consigliere of your IT administrationABOVE IT
Subscribe to our newsletter

Print management from the cloud!

Print management from the cloud

Would you also like to get rid of print servers?

Print management from the cloud? I have been guiding my clients towards SaaS cloud services for over a decade. I remember during the early days of Office 365 services when my then-employer asked if the basic office services could already be built entirely cloud-based as SaaS services – completely without servers? I might have hesitated a bit back then, as solutions related to security and centralized management were somewhat in their infancy. However, the vision was intriguing, and I started to consider it. And this vision largely came to fruition over the following years.

One of the last strongholds on companies’ cloud journeys has seemed to be the management of printers, print queues, and applications related to supply maintenance. Fortunately, the market has seen third-party SaaS solutions, and Microsoft has also offered its Universal Print model built on Entra ID as a solution for managing print queues in the cloud world. But how should this be addressed when the demands for printing increase, for example, from the perspective of secure printing?

Local printing

For small business IT environments, it’s best not to make things too complicated. Printers and workstations are generally devices that remain in use for a long time, and the environment is typically very stable. In small environments, print queues can be easily installed manually and locally, as it doesn’t take up much of anyone’s work time.

And this is essentially what the cloud model is: When workstations are not tied to servers, print queues are also handled as local queues on the workstations. So when we talk about SaaS-based print management, typically print queues are brought to workstations as local queues through centralized management, and the workstations communicate directly with the printers in their local network.

Microsoft's universal printing boosts the cloud model

Microsoft introduced its own universal printing to support the enterprise versions of Windows in the cloud, enabling print management and printer distribution from the cloud. It has been a pleasure to see this area develop in recent years, with Microsoft now enabling lightweight solutions for more secure printing and also print reporting.
However, one blind spot has been that there are still so few Universal Print-compatible printers. Older, less compatible printers can be made to work with universal printing by installing a connector on the print server, which enables functionality for older printers. But a server is still needed for this. Another option has been to utilize third-party SaaS printing solutions that are integrated with Microsoft’s universal printing, creating a link between universal printing and older printers through the cloud.
Manufacturers have, however, been rapidly introducing new models that are directly compatible with Microsoft’s universal printing. Ideally, it would suffice for the manufacturer to release a compatible device-level software that enables the printer to connect to the cloud, but for some reason, they seem to prefer releasing and selling new devices.

Better management and security from SaaS solutions

Many might be wondering why on earth we would still need third-party SaaS solutions for printer management? The answer is simple: the solutions must reflect the organization’s own needs. Above IT offers third-party SaaS-based printing solutions, originally the Danish Printix service, which was initially built to serve the printing needs of a local university campus. Printix is a manufacturer-independent cloud-based centralized management for printing, best serving organizations with multiple locations, enabling lightweight and automated printing solutions for various business needs, also supporting common label printers.
Printix integrates with Microsoft365 and Google environments, enabling integration with Microsoft’s universal printing, meaning that even old printers can be brought into the scope of Microsoft’s universal printing purely through the cloud – without servers. And most impressively, native support for printing is available for all common terminal and operating system types – even mobile.
Secure printing can also be a need where an organization does not want to cut corners. This may be important for the organization’s data protection! Printix enables the use of device-specific security card readers in secure print management entirely cloud-based, authenticating Entra ID users. Print-related reporting can be done securely through its own Azure database with highly customizable PowerBI reports.
I became acquainted with Printix solutions years ago and have successfully consulted this cloud printing into use for several different organizations in the past. Of course, many printer manufacturers are starting to have their own similar SaaS solutions, but if you want to do things manufacturer-independently and lightly, I think it’s worth looking at this.

But what about supply maintenance?

Printer manufacturers often have their own applications for supply maintenance reporting, which previously had to be installed on a server corner to monitor the status of printer supplies and report this to the service partner. I highly recommend IT departments to familiarize themselves with this area, especially when competing for purchases. There are already several larger manufacturers on the market offering a purely cloud-based approach to supply reporting – because who would still want a server to maintain for this task?
Above IT itself has agreed on a partnership model with a company offering printers and service partnerships, and we can assist IT departments in considerations if needed in this area as well. When a cloud-based approach to supply maintenance is combined with fully cloud-based printing, we are approaching solutions where your IT department can genuinely consider getting rid of that last server stronghold – and fully cloudify the entire organization’s printing! And this is true print management from the cloud!

Above IT is your IT department’s partner and resource. If you need help cloudifying printing solutions, we can assist your IT department in choosing sustainable solutions for your organization’s needs! So feel free to book a time from the link below, and let’s get acquainted!

Hae sivuilta:

Search site: