Cloud printing gives schools and universities something they’ve been craving for years: serverless, flexible, scalable print management. It’s the holy grail of campus printing.
A remote cloud-based print server can help your institution reduce costs, simplify print management, improve security and support your sustainability goals. But it’s really the day-to-day functionality that faculty and students appreciate most. With the right cloud print management set-up, you can basically print from anywhere, on any device. 100% transparent, and 100% secure.
So let’s look at some of the benefits of cloud print management.
What is cloud print management
First, let’s talk cloud printing. There are a few different forms of cloud-based printing – ranging from self-hosted to hosted for you – but essentially, cloud printing allows students and staff to print documents from any device connected to the internet. On campus, or from home.
With cloud printing, documents are sent over a secure peer-to-peer connection between the user and a third-party print server. No-one on the internet can intercept these jobs – they’re encrypted end-to-end.
So that’s cloud printing. Cloud print management is simply another layer of admin control. These are third party apps that give you visibility and insight into your organization’s cloud print setup. You can read more about Cloud print management here.
Conquer peak season headaches
Everyone knows one of the big challenges with campus printing is scalability. Unlike a traditional office, schools and universities have huge seasonal variance in the volume of printing. This is the beauty of cloud print management – it offers you a scalable off-site server presence that you can ramp up or down, depending on demand. There’s no need for additional hardware or printing infrastructure to handle that start-of-semester rush.
Empower students and faculty with BYOD printing
BYOD means ‘Bring Your Own Device’. It’s shorthand for system compatibility. These days, schools and universities need cloud-based solutions that work with tablets, laptops, smartphones and on-campus computers. All at the same time. The good news is, cloud print is device agnostic – with something like PaperCut Mobility Print, staff and students can print from any device connected to the network. It works across all operating systems, and users can set themselves up via a simple webpage.
Take control of printing costs
There are two big ways cloud printing helps you cut down campus printing costs. The first is simple: you’ll end up printing less. With cloud print management, you can easily implement print queues, and policies like mandatory black-and-white printing. It’s all about incentivizing students and faculty to only print the necessary stuff (and nothing else).
The second big cost saving is efficiency. Because cloud print providers handle all the server maintenance, there are no on-site print servers to worry about, no server racks, no infrastructure to upgrade. Cloud print providers usually have great troubleshooting and user support services, too, which frees up your IT team for more critical tasks.
Enhance security and compliance
Generally speaking, cloud printing is a much more secure print environment than traditional campus printing. That’s because your sysadmins get an incredibly robust suite of security and admin protocols. You can implement usernames and passwords, PIN codes, or even biometric authentication. We also recommend secure print release and Find-Me printing , to make sure only authorized users can release print jobs at the MFD.
And this isn’t even counting the built-in security features of cloud print. Here’s how it works: cloud print operates on a well-established and trusted WebRTC peer-to-peer communication tech . It’s the same thing that keeps your Zoom calls secure. WebRTC provides an encrypted connection from the user’s device to the print server. No-one on the internet, not even your cloud print provider, can access any user or print job data.
Simplify management and maintenance
Campus printing is chaotic at the best of times. So, anything that simplifies the print environment for IT managers and sysadmins is a good thing.
With cloud print management, you get one centralized management platform, and that platform gives your sysadmins total end-to-end control. In one place, they can quickly check printing infrastructure, run reports, deploy print drivers, audit print activity, authorize or block certain users, and even check ink levels. We’re talking complete visibility over your campus print environment. Cloud print even lets sysadmins diagnose and troubleshoot problems remotely, regardless of the user’s location.
What does all this mean? It means happier IT managers, less money, and more time for mission-critical stuff, like strategic planning and growth.
Want more information on campus printing with PaperCut? Just give our friendly team a call . We’ve helped dozens of schools and universities scale up their printing ecosystem.
