Microsoft 365 services and acquire subscriptions
• Add and verify the domain of the Microsoft 365 portal
• Change/Add DNS records
• Use IdFix to resolve on-premises AD and AD FS errors identified by Microsoft Entra Connect and configure on-premises Active Directory and optionally Feration Services
• Configure single sign-on and Directory Sync
• Assign licenses and create Accounts/mailboxes in Microsoft 365
• Export mailboxes to PSTs and import them from PSTs to Exchange Online mailboxes
• Register smartphones and tablets
• Move public folders
• Verify services
• Optimize system performance
• Update and verify firewalls and proxy servers
• Educate network management team and users

Microsoft has developed an assortment of tools to help you to streamline many of the tasks needed to create a hybrid network for Exchange Online. These tools include the Microsoft 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard, PowerShell, the Exchange admin center, the Microsoft 365 Deployment Readiness tool, and the IdFix tool. In practice, many phases of configuring a hybrid Exchange Online solution are subject to technical hiccups. Progent's Microsoft-certified experts have dealt at length with issues related to designing and implementing hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployments and can show you how to you follow best practices to anticipate problems, resolve them quickly, and shield your clients from service disruptions.

How Progent Can Help You to Combine Microsoft 365 Exchange Online with Your On-premises Resources
Progent can assist you in every facet of migrating to Microsoft Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and combining your local Exchange implementation with Exchange Online. Progent can help you to define your operational objectives, evaluate the suitability of your current network infrastructure, plan the topology for a hybrid solution, create an implementation plan, set up and verify a pilot deployment, install your hybrid network, centralize administrative tasks, optimize performance, organize licenses, provide consulting for disaster recovery plans, assess security compliance, and deliver training for your IT team and users. Progent can provide cost-effective remote consulting services to help you to deal with stubborn problems, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing services to help you finish your hybrid deployment of Microsoft 365 on time and within budget.

In addition to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, Microsoft offers other software packages within the Microsoft 365 product family. Included among these are Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business Online, SharePoint Online, and Project Online. All of these applications can be integrated with one another in cloud-based or hybrid implementations. Progent's Microsoft-certified Microsoft 365 integration experts can help you to build hybrid solutions that incorporate Microsoft 365 products and local resources by delivering advanced services such as Windows Server consulting, Exchange expertise, Microsoft Teams migration support, Skype for Business management and debugging, SQL Server integration and development, SharePoint design and development, Microsoft 365 configuration and training, Microsoft Project consulting, and Dynamics GP maintenance.

To help you to administer your hybrid network, Progent can provide System Center 2016 consulting services, System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) consulting, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM 2016) consulting, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) consulting, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud configuration expertise,

Typical samples of online and onsite consulting support offered by Progent's experts to assist organizations to integrate Microsoft 365 Exchange Online with local Exchange deployments include:

• Tidy up folders before moving them into Exchange Online
• Configure authentication with Microsoft 365 and local Domain Users
• Configure Exchange Online and assign licenses
• Reconstruct profiles of Windows clients
• Migrate Gmail accounts
• Perform manual mailbox exports as necessary
• Register email accounts to Apple iOS and Android smartphones and tablets
• Specify and configure Microsoft 365 archival storage
• Set up on-premises or hybrid spam filter appliances from third-party vendors
• Fix Exchange Online sync problems with Active Directory clients and Active Directory Global Security Groups
• Troubleshoot Outlook autodiscover problems
• Resolve issues related to MX and SPF records
• Define, implement, verify, and rectify mail flow
• Troubleshoot AD FS and AD Connect identity management issues
• Utilize PowerShell scripts for management, repair, and migration
• Work with Microsoft staff to identify and repair problems at Microsoft's end (e.g., a misconfigured Connector)
• Troubleshoot Microsoft 365 Message Encryption problems
• Update on-premises Exchange Servers to current versions of Exchange and upgrade equipment
• Train Human Resources on procedure to delete email accounts for terminated workers

Additional Public Cloud Integration Services from Progent
The choices available for public cloud services are expanding rapidly, making it hard for information system managers to determine the right cloud strategy for their organization. Progent has in-depth experience helping companies of all sizes to plan, implement, and maintain hybrid networks that combine multiple cloud products and services from leading public cloud providers. Progent's cloud integration consultants can help you to evaluate the comparative advantages and pitfalls of competing public cloud offerings and can help you create a cloud-based or hybrid ecosystem that provides maximum competitive value.

Public cloud products and services supported by Progent's consultants include:

Progent's Azure planning and integration consultants can help you with every aspect of Microsoft Azure integration such as requirements analysis, prerequisites assessment, system architecture, pre-production testing, implementation, automated administration, performance tuning, license controls, disaster recovery preparedness, security planning, and compliance validation. Progent can assist you to configure and debug firewalls and VPN connections so your users can safely connect to Azure resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you integrate key Microsoft technologies to work in the cloud including Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and Skype for Business. Progent can also assist your organization to create a hybrid environment that seamlessly combines on-premises datacenters with Azure services.

Progent's Office and Microsoft 365 consultants can help companies to integrate Microsoft Office desktop and Microsoft 365 apps such as Office Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Access, Project and OneNote into a cohesive productivity solution that offers fast return on investment and promotes better business outcomes. Progent can assist your company to integrate Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 apps with one another and with other core Microsoft platforms such as SharePoint, Exchange Server and SQL Server running locally or in the cloud. Progent can also help you to fix compatibility problems with different versions of Office and offers live online Office and Microsoft 365 training to individual users and groups.

Progent's Amazon Web Services (AWS) integration experts offer cost-effective remote consulting to assist businesses to access Amazon AWS cloud services such as Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon S3 for scalable low-latency storage, and Amazon Glacier for low-cost archival storage. Progent can help your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery solutions, and security. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN technology and can help you deploy cloud-based or hybrid ecosystems that seamlessly incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services. Progent offers occasional expertise or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing services to help you migrate efficiently to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is a collection of APIs that enables Amazon sellers to streamline their operations by automating crucial sales activities such as listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and finances. By leveraging Amazon's extensive online ecosystem and automating their sales, vendors can expand their market, lower their cost of sales, improve response time to customers, and add to their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can collaborate with your development staff and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can shorten development time and costs and speed up your return on investment.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform planning and integration consultants can provide cost-effective online and onsite consulting to help organizations to migrate any part of their critical network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save management hassle and equipment expense and enable the use of Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning technology. Progent can assist you with every phase of Google Cloud Platform integration including needs analysis, preparedness assessment, architectural design and review, testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security.