Cloud Integration Expertise

Progent has helped businesses of all types and sizes to plan, implement, and manage information networks that use a variety of hybrid architectures that mix Azure cloud resources with physical facilities, private clouds, and additional public clouds like Amazon AWS. Progent is unmatched in the ability to offer fast and affordable online help from IT consulting experts to help you to assess the potential benefits of different Azure services for your particular organization. Progent's virtualization experts can help you to configure virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines. Progent's certified information security experts can help you centralize identity management with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly called Azure Active Directory). Progent's data protection experts can assist you to configure backup and restore solutions based on Azure Backup. Also, Progent's VPN and firewall specialists can show you how to create safe and dependable connections to Microsoft Azure.

About Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, previously branded Windows Azure, is a leading cloud platform that allows you to use network infrastructure, servers, and key applications residing on Microsoft's massive public cloud. The Azure ecosystem supports over 100 cloud-centric services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines (VMs), scalable cloud storage, unified messaging, development, and data backup. Azure products are available by subscription and provided as-needed, so you can immediately ramp up or ratchet down compute and data storage resources. Because you pay only for the computer resources you need, utilization is high, which is the key of cloud computing.

Popular Azure Cloud Services
Microsoft Azure offers more than 60 infrastructure and platform options and hundreds of cloud services. This growing catalog of cloud-based services addresses virtually all areas of IT including compute, data and storage, network infrastructure, management, security, web, mobile, business applications, and software development. Additional Microsoft products such as Office 365 Exchange Online depend Azure network infrastructure. (Visit Office 365 Exchange Online consulting and troubleshooting consulting services.)

Major Microsoft Azure products and services for which Progent can deliver advanced expertise and troubleshooting services include:

Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines allows you to provision, scale and administer virtual machines on the Azure cloud. An Azure Storage account provides storage for the operating system disk and any data disks. Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines works with Windows Server, major distributions of Linux, IBM, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server, and other leading platforms. Various classes of virtual machines (VMs) are offered and priced according to processor power, memory capacity, and I/O throughput. You can access Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines via Remote Desktop Connection. The Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) features of Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines allows organizations to run Windows applications such as SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint plus major Linux distributions such as Red Hat, CentOS, CoreOS, and FreeBSD.

The current deployment model for Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, branded Azure Resource Manager and introduced in 2014, replaces what is now called Azure Classic and offers streamlined virtual machine management by supporting VM groups with a common lifecycle. Before, Microsoft Azure services for provisioning, scaling, and administering VMs had to be handled individually. Resource Manager provisioning options include Azure Portal, Azure Resource Manager template, Azure PowerShell, and Visual Studio support. Progent's Azure specialists can help you create and administer Microsoft Azure solutions efficiently and affordably by delivering expertise with these tools for supporting Azure Virtual Machines.

Microsoft Azure Storage delivers on-demand scale and automatic load balancing for primary storage on the Azure cloud. A General Purpose Storage account provides Azure clients the use of storage services for Blobs, Tables, Files, Queues, and VM drives. Each storage account has a 500 terabyte storage limit. For faster throughput, you can subscribe to a Premium storage class and run VM applications on solid state disks.

Azure Blob storage for General Purpose Storage accounts is designed for large volumes of unstructured data like documents, social media, archives, web pages, log files and Big Data. Azure Blobs are managed as containers, which makes it easy to assign policies to object groups. To send blobs that are too massive to upload over an Internet connection, you can send media to Microsoft.

A special class of Blob Storage is intended for apps that only require block or append blob storage. You can specify Hot or Cool access patterns for block and append blobs (but not for page blobs). Being able to specify access patterns in Microsoft Azure storage accounts enables you to establish an appropriate trade-off between price and throughput.

Table storage is affordably-priced storage for developers creating non-relational metadata like contact lists, device information, or web applications. Azure Table Storage works with the OData protocol for querying and allows JSON and XMLd AtomPub formats. Queue storage simplifies the creation of messaging applications by handling asynchronous communication between software components that span cloud and physical environments. Microsoft Azure File storage accommodates SMB file shares, which streamlines migrating legacy apps to Azure.

Microsoft Entra, formerly called Azure Active Directory, is a cloud-based directory and authentication control service that enables password synchronization and single sign-on across local and cloud-hosted infrastructure. Microsoft Entra is built into Microsoft 365, Salesforce.com, Concur, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and many other cloud apps. Capabilities include multi-factor identification, device registration, self-service password management across cloud and on-premises systems, group management, granular role-based access management, auditing, security monitoring, and alerts. Microsoft Entra works seamlessly with Windows Server Active Directory to make it easy to combine local and cloud-based authentication. Azure offers advanced reliability by locating your directories on a minimum of three separate facilities.

The Microsoft Azure Entra Connect tool has replaced Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync), Azure AD Sync and Forefront Identity Manager as the recommended means to integrate on-premises directories and synchronize identity data with Active Directory, Office 365 and SaaS cloud apps.

Azure Backup is an automated cloud-based backup service for offsite backup of local, cloud, and hybrid cloud/local environments. Three copies of backup data are stored in the same Azure datacenter, and three additional copies of target data can be housed at a different Azure location. Microsoft offers Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for 99.9% reliability, and retention in Azure is available for up to 99 years. Backups can be scheduled for daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly periods, and recovery time is quicker and more affordable than old-school tape-based solutions. Backups are encrypted before to being sent over a secure connection to the Azure cloud, and backups are retained encrypted. The encryption key is kept locally for better compliance. Other features include throttling to utilize low-traffic periods, data compression to improve throughput and lower storage costs, and incremental backups to conserve bandwidth. Azure Import/Export allows you to perform your initial backup locally and send a physical drive to the closest Azure datacenter.

Azure Backup can be integrated seamlessly with System Center Data Protection Manager to offer specialized support for Microsoft's mission-critical platforms like Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Hyper-V. System Center Data Protection Manager works transparently with Hyper-V VSS to backup VMs without interfering with their operation. SCDPM also offers product-specific granular recovery capability like mailbox restoration for Exchange, database-level restore for Microsoft SQL Server, and ILR for SharePoint Server. Azure Backup environments integrated with SCDPM can be tracked with System Center Operations Manager to watch over system health, throughput, and efficiency.

How Progent's Experts Can Assist You with Azure Solutions
If you intend to move your organization's network to the Microsoft Azure cloud or build a hybrid ecosystem that integrates on-premises and Azure components, Progent's consultants can help you evaluate the advantages of the Microsoft Azure line of services compared to competing public clouds or different networking models like colocation. Progent can assist you with every phase of Azure integration including ROI assessment, system planning, proof of concept, implementation, centralized administration, performance tuning, software license control, disaster recovery strategies, security solutions, and regulatory compliance analysis.

Progent can help you to decide which of your line-of-business applications are a good fit for Azure and help ensure your older applications are cloud ready. Progent offers affordable on-demand support so you can immediately deal with occasional technical hurdles or Progent can deliver end-to-end project management outsourcing expertise to ensure your Microsoft Azure integration initiative is completed on schedule and within your budget.

To help you implement centralized management of a hybrid cloud environment that incorporates Microsoft Azure services, Progent can provide Microsoft System Center support including System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) consulting, System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) support services, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) consulting, SCVMM hybrid cloud management expertise, and Microsoft Intune mobile device management consulting.

Hybrid cloud networks have to furnish a safe, manageable, transparent, and reliable way for user to connect to both local cloud-based applications and services. Progent has a wealth of experience deploying IPsec VPN tunnels and setting up or troubleshooting firewalls to connect to Microsoft Azure. Progent can provide fast remote access to Cisco-certified CCIE network integration experts and to firewall experts certified by leading vendors like Symantec, Barracuda, and Check Point to assist you to configure or debug firewalls for integrating your local network with Microsoft Azure. Progent also supports mobile users by offering the skills of Apple iPhone and iPad technology consultants and Android connectivity experts to show you how to configure and manage smartphones and tablets connected to your Azure environment. If you come up against glitches with your Microsoft Azure solution, Progent has experience working with Microsoft's support engineers to resolve issues with Azure.

Typical examples of online consulting services Progent has provided to businesses to help them create and maintain their Azure-connected ecosystems are:

• Set up and debug IPsec VPN connections forremote connectivity to Azure
• Plan or provide guidance for the architecture of hybrid Azure/on-premises network models
• Put together VM images for Windows or Linux technology to be hosted on Microsoft Azure
• Configure Microsoft Entra (Azure AD), Entra Connect (Azure AD Connect), and Federation Services
• Design and validate backup/restore solutions based on Azure Backup services
• Prep and debug VHDs for Azure
• Specify and implement security policies
• Fix problems involving IP addresses
• Resolve sync issues with Office 365
• Configure, patch, and debug firewalls from Cisco, Barracuda, WatchGuard and other vendors
• Set up Cisco AnyConnect for accessing Azure products and services
• Streamline license management
• Fix problems with certificate management
• Select and deploy centralized management, monitoring and reporting solutions across hybrid networks
• Set up System Center Configuration Manager to deploy applications
• Install System Center Virtual Machine Manager locally and on Azure
• Design and implement hybrid Exchange deployments
• Tune query speed on SQL Server hosted by Microsoft Azure
• Migrate Citrix XenDesktop to the Azure cloud
• Resolve PowerShell issues for uploading modules to Azure

Additional Cloud Platforms Supported by Progent's Cloud Integration Experts
Products and services available on public clouds like Azure are expanding quickly in number and sophistication. Choosing the best options can be a challenge. The majority of large businesses have hybrid IT networks that utilize more than one public cloud and also maintain corporate facilities. Office 365 family of apps, including Exchange Online, depend on the Azure cloud and provide alternative paths to Azure's Infrastructure-as-a-Service options. Progent can help your organization to assess the potential advantages of the services offered by. many options available from the major cloud vendors and can show you how to plan, configure, and manage IT ecosystems that include an assortment of public and private clouds along with on-premises facilities.

Other public clouds supported by Progent include:

Microsoft has made a strong effort to enable seamless hybrid ecosystems that integrate Microsoft 365 and on-premises Exchange deployments. This permits you to have certain mailboxes hosted on your on-premises datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes resident on Microsoft 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting team can assist you with any phase of planning, integrating and troubleshooting your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange solution. Progent's Exchange specialists can deliver occasional support to help you through challenging technical problems and also can provide extensive project management outsourcing to ensure your hybrid Exchange solution is completed on time and within budget. To find out more about Progent's online consulting services for hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-prem Exchange environments, see Exchange Online integration with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Office and Microsoft 365 experts can help companies of any size to incorporate Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including Office Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Access, Project and Publisher into a seamless productivity solution that provides quick return on investment and enables improved business results. Progent can assist your company to interface Office or Microsoft 365 apps with one another and with other core Microsoft platforms such as SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server running locally or in the cloud. Progent can also help you to fix compatibility problems with various versions of Microsoft Office desktop and offers customized online Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 training to individual users or groups.

Progent's Amazon Web Services (AWS) planning and integration consultants can provide affordable online support to assist companies to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services including Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon S3 for expandable low-latency storage, and Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can help your IT team with every phase of Amazon AWS integration including needs analysis, readiness assessment, architectural design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security strategies. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN access and can help you deploy all-cloud or hybrid environments that seamlessly integrate Amazon AWS resources. Progent can provide occasional expertise or Progent can provide project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to help you migrate smoothly to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is a collection of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to streamline their operations by automating crucial sales functions including listings, orders, payments, fulfillment, and finances. By tapping into Amazon's vast online selling environment and automating their sales, vendors can expand their market, lower their cost of sales, improve reaction time to customers, and add to their bottom line. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service consultants can collaborate with your development team and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can shorten development time and get to market quickly.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration consultants offer affordable online and onsite support to assist organizations to move any portion of their core IT resources to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and equipment expense and enable the use of Google's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technology. Progent can help your IT team with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness assessment, architectural design, testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, licensing management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security and compliance.