In a nutshell, if the application you are using is in the cloud, you probably won’t be able to print the same way you are used to. In fact, you probably won’t be able to print at all.
Since your printers are still behind your firewall and your application is in the cloud, the application will probably not be able to reach your printer unless you can find a way to bridge that communication gap. The solution you choose needs to restore
this connection with a simple software installation that doesn’t require changes to infrastructure.
What is True Cloud Printing?
“True Cloud Printing is the ability to run enterprise-grade secure print services from a cloud platform without any traditional on-premise print infrastructure dependencies.”
So, this means no print servers at your central location and only a Cloud Print Gateway at each remote site. The secure print services run in the cloud. Ideally, user authentication takes place in the cloud too.
A simple Cloud Print Gateway at each location (which actually comes embedded in certain printers) connects the local printer with the cloud services. It’s these three pieces that fundamentally enable anyone to securely submit a print request from anywhere, authenticate, and securely release the document to any authorized printer.
So what makes a cloud printing solution
a “True Cloud Printing” solution?
Let’s take a look at some of the requirements that a solution must meet in order to make the claim that they are a True Cloud Printing solution
- The solution must be able to be deployed in any cloud.
Whether it is AWS, Azure or even on-premise in your “private cloud”, the solution
should work the same, run the same and be managed the same. - The solution must be able to run in the cloud without any on-premise infrastructure dependencies.
The physical location with the printer should only need to enable the printer to securely retrieve the print jobs from the cloud and get them to the printer when the user securely releases the print. That means having an outbound, secure web connection to the internet—nothing more than a desktop browser has when you access an online shopping site. Ideally, this all takes place inside the printer, but at most, all you should require is a small software component installed behind the firewall that acts as a Cloud Printing Gateway. There are no VPNs and certainly no
on-premise print servers.
Want to find out about the other 3 requirements of a True Cloud Printing solution?
Read the eBook http://gocloud.printeron.com/true-cloud-printing-ebook/
Schedule a Free Consultation with us http://gocloud.printeron.com/free-consultation/