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How To Keep Company Data Protected with Secure Pull Printing

Pull printing requires extra authentication

How can a secure pull printing solution strong-arm data security threats and supercharge your print infrastructure’s overall resilience? Is the promise of higher levels of security and governance with pull printing legit or an ill-disposed hoax?

The short answer is, the promise is real.

As you’re reading this, chances are you’ve heard a thing or two about cloud printing. And, even if you’re an IT whiz who knows the ins and outs of your business, we can’t blame you for having certain reservations about adopting modern, on-cloud printing, especially when it comes to security.

A nerve-racking part of the everyday life in IT is protecting company data and standing guard if threats against the company’s security are identified. Consequently, considering moving a print environment to the cloud comes with a wave of fears of compromising the security already sustained.

The truth is, without the right tools, maintaining data protection quickly becomes an unending headache for all IT champions. So, instead of thinking of cloud as sensitive documents floating around in a digital sphere (sounds like a recipe for disaster), think of it as a high-security digital document bank, where data is extra protected with digital means of authentication and more.

Enter, pull printing.

Pull Printing is a feature where a user's print job is held in a secure queue (via server or workstation) until a print command is delivered. The feature omits the risk of unattended documents on output trays, makes authentication obligatory and increases privacy policy compliance for print architectures.

Change is a good thing if it starts with pull and ends in printing. In this article, let’s delve into what pull printing is and how you can supercharge the protection of your company data to a digital transformation high.

What is Secure Pull Printing?

Cloud printing allows print jobs to be submitted from anywhere, including a tablet, computer, or mobile app, to an internet-connected multifunction printer. With the pull printing feature, each job is held in a secure queue until a final print command is delivered. That means that documents aren’t printed when the user initially sends them to the line—they’re printed when the user releases them.

This allows users to head to a printer of their choice when they’re ready to retrieve their print job. With a secure pull print setup, you can require that employees authenticate their identity while at the printing station with a card reader, pin code, or more.

Users are also required to prove their identity at the printer, so only they can access their print jobs. These factors ensure that every printer document never ends up in the wrong hands.

Also, every user has their own private print queue and they choose themselves when they have their documents pulled to the printer to be printed.

If print security is your biggest concern, have a look at these influential trends and estimate how well your current print ecosystem is aligned with risks and possibilities moving forward:

The Future of Print Security: 7 Trends to Know Today

Traditional Printing, Step Aside for Secure Pull Print

Secure pull printing is not only possible through traditional means. Contrarily, cloud providers have the space to focus more on security than most enterprises will ever be able to, including traditional printer manufacturers.

Security is at the top of mind for many companies. Even if the company you work for doesn’t deal with top-secret information, we bet you deal with sensitive data that is best kept to a minimal audience. Like employees’ personal information or financial records to name a few.

Data security is so crucial to many companies that they choose to go out of their way to latch on to traditional printing infrastructure and print servers, thinking that their sensitive data is better protected this way. And while traditional print infrastructures are familiar, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re easier – or safer – or cheaper.

Cloud print infrastructures with a secure pull printing solution have proven to lower print expenses, amp up the infrastructure’s security, not to mention being much easier to manage. Pull printing empathises the need for proper authentication with an inherent workflow that automatically demands identity validation. That way, you can take a step back, let go of unnecessary labour, and let the feature take on some of that security anxiety.

To make life easier for your team, your best option is to find and implement an all-purpose print solution that support pull printing. Not only does it help you embed modern levels of security, with a cloud print infrastructure you get to let go of print management and make print an invisible process working on the side lines while you focus on on-mission critical IT tasks.

Pull printing makes security one less thing to worry about

View the Print Queue 

With serverless pull printing, your print job is sent to a pull print queue (with no physical printer ties). The print job is held on the workstation and can be released at any printer with the pull print feature enabled. Once a final print command is delivered (you’ve authenticated your identity by the print device), you can view your print queue and release the print jobs you need. 

A quick note on that. Viewing the print queue and selecting which documents you want to print after you swipe in is a feature exclusive to multi-function printers (MFPs). With single-function printers (SFPs), all documents in your queue will automatically print. 

SAFEQ Cloud is an All-Purpose Print Solution

Y Soft’s SAFEQ Cloud provides both the security of traditional server-based printing and the convenience of cloud-based printing.

We’ve talked before about how cloud technology reduces the cost and complexity of a traditional print environment. Companies benefit from significantly lower printing costs by cutting out the need for print servers and licenses as well as the requirement to run clients on workstations.

If a secure pull printing solution is what you’re after, SAFEQ Cloud can provide you with peace of mind. Our platform works with different authentication options and cloud-based authentication providers that are not typically provided by on-premise alternatives, making secure pull print your new favourite feature.

As if that wasn’t enough, SAFEQ Cloud can work with a variety of devices and can be easily scaled up or down to fluctuate with your business needs, thereby ensuring flexibility to grow and thrive alongside your business.

Get your hands on all the necessary material on SAFEQ Cloud here:

Product Overview

Infrastructure Choices

Security and Compliance

Enjoy Secure Pull Printing Features and More

One of the many benefits of SAFEQ Cloud is that it allows you to enjoy easy-to-use pull printing features. On top of that implying greater security, it also means that your office gets to boost your office-material footprint!

By reducing the margin for printing errors, you save paper from the inevitable trip to the recycling bin. Did you know that the average UK office employee goes through around 10,000 sheets of paper every year, with more than three-quarters of this ending up as waste?

SAFEQ Cloud brings secure, selective printing to more environments than ever. No longer just possible in on-site HQ headquarters, an intuitive SAFEQ Cloud means that print cloud services can be adapted to unconventional environments like retail stores or warehouses.

A secure pull print feature on top of a cloud print software solution means you get enterprise-level scalability and government-level security, no matter the size of your company. What more can you wish for?

Simple IT Infrastructure Equals Happy IT Teams

SAFEQ Cloud offers a cloud printing solution that is as easy to use as it is to deploy.

Instead of IT managing different print queues on other print servers for the multiple brands that your team uses, our controlled print driver enables a single standardized print queue that can handle complex print job attributes across a multi-vendor fleet.

It’s no wonder we’ve helped many businesses cut costs and streamline processes.

To ensure you have a happy, non-anxious IT team, there’s no doubt cloud printing will be a big solution for you. Cloud printing is becoming a must in today’s enterprise work environment, ultimately because it is a much more autonomous and safe solution than traditional infrastructures.

FAQs on Secure Pull Print

What is the Benefit of a Pull Print Solution?

As mentioned in the article, here’s a rundown of the benefits to leverage from secure pull printing technology:

What are the Differences Between Push and Pull Printing?

The element that distinguishes pull printing from push printing is when the printing release is done. With push printing, the document will print immediately to a selected device and you can authenticate your identity from the device. With pull printing, you need to authenticate at the printer. The print job does not begin until you’ve authenticated yourself by the printing device, i.e., release station.

Final Points

While many features in SAFEQ Cloud are well worth their mentions, pull printing sticks out in the sense that it truly plays into the hand of security. As the world gets increasingly more digital, so does attacks on people, corporations, and more.

With serverless pull printing, you’re taking a large step towards maximized security and setting your IT ecosystem in a robust position against attacks – something that still set businesses apart in their market – and your industry is no different.

You can think of cloud print infrastructures as a high-security digital document bank, where data is extra protected with digital means of authentication and much more. And the secure pull printing solution? Consider it the secured bank account.

The right printing management solution can revolutionize the way that your business handles print – simply by letting go of it.

If you’re ready to learn more, now is the time to book your guided demo of SAFEQ Cloud. After the demo, we can help you activate your personal free trial – 30 days, no payment, it’s a no-brainer. You won’t believe how easy it is to pull off secure and straightforward print jobs.

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