Enlarging your remote workforce may have a major effect on IT architecture, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Chesapeake organization to select the appropriate tools and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional IT roadblocks to full project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Chesapeake, Virginia organizations to succeed with any facet of building a high-functioning remote work environment by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk augmentation, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be especially challenging if you must manage a mix of personal hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering remote support for both outdated as well as current technologies in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a safe connection for authorized at-home employees to access IT resources located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can help you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow an at-home worker to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This gives IT managers more control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, home wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert remote support for integrating home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wireless networks, typically shared by families and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by delivering expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
  • Internet access methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Line-of-business applications might require backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and setting up redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Extending the business PBX environment to accommodate remote users is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to handle a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified CM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, refer to CallManager consulting.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with users working outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver online deployment and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to manage your existing conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include voice/video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist your business to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for exchanging information throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can help your company to configure these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your remote workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Server Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure web portals that enables remote workforce to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, go to SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersExchange 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 information about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, refer to integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can share them safely through a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-edit documents. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's support services for OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable online support for enabling businesses to create, manage and repair integrated network models that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration for TeleworkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than one hundred services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create protected connections to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide fast and affordable online access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Exchange Online Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for as-needed help to get you past tough IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for At-Home WorkersAmazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to build a high-availability network model so your employees have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your business to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to use GCP's unified management technology to control and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To learn, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
A sudden, company-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which might be the result of a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations to outsource or augment their Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's extensive network of remote IT support specialists along with world-class ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests through ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to check or edit their current tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service enables your company to supplement your current Help Desk organization by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk support services seamlessly between your in-house IT support personnel and Progent's nationwide roster of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a collective support solution based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver best-in-class IT support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
At-home staff members typically utilize their own computing devices and often operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to cyber attacks and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity solutions experts can help your business to design, implement and maintain an effective security solution that protects vital IT resources in networks that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users as well as by an at-home workforce, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different access rights to various groups of users and to scale your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall appliances from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration services, visit firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring for At-Home WorkersOnline Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices utilized by at-home workers and either reject or spot and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a secured application and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of external and internal security attacks for a network that includes remote workers. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by network security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your procedures and policies and review your network architecture to enable you to implement top-level protection for your telecommuters.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for Work-from-Home EnpointsHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, rank, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's threat assessment services powered by on NodeZero's penetration test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical things to concentrate on for protecting a network that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves saving and restoring vital data so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage system failures due to hardware issues, software glitches, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for remote workers must cover diverse types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and includes granular recovery and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often envision scenarios that call for a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help your company to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a unified platform for protecting critical data by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and validate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat defense, ensure security compliance, and wipe corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, visit Intune telecommuter device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management platform that helps network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home solution for your Chesapeake, Virginia business, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.