Managed.IT - issue 57

12 MANAGED.IT 01732 759725 BULLETIN Y Soft guarantee future-proofs investment in its solutions In light of growing demand for cloud printing services, Y Soft Corporation has announced a Cloud Guarantee Programme to protect a customer’s investment in Y Soft print infrastructure technology as they transition to the cloud. Y Soft SafeQ print and scan management workflow solutions can be deployed on-premise or in combination with a variety of cloud options for businesses that may be considering a transition from on-premise to private or public cloud for their print infrastructure. These include YSoft SafeQEdge Core for SMB as a hosted public cloud service (SaaS); YSoft SafeQ in a private cloud managed by the customer on the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform or other public hosted datacentre; or a combination of cloud deployment options, for example private and public cloud. The Cloud Guarantee Programme gives customers confidence that any investment in Y Soft technology can move with them to the cloud. Y Soft chief sales officer Barry Löwer said: “Y Soft is cloud-ready today. We are already working with customers on their public cloud deployments and can easily design a cloud infrastructure solution that combines the award-winning capabilities of YSoft SafeQ with the reliability and security of the leading cloud platform providers to create a solid foundation for print services in the cloud.” www.ysoft.com Cloud print services ready for prime time The office print industry is primed for transition to subscription-based cloud printing services, as customers seek to reduce the cost, environmental impact and administrative burden of an on-premise print infrastructure, claims Quocirca in its new report The Cloud Print Services Market Landscape 2020 . Its analysis shows that end user organisations with more than 1,000 employees currently have an average of three on-premise print servers, each of which costs £1,900 to provision and £1,500 per annum to run. In addition, more than three quarters of organisations already use a cloud service for some print jobs, with 73% planning to increase their use of cloud print services in the future. Almost one in ten (8%) expects to transition completely to the cloud for print by 2025. Quocirca Director Louella Fernandes says that OEMs and ISVs are already expanding their offerings to cater for customers who want public, private or hybrid cloud print services. She said: “Broad adoption of the cloud is creating opportunities for organisations to shift print management away from the traditional on-premise environment to the cloud. Most major print manufacturers have a growing cloud services and solutions portfolio designed to meet varied customer requirements. Meanwhile, leading ISVs are also expanding their offerings. These are particularly well- suited to the many existing mixed fleet environments.” Adam O’Neil, Managing Director Australia and New Zealand for YSoft, one of the companies featured in the report, points out that there are many benefits in making the switch to cloud printing – and many ways of managing that transition. He said: “In addition to on-premise cost inefficiencies, on-premise infrastructure is complex, requiring a lot of IT resources. With cloud- based printing, organisations’ resources could be deployed to work on more strategic initiatives to improve business processes and operations rather than managing print infrastructure. “However, not all organisations are ready to jump straight into public cloud hosting for print services regardless of the benefits. There are ways to take the journey to public cloud in a series of steps. For example, if an organisation is on-premise, it may want to transition to partial on-premise and partial private cloud. Or, it may want to go from on-premise to all-in on a private cloud. The main thing is that organisations should understand where they are, where they want to go and how best to get there.” The Cloud Print Services Market Landscape report includes buyer and supplier recommendations, plus detailed analysis of vendors including Canon, HP Inc., Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lexmark, Ricoh, Xerox, EveryonePrint, One Q, PaperCut, Printix, Process Fusion (formerly UniPrint) and Y Soft. www.print2025.com Xerox announces new cloud services Xerox has expanded its flexible cloud services portfolio with the addition of Virtual Print Management Service and Workplace Cloud Fleet Management. The Xerox Virtual Print Management Service enables enterprise CIOs to replace expensive, legacy, on- premises print servers with Xerox’s multi-tenant, secure cloud infrastructure. Xerox claims that the subscription-based, software- as-service model can save companies up to a third of their typical print server spend and free up internal IT resources to focus on longer- term digital transformation efforts. Joanne Collins Smee, Xerox chief commercial, SMB and channels officer, said: “CIOs are under enormous pressure to drive a smooth transition to the cloud and ensure services are uninterrupted and seamless at every step in the process. But the reality of the cloud transition is often much slower and more complex than anticipated. Xerox’s Virtual Print offers the enterprise CIO an easy win on all the measures that matter most: flexibility, cost, security and user experience.” The second new service, Xerox Workplace Cloud Fleet Management, helps SMBs secure their print devices by pushing on-demand security updates to individual printers, groups or the entire fleet and by providing proof of compliance with security policies. xerox.com Louella Fernandes Joanne Collins Smee