No matter how hard we try, the need to print still exists…and it will never go away.

But there is a whole new category of printing that exists today. This isn’t just Paul printing out a photo of his vacation or Julie printing an excel spreadsheet at work.

This is mission critical printing that is required to serve a specific business requirement.

This category of printing is known as Remote Printing. Remote printing is not new, the need for it has always been there. It is only the rise of mobile and cloud technology that has brought it to the forefront and made it a “top of mind” subject for organizations all over the world.

What is Remote Printing?

So what exactly is remote printing and why is it so important? The easiest way to explain it is through the use cases that benefit from it. The following are typical scenarios that many businesses are already doing today, or are currently trying to find a solution for:

• A manufacturer who has outsourced their logistics and needs to print shipping documents at the third-party location from an ERP system
• A pathology lab who needs to have test results printed out at a doctor’s office or hospital
• The IT Manager who has been charged with the task of setting up and connecting print services at a new office location
• An organization that has moved their business apps to a third-party cloud and needs to print from them
• An employee who works from home but needs to print through the corporate network for security and accounting purposes

All of these use cases might sound very different, but they all have one thing in common, the need to connect users on one network to a printer on another…securely.

But how do we accomplish this? Today, a typical business is probably using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) as a solution for secure printing between distributed users. Others may be using cumbersome and complex workarounds that just cause more trouble than they are worth.

Why Isn’t VPN Good Enough?

VPN is not a good long term solution for the remote printing problem.

Why?

1. VPN setup and maintenance costs can quickly mount and the design and security implementation for a VPN can be complex. This means that it requires a professional with a high level of understanding for the best type of VPN configuration and some of the security issues that can occur when using a VPN.
2. If additional infrastructure needs to be added, solutions can become incompatible and cause technical issues if a different vendor is used than was used for the current infrastructure.
3. Connecting mobile devices to the virtual private network can cause security issues especially if the connection is wireless. For this reason, an added solution is sometimes needed to tighten up security when logging on to the VPN with a mobile device.

So What Other Choice Do I Have? Remote Printing.

A remote printing solution from PrinterOn can solve your most complex printing problems.

Why is it a better solution? Here are 10 reasons.

1. Remote printing should work whether the submission method is mobile or desktop-based and be device and operating system agnostic.
2. Security should be end-to-end, not just because someone might be using a mobile device, but because the printer is remote and not on the trusted network.
3. Data compression of every print job saves bandwidth and money.
4. Deployment of the solution can be cloud or on premise.
5. The solution is flexible allowing components to be placed anywhere on the trusted network without changes to DNS records or firewall settings.
6. It can be scaled out at any deployment point in any quantity.
7. It can be deployed in high-availability configurations including failover and data center load-balanced setups.
8. Any remote site can be configured and managed from one central location.
9. Enhanced security requirements can be met through user authentication, data and transmission encryption as well as secure release methods at the print device.
10. The print experience is seamless no matter who is using it or what type of device they are using with no changes to current print workflows.

Armed with the right solution, remote printing can help make your organization more responsive, lower costs and reduce infrastructure.

PrinterOn Remote Printing. It’s a simple idea, powerfully realized.