Print servers are the go-to choice when it comes to a corporate printing infrastructure.
Conventional direct IP printing is different than server printing. With direct IP, printers are managed on a workstation-by-workstation basis. Print servers bring some degree of manageability to the print environment. If your organization operates from multiple locations, manageability and oversight are top priorities.
There are two common ways to deploy print servers in distributed print environments: consolidated and localized.
Consolidated printing infrastructure: pros and cons
Consolidated print server infrastructure means that the entire organization uses just one print server printing. The main advantages to this are simplicity and cost. IT only has one print server to manage, and the organization is only paying to operate that one print server.
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Increased WAN dependency: Remote branches connect to the organization’s print server via the WAN. That forces print traffic to compete for bandwidth with other data. The result is slow and unreliable printing.
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Massive single point of failure: If WAN access is interrupted, printing stops for everyone. If the print server goes down for any reason, printing stops for the entire organization. Many companies keep a backup print server to create redundancy.
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Creeping IT overhead and costs: Costs add up once you start adding secondary print servers to the environment. Consolidation has less impact when there’s more infrastructure to manage and maintain.
Localized printing infrastructure: pros and cons
A localized, or distributed, printing infrastructure places print servers at multiple locations. Those locations might be every single remote branch. Or they might be limited to regional hubs.
Unlike the other option, this shares the printing load among several servers. It also reduces WAN dependency. When the print spooler crashes or the server goes offline, the downtime will only affect a small pool of users. As good as it sounds, this still doesn’t mean that localized print servers are the ultimate answer.
Other issues in multi-location corporate printing
Distributed print environments use different makes and models of printers at each location. Although that might sound cost-effective at first, it comes with issues. Different models of servers means the overall print environment becomes harder to manage. There are more variables, making compatibility issues more likely.
PrinterLogic unifies distributed print environments
Through its unique combo of centralized management and direct IP printing, PrinterLogic is able to eliminate print servers and all their problems. At the same time, it brings unified oversight and control to the entire print environment.
Seventy-Seven Energy, an oilfield services company headquartered in Oklahoma, had a choice between installing print servers at each of its 38 locations or rolling out PrinterLogic.
They parted ways with legacy printing infrastructure and opted instead for scalable direct IP printing with PrinterLogic. Now they manage their nationwide print environment from a single pane of glass and support their BYOD and mobile employees with robust print capabilities. Read the case study here.