Expanding your at-home workforce can have a significant effect on network architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate processes. Progent has two decades of background assisting businesses of all sizes to design, configure, manage, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your company to select the appropriate tools and follow best practices in building and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top business value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you past occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.
Progent can assist you to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.
Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be particularly complex if you must manage a mix of personal equipment such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated as well as current technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to help you to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:
VoIP Integration for Telecommuters
Extending the business phone system to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote VoIP environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and security required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing at-home workforce.
Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your existing conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.
Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can assist your company to tune these critical collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your at-home workforce.
SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that permits at-home workers to see and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, refer to SharePoint configuration and application development expertise.
Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange support services, visit deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange.
OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can share them safely through a web browser. Included with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-author documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.
Public Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide affordable remote support for enabling organizations to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive network models that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve problems with public cloud access, identity, and security.
Azure is a popular platform for public cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes more than 100 services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting.
Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.
Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's biggest source of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity experts who can assist your business to design, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-availability network architecture so your employees have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration expertise.
Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your critical applications cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to use GCP's management tools to control and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.
Help Desk Services for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which could be the result of a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Center. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.
Security for At-Home Workers
At-home staff members commonly utilize their personal computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user training, and the development of policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned roster of data security solutions experts can assist you to plan, implement and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects critical information assets in environments that include an at-home workforce.
Firewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users and by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage different access rights to various classes of users and to expand your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both new and legacy security devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, go to firewall integration and support services.
Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices used by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is installed on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the targeted endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. To learn more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.
Progent's Duo authentication managed services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity on a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used for this second means of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity validation services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.
Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for a network that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security gaps that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with advanced credentials including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your procedures and policies and assess your IT infrastructure to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your telecommuters.
Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical areas to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)
Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical data in order to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, software glitches, operator error, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.
Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for protecting corporate information by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.
Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing mobile devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. Network admins managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how telecommuters share data, set up threat defense, verify compliance, and erase sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For information about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.
VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product through a perpetual license. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.
Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter environment, phone