Top 3 Ways to Reduce Infrastructure and Increase Security in Your Printing Environment

IT Professionals know the problems and costs associated with installing and maintaining print servers for their organizations. They’re managing downtime for hardware and software upgrades, staffing a helpdesk for print users, and monitoring and reacting to a myriad of security threat vectors; the financial and operational costs can be considerable. That is why many organizations are moving to a Software-as-a-service (SaaS) based serverless print model that offloads the hardware and software-related costs, saving time and money. Here are the top three ways you can reduce expensive legacy hardware infrastructure and increase the security of your printing environment.

 

1. Replace local print servers with a cloud-based print-management service

Managing and maintaining enterprise-level print servers is expensive. IT personnel are required to install and configure the hardware, manage and secure the network, and troubleshoot problems when they occur. Implementing your own security against the increasing threat of hacking and ransomware is daunting, especially when computer and network downtime can impact business-critical operations.

SaaS has become the dominant software delivery model, as continuous-improvement continuous-delivery provides organizations with the latest software services without the concern of maintenance, updates, and security. In the enterprise print space, moving from self-hosted print servers to a cloud-based print-management service eliminates the need for expensive hardware and time-consuming software configuration. A cloud-based service handles the security for you and ensures your data is protected. Most importantly, a SaaS-based print service is inherently resilient, ensuring maximum uptime. 

2. Offload maintenance

How much of your day is spent monitoring servers, dealing with outages, and resolving countless print-related helpdesk tickets? The constant upkeep of print servers alone is a feat—the high costs, security, maintenance, manual updates, and troubleshooting make you wish you never had to deal with printing. 

All of a sudden, with no print server software to worry about, and no need to maintain a user service for logins, access control, print limits, and record-keeping, your time is freed up to handle those higher-priority tasks and projects that typically take a backseat to printing issues. Everything is handled simply and economically in the cloud. Plus, using a cloud-based print-management service frees up your organization from the costly procurement and maintenance of physical computing infrastructure, which leadership loves to hear. 

 

3. Implement Zero Trust

Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA) is a security concept centered around the idea of removing the assumption that entities within a network are trustworthy by default. Instead of relying on traditional perimeter-based security models, Zero Trust assumes that threats could exist both inside and outside the network. Therefore, every user, device, and application attempting to connect to the network must be verified and authenticated before being granted access–regardless of their location.

Implementing Zero Trust networking enhances your organization’s overall security posture by reducing any potential attack surfaces and protecting against both internal and external threats. It improves visibility into network activity, providing administrators with better insights into who and what is accessing their systems. Zero Trust also supports compliance efforts by enforcing strict access controls and audit trails. Ultimately, by adopting Zero Trust networking, companies can achieve stronger, more adaptive, and resilient cybersecurity defenses in today’s evolving threat landscape.

 

 

The Best of Both Worlds

Let Vasion handle your transition to a zero-trust printing environment so you can spend more time on what matters to your business. If it’s eliminating archaic infrastructure, Vasion can eliminate your print servers completely. If it’s drawing a hard line with print security, put all your users on the same level of print access with Off-Network Printing. If you need Zero Trust-level access and no additional infrastructure, give Off-Network Cloud Printing a try.

 

How does Off-Network Cloud Printing work?  

1. The end user submits a print job from a different network than the one that the printer(s) are on (i.e. printers are in a Zero Trust environment).
2. The print job is sent over HTTPS to Vasion and stored in an encrypted storage location (AES-256) until it is released.

On release, the printer reaches out to Vasion, also through HTTPS. The printer downloads the print job and prints it.

Feeling overwhelmed? Let Vasion help!

Off-Network Cloud Printing is also just one of many features in the Advanced Security Bundle which checks off the Zero Trust box for your printing infrastructure needs. We’ve thought about it, so you don’t have to! Schedule a demo today!