Today, we have a guest post from Gaynor Wong, Sr. Digital Marketing Specialist at UniPrint.net. — PB
With an increasingly mobile workforce, cloud solutions can be easily implemented to increase mobility and convenience, scalability, and flexibility to the workplace. It’s not difficult to understand why organizations around the world have been quick to adopt cloud computing. And, one area into which Cloud has expanded is printing.
It might seem that the cloud and printing are at opposite ends of an organization’s infrastructure spectrum, but printing remains an important part of the infrastructure that cannot be completely virtualized as the purpose printing is to take something virtual and make it physical. In fact, printing is one of the most basic business process that could be simplified with the Cloud.
How does cloud printing help?
The Cloud allows businesses to run more efficient business processes, including printing. The big benefit of cloud printing is that it drastically simplifies intra-organizational printing structures and eliminates some of the frustrations of coordinating hardware across a widely-distributed network of computers.
Cloud printing is particularly useful for large organizations with complicated computer network infrastructures such as government agencies, financial corporations, and healthcare organizations. Many of these institutions connect thousands of devices and printers, sometimes across multiple locations. And, as work becomes more mobile, an employee may need to print from multiple locations in different parts of a building or of a country.
Struggling with installing different printer drivers each time that an employee needs to print from a new printer is not just annoying, but also time-consuming and a drain on productivity and workflow. Public cloud printing services can help overcome these issues. The cloud works by connecting printers to the web so that they can be accessed from anywhere and at any time from web-connected devices.
Cloud Printing Challenges:
Of course, not all cloud printing software is created equally and the Cloud brings along new sets of challenges.
Among these, challenges are the differences between public and private cloud printing and the ease of implementation to achieve Cloud benefits. Figuring out these differences is central to understanding how to successfully implement a cloud printing solution for your organization.
Often, organizations have high levels of security concerns that prevent them from using a public cloud, but the problem with many third-party cloud printing services is that they use the “public” cloud. While cloud printing options simplify the printing process, all the print data must travel through the public cloud as it makes its journey from device to printer. Many organizations such as government agencies, financial corporations, or healthcare organizations do not use public cloud services for the expressed reason that it is public.
Implementing a private cloud printing solution comes with its own complications. As an example, consider the infrastructure of government agencies. Every agency has its own structure for printing, each with active directories, and hundreds of thousands of users dispersed over wide geographic areas. Consolidating printing in this situation requires aligning all the printers, drivers, devices, and users within the system, something that can’t be done easily or efficiently. Every device needs to be updated for every driver update for every printer when the updates are released.
For the devices that don’t have printer drivers? Those will never be able to print at all.
How UniPrint Infinity solve these challenges
Uniprint provides a resolution to the above organizational cloud printing challenges by their unique print management solution UniPrint Infinity™.
Connectivity between the cloud and the printer is necessary once a data center has been moved to the cloud. This task can be difficult for companies with offices all over the world. Unirprint Infinity can seamlessly connect and manage all printers within complex cloud enterprise environments. It helps in structuring the connection of printers and management while ensuring that users can identify the right printer without any hassle or guessing. This is achieved through a network tunneling device or software agent can reduce the complexity of this connection, which improves workflow by connecting printers and the data center through the firewall. The structure should require as little effort on the user’s part as possible, so Cloud solutions must keep the location in mind. Mobility also poses considerable challenges for printing. Once a data center has been moved to the cloud, the typical system cannot track the location of print users.
UniPrint Infinity provides a cloud printing solution that simplifies intra-organizational printing structures to align the printers, drivers, devices and users within the system. The software also provides user-authenticated secure pull printing that improves document security; and high availability with load balancing capabilities setup that allows full redundancy to maximize printing uptime, all of which are key for driving a successful enterprise Cloud adoption strategy.
Please refer to this page for more information about UniPrint Infinity and the supported versions of Citrix products and Cloud.
About the Citrix Ready Program:
Citrix Ready identifies recommended solutions that are trusted to enhance the Citrix Delivery Center infrastructure. All products featured in Citrix Ready have completed verification testing, thereby providing confidence in joint solution compatibility. Leveraging its industry leading alliances and partner eco-system, Citrix Ready showcases select trusted solutions designed to meet a variety of business needs. Citrix Ready not only demonstrates current mutual product compatibility, but through continued industry relationships also ensures future interoperability. Explore the Citrix Ready Marketplace.
