IT Technology News and Progent Business Solutions

Microsoft unveiled the latest release of Windows Small Business Server (SBS 2008) and Windows Essential Business Server. These products offer the capabilities of Microsoft's enterprise-level server technologies to small organizations in a cost-effective bundle. Intended for businesses with up to 75 PC users, Windows Small Business Server is a cohesive server solution engineered to help businesses make their information more secure and their network more efficient.

MS SBS 2008 is offered in standard and premier versions. The basic edition features Microsoft Windows 2008 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint Services, and Windows Server Update Services 3.0. The premium edition also includes Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Microsoft Essential Business Server is intended for businesses with as many as 75 workstations and offers network staff greater manageability of their information system by reducing complexity and streamlining common processes. With support for Windows Mobile phones, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 can significantly help boost productivity by facilitating connectivity to corporate e-mail, scheduling, contacts and information to workers when they are not at their desks. To read Microsoft's news release, refer to Microsoft Unveils Windows SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008.

How Progent's Consulting Professionals Can Assist Your Company to Get the Most Out of Microsoft SBS 2008
The optimal configuration of Microsoft Windows Small Business Server requires a network support firm with real-world experience and an extensive knowledge-base in planning and implementing data-driven end-to-end business IT applications. The experience of Progent's Microsoft-authorized consulting team, with more than 10 years of consulting in Microsoft technology, ensures you results in designing, deploying and administering Small Business Server solutions that are thoroughly integrated with the Microsoft product family of servers.

Progent's consulting experts can help your company to deploy the main pieces of the Microsoft SBS 2008 and Microsoft Essential Business Server packages and can also provide a variety of other affordable services to enhance the efficiency, dependability, protection, speed, and manageability of IT networks based on Windows Small Business Server 2008 or Windows EBS 2008:

Windows Server 2008 Planning and Support
Progent provides a range of Windows Server 2008 consulting and integration services that can help small businesses to benefit from Windows Server 2008. Progent's Microsoft Gold certified engineers can help your company to understand the areas where Windows Server 2008 could improve the business value of your information network in order to cost-justify a migration. Progent can help you pilot Microsoft Windows Server 2008 in order to determine its reliability, throughput, and compatibility running your workloads. Progent can provide consulting for developing a rollout strategy, assess and improve your current network environment, develop archiving and recovery procedures, evaluate security architecture and policies, help in installing actual and virtualized servers, design high-availability solutions such as server clustering, train your internal IT management team, and deploy automated server and network monitoring processes to track your information system's security and performance.

Exchange Server 2007 Planning, Configuration, and Troubleshooting Services
Progent's expert support team can help you design and implement an efficient Microsoft Exchange 2007 migration plan that minimizes network disruption, reduces long-term service requirements, and makes your Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 easy to manage. Progent's Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 support, repair, and consulting offerings include expertise with the configuration of outside vendor enhancements of Exchange Server 2007 and the design of unified messaging solutions powered by Exchange 2007 Server. Progent's services include integration with your network, connectivity with handheld communication products, automated tracking of performance and security, spam and virus protection, security update and revision management, Contact Center support, daily backup, and comprehensive messaging management support.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 Consulting and Support
Progent can offer expertise for designing, configuring, and managing productive Microsoft Office SharePoint Server solutions that can significantly improve key areas of your company's IT system including collaboration, intranet portal, company-wide search, forms-based business operations, access to actionable information, and content control. Progent's Microsoft-qualified engineers can help you to assess the business case for implementing SharePoint Server, provide setup and installation support, assist you to set up SQL Server as a back-office database engine, optimize your network infrastructure, set up your standard and specialized application software to work with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007, create a comprehensive security strategy that incorporates web portal technology, and provide online and on-site repair and Call Center support.

SQL Server Programming and Support
Progent's SQL Server experts can help you configures SQL Server 2008 efficiently, and that your SQL-powered data management system is integrated thoroughly with your business applications. Progent offers automated server monitoring to make sure your business information system is always available, and Progent's online Help Desk is available to provide quick remediation for SQL issues. Progent's certified data protection experts can evaluate your business-wide security processes and mechanisms and suggest improvements for more complete protection. Progent's application developers can help you to develop or customize line-of-business applications or eCommerce sites rely on databases managed by Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

PC Desktop Consulting and Support Services
Progent's Microsoft Gold certified desktop support consultants offer a broad array of affordable services to help your company to deploy, configure, repair, and manage workstations and laptops powered by Microsoft Windows. Progent can provide onsite or online assistance for single computers or laptops or work with your business to design and carry out a network-wide rollout of the latest release of Windows. Progent can also configure Microsoft Office or Microsoft Dynamics programs on your client PCs so they integrate efficiently with other Microsoft applications, products from popular vendors, SQL databases, and key solutions throughout your network. Progent can also supply consultants and technicians to help you to prepare for and complete an office move or merger organized to cause minimal disruption of your productivity.

Security Inventory Packages
Progent offers two low-cost service packages intended to enable small companies to get an impartial network security assessment from a CISA, CISM and CISSP-premier security consultant. With Progent's External Network Security Inventory Scan, a security engineer runs an extensive examination of your IT infrastructure from outside your firewalled perimeter to uncover potential risks in the security posture you expose to the outside world. With Progent's Internal Network Security Inventory Scan, a security engineer runs a network scan from a secure computer within your company firewall to uncover the risk to internal assaults. Both security inventory services are configured and run from a protected external location. The process is managed by an engineer who has earned top security accreditations who generates a report that summarizes and interprets the information collected by the security scan and suggests cost-effective improvements if call for.

Virtual Training for Desktop Programs
Progent offers live virtual education for a range of client programs and operating systems such as Office Excel, Word, Publisher, Project, Acrobat Writer, Photoshop, Crystal Reports, and Windows XP and Vista. Virtual learning provides all the advantages of traditional classroom sessions, including immediate interaction between clients and teachers, but eliminates the costs of transportation and the hassle of trying to accommodate the schedules of many students. Offered to single students or classes of any size, virtual training allows the instructor to conduct the class from an online office and the clients can be spread across an office or all over the the U.S. Virtual education utilizes proven learning mechanisms such as broadcast white boards, real-time questions, and collaborative desktops. Classes can be short and targeted for specific subjects or extended in duration and broader in scope. Teachers and clients can go through problems one-on-one or as a group.

Urgent Online Technical Support
Progent's National Support Center offers nationwide remote troubleshooting for Windows and Cisco-based small business computer networks. Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-Certified service professionals provide telephone help and remote secure network connection to isolate and repair technical problems quickly and economically. The breadth of IT expertise available from Progent's staff of nationwide support engineers makes it possible to escalate even the most difficult network issues to competent specialists as required.

For additional details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Small Business Server, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.