Print Server Migration – Cloud or On-Premises?
Almost all companies are currently more or less busy with the cloud migration of some, if not all of their systems.
The motives for this differ considerably. Sometimes the goal is to set up the company’s IT in a private cloud. For others, the goal might be to convert existing services to SaaS.
Regardless of the motive, these projects all have one thing common – the migration will likely produce far reaching changes throughout the entire company.
Print Server Migration to the Cloud
One area which will feel the impact is printing. When it comes to cloud migration, few people think about print server migration. But a cloud migration strategy that doesn’t take printing into account can easily fail, or at least lead to costly problems and lower user adoption at a later stage of the project.
Of course, in the end, printers are on-site devices and cannot be migrated to the cloud, but all processes up to and including paper output can be. So why should you move your print servers to the cloud too?
Advantages of Cloud Print Server Migration
- The physical proximity of the printer and end device is, via the cloud, no longer important. This makes it possible to print on the road to the company office. For example, printing a document from the salesroom to a distant warehouse is easily done.
- It enables a uniform and fixed assignment of printers to users, which is kept independent of location and network connection.
- There are almost no minimum requirements for the end device, and no local printer drivers are necessary.
- Enables the printing integration of all cloud-based applications, whether virtual, desktop-based or from web or SaaS applications.
- Reduces local attack vectors and allows you to consistently implement Zero Trust.
- Cross-site management and reporting.
- Fully administration-free branch offices becomes more achievable.
How It Works: Cloud Print Server Migration with the ThinPrint and ezeep Hub
So how do you migrate print servers to the cloud without leaving the printer, which is on-premises, completely stranded?
Our solution is simple. With the help of our software components, which can be installed directly in the printer or utilised via a ThinPrint Hub or ezeep Hub, the “cloudification” of printers is very quick and easy. To take the Hub as an example, once you plug one into the same network as the printer, the Hub will search for all printers and make them available to the cloud automatically via our web portal.
Cloud Print Server in Your Own Private Cloud
But first things first. There are two different strategies for migrating to the cloud. Public or private cloud?
On the one hand, the entire infrastructure can be mapped in its own, separate, private cloud. In principle, this corresponds to a separate data centre, except that this is now implemented by a certified cloud provider, who is usually also responsible for maintaining platform security. However, the servers themselves are maintained entirely by the company itself. A print server relocated to the cloud thus equates to a normal on-premises print server for the time being.
Private Cloud – Optimising Print Servers with ThinPrint
When deciding for this option, completely new requirements are now placed on such a print server in the cloud.
Print jobs, for example, should not unnecessarily burden the transfer volume from the cloud, and printers should be able to be used independently of the installed printer drivers on the cloud print server.
It should also be possible to exchange printers without changing the cloud print servers. And although the print server is now running in the cloud, the local mapping should work perfectly. In this way, each employee should have access to exactly the printers he or she needs and which are also available in his or her environment.
In short, when considering print server migration to the cloud, it is advisable to equip yourself with ThinPrint in order to meet precisely these requirements.
More on ThinPrint Cloud Print Server »
ezeep – The Universal SaaS Print Server for All Applications
A ThinPrint-enhanced cloud print server technically offers everything you need for print server migration to the cloud. However, it is still a print server, i.e. it has to be maintained in the same way as the classic on-premises print server.
And while the local print servers in the branch office are no longer needed thanks to ThinPrint and the ThinPrint Hub, wouldn’t it be better to be able to use all the services without the hassle of maintaining a print server?
This second option is exactly what ThinPrint’s cloud printing solution, ezeep, delivers. ezeep offers the entire functional scope of a print server as a pure software-as-a-service process. This radically reduces the effort required. In combination with the ezeep Hub, printing becomes virtually maintenance-free from a software perspective.
ezeep – The SaaS Printing Service for all Applications
ezeep can be easily integrated into cloud desktops such as Microsoft Cloud PC, Azure Virtual Desktops or Citrix and VMware solutions via the ezeep App. However, cloud desktops tend to play a subordinate role in cloud migration; rather, classic desktop applications are replaced by web applications. With only a few lines of code, these can also be very easily connected to the ezeep infrastructure.
This eliminates the need to download PDFs containing potentially sensitive data to a hard drive before printing. Printing is also possible from any device that can access the web application. With the mobile apps, optimal printing support for mobile applications can also be implemented. Just as ezeep can be set up as an ideal Chrome OS printing solution with our Chrome extension. Regardless of the end devices, the printers are simply managed and assigned via the ezeep portal.
Conclusion
Printing should be considered in any cloud migration. For the private cloud, the implementation based on ThinPrint is recommended. For everything else, ezeep is the ideal solution to enable printing in any context while saving time and costs.
