Konica Minolta announced the launch of its cloud-based, multi-tenant software-as-a-service (SaaS) printing solution EveryonePrint Hybrid Cloud Platform (HCP).
The company said that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for hybrid work environments. In its “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2021 Predictions”, IDC predicts that “by the end of 2021, […] 80% of enterprises will put a mechanism in place to shift to cloud-centric infrastructure and applications twice as fast as before the pandemic”. [1] But one topic that is still often neglected when it comes to cloud is print services, which often fall outside a company’s cloud-first strategy. Yet companies also benefit from all the advantages that the cloud offers, such as low administration costs, low investment costs, high flexibility and scalability, high security and workload relief for IT staff.
EveryonePrint HCP gives companies a choice: If they opt for the public cloud, Konica Minolta takes over hosting the print environment at Konica Minolta’s data centre. If they opt for the private cloud, the customer manages the print environment in their own data centre, but still benefits from a number of advantages.
With EveryonePrint HCP, companies are freed from managing their IT printing infrastructure themselves. Konica Minolta hosts, manages and supports the print servers, printer drivers and licenses, including setting up new printers and the print queues for each site. Konica Minolta IWS technology means there is no need for local infrastructure at the customer’s premises. Customers only need Internet access — a VPN is not required.
If customers choose to manage the print environment using their private cloud, this also requires minimal effort. It takes less than ten minutes to create a customer-specific print environment on the EveryonePrint HCP multi-tenant platform and replace existing Windows- and Mac-based print infrastructure. Only one web administration interface and one printer driver are required.
Customers who opt to use the public cloud and hosting by Konica Minolta no longer need their own print servers, eliminating the associated acquisition and maintenance costs.
For all customers using public or private cloud services, the costs for acquisition, administration, service, maintenance and support for the EveryonePrint HCP application itself are also eliminated due to the subscription-based, monthly pay-per-use model. Customers only pay for the licences they need. If the company’s requirements increase or decrease, the solution can be easily scaled up or down. The monthly billing model also guarantees a better overview and predictability for printing costs.
EveryonePrint HCP is suitable for a wide range of network infrastructures, including Web only/Zero Trust environments based on a stringent identity verification process. The solution offers full end-to-end encryption thanks to support for SSL/TLS and a built-in auditing function, ensuring GDPR compliance. As print jobs are encrypted and stored on the local workstation and never leave the company network, only metadata and authentication data are transmitted over the public network. All the required certificates are maintained within the application and customers have the option to either use the built-in certificates in EveryonePrint HCP or import their own certificates.
