D'oh! How Do You Print in the Mobile Enterprise?

That's been a painful undertaking for a number of reasons (see figure - and click to enlarge). From the IT perspective, it's challenging enough to keep the latest print drivers synchronized between printers and PCs all connected to the same LAN. Now, with users roaming hither and yon, trying to match up their devices' various mobile operating systems with the drivers of whatever printer happens to be nearby would seem a near impossibility.  

And, even if you could account for them all, print drivers are processing hogs that would overwhelm most mobile devices. So what are the options?

Cloud, LAN and other Alternatives

Most mobile print solutions to date have been cloud-based, which some companies eschew for security reasons. Many have also been specific to certain printers - a big sticking point for enterprises, which might have any number of vendors' printers, large and small, installed throughout their facilities.

Apple's  AirPrint capability in its iOS operating system, Google Cloudprint and HP ePrint Enterprise, for example, have been aimed at mobile printing in the home or small office; or, in the case of the enterprise, enabling printing for users on the road. In the case of AirPrint, users have to be connected to the same LAN as the printer, which may or may not be the user's situation.

"Most printing solutions for mobile devices so far have been underwhelming," asserts Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, Inc., an IT consulting firm in Campbell, Calif.

Yet, if users are going to substitute a handheld for a PC, "they'll need to be able to print from it," says Holly Muscolino, research director of hardcopy peripherals, software and services at worldwide researcher International Data Corp.

Printing Behind the Firewall

Intended to enable just that, last week, EFI introduced server software it says lets any mobile device print to any nearby enterprise printer.  You don't need any client software for the myriad mobile OSs and devices roaming the enterprise halls. The EFI PrintMe Mobile solution is intended for printing behind the firewall (not through a cloud service) to keep data secure.
 
You can run EFI's PrintMe Mobile server software on any Windows machine or as a virtual image on an existing print server, says John Henze, EFI's vice president of marketing. The software uses existing network printers and drivers already in place, he explains, and supports both newer and legacy printers.

EFI offers several ways to print from Apple, Android, BlackBerry and other devices: directly from an application; by sending an email to a printer's email address from the corporate directory; and by using a "release to print" capability that holds the print job until the user releases the file using a special retrieval code. In other words, if you don't want sensitive documents sitting in a printer tray until you can get to them, you can send the job, but wait to give the printer the OK to actually output the hard copy until you're there to snap it up.

Perhaps the closest competitor to PrintMe is PrinterOn's Mobile Printing Solution. It uses the email-and-release code approach to a PrinterOn-enabled printer at your location, but uses a cloud service rather than functioning behind the firewall.

Paper-less, Schmaper-less?

Mobile printing requirements are likely to intensify as tablets continue to squeeze out new PC sales.  IDC expects the enterprise mobile printing software market - which it sized for the first time this year - to grow at a 71% CAGR through 2015 to just over $1 billion. Muscolino says IDC based its prediction largely on its expectations for tablet growth.

Ideally, we'd let the mobile revolution drive our environmentally friendly goal of the all-paperless office and just quit printing altogether. But that's not likely.

"Printing remains one of the top applications for an enterprise," says Bajarin. "Hard copy printed material is still the most portable form of communication we have."