Posted by Jarrett Taylor
If you look at the enterprise IT environment, there has been a ton of innovation over the past decade. From cloud computing to virtualization and everything in between, enterprise IT has become far more efficient, cost-effective and reliable than in years past—but with one notable exception: your printing environment. Why is it that so much innovation has taken place in every other aspect of the enterprise, yet our printing environments have remained untouched (and unimproved) for years?
This is the question we asked ourselves when we started building PrinterLogic nine years ago. And as we evaluated what was restricting performance and innovation in the print environment, we repeatedly came across one primary culprit—the print server.
The print server has not evolved much, and remains a single point of failure in most enterprises. And even when the print server is working correctly, there is no simple way to enable users to easily add new printers on their own, resulting in confusion and frustration. This is why printing issues make up 50% of all help desk tickets in today’s organizations.
We realized there had to be a better way. So we thought to ourselves—what if we could just eliminate print servers altogether?
It seemed like a crazy concept at the time, and even today—for those still reliant on their print servers—it seems like an impossible task. But the simple fact is that the cost, effort, and complexity of traditional print servers are no longer necessary. By eliminating your print servers, you can:
- Eliminate print job related WAN traffic
- Centrally manage all printers from a single server
- Leverage integrated modules for auditing, mobile, and Release Printing
- Enable an end user self-service printer installation portal
- Simplify remote session and VDI printing environments
- Remove single points of failure
And that is exactly why we built PrinterLogic. With our on-premise, web-based app you can replace all the functionality that print servers used to provide, while adding many new features that simplify printer management and provisioning, reduce costs, and empower users to install printers for themselves, without calling the help desk.
Over the years, we have helped over 1,500 customers in 120 countries simplify their print environments and eliminate their print servers. Everyone from SMBs to the Fortune 500, and even large government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. We’ve learned that no matter the size of the organization—from companies with a handful of employees to global enterprises with hundreds of thousands across many offices worldwide—the reaction is the same. Everyone loves the simplicity, flexibility and cost savings of eliminating print servers.
One of my favorite parts of this job is going to trade shows where we get to do live demos of our product with customers. We’ve always kept our message simple—a huge blue backdrop with the words “Eliminate Print Servers.” That alone catches people’s eye, just as the title of this post likely caught yours. And once we’re able to show customers how simple our solution is to deploy, and how easy it is to eliminate the headaches of print servers, they are blown away. The reactions we get from people are unlike anything I’ve seen in my 20 years in enterprise technology.
So even if you’re skeptical about getting rid of your print servers, I’d encourage you to consider the benefits for your organization. Take a look at some of the organizations who have eliminated their print servers here, and let us know if you’d like to see a demo. We’ve been lucky enough to help thousands of customers eliminate the headaches caused by print servers while increasing the functionality of their print environments (and saving them a ton of money). So we’re happy to share some of those success stories and work with you to determine whether or not eliminating print servers is right for your organization.
And if you have any questions you want answered before you schedule a demo, just leave it in the comments below and I’ll be happy to answer.
In the meantime, happy printing!