About Our Company
What is the Print Cloud?
Many people are confused as to exactly what print cloud computing is, especially as the term can be used to mean almost anything. Roughly, it describes highly scalable computing and printing resources provided as an external service via the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. The cloud is simply a metaphor for the internet, based on the symbol used to represent the worldwide network in computer and printer network diagrams. Economically, the main appeal of print cloud computing is that customers only use what they need, and only pay for what they actually use. Resources are available to be accessed from the cloud at any time, and from any location via the internet. There’s no need to worry about how things are being maintained behind the scenes – you simply purchase the printing service you require as you would any other utility. Because of this, print cloud computing has also been called utility printing, or ‘Print on demand’. This new, web-based generation of computing utilizes remote servers housed in highly secure data centers for data storage and management, so organizations no longer need to purchase and look after their IT solutions in-house.
What does it comprise?
Print Cloud computing can be visualized as a pyramid consisting of three sections:
Print Cloud Application
This is the apex of the cloud pyramid, where print applications are run and interacted with via the internet, hosted desktop or remote client. A hallmark of print cloud computing applications is that users never need to purchase expensive software licenses, mange print queues, configure drivers, develop security standards. . Instead, the cost is incorporated into the subscription fee. A cloud application eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, thus removing the burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation and support.
Cloud Platform
The middle layer of the cloud pyramid, which provides a computing platform or framework as a service. A cloud computing platform dynamically provisions, configures, reconfigures and de-provisions servers as needed to cope with increases or decreases in demand. This in reality is a distributed print computing model, where many services pull together to deliver an infrastructure request.
Cloud Infrastructure
The foundation of the cloud pyramid is the delivery of Print infrastructure through virtualization. Virtualization allows the splitting of a single physical piece of hardware into independent, self governed environments, which can be scaled in terms of CPU, RAM, Disk and other elements. The infrastructure includes servers, networks and other hardware appliances delivered as either Infrastructure “Web Services”, “farms” or "cloud centers". These are then interlinked with others for resilience and additional capacity.
Types of Cloud Computing
Public Cloud
Public cloud (also referred to as ‘external’ cloud) describes the conventional meaning of cloud print computing: scalable, dynamically provisioned, often virtualized resources available over the Internet from an off-site third-party provider, which divides up resources and bills its customers on a ‘utility’ basis.
Private Cloud
Private cloud (also referred to as ‘corporate’ or ‘internal’ cloud) is a term used to denotea private printing architecture and access providing hosted services on private networks. This type of print cloud computing is generally used by medium and large companies, and allows their corporate network and data center administrators to worry free specific to their printing needs including required servers, printers, drivers, management, supplies, functionality, uptime, support, etc.
Hybrid Cloud
It has been suggested that a hybrid print cloud environment combining resources from both internal and external providers will become the most popular choice for enterprises. For example, a company could choose to use a public print cloud service for printing anywhere to select users while its typical employee can only print in their own enterprise.
Why switch from traditional Print to the cloud?
There are many reasons why organizations of all sizes and types are adopting this model of Print. It provides a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, equipment, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Ultimately, it can save companies a considerable amount of money...
Removal / reduction of capital expenditure
Customers can avoid spending large amounts of capital on purchasing and installing their Print infrastructure or applications by moving to the print cloud model. Capital expenditure on Print reduces available working capital for other critical operations and business investments. Print Cloud computing offers a simple operational expense that is easier to budget for month-by-month, and prevents money being wasted on depreciating assets. Additionally, customers do not need to pay for excess printing capacity in-house to meet fluctuating demand.
Reduced administration costs
Printing can be deployed extremely quickly and managed, maintained, patched and upgraded remotely by Smart Print, your service provider. Technical support is provided round the clock reducing the burden on IT staff. This means that they are free to focus on business-critical tasks, and businesses can avoid incurring additional manpower and training costs. IT giant IBM has pointed out that cloud computing allows organizations to streamline procurement processes, and eliminates the need to duplicate certain computer administrative skills related to setup, configuration, and support.
Improved resource utilization
Combining printing into large clouds reduces costs and maximizes utilization by delivering resources only when they are needed. Businesses needn’t worry about over-provisioning for a service whose use does not meet their predictions, or under-provisioning for one that becomes unexpectedly popular. Moving more and more applications, infrastructure, and even support into the cloud can free up precious time, effort and budgets to concentrate on the real job of exploiting technology to improve the mission of the company. It really comes down to making better use of your time – focusing on your business and allowing cloud providers to manage the resources to get you to where you need to go.
Economies of scale
Print Cloud computing customers can benefit from the economies of scale enjoyed by providers, who typically have very large printing demands and operating at much higher efficiency levels, and multi-tenant architecture to share resources between many different printing environments (both office and production alike) . This model of Print provision allows them to pass on savings to their customers.
Scalability on demand
Scalability and flexibility are highly valuable advantages offered by cloud computing, allowing customers to react quickly to changing Print needs, adding or subtracting printing capacity and when required and responding to real rather than projected requirements. Even better, because print cloud-computing follows a utility model in which service costs are based on actual consumption, you only pay for what you use. Customers benefit from greater elasticity of resources, without paying a premium for large scale.
Quick and easy implementation
Without the need to purchase hardware, software licenses or implementation services, a company can get its print cloud computing off the ground in minutes.
Smaller businesses compete
Historically, there has been a huge disparity between printing available to small businesses and to enterprises. Print Cloud computing has made it possible for smaller companies to compete on an even playing field with much bigger competitors. ‘Renting’ Print services instead of investing in hardware and software makes them much more affordable, and means that capital can instead be used for other vital projects.
Helps smaller businesses compete
Historically, there has been a huge disparity between the IT resources available to small businesses and to enterprises. Cloud computing has made it possible for smaller companies to compete on an even playing field with much bigger competitors. ‘Renting’ IT services instead of investing in hardware and software makes them much more affordable, and means that capital can instead be used for other vital projects.
Quality of service
Smart Print can offer 24/7 customer support and an immediate response to emergency situations.
Guaranteed uptime, SLAs.
Always ask a prospective provider about reliability and guaranteed service levels – ensure your applications and/or services are always online and accessible.
Anywhere Access
Print Cloud-based services let you access your printing needs securely from any location via an internet connection. Although it has been pointed out that if your internet connection fails, you will not be able to access/ print your data. However, due to the ‘anywhere access’ nature of the cloud, users can simply connect from a different location – so if your office connection fails and you have no redundancy, you can access your data from home or the nearest Wi-Fi enabled point. Because of this, flexible / remote working is easily enabled, allowing you to cut overheads, meet new working regulations and keep your staff happy!
Technical Support
A good cloud computing provider will offer round the clock technical support. Smart Print customers, for instance, are assigned one of our support pods, and all subsequent contact is then handled by the same small group of skilled engineers, who are available 24/7. This type of support model allows a provider to build a better understanding of your business requirements, effectively becoming an extension of your team.
Disaster recovery / backup
Recent research has indicated that around 90% of businesses do not have adequate disaster recovery or business continuity plans, leaving them vulnerable to any disruptions that might occur. Providers like Smart Print can provide an array of disaster print recovery services, to having ready-to-go printers and services in case your business is hit by problems. Hosted Printing from Smart Print, for example, mean you don’t have to worry about worry about printer backup or disaster recovery, as this is taken care of as part of the service. Printing at different remote locations will ensure that there's always print available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
Should I be concerned about security?
Many companies that are considering adopting print cloud computing raise concerns over the security of data being accessed and printed via the internet. What a lot of people don’t realize is that good vendors adhere to strict privacy policies and sophisticated security measures, with data encryption being one example of this.
Companies can choose to encrypt data before even printing it on a third-party provider’s servers. As a result, many cloud-computing vendors offer greater data security and confidentiality than companies that choose to store their data in-house. However, not all vendors will offer the same level of security. It is recommended that anyone with concerns over security and access should research vendors' policies before using their services. Technology analyst and consulting firm Gartner lists seven security issues to bear in mind when considering a particular vendor’s services:
Privileged user access—enquire about who has access to data and about the hiring and management of such administrators
Regulatory compliance—make sure a vendor is willing to undergo external audits and/or security certifications
Print Data location—ask if a provider allows for any control over the location of data
Data segregation—make sure that encryption is available at all stages and that these "encryption schemes were designed and tested by experienced professionals"
Recovery—find out what will happen to printing in the case of a disaster; do they offer complete restoration and, if so, how long that would take
Investigative Support—inquire whether a vendor has the ability to investigate any inappropriate or illegal activity
Long-term viability—ask what will happen to printing if the company goes out of business; how will printing be returned and in what format
Generally speaking, however, security is usually improved by keeping print data in one centralized location. In high security data centers like those used by Smart Print, security is typically as good as or better than traditional systems, in part because providers are able to devote resources to solving security issues that many customers cannot afford.
Conclusion
When your business grows, your print needs grow too. The scalability and speed of deployment offered by print cloud computing means you can expand your IT provision instantly to meet increased requirements, and you can also scale it down again whenever you want. Security is typically greatly enhanced, along with resilience, and the flexibility and responsiveness of print cloud-based services mean that you can react quickly to a changing business environment. Waste (of both time and resources) is reduced, allowing you to effectively do more with less. This provides you a leaner, more efficient IT model, available on demand.