In the global economy, it is increasingly common for businesses to require business printing in multiple geographic locations. When a company begins to investigate the advanced print spooling solutions available on the market, they will soon see that there are two distinct (if not polar) schools of thought regarding advanced spooling software implementation strategy.
The two strategies are to use a single, centralized print server or to install print spooler software on multiple application servers distributed throughout the enterprise. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.
The centralized print server model
In the centralized print server model, the company would simply install the print management software on a single centralized server accessible throughout the company.
One advantage of a centralized print server is that it allows for a single point of control and monitoring of all jobs and print queues in the company. This model may be easier as it is a single standard solution, requiring less administrator training and fewer printer definitions to maintain. Since it is a single off-the-shelf solution rather than one that needs to be installed across multiple servers, it has the potential to save a business money through lower software license fees.
However, while this model offers a single point of control, a major drawback is that it offers a single point of failure. Not only does this mean company-wide downtime in the event the print server crashes or goes offline, but there are also significant concerns around disaster recovery scenarios. In the event of a disaster at the centralized print location, the company’s print operations would be offline indefinitely until the location could be recovered or a different server location could be selected to reinstall and redeploy the solution. impression.
This seems like a pretty significant limitation in its own right, but the centralized print server model also means a loss of autonomy at the local print site level, where administrators don’t have the ability to manage local queues and jobs. of impression. Additionally, deploying the central spooler solution requires multiple hops across the network, consuming valuable bandwidth and increasing latency related to print times.
Distributed print server model
The distributed print server model, on the other hand, is installed in multiple locations throughout the enterprise, ranging from multiple regional print servers to installation on every client workstation throughout the enterprise.
The benefits of this print server model is that print jobs and queues can be controlled locally, with less reliance on support from central IT and print administrators. Since print requests are made locally, the amount of print request traffic and the bandwidth used on the central print server are reduced exponentially, resulting in better printer performance and response time. Finally, the distributed print server model offers a degree of inherent redundancy, since downtime at one location does not mean the end of print processes across the enterprise.
However, the benefits of the distributed print server model are held back by the higher cost to the business. Multiple installations will mean multiple software license fees, multiplying the cost of the initial installation along with increasing the cost of maintaining the software on the servers through license renewal fees. Increasing the number of separate installations will also increase the cost of training and maintaining IT staff proficiency in the software.
In the distributed print server model, you also lose the centralized control that makes the centralized model so attractive. It also has more printer definitions to maintain with the distributed model.
Decisions decisions
The advantages of these solutions appear to be largely mutually exclusive of each other. However, one can deduce the significant benefits a business would enjoy if they could implement a combined print management solution that offered the advantages of central print servers (maintaining fewer printer definitions, the ability to print from anywhere in the business to any enterprise printer, along with the lowest license fees one would expect with central print management) along with the benefits of distributed print server software (lower traffic and bandwidth requirements on a centralized server, higher performance printing with minimal latency and local control of print jobs and print queues) .
To implement a combined solution, a company may try to integrate two separate print management solutions: a centralized print management solution and a distributed solution. However, this could be not only expensive, but also difficult to perform effectively in the desired functions.
However, there are print management software packages that offer hybrid functionality. This solution allows the customer to implement a truly distributed printing environment while maintaining the benefits of a centralized installation. They have far fewer printer definitions to maintain, an enterprise view of jobs/queues, a single standard solution, less administrator training, and low license fees.
Among these multifunctional models is the OM Plus V2 software from Plus Technologies. In such a hybrid output solution, the software is installed on a server at each hub. Only local queues (which require minimal administration and maintenance) are defined at each hub. The software gives each server the ability to automatically “advertise” its queues to all other servers on the network with the same software installed. In this way, all queues are available to all systems even if they are defined only once. Each installation’s user interface allows users (with adequate security) to view all jobs and printers on the network from a single status screen. System administration privileges are set to limit functions performed locally vs. centrally, which gives administrators centralized control that would normally only be found in a central print server management program.
When a print job is queued, the printer definition is looked up on the local server. If the printer is not found locally, the software-enabled server looks for the printer on the other software-enabled servers and delivers the print job accordingly. This functionality makes all printers available to all systems. All local jobs are printed locally, ensuring efficient use of the network with low latency and high performance.
With this particular software, license fees are kept to a minimum as the license price is based on the number of queues defined on each server. Therefore, only small licenses are required locally. This means that the number of queues and the associated price remained low. A print management tool like this provides a true distributed print management solution that eliminates redundant printer definitions across the enterprise, while allowing printing to printers on local and remote servers.