Cloud printing
Print from anywhere, collect at any printer.
Cloud print is a way of sending print jobs through secure cloud queues instead of on-site print servers, delivered by Print Fleet Management across Australia and New Zealand. Staff print from a laptop, phone or shared desk and release the job at whichever printer is nearest.
At a glance
Last updated
- Mobile and BYOD printing
- Encrypted transmission and secure release
- Follow-me printing across all locations
- No print servers or device-specific drivers to maintain
What cloud print is
Cloud printing replaces on-site print servers by routing print jobs through secure cloud infrastructure. Instead of each office running its own server, with its own queues and drivers, jobs go to a central cloud queue and wait there until the person who sent them is at a printer.
Staff send a job from a laptop, phone or shared desk and collect it at whichever printer is nearest. IT stops maintaining print servers and device-specific drivers, and secure release holds each job until its owner releases it at the device.
How it works
From the user's side, cloud print takes four steps.
- Print from any device: a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone, in the office or on another site
- The job travels to an encrypted cloud queue rather than straight to a printer
- The user releases the job at the printer, so nothing prints until they are standing there
- Any printer, any site: the same job can be collected from whichever device is convenient
What is included
Cloud print includes the following as standard.
- Mobile and BYOD printing
- Encrypted transmission and secure release
- Centralised queue management and policies
- Follow-me printing across all locations
What those inclusions mean in practice
Mobile and BYOD printing lets people print from the devices they actually use, including phones and personal laptops, without IT installing a driver on each one.
Encrypted transmission protects each job on its way to the cloud queue and on to the printer. Secure release means documents are not left sitting in an output tray for anyone to pick up.
Centralised queue management means print policies, such as defaulting to double-sided or limiting colour, are set once and apply everywhere. Follow-me printing across all locations means a staff member who moves between offices prints the same way at each one.
Who cloud print suits
Cloud print suits organisations where people no longer sit at the same desk every day, or where print servers have become a maintenance burden. Signs it would help:
- Print servers that need patching, backing up and replacing at each site
- Driver problems whenever a new device or a new laptop arrives
- Hybrid or hot-desking staff who print from different offices
- Documents left uncollected in output trays
- Students, contractors or visiting staff who need to print from their own devices
What changes for IT, finance and staff
For IT, there are no print servers and no device-specific drivers to maintain. Queues and policies are managed centrally, and adding a printer or a new site does not mean building another server.
For finance, removing print servers removes the hardware, licences and administration that went with them, and central policies make it easier to apply rules such as reserving colour for the work that needs it.
For staff, printing works the same way from any device and at any printer. If the nearest printer is busy or has a fault, they can walk to the next one and release the job there.
Security and support
Cloud print works alongside our print security service. Encrypted transmission and secure release are part of cloud print, and where you need it we add audit trails so you can see who printed what, when and where.
The printers themselves remain part of your managed fleet, with 24/7 proactive fleet monitoring and our same-day response guarantee for all service requests lodged before 2pm AEST on business days. Cloud print is rolled out as part of the same Assess, Plan, Deploy and Optimise process, with an average deployment of four weeks.
Questions to ask about any cloud print service
These questions are worth asking before moving away from print servers.
- Is every job encrypted on its way to the cloud queue and to the printer?
- Does secure release work on every brand of printer in our fleet?
- Can staff print from phones and personal devices without installing drivers?
- Where are queues and policies managed, and who can change them?
- What happens to jobs if a printer is offline when the user arrives?
Brands, sites and industries
Cloud print works across mixed fleets, including Xerox-Lexmark, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, HP and Ricoh devices. It is particularly useful in education, where students and staff print from their own devices, and in organisations with several sites where people move between offices.
Questions
Cloud print FAQ
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