What Are the Key Components of a Serverless Print Infrastructure?
March 2nd, 2021 by Brian Wistisen
As IT professionals look to move away from legacy print solutions, the idea of a serverless print infrastructure is becoming more widespread. That’s true even in large enterprise organizations, where print servers were a necessary evil for far too long.
A serverless print infrastructure brings more flexibility, greater scalability and increased resiliency to the print environment. Without servers acting as single points of failure, there are fewer moving parts. There’s also less to go wrong. And with a centrally managed serverless print solution like Function4, admins gain increased visibility and control over their printer fleet.
That raises some questions. What are the key components of a serverless print infrastructure? If you eliminate print servers, are you giving up functionality? Does moving to a cloud (or SaaS) print solution require a VPN or create WAN dependency?
When you’re talking about Function4 SaaS, the answers are all positive. Our serverless print infrastructure does the following:
Minimizes print infrastructure
All you really need for serverless printing is an instance of Function4 SaaS and your existing printer fleet. In one fell swoop, you can eliminate print servers without having to worry about purchasing new printer hardware for the sake of compatibility.
Using Function4's advanced reporting, you can then take printer fleet optimization to the next level and fully streamline your entire print infrastructure.
Keeps print jobs local
For most cloud-based print solutions, the WAN connection is their Achilles heel. If that connection is interrupted, printing is too. If the WAN is congested, the speed of printing—along with all other Internet activity—can slow to a crawl.
Function4's SaaS uses a direct IP model that routes print jobs right from the client to the printer. It doesn’t send print jobs to the cloud to be spooled. That makes printing faster and more reliable. And more secure, too, because local print jobs stay behind your firewall.
Supports native print drivers
Lots of organizations have legacy printers that are fussy about drivers. They’ve also invested in current-gen hardware with advanced features that are only supported by native drivers. Supporting old hardware alongside the new is a big reason why those organizations are reluctant to eliminate their print servers.
Although you can use universal drivers if you prefer, Function4 SaaS has native driver support that lets you take advantage of printers’ full range of features. Plus its common repository means you manage, update and roll back printer drivers from one place.
Integrates with printer control panels
These days, security is the watchword in enterprise circles. Admins need an easy way to support features like secure release printing. Users need a straightforward way to release their print jobs from any printer.
Function4 SaaS users can authenticate at their chosen printer and release print jobs securely using either badge release or a native control panel application. Our next-gen Control Panel Applications will soon support 96% of all installed printers.
Doesn’t require a VPN connection
Some software print solutions make a big deal of being hosted on a cloud server. But these still require a VPN tunnel into your network, which limits accessibility. A robust, enterprise-class serverless print infrastructure should be accessible from any device with an Internet connection. No VPN required.
What sets Function4 SaaS apart is that it can be accessed conveniently any virtually anywhere by any authorized user—without IT having to cut corners on security.
Interested in eliminating all of your print servers?
We deliver a highly available Serverless Printing Infrastructure using a centrally managed Direct IP printing platform. If you want to empower end users with mobile printing, secure release printing, and many advanced features, we’d love to show you how.
Serverless printing is just one quick demo away. Visit Function4 and contact an advisor below to learn more today!
Posted in: Business Technology