Direct IP Printing

Direct IP Printing

With Direct IP Printing, print jobs are sent directly from the workstation to the printer. This process eliminates the need to send the files to a print server.

Instead of sending all files over the network to a print server, Cirrato keeps the print jobs local on the user workstation. Each workstation has a small client software. This is a 5 Megabyte installation package for all common operating systems. It can be distributed with standard deployment tools, requires no end user interaction and uses no more resources than normal Windows printing.

The server software is installed on a Windows server with Microsoft sequel database. When you print, the Cirrato client intercepts the job and sends a small ticket to the server. No document content is included, just meta data like user name, document name, queue and driver name.

The server assigns a unique ID to your print request and manages the print queue, ensures policies are complied with, and checks that you are using the correct printer driver. If you don’t have the correct driver, it is automatically pushed out and installed on your workstation, with the correct default configuration such as black and white and double-sided.

When clear, the server notifies the client, and your processed file is sent directly to the printer over the local area network. Cirrato can even manage your USB printers the same way. Rather than tens or hundreds of Megabytes, each printout causes only 3kB of WAN traffic – more than a thousandfold reduction. And it is more secure. You can eliminate 99,9% of your WAN print traffic, often equivalent to 80% of your total bandwidth capacity. Ask for our WAN calculator to see bandwidth consumption in your network and how much you can save.

But what if your server cannot be reached? Remember, with traditional print spool servers, printing would stop. But the Cirrato client switches to off-line mode, using previously cached settings and after a few seconds you hear the sound of the printer warming up. With Cirrato, printing always works.

When the connection is restored, statistics are sent to the server retroactively, so no information is lost. You won’t be able to add new drivers or queues during an outage, but no matter what, you can always print.