IT Technology News and Progent Solutions

Microsoft debuted the newest release of Windows Small Business Server (SBS 2008) and Essential Business Server (EBS 2008). These solutions offer the capabilities of Windows enterprise-class server platforms to small companies in an affordable bundle. Designed for businesses with up to 75 desktops, Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 is a cohesive server platform engineered to help businesses make their data safer and their network more efficient.

Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 is available in standard and premium editions. The standard package includes MS Windows Server 2008, Exchange 2007 Server, SharePoint Services, and Windows Server Update Services 3.0. The premium version also includes MS SQL Server 2008.

Essential Business Server 2008 is designed for businesses with as many as 75 workstations and provides IT staff easier control over their information system by eliminating complications and automating common processes. With support for Windows Mobile phones, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 can significantly help boost productivity by facilitating access to business e-mail, scheduling, contacts and files to users who are not at their desks. To read Microsoft's press release, visit Microsoft Announces Availability of Windows SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008.

How Progent's Certified Engineers Can Assist Your Business to Benefit from Microsoft Small Business Server 2008
The optimal configuration of MS Windows SBS 2008 calls for a network consulting company with hands-on experience and a broad knowledge-base in planning and implementing data-driven end-to-end business technology solutions. The background of Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting group, with more than 10 years of consulting in Microsoft technology, assures you success in designing, deploying and administering Small Business Server 2008 solutions that are thoroughly integrated with the Microsoft product family of servers.

Progent's IT professionals can assist you to deploy the major components of the Windows SBS and Essential Business Server 2008 bundles and can also provide a range of other affordable support options to improve the productivity, dependability, security, performance, and maintainability of IT networks built around Small Business Server 2008 or EBS 2008:

Windows Server 2008 Expertise
Progent provides a range of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 planning and integration support that can help small businesses to benefit from Microsoft Windows Server 2008. Progent's Microsoft Gold certified consultants can assist your company to understand the areas where Microsoft Windows Server 2008 could enhance the productivity of your information network in order to rationalize an upgrade. Progent can help you test Windows Server 2008 in order to assess its stability, performance, and compatibility handling your workloads. Progent can assist with developing a rollout plan, assess and improve existing network environment, develop archiving and recovery processes, evaluate security mechanisms and guidelines, assist in integrating physical and virtual machines, develop fault-tolerant strategies including server and storage clustering with Hyper-V, educate your in-house IT administration team, and deploy automated server and network monitoring processes to ensure your information system's security and efficiency.

Microsoft Exchange Server Planning, Installation, and Maintenance Support
Progent's expert support team can help you define and deploy an efficient Exchange Server 2007 migration plan that minimizes network disruption, reduces long-term service requirements, and makes your Exchange Server 2007 easy to manage. Progent's Microsoft Exchange 2007 support, troubleshooting, and design services include assistance with the integration of outside vendor enhancements of Exchange 2007 Server and the design of unified messaging implementations powered by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Services include complete incorporation with your network, connectivity with mobile computing products, automated monitoring of performance and network security, spam protection, security update and service pack control, Helpdesk support, daily data backup, and comprehensive messaging management support.

Office SharePoint Server Consulting and Support
Progent can offer expertise for planning, deploying, and managing successful Microsoft SharePoint Server installations that will dramatically improve important aspects of your IT system including teamwork, intranet portal, company-wide search, forms-based business operations, delivery of actionable information, and content management. Progent's Microsoft Gold certified engineers can assist you to evaluate the business benefit for implementing SharePoint Server, deliver setup and integration support, help you to set up SQL Server as a back-end database, enhance your network architecture, set up your off-the-shelf and custom business programs to work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, create a company-wide security plan that includes web portal solutions, and deliver remote and in-person repair and Call Center support.

SQL Server 2008 Design and Support
Progent's SQL Server engineers can help your business configures Microsoft SQL Server 2008 properly, and that your SQL-based DBM system is integrated thoroughly with your business applications. Progent offers 24x7 network tracking to make sure your corporate network is always available, and Progent's remote Help Desk is ready to provide fast remediation for SQL problems. Progent's certified data security engineers can assess your business-wide security processes and mechanisms and recommend improvements for better regulatory compliance. Progent's programmers can help your company to develop or customize line-of-business applications or web sites utilize information controlled by SQL Server 2008.

PC Desktop Support Services
Progent's certified desktop support consultants offer a wide range of affordable support services to help your business to install, integrate, troubleshoot, and manage workstations and notebooks based on Microsoft Windows. Progent can offer onsite or online assistance for individual machines or notebooks or work with your business to design and implement a company-wide migration to the newest version of Microsoft Windows. Progent can also install Office or Microsoft Dynamics programs on your workstations so they communicate productively with other Microsoft programs, products from popular vendors, business servers, and key services network-wide. Progent can also supply consultants and technical workers to help your company to prepare for and complete a site move or consolidation organized to produce the least possible disruption of your productivity.

Network Security Inventory Packages
Progent offers two low-cost service packages intended to allow small businesses to receive an objective security evaluation from a CISA, CISM and CISSP-certified security engineer. With Progent's External Network Security Inventory Scan, a security engineer administers a comprehensive test of your network from beyond your firewalled perimeter to uncover possible weaknesses in the security posture you present to the outside world. With Progent's Internal Network Security Inventory Scan, a security engineer runs a system scan from a secure machine inside your company firewall to evaluate vulnerabilities to inside attacks. Both security inventory services are configured and executed from a secured remote site. The process is implemented by an engineer who has earned high-level security accreditations who produces a report that details and interprets the data captured by the security scan and suggests cost-effective remediation if call for.

Virtual Instruction for Workstation Applications
Progent provides live virtual instruction for an array of client programs and operating systems such as Office Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop CS, Crystal Reports, and Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7. Virtual learning provides the benefits of conventional classroom seminars, such as immediate interaction between clients and teachers, but eliminates the expenses of travel and the challenge of trying to accommodate the schedules of multiple students. Offered to single students or groups of all sizes, virtual education permits the trainer to run the class from an online office and the students can be dispersed across an office or across the the U.S. Virtual education supports powerful teaching mechanisms such as virtual white boards, real-time questions, and shared applications. Sessions can be short and targeted for specific subjects or longer in duration and broader in coverage. Instructors and clients can work through examples individually or as a class.

Emergency Online Troubleshooting
Progent’s Technical Response Center provides nationwide remote assistance for Windows and Cisco-based small office computer networks. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-Premier service experts offer phone help and remote direct network access to isolate and repair technical problems rapidly and affordably. The scope of IT expertise represented by Progent's team of country-wide service engineers makes it possible to escalate even the toughest problems to appropriate specialists as needed.

To find out additional information about Progent's consulting and support services for Windows SBS, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.