13 Mar Business Continuity, Remote Work, and IT Security: Our Partners Respond during COVID-19
In order to support you with your business continuity efforts and IT security and remote work needs during COVID-19, so that you are able to support your employees, customers, student communities and staff, our partners have extended offers and assistance for you during this time of uncertainty. We will update this page as we learn of more offers.
Effective immediately, free Cisco Webex Meetings account will be temporarily expanded to include more features:
- Unlimited usage (no meeting time restrictions),
- Support for up to 100 participants,
- Toll dial-in (in addition to existing VoIP capabilities).
No further action is needed to enjoy these new features. Go here to learn more. They’re also offering a special promotion for all customers on their premium plans. Get 4 months free on the most secure collaboration platform*. Just use promo code: wecare2020 at checkout! Access 4 free months
In addition, Cisco is broadening this offer to include security for remote employees by providing extended free licenses and expanded usage counts at no extra charge for three of our key security technologies that are designed to protect remote workers anywhere, anytime and on any device.
- Cisco Umbrella protects users from malicious Internet destinations whether they are on or off the network. Because it is delivered from the cloud, Umbrella makes it easy to protect users everywhere in minutes. With this offer, existing customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license. To have the initial 14-day period extended to 90 days, please contact the Cisco sales team.
- Duo Security enables organizations to verify users’ identities and establish device trust before granting access to applications. By employing a zero-trust model, it decreases the attack surface and reduces risk. With this offer, existing customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license.
- Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client empowers employees to work from anywhere on company laptops or personal mobile devices. It also provides the visibility and control security teams need to identify who and which devices are accessing their infrastructure. Existing AnyConnect customers can exceed their user limit to support an increase in remote workers, and new customers can access a free license. To get started, existing and new customers should talk with a Cisco representative or partner to get the requested usage counts.
- These offers will be available from now until July 1, 2020. Contact your Pinnacle Account Executive to learn more.
Our friends at RingCentral created an offer, exclusively for schools or healthcare for FREE service, with no strings attached to give access to their system at no charge for 90 days. RingCentral is the Gartner MQ leader for execution and vision fur UCaaS, is an approved vendor on the NASPO and TIPS USA procurement contracts. Today they work with many public and private schools. A few good references in bordering states are TCU, https://it.tcu.edu/ringcentral/ and Normandy School District in St Louis.
- Team Messaging for group collaboration and file-sharing
- HD quality video conferencing and screen-sharing to stay connected for up to 100 people per meeting
- A cloud-based phone system, designed specifically to be used with existing mobile phones and laptops
- Phone numbers for organizations and every individual enabling them to call and send/receive SMS using those business numbers (rather than personal mobile numbers)
- Most importantly, the solution can be enabled within minutes for your entire organization – for rapid response.
- Learn more about the RingCentral offer or contact your Pinnacle Account Executive for more details.
For help with Virtual Desktops (VDI) and applications as a remote workforce solution, VMware is offering Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure for 45 days free of charge.
- Delivers Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution.
- No on-premise hardware or infrastructure required
- Bring your own Azure capacity ID
- Create your desktop/application images and go!
- Helps them get familiar and scale with a cloud-based solution
- Contact your Pinnacle Account Executive for more details.
In addition, those who are looking at mobility solutions should look at Workspace ONE, being offered for 30 days free of charge.
Visit VMware’s Digital Workspace website to learn how they are address efforts digital workspace during COVID 19 outbreak or contact your Pinnacle Account Executive for more information.
Additional Resources:
- Read: Update from Pinnacle Business Systems regarding COVID-19
- – Jack Freund, Ph.D.–FAIR Institute Fellow, co-author of the FAIR book with Jack Jones and Risk Science Director at RiskLens—provides suggestions for analysts and CISOs in this podcast.
Updated: March 17, 2020
