Exchange Online Configuration and Support ConsultantsMicrosoft Exchange Online is one of several cloud-based applications in the Office 365 product line enabled by Microsoft Azure. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scale, high-availability, and other benefits associated with public clouds instead of local datacenters. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid information systems. Hybrid environments combine local servers and storage with cloud services to produce a cohesive IT solution.

Common reasons for combining on-premise Exchange deployments with Office 365 Exchange Online are compliance with regulatory mandates or business restrictions that prohibit specific types of mailboxes from being hosted off premises, throughput requirements associated with virtualization or cloud latency, the desire for more administrative flexibility, the ability to accommodate various home-grown or legacy systems, company culture, or business continuity strategies. Also, hybrid systems are commonly on the critical path for migrating safely from a local to an Exchange Online cloud-centric environment.

If you need a temporary hybrid Office 365 Exchange Online deployment to carry out a full move to Azure or you intend to create a robust hybrid environment, Progent's Microsoft-certified experts can help you with any phase of planning, integrating, managing, and debugging your hybrid system. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed assistance to guide you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your hybrid Exchange Online implementation is performed on schedule and on budget.

Office 365 Exchange Online Hybrid Configuration Experts

Exchange Online hybrid deployments integrate on-premises and Azure cloud resources

Progent's Exchange specialists have valuable experience teaming with Microsoft's Office 365 support staff to fix complex technical issues and Progent can provide on-going support to help you to maintain and tune your hybrid Office 365 Exchange Online solution as your requirements evolve. Progent has two decades of background delivering companies of all sizes advanced consulting services remotely, and Progent can also provide onsite support in major metropolitan regions throughout the U.S. (See Progent's client testimonials.)

Hybrid Solutions for Exchange Online
A hybrid deployment of Exchange Online and onsite Exchange supports a mix of local and cloud mailboxes and offers other key capabilities including:

  • Protected mail routing with a domain namespace and an Outlook on the Web address shared between on-premises and Office 365 cloud networks
  • A shared global address list with complete recipient details
  • A shared free/busy calendar
  • Control of bi-directional mail travel across Office 365 cloud networks organizations
  • Simple transfer of mailboxes between on-premises Exchange infrastructure and Office 365 Exchange Online including automatic Exchange ActiveSync profile redirection
  • On-premises Exchange Administration Center for unified mailbox management
  • Multi-mailbox search on local and Office 365 mailboxes
  • Office 365 Archiving for on-premises and cloud-hosted mailboxes
  • Seamless integration with on-premises and/or Azure-based deployments of Skype for Business and SharePoint
  • Support for Microsoft Edge Transport server to protect against junk mail and enforce mail flow transport policies
  • Single sign-on (SSO) via Azure Active Directory Connect, password sync, or Active Directory FS
  • Active Directory Federation Services allows multi-factor authentication and meets Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
Hybrid Office 365 Exchange Integration Consultants

Hybrid Active Directory Federation Services provides multi-factor authentication and complies with FIPS

Exchange Online can be deployed under several hybrid architectures. Thorough analysis with Progent's network design experts can save considerable effort and expense, since re-structuring a poorly conceived deployment can be difficult and disruptive. Building an optimal hybrid Office 365 Exchange Online ecosystem can be intimidating. The degree of difficulty depends on the makeup of your existing email environment and the functionality you want to have. Major steps include:

  • Decide on your essential requirements for your hybrid Office 365 Exchange Online deployment
  • Assess your existing infrastructure and modernize as needed
  • Plan and validate your new system infrastructure
  • Design a deployment plan and select migration tools
  • Identify on-premises vs. Office 365 clients
  • Choose appropriate cloud services and purchase subscriptions
  • Add and verify the domain of the Office 365 portal
  • Update DNS records
  • Utilize IdFix to resolve on-premises AD errors identified by Azure AD Connect and configure on-premises Active Directory and optionally AD FS
  • Set up single sign-on and Directory Sync
  • Assign licenses and create Accounts/mailboxes in Office 365
  • Export mailboxes to PSTs and move them from PSTs to Office 365 Exchange Online mailboxes
  • Register smartphones and tablets
  • Migrate public folders
  • Activate and Test services ,li>Tune system performance
  • Patch and test firewalls and proxy servers
  • Educate IT management team and clients
Office 365 Exchange Online Integration ExpertsWithin the course of implementing a hybrid Exchange Online deployment, important decisions must made concerning local system architecture, mail flow, authentication, synchronization, security, performance, backup and recovery, archive rules, administration, delegation, mailbox size restrictions, mobile device management, integration with other onsite and cloud applications and services, and other issues that impact the design and implementation of your hybrid Exchange Online deployment. Usually your local Exchange system will need to be modernized and tuned.

Microsoft offers a variety of utilities to assist you to streamline many of the steps needed to build a hybrid environment for Office 365. These utilities include the Hybrid Configuration Wizard, PowerShell, the Exchange admin center (EAC), the Office 365 Deployment Readiness tool, and the IdFix utility. Realistically, many phases of setting up a hybrid Office 365 deployment are subject to technical missteps. Progent's Microsoft-certified experts have dealt extensively with issues associated with designing and rolling out hybrid Exchange Online projects and can help you follow best practices to anticipate common issues, solve them quickly, and protect your clients from downtime.

How Progent Can Help You to Integrate Exchange Online with Your On-premises Resources
Progent's consultants can help you in every phase of migrating to Office 365 Exchange Online and combining your local Exchange implementation with cloud-hosted Exchange. Progent can assist you to define your operational goals, assess the suitability of your current infrastructure, design the topology for a hybrid solution, create an implementation plan, configure and test a pilot deployment, install your hybrid system, centralize administrative tasks, tune performance, organize licenses, provide expertise for disaster recovery plans, assess regulatory compliance, and deliver training for your IT team and clients. Progent offers affordable remote consulting and troubleshooting to help you to resolve occasional problems, or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to help you complete your hybrid integration of Office 365 on time and within budget.

In addition to Exchange Online, Microsoft offers other software packages within the Office 365 family. These include Skype for Business Online, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Project Online. All of these applications can be integrated with one another in cloud-based or hybrid models. Progent's Microsoft-certified O365 configuration consultants can help you to create hybrid solutions that combine Office 365 products and on-premises infrastructure by delivering services that include Windows Server expertise, Exchange integration, Skype for Business system design and debugging, SQL Server configuration and software development, SharePoint planning and integration, Office 365 configuration and training, Microsoft Project consulting, and Dynamics GP support.

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

Typical samples of remote and onsite consulting support offered by Progent to assist organizations to integrate Exchange Online with on-premises Exchange deployments include:

  • Clean folders before moving them into Office 365
  • Configure authentication with Office 365 and local Domain Users
  • Configure Exchange Online and assign licenses
  • Rebuild profiles of Windows clients
  • Migrate Gmail accounts
  • Carry out manual mailbox exports as required
  • Add email accounts to iOS and Google Android devices
  • Specify and implement Office 365 Exchange Online Archiving
  • Set up local or hybrid spam filter gateways from other vendors
  • Fix Exchange Online synchronization issues with AD Users and AD Global Security Groups
  • Resolve Outlook autodiscover issues
  • Fix problems with MX and SPF records
  • Specify, configure, verify, and rectify mail flow
  • Troubleshoot Active Directory Federation Services and AD Connect identity management issues
  • Use PowerShell for administration, diagnostics, and email migration
  • Work with Microsoft support technicians to isolate and repair problems at Microsoft's end (e.g., a corrupted Connector)
  • Debug message encryption problems
  • Update on-premises Exchange Servers to current versions of Exchange and upgrade equipment
  • Educate Human Resources on steps to disable accounts for departed employees
Contact Progent for Hybrid Exchange Online Solutions
If you need help with any aspect of integrating your local Exchange system with Office 365 Exchange Online, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

Additional Cloud Integration Services from Progent
The choices offered for public cloud services are increasing rapidly, making it hard for information system managers to select the best cloud solution for their organization. Progent has in-depth experience assisting companies of all sizes to plan, implement, and maintain hybrid environments that combine various cloud products and services from major public clouds. Progent's cloud integration consultants can assist you to evaluate the relative advantages and pitfalls of competing public cloud options and can show you how to create a cloud-based or hybrid ecosystem that delivers maximum competitive value.

Public cloud products and services supported by Progent include:

Azure Integration ConsultantsProgent's Microsoft Azure integration consultants can help you with every stage of Azure cloud integration including requirements definition, readiness assessment, system architecture, pilot testing, implementation, automated management, performance optimization, license controls, disaster recovery preparedness, security policy enforcement, and compliance assessment. Progent can assist your IT staff to set up and debug firewalls and VPN tunnels so your users can securely access to Azure resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you integrate key Microsoft technologies to run in the cloud including Windows Server, Exchange, SQL and Skype for Business. Progent can also assist your organization to create a hybrid environment that seamlessly combines physical datacenters with Azure resources.

Office 365 Integration ExpertsProgent's certified Office and Office 365 consultants can help companies to integrate Office desktop and Microsoft Office 365 apps such as Office Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Access, Project and Publisher into a cohesive solution that offers fast return on investment and enables improved business results. Progent can assist your company to integrate Microsoft Office or Office 365 apps with one another and with additional key Microsoft platforms including SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL Server deployed on-premises or hosted in the cloud. Progent's consultants can also help you to resolve compatibility issues between various versions of Microsoft Office desktop and offers live online Microsoft Office and Office 365 training to individuals and teams.

Amazon AWS Integration ExpertsProgent's Amazon AWS integration experts offer cost-effective online support to help companies of any size to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services such as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual machine hosting, Amazon S3 for expandable cloud storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can assist your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, preparedness assessment, system design and review, testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security strategies. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN access and can show you how to deploy all-cloud or hybrid ecosystems that efficiently integrate Amazon AWS cloud services. Progent can provide as-needed consulting or Progent can deliver project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you move smoothly to the Amazon AWS cloud.

Amazon MWS Software Development ConsultingAmazon Marketplace Web Service is a collection of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to streamline their operations by automating crucial sales functions including listings, orders, shipments, fulfillment, and reports. By tapping into Amazon's vast online selling environment and automating their sales processes, vendors can expand their market, lower their cost of sales, improve response time to customers, and increase their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) consultants can collaborate with your development team and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can shorten development time and expedite your ROI.

Google Cloud Platform Integration ConsultingProgent's Google Cloud Platform planning and integration consultants offer affordable remote and on-premises consulting to help businesses to move any part of their critical network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and equipment costs and enable access to Google's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technology. Progent can assist your IT team with every aspect of Google Cloud Platform integration including requirements analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security.

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