Posted by Jordan Pusey
Your Wide Area Network (WAN) represents the critical link to many of the business critical applications in your infrastructure. You need it to be reliable, fast and secure which makes it expensive. Then why clog it up with printing traffic? Many applications and printer drivers take what looks like a small and compressed document and bloats it into a rendered print file. If your print servers are setup to use the WAN when sending documents to the printer, you could be clogging the network, giving you sluggish performance. Let’s compare WAN printing to spelunking.
Years ago my friends and I decided to go cave exploring. We decided on a seemingly innocuous cave called Nutty Putty cave somewhere in central Utah. When I think of caves, I think of large openings in the mountain side and bats. This cave was in the middle of a field and was simply a hole in the ground. You dropped into the tight hole, turned around, and crawled on your stomach for about 20 feet until you came to a wide cavern. Then exploring the rest of the cave was finding the small openings, squeezing through and coming out into other wide caverns. This went for literally miles. At one turn I thought we could squeeze through. Somehow I got stuck. Not only was there panic in my mind, but I was also blocking all the people behind me wanting to get through. Fortunately I was able to get free, but delayed an entire party of spelunkers. (I got out, unlike this unfortunate person that caused the cave to be sealed and a movie to be created).
To keep your WAN traffic moving, unlike my cave exploring experience, some sort of printer network traffic optimization is needed. But what exactly? In geographically distributed organizations with a consolidated server environment, it can be tough to achieve the necessary optimization. Printing over WAN—and the bandwidth it gobbles up—usually goes with the territory. This is because files have to cross the WAN several times before finally being relayed by the central server to the destination printer—a device that frequently sits not more than a few feet from the endpoint device that initiated the print job!
With PrinterLogic, it’s possible for you to enjoy the advantages of multiple sites while consolidating your print environment and optimizing your printer network traffic. Unlike inferior print management solutions, PrinterLogic does the following to reduce or even eliminate print-related WAN traffic:
- Integrates with WAN caching technologies: Downloading printer drivers to workstations has the potential to consume inordinate amounts of bandwidth. PrinterLogic obviates the need for cross-WAN downloading by caching drivers locally, which also speeds up download times.
- Prints directly from endpoint devices to printers: The shortest route between two points is a straight line. PrinterLogic effectively creates a straight line between workstations and printers by directly relaying print jobs from one device to the other. This way, print jobs do not cross the WAN repeatedly and squander precious bandwidth.
- Compresses print jobs: In Citrix environments, PrinterLogic is able to reduce the size of print jobs through intelligent compression technology. Smaller files place less strain on the network.
Features like these enable you to free up WAN bandwidth for other applications, accelerate print times, and reduce the print-related congestion that can result in frustratingly slow network performance throughout the organization. Furthermore, it’s not only WAN printing that is optimized. Your entire print environment benefits from streamlining through:
- Centralized management: Deploy and administer printers individually or en masse from a single pane of glass. PrinterLogic’s web-based admin interface gives you intuitive yet fine-grained control over network printers across the enterprise.
- Simplified end-user installation: Empower your end-users—including roaming employees—to install printers by themselves with a single click by means of a uniform, consistent self-service portal, saving hours spent dealing with print-related service desk calls. Optional floorplan maps allow employees to view and identify nearby printers wherever they happen to be.
- Oversight and flexibility: Integrated auditing and mobile printing modules provide detailed macro- and micro-level insight into printer usage while meeting the cutting-edge demands of the modern workplace.
PrinterLogic is a powerful, cost-effective print management solution that also serves as printer network traffic optimization software. It will make printing over WAN more efficient on the way to improving your entire print environment. Contact us today to find out how we can help reduce your WAN printing costs.