Private Cloud Services Designed for Small and Midsize Businesses
Progent's private cloud hosting allows small and midsize businesses to run mission-critical applications such as SQL and Exchange from a secure Tier III data center on fault-tolerant equipment with offsite data backup. Progent uses Hyper-V technology for server virtualization and Microsoft Data Protection Manager for backup replication and restoration. Smaller organizations can use Progent's private cloud to avoid major investments in the purchase, maintenance, and operation of computer equipment and data center facilities while achieving world-class levels of network availability and physical security.

Progent's Customer-friendly Approach to Virtual Hosting
Unlike ASP or SaaS hosting models, with Progent's private cloud customers retain ownership of data files and all software licenses. If you decide at any time to host your own server or move to another hosting service, Progent will copy your complete data sets to a USB hard disk that you supply, allowing you to get up and running immediately in a new facility without hassling with the substantial task of buying, installing, configuring, and testing new software. Progent treats you like a client, not a captive. Progent can also help you create and manage hybrid solutions that combine on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure.

Progent's Private Cloud Environment
With Progent's private cloud, you get a single 2.66GHZ Xeon CPU with 1024MB of ECC RAM, and a 48GB disk partition. For Internet access, each server has a single public static IP address and 3 megabits of unmetered Internet bandwidth and is connected to Tier 1 Internet backbone providers. Private cloud servers are all fully redundant using dual power supplies, RAID 6 disk protection with on-line hot-spare and automatic array rebuild, and error correcting RAM. You have full remote management capability of your hosted system from any Windows desktop, including server reset/power-up/power-down. You also have the option of fast solid-state disk (SSD) storage.

Services Included
As a baseline service, Progent will set up the base OS configuration using your license key and perform 15-minute replication to a failover server and back up the replication daily. Progent will also perform off-site replication to another Progent data center at least once a day using DPM technology. All of Progent's consulting, management, troubleshooting, and Technical Response Center services are optional.

About the QTS Data Center
Progent's private cloud servers are hosted at the QTS Data Center in Sacramento, which is a seismic-neutral geographic area. This 92,000 sq/ft. facility, purpose built at a cost of $48M, is a Tier III colocation site offering 99.999% uptime with N+1 power redundancy and environmental conditioning, two fiber vaults connected to 11 carriers, and dual, self-healing SONET rings that deliver fiber via two underground entrance points and into the facility. A Network Operations Center, staffed 24x7, monitors all systems and performance including Internet connectivity, power, security, and temperature. Cardkey and biometric access control is used throughout the facility. The facility's double interlock, pre-action, dry pipe fire suppression system puts out fires in 10' x 10' grids to avoid damage to adjacent systems. The facility has its own dedicated Sacramento Municipal Utility District substation equipped with four 2-megawatt diesel generators and fed by redundant substations at the regional SMUD Complex.

QTS Sacramento Data Center Consulting

The QTS Data Center in Sacramento provides Tier III facilities for Progent's Private Cloud hosting services

Key Benefits
Progent's value-priced entry-level private cloud hosting package includes these benefits:

  • Non-stop Internet access
  • A fault-tolerant application server
  • Full disaster recovery capability
  • Tight 24x7 physical security
  • Elimination of the cost of purchasing and maintaining computer equipment
  • Elimination of the cost of setting up and operating a redundant and secure data center
  • Fast relocation to a new data center whenever you want
Progent's Advanced Integration and Support Services for Private Cloud Hosting
Progent's Private Cloud Hosting services include full server, application and database integration and can include relatively simple solutions based on a few VMs running mission-critical applications or complex deployments that support a mix of operating systems such as Windows and Linux and that encompass your entire IT infrastructure. Progent can configure secure remote connectivity including PPTP VPN capability and can set up applications so they deliver the same experience users are accustomed to with locally hosted resources. Hosted servers are assigned static IP addresses. Web servers, if included, are configured and secured and DNS addresses are populated for easy client access. Progent's fast and fault-tolerant Internet connections offer 3 MBPS performance.

Integration and support available with Progent's Private Cloud Hosting services include:

  • Seamless Integration with On-premises Systems and Public Clouds
    If you use a hybrid-cloud computing model, Progent can integrate your on-premises and cloud-based resources into a cohesive environment that seamlessly supports onsite workers, telecommuters and mobile users. Progent's data security experts can help you define security and access policies based on best practices and configure firewalls and VPN tunnels to support your policies. Progent can also help you interface transparently with public cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online. (See Office 365 Exchange Online Hybrid Integration.)
  • The ProSight Suite of Network Monitoring and Management Services
    Progent's ProSight suite of outsourced network management services is intended to provide organizations who have minimal in-house IT support resources with low-cost access to world-class management tools and consulting experts. Progent's ProSight portfolio of managed services are IT support packages billed monthly at a low fixed rate and designed to address all key facets of network management such as server and endpoint security, data backup and disaster recovery, network infrastructure health and availability monitporing, email spam and content filtering, and ransomware defense. Learn more about Progent's catalog of budget-friendly ProSight network monitoring and management services for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Spam and Virus Filtering Plus Outbound Data Leak Protection and Email Encryption
    Progent has worked with leading information data security companies to offer ProSight Email Guard, an email security solution that incorporates both cloud resources and purpose-built physical gateways to protect businesses against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and other email-borne threats. ProSight Email Guard's outbound filtering includes Data Loss Protection (DLP) and cloud-assisted encryption. Both features allow you to set custom policies for automatically preventing careless emails from leaking sensitive information outside your company. By blocking outbound spam and viruses, ProSight Email Guard also helps prevents your organization from being included to spam block lists. ProSight Email Guard also allows you to set data rate thresholds for inbound and outbound email in order to keep your system from being overwhelmed by traffic. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Email Guard Spam, Virus and Email Content Filtering.
  • 24x7 Monitoring of Security and Performance
    Progent's Private Cloud Hosting services include 24x7 proactive monitoring of network security and health with Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), a network management platform that identifies and automatically mitigates network issues at their early stages, before they can cause disruptions in performance or availability. SCOM scans event logs, performs automatic filtering, consolidation and analysis, and generates alerts when issues or trends threaten to become critical. A comprehensive database allows SCOM to correct a broad range of problems without manual intervention and can also recommend fixes based on best practices.
  • Update Management
    Progent's Private Cloud Hosting services include management of security updates, patches and service packs. Progent can ensure that vital updates are applied in a timely and non-disruptive manner so that servers and applications stay current. If hosted VMs need to be taken off line for scheduled maintenance, Progent will adhere to a service window from 10:00 pm Friday to 6:00 am Saturday Pacific Time. Progent always provides advanced notice of scheduled downtime in order to avoid or minimize business disruption.
  • Daily Backup and Fast Disaster Recovery
    Progent's backup services, which are included with all Private Cloud Hosting packages, consist of 30 days of daily data protection, full weekly server backups, daily differential backups, and monthly full backups with replication to a geographically separate data center. Progent's virtualization architecture allows quick recovery from catastrophic failure, and in case of a hardware crash Progent will transfer the full hosted deployment to a replacement host within four business hours.
  • Help Desk Services from Progent's Technical Response Center
    Progent's Online Help Desk services are available to Progent's Private Cloud clients. Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) delivers all Help Desk support services and is accessible via phone, email, or the web. Progent's team of seasoned Microsoft-certified consultants have the expertise and tools to resolve the vast majority of problems quickly. The TRC can also escalate the toughest issues to appropriate subject matter experts (SMEs) including Microsoft-certified MSCE consultants, Cisco-certified CCIE network infrastructure specialists, CISM, GIAC, CISA, CISSP and GISA certified security and compliance consultants, and business application experts.
  • Exchange Hosting Services
    Progent's Private Cloud service options include Exchange Server hosting. Progent can help you migrate an on-site Exchange environment to a world-class private cloud data center and make sure you retain your existing email domain name and internal email addresses, contacts, file organization, and groups. Your users will be able to access email anytime and from anywhere via Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Exchange Wireless Service. Progent can also set up Exchange to allow synchronization with iPhones and iPads, Android smartphones and tablets, and Windows phones.

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