The Logic Behind PrinterLogic

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Let’s start by defining logic in its simplest form: a reasonable way of thinking about something. 

Like most of history’s innovative thinkers, many of their inventions were powered by logical thinking. Apple, for example, was on the brink of bankruptcy for 12 consecutive years until 1997, when Steve Jobs returned to the company. Why was Apple a bust in the first place? The products were difficult to use, the vocabulary was too advanced, and it didn’t seem accessible to the average consumer. Jobs stepped in and made Apple products easy to use, simplified their messaging, and made the product accessible to all. Jobs understood what would benefit customers and his logic made Apple a $2.55 trillion company.  

We’re not comparing PrinterLogic to Apple, but reasonable thinking is the motivation behind developing our products. Print servers were developed in the 1980s, roughly around the time when the first commercially available cell phone was released—the DynaTAC (aka The Brick).

Have you seen anyone walking around with one of those bad boys on their ear recently? Sure you haven’t. They’re inconvenient and clunky. Plus, better options are out there.

Then why are print servers still a thing? 

Let us share some of the logic behind PrinterLogic.

 

How can PrinterLogic save you time?

Print servers were invented with good intentions. They provided IT teams with centralized management, a way to deploy printers through GPOs, and a delivery system for printer driver updates. Unfortunately, as technology has progressed and companies continue to scale, IT teams have been tasked with maintaining highly complex print environments, making it difficult to identify problems due to a lack of oversight. Not to mention, their central point of failure causes a massive dip in production if something goes awry. 

Print server management is one thing, but the amount of helpdesk calls from employees for minor printer issues is another beast. Gartner estimates that 50% of IT helpdesk calls are print related. This means IT teams are spending hours upon hours a day resolving print issues instead of executing their overall IT strategy. 

Our Logic: You don’t have to spend time on something that doesn’t exist! 

Operating under the mantra Eliminate Print Servers, PrinterLogic sets out to deliver its straightforward promise to customers across the globe. We greatly reduce the number of helpdesk calls to your IT team by empowering end users to find and install printers with our Self-Service Printer Installation Portal. There, employees can choose their desired printer via a company floor plan or a list. One or two clicks and end users have a printer ready to go. 

 

How can PrinterLogic save you money?

A report by Gartner estimates that companies spend an average of $5000 per year on licensing, storage, and maintenance for Windows print servers. This number may seem like chump change; however, if you’re a large company with thousands of printers and employ multiple print servers in different locations, these numbers add up. 

We’ve already mentioned helpdesk calls as a time-killer, but they may as well be cash-guzzlers. Global Help Desk Services calculates that the average cost per helpdesk ticket is $25. If a company averages 500 calls monthly, it can expect to spend a whopping $12,500. 

Perhaps the most understated reason money is wasted on printing is the lack of insight admins have into their print environment. When admins are unable to identify printing habits on the user, device, and organizational level, how can they possibly know where company dollars are going?

Our Logic: More insight equals money saved.

After PrinterLogic eliminates your print servers and moves you to its SaaS platform, you’ll have access to advanced reporting capabilities. This enables administrators to see printing activity across your entire organization. Reports are sent to the Admin Console where administrators can collect data and answer valuable questions about the cost of printing on a single printer or identify the cost of toner and paper for the entire organization.

Looking to stay within a budget? No worries. We have a Print Quota Management feature that helps organizations stay within their print budget and gives admins control over how much a user or group can print by volume or price. You set the limit and let Print Quota Management do the heavy lifting. 

 

How can PrinterLogic help companies keep up with today’s security standards?

You’ve heard of Zero Trust Network Architecture by now, right? If you haven’t, it’s the new standard that security organizations are embracing to secure their data and reduce the blast radius if an attack does happen. Cyber attackers are getting more crafty, but in particular, they are able to exploit the security shortcomings of legacy infrastructure. Security lapses like PrintNightmare, for instance, could have been avoided if companies had moved to modern printing methods. 

To put it simply—no print servers, no PrintNightmare. 

But this is just one piece of the puzzle. Printers themselves are a very vulnerable endpoint. So much so that companies are beginning to lose confidence in their ability to secure them. According to a study by Quocirca, 74% of companies don’t think they can attain a secure print environment. It’s clear to organizations that print security is essential within their digital infrastructure. But how do you achieve maximum print security?

Our Logic: It’s hard to attack a print environment that is (micro)segmented and constantly updating. 

With PrinterLogic’s direct IP printing platform in place, your company’s print jobs are no longer being sent to a print server or placed in a print queue, so there is virtually no opportunity for documents to be intercepted when they are being delivered to the printer. Thanks to microsegmentation on the workstation and device level, other devices are not at risk of being exposed if a breach does happen.  

PrinterLogic’s cloud-native SaaS solution is dynamic and constantly updating behind the scenes to improve functionality and make sure pre-existing security gaps are closed. Your IT team no longer has to go into panic mode waiting for a new security patch or live in fear of falling behind on updates in general. To sum it up, we’re constantly working to keep cyber attackers out. 

 

How can PrinterLogic make IT’s lives easier?

We’ll keep this one short since the goal is to keep it simple. 

It’s the year 2022. IT directors and their teams are struggling to reign in their print environment. The complexities of traditional print environments leave IT teams feeling unproductive and unable to tackle other tasks. Remember the stat “50% of helpdesk calls are print related” mentioned earlier? We know you’re biting off more than you can chew. 

Our Logic: Less is more. 

PrinterLogic offers benefits way beyond printing: 

  • One less print server means more savings.
  • Less print-related work means more time to pursue other projects.
  • Less stress means a happier work life. 
  • Fewer complexities mean more accountability.

You get the gist. 

Eliminate print servers. Rest easy with PrinterLogic.

Why PrinterLogic Aligns With Zero Trust Principles

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In the last year, you’ve probably heard ‘Zero Trust’ creep into more and more of your conversations. So what does that mean? Is it “trending” as the kids say these days, or is it becoming a pillar of cybersecurity as we know it? (Here’s a hint: it’s the latter!)

The need to implement a Zero Trust approach may be a bandwagon you want to hop on–and should–but to effectively do so, you need to understand the 3 key principles of a Zero Trust Network Architecture.

So, grab a pen and paper (or ink and quill if you prefer) to take notes as we break down each principle’s objective and highlight why PrinterLogic aligns with your Zero Trust strategy.  

 

1. Always Verify

When you hear “trust issues” you probably associate it with a bad breakup, right? While we’re not trying to drum up old feelings, we are attempting to highlight how not innately trusting users in a cybersecurity context is actually a very good thing.

The backbone of a successful Zero Trust approach is simple: Never trust, always verify. This means never trusting any network between a device/user and the applications/data they’re attempting to access by implementing continuous verification of credentials and devices.

That may sound like excessive backend work for you and a time-consuming experience for end users, but it’s far less complicated and frustrating than legacy print processes. In a Zero Trust Architecture, each user, service, and device requires a unique identity used to decide who/what should be granted access to data or services. This is made possible with the help of Identity Providers (IdPs) which verify if the entity trying to gain access is who/what they say they are.

A recent verification–that’s also relevant to today’s workforce–is based on adaptive identification in which trust is earned based on the location of the user. Adaptive ID provides an extra level of authentication to end users and is an integral part of managing a remote or hybrid work environment. To put it plainly, an employee who typically works from home (still in yesterday’s pajamas most likely) is trusted more than a worker who is suddenly working from a vacation resort. 

“We have built full IdP integrations* into all the leading Identity Providers in the Gartner Identity leading quadrant as well as customer SAML support.   When we say full support, we not only support IdP native authentication support allowing for MFA, but we also support the IdPs SCIM implementation allowing for all the best user provisioning practices.” – Corey Ercanbrack, Chief Technology & Product Officer

*PrinterLogic supports all major IdPs and ensures that each user, device, and location are always under scrutiny by checking with each IdP’s authorization and authentication policies.

 

2. Minimize Impact

We’re sorry to mention both bad breakups and PrintNightmare in one blog, but we promise it’s necessary. Looking back to July 2021, PrintNightmare is the perfect example of an explosive blow with no containment. The attack caused an unprecedented level of damage to print environments with lingering threats more than a year later.

While you’re unable to fully prevent this kind of attack, it is in your control to minimize the impact of the breach. For example, eliminating your print servers is a proactive move to minimize attack surfaces by shrinking your network for less exposure. As an added bonus, IT teams are relieved of the burdens of manual updates and patch installations.

We can’t discuss Zero Trust without highlighting microsegmentation as a core principle. The beauty of microsegmentation is that you don’t have to re-architect your infrastructure and gain complete visibility into your network environment, helping you contain breaches when they do happen. Microsegmentation for printing is achieved through direct IP printing which sends print jobs from the user’s workstation directly to their desired printer. 

Built on the security of AWS, PrinterLogic supports microsegmentation as a cloud solution that offers serverless direct IP printing and keeps your data secure with native Identity Provider (IdP) integrations based on SAML 2.0 and JIT Provisioning.  

 

3. Automate Processes

Still with us? We hope so, because we’re about to get to some good stuff. So far, we’ve outlined what feels like never-ending work on your part to consistently verify and prevent attacks–which we know sounds daunting. However, we’re here to help you work smarter, not harder. Think of it this way: to keep a building or space secure, you’d hire 24/7 security guards to prevent attackers entering the premises. Even with around-the-clock security, attackers are still going to try to find a way in if given the time and resources. 

The same goes for cyber attackers trying to breach your network, but we’re talking more powerful and protective than a mall cop on a Segway. To maintain airtight security, it’s important to employ solutions that are constantly updating behind the scenes to thwart potential attacks and close security gaps with no manual labor required on your end. Automatic processes like these are the star player in any Zero Trust Architecture that reduces your workload and increases security–a literal win-win!

As we’ve outlined, Zero Trust Printing involves a revolving door of data. Data is power–the more you have the more you know, you know? But, data isn’t as powerful if you can’t process it in real-time to make precise decisions and take immediate action when a data breach does occur. 

With PrinterLogic, your IT team can implement automatic processes for:

  • Deploying printer updates
  • Changing user access 
  • Creating user accounts
  • Managing user credentials (including SSO and MFA)
  • Surveilling endpoints (devices trying to access your data)

You’ll now have a bird’s eye view around the clock of your network, putting you in a position to better prevent and protect against future breaches. Implementing a Zero Trust approach into your overall security strategy, including your print environment, is anything but a trend. With PrinterLogic’s Zero Trust Printing solution, you’re setting yourself up for long-term protection.

“PrinterLogic can be configured to support multiple IdPs at a time. This helps companies to seamlessly migrate/transition between IdPs as they scale or change directions. It supports companies as they scale through acquisition by connecting to old and new IdPs.  Support for multiple IdPs also helps companies scale when they need to have different security controls between administrators and end users.” – Corey Ercanbrack, Chief Technology & Product Officer

The Zero Trust Series: Integrating With The Best

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In part four of our Zero Trust series, we discussed how to make your VDI environment Zero Trust compliant and how most third-party VDI printing solutions leave less to be desired in terms of flexibility and ease of use. 

In the final part of our series, we’ll share how we integrate with next-generation operating systems like IGEL as well as top-shelf VDI solutions like Citrix and VMware to help you create a Zero Trust VDI Printing environment.

 

Our Partnerships

The definition of the office has changed because users can work from anywhere. The new “office”–your home, local coffee shop, and beach resort–has employees and organizations bringing many types of devices onto their networks. IT administrators must account for the security risks of bring your own device (BYOD) programs since many users rely on various devices to connect to a virtual environment. Additionally, admins must tailor their virtual desktop printing architecture to support these endpoint devices while allowing end users to print from various locations securely and efficiently.

That is why PrinterLogic works with popular VDI solutions–to help organizations bolster security across all endpoints and simplify printing for IT in today’s disparate work environments.

 

IGEL Integration

igel logo

IGEL and PrinterLogic have teamed up to deliver an integrated and secure VDI printing solution that ensures we continually meet the needs of organizations embracing Zero Trust Printing. As an Advanced IGEL Ready Partner, PrinterLogic has been tested and validated to work seamlessly with IGEL’s OS in any environment. That means any mutual customer can configure our centrally-managed, direct IP printing solution on any IGEL OS-powered endpoint. Print jobs can be sent directly from the IGEL-managed endpoint device to the printer, eliminating the need for scripting and GPOs.   

The PrinterLogic Client and Admin Consoles communicate with IGEL’s Universal Management Suite (UMS) and can be installed on-premise or via PrinterLogic’s SaaS platform. Through the Admin Console, printers are automatically assigned to users and devices depending on their physical location. Along with reducing legacy infrastructure, implementing PrinterLogic into your IGEL OS environment:

  • Provides airtight security for sensitive documents
  • Lowers front- and back-end costs by automating deployments and other admin tasks
  • Integrates printers into VDI environments like Citrix and VMWare
  • Limits print-related helpdesk calls
  • Gives administrators and executives visibility into all print jobs across their organization

IGEL’s smart and secure virtual endpoint management paired with PrinterLogic’s comprehensive serverless printing solution dramatically simplifies endpoint and print management across an entire organization, saving time and money.

Using IGEL-OS? Begin managing your print environment.

 

Citrix and VMware Integrations

There is a lot to love about Citrix and VMware VDI solutions. They offer a consistent computing experience for end users and are a staple across distributed environments. VDI solutions like these help workforces become more agile and decrease security risks by keeping data centralized. 

With all the positives that come with employing VDI solutions, their lack of scalable printing capabilities creates a gap in security and causes headaches for IT teams and users. It’s impossible to manage thousands of employees and their workstations, let alone manage all print environments across all enterprise locations. Other drawbacks of VDI printing include:

Printer redirection– Print jobs travel across the WAN, which consumes bandwidth and slows productivity.

Proximity printing- The process of assigning printers and their related drivers isn’t always dependable. 

Outdated hardware- Daily operations take a serious hit with the employment of print servers and slow print spooling. 

Lack of secure printing capabilities- Many third-party solutions don’t offer all of the necessary security features for Zero Trust compliance. 

PrinterLogic’s integration with Citrix and VMware helps organizations succeed in all facets of Zero Trust Printing while providing their IT teams with a simplified print management solution. Enterprises have access to a single, consistent printer installation portal across their entire workforce. From there, employees can simply pull up their organization’s floor plan and locate and install the printer of their choice. 

This integration takes pressure off admins by lowering the costs of maintaining the printer fleet, saving time, and allowing admins to tackle other activities. It also empowers end users to solve printing issues themselves. From a single pane of glass, PrinterLogic helps provision direct IP printers to individual endpoint devices, which enables print job compression, driverless printing, and increased visibility over your print environment.

Additional benefits of PrinterLogic’s VDI Printing solution include:

Automated deployments: Equip admins with the tools to automatically assign printers based on user, group, and organizational unit. 

Direct IP connections: Cut down on excessive WAN traffic and ramp up your print speeds by keeping jobs local. 

Self-service installation: Empower end users with the ability to identify and select printers that are closest to them. 

Location-based printing: Provision printers to users based on IP address with minimal configuration from administrators.

 

The Leader In Zero Trust Printing

We mentioned the shortcomings of VDI printing and how PrinterLogic augments VDI solutions’ printing capabilities. But how do PrinterLogic’s integrations with IGEL, Citrix, and VMware help you build a Zero Trust Architecture? We eliminate the single point of failure, help you gain insight to print jobs across your organization, and develop one-on-one connections between the client and the printer via direct IP printing. 

PrinterLogic’s direct IP printing platform inherently segments each workstation, limiting the blast radius of cyberattacks and keeping confidential data safe in the process. When you tack on advanced features like Off-Network Printing and Secure Release Printing, your organization has a fully equipped Zero Trust Printing environment that doesn’t require you to replace your old infrastructure. 

Want to learn more? Get a no-strings-attached demo of PrinterLogic’s VDI printing solution. 

The Zero Trust Series: Making VDI Zero Trust Compliant

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In part three of our Zero Trust series, we discussed VDI environments, their security risks, and how remote printing has added an extra security painpoint for organizations to worry about.  

Blog four of our five-part series focuses on how you can make your organization’s VDI environment Zero Trust compliant by implementing small changes and why most VDI printing solutions fall short. 

 

How To Make VDI Zero Trust Compliant

A proper Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA) puts companies in optimal positions to limit risk by assuming that every user, application, transaction, and device are threats by default. This is especially important for healthcare, legal, government, and financial institutions that regularly handle personally identifiable information (PII) and personal healthcare information (PHI). 

Organizations without proper cybersecurity safeguards are putting personal data and lives on the line. Although implementing Zero Trust is not a small task, you can get your VDI environment up to snuff by making a few necessary changes.

 

Restrict Access

To adhere to Zero Trust standards, users in your VDI environment should only have access to the applications and features they need to do their daily tasks. A user with unnecessary access to data, services, and networks is a liability and poses serious security risks. 

Once you’ve identified your sensitive data, ensure that only those who need access have it. To make sure you’re thorough, audit your access permissions on the individual, group, and organizational levels. This helps limit sensitive data exposure and makes it more difficult for attackers to gain access to company data. 

 

Double Down on Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) verifies the user beyond simply typing in a password. Anytime users log in to one of your organization’s approved applications, they’re prompted to enter their credentials again. Through adaptive authentication, your network will know when a user changes location or tries to gain access to applications, data, or features that they aren’t authorized to use. 

 

Start Segmenting Your Network

Network segmentation plays a key role in how effectively an organization can defend against, identify, and recover from cyberattacks. This IT approach separates critical parts of the network and stops lateral movement when an attack does happen. According to a recent survey, 92% of IT professionals believe that implementing network segmentation has prevented cyberattacks on their organization from doing significant damage or stealing substantial amounts of data. 

Not only does network segmentation prevent data loss, but it also makes a difference in a company’s ability to identify a threat before it spreads. This approach is especially critical for healthcare and financial institutions. Key findings from IBM Security revealed that the healthcare (329 days) and finance (233 days) industries have the longest breach lifecycles and 44% of those breaches involve PII theft. For industries that are dealing with personal information, limiting the blast radius by segmenting their networks can greatly reduce the risk of data loss. 

 

Secure and Protect Your Endpoints

Cyberattackers love endpoints because they’re the lowest hanging fruit when companies evaluate security weak links. Why? Endpoints usually aren’t patched. If they are, they aren’t usually fully updated to the most current version. Endpoint security should always be top of mind, even in well-constructed VDI environments. Although users connect to VDI servers with their secure workstations, attackers can still gain access to sensitive data and resources. 

Examples of critical endpoints to protect include:

  • Laptops
  • Desktops
  • Mobile Phones
  • Printers
  • Servers
  • Virtual Environments

Every Zero Trust solution should help security teams quickly detect a breach on an endpoint device, investigate it, and rapidly respond to it. Deciding which endpoints to secure first and deploying the right solutions based on your company’s needs can get you on the right track to preventing endpoint attacks. 

 

The Pitfalls of VDI Printing

It’s hard to imagine that many endpoint data breaches happen through a printer, but the numbers tell us this is exactly the case. According to Quocirca, 68% of companies experienced data loss due to lackluster print security. Companies are taking notice since 70% of companies expect to increase spending on print security this year. It’s essential to secure all printers connected to your corporate networks to minimize your chances of becoming a negative security statistic.

A common thorn in the side of an organization employing VDI is its printing infrastructure. While VDI printing solutions can be considered safe to some extent, they don’t offer much flexibility and severely limit end users. Additionally, third-party VDI solutions don’t integrate well with primary VDI. They often restrict software and hardware functionality and limit an organization’s room to operate. Other notable struggles of VDI printing include:

  • Sluggish print speeds
  • Driver incompatibilities
  • Difficult printer deployment and installation
  • Limited access to printer features
  • Centralized point of failure

When you pair poorly integrated third-party VDI printing software with the fact that print jobs containing PII and PHI are sent to a centralized print server (your data’s worst nightmare), functionality and security seem unattainable.  

Fortunately, these issue can be resolved with a simple move to PrinterLogic. We eliminate print servers and all the headaches and expenses that go along with them, improving your ability to print in complex VDI environments. 

 

Last But Not Least

Speaking of VDI printing… 

PrinterLogic collaborates with popular VDI solutions like Citrix, VMware, and IGEL to give you a next-generation printing experience designed to simplify and optimize your organization’s printing capabilities. In the upcoming last blog of our Zero Trust series, we’ll discuss how PrinterLogic’s integrations with top-shelf VDI solutions make your printing infrastructure Zero Trust compliant.

You’ve made it this far. You might as well read our final piece. Check out part 5.