Konica Minolta announced the launch of its cloud-based, multi-tenant software-as-a-service printing solution Hybrid Cloud Platform (HCP).
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”.
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.
Thanks to 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.
Customers can choose to manage the print environment using their private cloud. It takes less than ten minutes to create a customer-specific print environment on the HCP multi-tenant platform and replace existing Windows- and Mac-based print infrastructure. Only one web administration interface and one printer driver are required. This allows customers to conveniently and easily configure and manage all printers, locations, user credentials, access control, usage consumption, reports and much more.
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 HCP or import their own certificates.
