PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

An Architectural and Use Case Overview

Introduction

PrinterCloud is a SaaS solution that completely eliminates the need for print servers, delivers centralized

print management, and empowers end users to install their own printers with a single click. In addition,

PrinterCloud solves the most prominent pain points in print management by:

• Converting the print environment to centrally-managed direct IP printing

• Simplifying printer driver management and deployment

• Keeping all print jobs on the local network segment

• Eliminating scripting and GPOs

• Simplifying printing in virtual environments (Citrix, VMware, VDI)

• Delivering powerful reporting and alerting features

• Enabling printing from any mobile device to any network printer

• Increasing security and reducing waste through Pull Printing

Eliminating Print Servers

PrinterCloud eliminates the need for print servers or servers of any kind, thereby simplifying print

management, reducing infrastructure, lowering costs, and supporting your move to the cloud. This

section discusses the background, issues mitigated, implementation, features, and benets of using

PrinterCloud to eliminate print servers.

Background

In a typical printing environment, an IT staff member implements and provisions a print server on premises

or in the datacenter to service the printers on the network. IT organizations use two types of architectures

when implementing print servers: centralized and distributed print servers.

In a centralized model, a print server sits in the datacenter and services every network printer in the

enterprise. The name, printer driver and conguration of each printer is used by the print server to

distribute printers to end users. To deploy printers to end users, an IT admin creates group policy objects

(GPOs) to dene who gets the printer and how it is congured.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

An end user initiates a print job from a workstation. This sends it to the print server, where it is spooled,

rendered, and sent to the network printer. If the end user is in a branch ofce, print jobs will travel both to

and from the datacenter, creating additional WAN trafc. In addition, when the server goes down, the entire

organization can no longer print.

To alleviate WAN trafc, some IT departments implement a distributed model in which print servers are

placed at each location. Distributed print environments still suffer from the single points of failure that are

part and parcel of the print server architecture, but these now tend to be more isolated to individual branch

disruptions. Likewise, distributed environments also require complex scripting and GPOs to manage and

distribute printers to end-user devices.

One way to overcome the disadvantages of these print server architectures is through direct IP printing.

This architecture eliminates the need for print servers because it creates a direct connection between the

workstation and the printer but it lacks many of the deployment and management features of a print server.

In the direct IP model, the IT staff member congures each workstation to print to the network printer by

manually associating the two devices. To manage printers, IT will maintain a spreadsheet that contains printer

names, IP addresses, physical locations and printer driver le locations. Although this model eliminates the

single points of failure, WAN trafc, and GPOs, it introduces a host of management challenges. Inevitably this

model will generate additional service desk calls every time an end user wants to install a new printer.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

The Complexity and Cost of Print Servers

Historically, print servers were designed to provide self-service printer installation, printer deployment

through GPOs, centralized print management, a printer driver repository, printer security, and print queue

management. Each of these features is designed to address the problems IT departments faced when

managing and deploying printers to end users.

Print servers were initially a good idea. However, modern IT environments have found that they require

additional management, create risk through a single point of failure, complicate deployment, consume IT

resources, and drive up costs. Some of the problems of print servers are outlined below:

Costs

Each print server at each site requires hardware procurement and licensing, cooling, power, physical

security, management, maintenance, upgrades, virus scans, and so on. The average cost per print server is

$2,000 to $5,000 USD per year. Not to mention the software licenses and hardware purchases that strain

a capital expenditure budget.

Risk from a Single Point of Failure

If the print server crashes, no one can print. Clustered print servers do not crash as often, but the tradeoff

for the high availability of clustered print servers is higher costs for hardware, licensing, management,

power, and maintenance.

Scripting and GPO Management Overhead

Managing scripts and GPOs to deploy printers to end users can consume signicant IT staff time and

resources. Even the simplest of tasks, such as changing a printer’s name or replacing a printer with a new

model and print driver, requires a script. Scripts can get complicated and are often difcult to create and

troubleshoot. GPOs require elevated permissions to manage, slow end-user logon times, and can cause

deployment and printing problems owing to their broadly hierarchical nature.

Self-Service Printer Installation

Printer servers’ native self-service printer installation features are often too difcult for end users to use.

Instead, they call the service desk and wait for assistance. Service desk calls are expensive and end users

are unproductive while they wait for printer installation assistance.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

Management Headaches

Print servers require operating system upgrades, patches, security, virus scanning, and so on. All of these take

time and money to carry out. In fact, print server management requirements can be painful in many ways:

• Difcult driver updates: If you have 40 sites, you have 40 print servers. Each time a

manufacturer releases a new printer driver that solves some problem you are experiencing, you

must update the driver on all 40 print servers. Rolling back problematic driver updates can be

even more time consuming.

• Complicated caveats: Another troublesome situation is when you need to support a 32-bit

workstation with a 64-bit print server but the manufacturer does not provide a model-specic

64-bit driver. In this case, the only solution is to use a 32-bit universal driver with the exact

same name as the 64-bit universal driver, and then force all the 32-bit workstation users to

change to the newly named driver.

• Driver conicts: Yet another issue with print servers is that printer drivers do not always coexist

gracefully. Just to keep drivers from conicting, IT sometimes creates individual print servers for

each printer manufacturer: a model-specic driver print server, a universal driver print server,

another model-specic print server, a driver test print server, and so on. Otherwise, the printer

drivers can conict and crash the print server.

Traditional print server architecture suffers from all these pain points, costs, and complications.

Conventional direct IP printing introduces other problems, including a lack of management and constant

service desk incidents for installing printers. An ideal scenario would be to combine the simplicity of

direct IP printing with the management features of a print server.

Fortunately, PrinterCloud provides this solution. PrinterLogic’s next-generation print management software

converts your entire print environment to centrally managed direct IP printing and puts print management

in the cloud. This eliminates the need for print servers, or any servers for that matter.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

The Solution: Implementing PrinterCloud to Eliminate Print Servers

PrinterCloud is designed to support organizations of all sizes in a streamlined, efcient way. There are

three quick steps to starting your instance of PrinterCloud and eliminating your print servers.

1. Create your PrinterCloud instance

Visit printercloud.com/start-trial and complete the form to start your free 30-day trial. Once you submit

the form, an instance of PrinterCloud spins up immediately and prompts you to create the initial user

credentials. It also opens a video tutorial library in a separate tab. To avoid common traps and to get you

started as quickly as possible, review the initial videos that guide you through the setup process.

2. Import printers

IT staff use a web browser and Internet connection to access the PrinterCloud Admin Console and import

printer objects and associated drivers from existing print servers. During the import process, all existing

printer drivers, port settings, device settings, and preferences are copied from your print servers into the

PrinterCloud instance without changes. From then on, IT staff can use the PrinterCloud Admin Console to

create and manage the printer objects.

3. Install the client

IT staff use a small MSI, PKG, or DEB le provided to deploy the PrinterCloud Client silently to all workstations.

Once installed, the Client silently converts all existing printers that were connected to print servers into

centrally managed direct IP printers that print to a physical printer. Customized printer settings that were

congured on the printer, such as the default printer setting or duplex and paper tray congurations,

remain intact through the conversion.

After this step is complete, you can pull the plug on your print server(s) and users continue to print without

any problems. From then on, you can use the PrinterCloud Admin Console to centrally manage printers

without any print servers, group policies, or scripts.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

PrinterCloud Architecture

The PrinterCloud software consists of three main components:

• PrinterCloud Admin Console

• PrinterCloud Self-service Portal

• PrinterCloud Client

Each component is described briey on the following pages.

PrinterCloud Admin Console

This web-based console enables IT to manage all the printers in your entire organization from a single

view. On the left, the Admin Console presents a tree view of your organization, which you can congure

to organize your printers by location. Then you drill down by country, state or region, building, and oor

number to select any particular printer in your eet.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

On the right, you can enter or edit any attributes for that printer.

For example, on the General tab, you can enter or edit the printer name, location, add a comment, view

the direct URL to the driver install, check to indicate a color printer, or check to hide that printer from the

Self-Service Installation Portal so that no end users can see it. You can use the Port, Drivers/Proles,

Deploy, and Security tabs to congure and manage many other printer settings.

You can also perform many additional print management functions as explained in this document.

You can use the same screen to add, edit, and delete printers.

• Add printers: With PrinterCloud, creating a printer is as simple as it should be. Select the folder for

the location where you want to add a printer, then create the new printer.

• Edit printers: You can edit printer object attributes quickly and easily by selecting a printer in the

tree and then changing the desired attribute(s). Any changes you make are automatically applied to

that printer on all workstations.

• Delete printers: When you delete a printer, that printer is automatically removed from all end-user

workstations.

Self-Service Installation Portal

The PrinterCloud Self-Service Installation Portal empowers your end users to quickly nd and install

printers, with no need to call the service desk.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

For example, when an end user travels to a remote ofce where they need to print, they almost always end up call-

ing the help desk for support. Users seldom know all the information required by the native Windows Add Printer

dialog, such as the printer type (network or local), printer name, print server name hosting the printer, and so on.

If the help desk is not available immediately, the user can be blocked from completing a vital task. For

example, printing out a proposal, contract, or letter to be signed at a meeting can be critical to the organi-

zation. Not being able to print is generally frustrating to the end user.

PrinterCloud solves this problem by providing a web portal that empowers end users to quickly nd and

install printers with no need to call the help desk. This signicantly reduces printer-related help desk costs

and boosts productivity by empowering end users to do the task themselves.

An end user can access the portal at any time by clicking the PrinterCloud icon in the Windows system tray, typing

the URL directly into their default browser (domain.printercloud.com), or clicking a link on the company intranet site.

PrinterCloud’s Self-Service Portal can display optional oor plan maps that can be easily uploaded.

Hovering the mouse pointer over any printer on the oor plan shows that printer’s name, model, location,

and an optional eld for comments. The end user simply clicks any printer icon to install it. If you don’t

have the oor plan maps uploaded, printers are also displayed in a clickable list.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

PrinterCloud Client

The PrinterCloud Client is a software agent that is deployed to end user Windows, Macintosh or Linux

workstations using the provided MSI, PKG, or DEB installation packages. The Client runs in the background

as a service to automatically perform printer management tasks without any user intervention and allows

for self installation without the end user requiring installation privileges. These tasks include installing a

printer, updating a printer driver, etc.

Features

Printer management tasks that were previously accomplished with print servers, group policies, and

scripts, can now be completed using PrinterCloud. PrinterCloud provides a rich set of features, including:

Centralized Direct IP Printer Management

You can manage your entire organization’s printers from a single Admin Console regardless of whether

you use domains or no domains, trusted or untrusted. Any changes you make to a printer object are

automatically applied to that printer on all your workstations.

For example, if you change a printer’s name in the Admin Console, the Client will change that printer’s

name on all your user workstations.

You can use the same screen to add, edit, and delete printers that will ripple through the organization and

update all workstations.

Self-service Installation Portal

Here are some of the added benets of the PrinterCloud Self-Service Installation Portal:

• Auto-locate: When a user visits the portal, their current location is automatically selected based on

their IP address and network segment, so they can simply click the desired printer to install it.

• Floor plans: Optional oor plan maps make it even easier for a user to nd and install the nearest

printer, especially when they’re roaming.

• Search: The user can enter a partial printer name and see the location of any matching printers.

When the user selects a printer from the list, they are taken to the right folder with the printer

selected; they can simply click a prompt to begin the installation.

• Customization: You can customize the portal header to show your company logo and any in-

structions or comments in the local language based on the end user’s location.

• Security: With Active Directory integration, you can hide or show the tree folders or printers

according to the user’s user, group, OU, or even IP address range.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

• Single enterprise portal: Whether you have one corporate domain, many disparate domains

without trusts, or no domains at all, all users can still securely access the web portal and see the

printers that users have the rights to install.

• Fewer help desk calls: Whether a user is in Los Angeles or in London, and no matter where they

roam on the enterprise campus, they can simply click the PrinterCloud icon in the system tray (or

a link in the company intranet) and the portal opens to their current location. Then they can easily

install the nearest printer without calling the help desk or waiting for a ticket to be lled.

• Citrix support: The end user can also access the PrinterCloud Self-Service Portal in Citrix desktop

sessions so they can quickly nd and install the nearest printer based on their physical location.

• VMware Horizon View support: The end user can access the PrinterCloud Self-Service Portal in VM-

ware Horizon View sessions so they can quickly nd and install the nearest printer.

Printer Deployment

PrinterCloud eliminates the need for time-consuming group policy objects (GPOs) or scripts to deploy

printers to end users. Instead of giving rights to IT staff to manage group policies—with the risk that they

could make drastic non-printer-related changes—you can use the Admin Console to safely empower IT

staff to manage printer deployment.

Here are some of the added benets of using PrinterCloud’s built-in printer deployment feature, rather

than using GPOs and scripts:

• Active Directory integration: With PrinterCloud’s web interface, you can easily deploy printers to

Active Directory users, computers, groups, containers, OUs, or even IP address ranges. PrinterCloud

shows you all printers with all deployment assignments, so you can make mass changes as easily

as individual deployment changes.

• No GPO rights required: You can enable any IT staff—including service desk personnel you would

never permit to edit group policies or scripts—to add and remove printer deployment assignments,

without having any rights to group policy objects, scripts or print servers.

• Desktop and thin client support: You can deploy printers to Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops and

thin clients.

• Write lter for thin client support: PrinterCloud can disable any write lters (either enhanced or le-

based), install the required printer(s), and then re-enable the write lter.

• Proximity printing/location-based printing: PrinterCloud enables you to add printers to a worksta-

tion according to the workstation’s IP address, name, or even Active Directory computer, group, or

OU membership. This provides a simple way to provision the nearest printers to any user access-

ing that workstation.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

• Faster logons: With group policies or scripts, whenever a printer is installed during logon, the logon

process is delayed, often for several minutes. With PrinterCloud, any required printer installation

begins after the user’s logon is complete and the desktop is available. That way, the user can begin

working immediately, while the printer is installed in the background.

• Advanced default printer options: You can set a default printer either the rst time that printer is

installed, every time the user logs on, or by the user’s current location. To achieve this without

PrinterCloud would require time-consuming custom scripting by someone with advanced programming

experience. With PrinterCloud, all it takes is the click of a checkbox.

• Orphan printer removal: With PrinterCloud, you can remove printers from workstations as easily as

you deploy them. Simply remove the deployment assignment and the printer will be automatically

removed from all workstations where it was installed. No more slowdowns caused by orphaned

printers trying to connect to printer shares that don’t exist.

Printer Driver Management

You can use the Admin Console to change the selected driver for any printer. If the driver you want is not in

the drop-down list, you can upload it to the database to make it available. The PrinterCloud Client will then

update all installed printers to use the new driver.

To replace a driver so that all printers use the new driver, you go to the driver repository and simply replace

the old driver with the new driver. With traditional print servers, you would have to install the driver on each

print server, and then change the driver for each printer on every print server. With PrinterCloud, you only

need to update the driver in a single location.

Printer Driver Prole Management

You can use the printer driver prole to congure driver settings such as DPI, duplexing, paper size, paper

source, paper trays, and so on. Since PrinterCloud displays the actual driver’s interface, you can congure

all the settings provided by the driver.

You can also congure the prole to apply each time a user logs on or even after each print job is printed. For

example, suppose a company has a paper-saving policy so that all print jobs must be printed double-sided

(duplexed). If a user manually disables duplex printing for a one-sided job (such as printing labels), the

duplex prole is automatically reapplied to the next print job.

SNMP Monitoring and Alerts

The SNMP console shows the status of your organization’s entire printer eet. Any notications like ink low,

paper low, paper empty, ping status, and many more are shown on this screen to make monitoring easy.

Setup alerts that email IT workers to proactively manage printers.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

Administrative Auditing

Auditing all printer management events helps you quickly pinpoint what changed and who changed it. All

actions—from a simple printer name change to a complex set of driver setting changes—are stored and

viewable for quick management.

Role-based Access Control

Since PrinterCloud integrates with Active Directory, you can specify which users can log on to the Admin

Console with an existing Active Directory username and password. Once an IT or help desk person is

logged on, you can control their privileges by assigning them a built-in role or create a custom one. These

roles determine an employee’s access to printer management functions. You can use roles to empower

each site administrator to manage their site’s printers or to give central control over all your printers to a

single staff member.

Print Job Auditing and Reporting

Although print jobs are sent directly to a physical printer, the PrinterCloud Client on each workstation

sends certain metadata to the Admin Console. This enables you to see print job statistics in an intuitive,

exportable format.

The administrator then uses reports to determine print job usage and print job costs. You can answer valuable

questions about the cost of printing on a single printer or the cost of toner and paper for the entire organization.

It will also help you change any policies or help optimize your driver proles for more efcient use.

The administrator has many predened reports to determine departmental usage, printer usage, and

paper waste. It can be as granular as how many print jobs are color vs. grayscale, duplex vs. simplex, and

large vs. small print jobs. Administrators simply set up scheduled reports to be sent to executives or

department heads to educate the organization on printing usage and costs.

Queue Management

PrinterCloud provides your IT staff with a single web portal for managing all your printer queues. The Client

noties PrinterCloud of all print jobs in each workstation’s local print queues so that IT staff can cancel or

delete any problem or unnecessary print jobs.

High Availability

PrinterCloud allows end users to print independent of an Internet connection. If the Internet connection

ever goes down, all end user continue to print since all print jobs are sent to the printer via direct IP on the

local network segment.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers

For the management aspects of the product, if PrinterCloud ever becomes inaccessible, meta data

will be stored on the workstation until the connection is reestablished and all data is refreshed in the

Admin Console.

Quick Review—The Benets of Eliminating Print Servers

The many benets of eliminating print servers with PrinterCloud include:

• Simplify your infrastructure: With PrinterCloud you can eliminate all your print servers or any server

needed for print management. There is no need for additional hardware or software, which reduces

cost and simplies your infrastructure.

• Streamline your print management: Now you can manage all the printers in your entire enterprise

through the cloud and a single web admin console.

• Empower your staff: IT staff can now manage all the printers at their own sites, and end users can

quickly and easily install their own printers.

• Reduce help desk calls: With a self-service installation portal to quickly install their own printers,

end users are much less likely to call the help desk for printer hassles.

• Quick Return on Investment (ROI): The ROI for PrinterCloud occurs very rapidly. 87% of PrinterLogic

customers had a 100% ROI within the rst year. Eliminating costly print servers and reducing help

desk calls equals quick savings. Since the software is offered as a service, IT realizes cost savings

by transferring budget from CAPEX to OPEX.

Conclusions

All the cost, effort, and complexity of traditional print servers are no longer necessary. PrinterCloud

replaces all the functionality that print servers used to provide in a single SaaS solution. It also adds

many new features that simplify print management and provisioning, reduce costs, and empower

users to install printers for themselves without calling the help desk.

To find out more about how you can eliminate all your print servers with PrinterCloud, contact

support@PrinterCloud.com or call 435.652.1288 for a quick WebEx product demonstration, and a

30-day trial install.

PrinterCloud: Eliminating Print Servers