Cloud Integration Expertise

Microsoft Exchange Online is one of several cloud-hosted applications in the Microsoft 365 product line supported by Azure. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified administration, dynamic scale, data protection, and other benefits inherent with public clouds vs. local datacenters. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to work seamlessly with local implementations of Exchange, enabling you to build hybrid information systems. Hybrid environments include local servers and storage with cloud services to produce a unified IT solution.

Common reasons for integrating local Exchange installations with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online are adherence to regulatory mandates or corporate policies that prohibit specific types of mailboxes from being located off site, throughput requirements associated with virtualization or cloud latency, the need for more administrative flexibility, the need to support various home-grown or outdated environments, corporate culture, or business continuity strategies. Also, hybrid systems are often implemented for migrating smoothly from a local to a Microsoft 365 Exchange Online cloud-centric model.

Whether you want a temporary hybrid Exchange Online implementation on the way to a full move to the cloud or you want to create a long-term hybrid ecosystem, Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants are available help you with any facet of designing, integrating, managing, and debugging your hybrid solution. Progent's Exchange experts offer occasional expertise to help resolve challenging integration issues and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online implementation is completed on time and on budget.

Progent's Exchange specialists have extensive experience working with the Microsoft 365 support staff to fix complicated technical problems and Progent can provide on-going support to assist your business to manage and tune your hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online ecosystem as your requirements change over time. Progent has two decades of background delivering companies of all sizes high-level consulting support online, and Progent can also provide on-premises expertise in metro areas across the U.S. (Refer to Progent's customer testimonials.)

Hybrid Integration Services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
A hybrid implementation of Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and onsite Exchange allows you to have a mix of local and cloud mailboxes and offers other important capabilities such as:

• Secure 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 with full recipient details
• A shared free/busy calendar
• Control of inbound and outbound mail flow across Microsoft 365 cloud organizations
• Easy transfer of mailboxes between on-premises Exchange and Exchange Online including automatic Exchange ActiveSync profile redirection
• Local Exchange Administration Center (EAC) for unified mailbox management
• Multi-mailbox search across on-premises and Microsoft 365 Exchange Online mailboxes
• Exchange Online Archiving for local and cloud-hosted mailboxes
• Transparent integration with local 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 policies
• Single sign-on via Azure Active Directory Connect, password synchronization, or Active Directory Federation Services
• AD FS allows multi-factor authentication and meets Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)

Microsoft 365 supports several hybrid architectures. Careful analysis with Progent's network design experts can save you significant effort and expense, since re-architecting an inappropriate implementation can be complex and distracting. Building an optimal hybrid Microsoft 365 solution can be intimidating. The complexity depends on the design of your existing email system and the functionality you intend to have. Basic steps include:

• Decide on your essential goals for your hybrid Exchange Online solution
• Evaluate your existing infrastructure and modernize as necessary
• Plan and validate your new network architecture
• Design a deployment plan and select migration technologies
• Identify local vs. Microsoft 365 clients
• Choose appropriate Microsoft 365 services and acquire subscriptions
• Add and test the domain of the cloud portal
• Update DNS records
• Use IdFix to clean up on-premises AD and AD FS errors reported by AD Connect and configure on-premises Active Directory and optionally AD FS
• Configure SSO and Directory Sync
• Assign licenses and create Accounts/mailboxes in Microsoft 365
• Export mailboxes to PSTs and import them from PSTs to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online mailboxes
• Integrate smartphones and tablets
• Move public folders
• Activate and Test services
• Tune performance
• Update and test firewalls and proxy servers
• Train network management team and users

Microsoft provides a variety of tools to assist you to simplify many of the steps needed to create a hybrid network for Exchange Online. These tools include the Microsoft 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW), Windows PowerShell, the Exchange admin center, the Microsoft 365 Deployment Readiness tool, and the IdFix tool. In practice, many parts of setting up a hybrid Microsoft 365 deployment are prone to technical hiccups. Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants have dealt extensively with issues related to planning and rolling out hybrid Microsoft 365 projects and can help you follow leading practices to anticipate common issues, resolve them quickly, and shield your clients from service disruptions.

How Progent Can Help You to Combine Exchange Online with Your Local Environment
Progent's consultants can help you in every aspect of moving to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and combining your on-premises Exchange system with cloud-hosted Exchange. Progent can help you to prioritize your strategic goals, assess the suitability of your current infrastructure, plan the topology for a hybrid environment, devise an implementation plan, set up and verify a pilot deployment, install your hybrid system, automate management tasks, optimize performance, organize licenses, provide expertise for business continuity plans, validate security compliance, and provide training for your network management team and clients. Progent offers cost-effective online consulting services to assist you to deal with stubborn technical issues, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure you finish your hybrid integration of Microsoft 365 on time and on budget.

In addition to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, Microsoft offers other applications that are part of the Microsoft 365 product family. These include 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 consultants can assist you to build hybrid networks that incorporate Microsoft 365 products and on-premises resources by providing advanced services such as Windows Server expertise, Exchange integration, Microsoft Teams planning and deployment support, Skype for Business maintenance and debugging, SQL Server integration and software development, SharePoint design and development, Microsoft 365 integration and training, Microsoft Project expertise, and Dynamics GP maintenance.

To help you to manage your hybrid network, Progent offers System Center 2016 deployment help, System Center Data Protection Manager consulting, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM 2016) expertise, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) consulting, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) hybrid cloud management consulting,

Typical examples of remote and onsite consulting support provided by Progent to help organizations to combine Exchange Online with on-prem Exchange deployments include:

• Clean folders before exporting them into Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
• Configure authentication with Microsoft 365 and local Domain Users
• Configure Microsoft 365 Exchange Online and assign purchased licenses
• Reconstruct profiles of Windows users
• Move Gmail accounts
• Carry out manual mailbox exports as necessary
• Add email accounts to iOS and Android smartphones and tablets
• Specify and implement Exchange Online archival storage
• Set up local or hybrid spam filter appliances from third-party vendors
• Fix Microsoft 365 synchronization issues with Active Directory clients and AD Global Security Groups
• Resolve Outlook autodiscover problems
• Fix issues related to MX and SPF records
• Specify, configure, test, and troubleshoot mail flow
• Resolve Active Directory Federation Services and AD Connect identity management issues
• Use PowerShell scripts for administration, diagnostics, and email migration
• Work together with Microsoft support technicians to isolate and repair problems at Microsoft's end (for example, a corrupted Connector)
• Troubleshoot message encryption issues
• Update on-premises Exchange Servers to current versions of Exchange and upgrade equipment
• Train Human Resources on steps to delete email accounts for departed workers

Additional Cloud Integration Services from Progent
The choices available for public cloud products and services are expanding rapidly, making it difficult for information system managers to select the optimum cloud strategy for their organization. Progent has worked extensively helping companies ranging from startups to large enterprises to design, implement, and maintain hybrid environments that combine various cloud services from major public cloud providers. Progent's cloud integration consultants can help you to evaluate the relative benefits and shortcomings of competing public cloud offerings and can show you how to create a cloud-based or hybrid network that provides maximum competitive value.

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

Progent's Microsoft Azure cloud integration consultants can assist you with any stage of Azure cloud migration including needs definition, readiness assessment, solution design, pre-production testing, implementation, automated administration, performance optimization, software license controls, disaster recovery preparedness, security policy enforcement, and compliance validation. Progent can help you to set up and troubleshoot firewalls and VPN tunnels so your users can securely access to Azure services, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you set up key Microsoft platforms to run in Azure including Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server and Skype for Business. Progent can also assist your organization to set up a hybrid ecosystem that seamlessly combines physical datacenters with Azure services.

Progent's Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 experts can help companies to integrate Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including Office Excel, Office Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Access, Project and OneNote into a seamless solution that provides quick return on investment and promotes better business results. Progent can assist you to integrate Office or Microsoft 365 apps with one another and with other key Microsoft platforms such as SharePoint, Exchange Server and SQL Server deployed on-premises or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can also assist you to resolve compatibility issues between different releases of Office and can provide live online Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 instruction to individuals and teams.

Progent's Amazon Web Services (AWS) planning and integration consultants offer affordable remote consulting to assist companies of any size to integrate Amazon AWS cloud services including Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for expandable low-latency storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can assist you with every phase of Amazon AWS integration including requirements analysis, readiness assessment, architectural design and review, pilot testing, deployment, administration, performance tuning, software license management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security and compliance. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN technology and can help you deploy cloud-based or hybrid environments that efficiently integrate Amazon AWS resources. Progent offers occasional consulting or Progent can provide project management outsourcing to help you move efficiently to the Amazon AWS cloud platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is an integrated library of APIs that enables Amazon sellers to streamline their operations by automating key sales activities such as listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and finances. By tapping into Amazon's extensive online selling environment and automating their sales, vendors can expand their market, lower their operating costs, accelerate response time to customers, and increase their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service developers can work with your development team and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and mentoring so you can shorten development time and costs and speed up your return on investment.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration experts can provide cost-effective remote and on-premises consulting to help organizations to migrate all or part of their critical IT infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and equipment expense and enable the use of Google's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning tools. Progent can assist your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform integration including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, system design and review, pilot testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security.