Our last blog post was about managing printers and printing. It was written to clarify what we mean when we say Cirrato manages printers. However, there are more terms out there that mean different things to different people. Secure printing is a good example. In general, secure printing means preventing documents with sensitive information from being viewed by unauthorized individuals.
When it comes to Cirrato (and many other solutions out there), secure printing translates to ‘closing off’ printing devices and keeping print jobs in a secure print queue until users have authenticated at any device on the network. Print jobs are displayed after authentication and then they can be selected to be printed. Although that is very clear to us, using the term can cause confusion as it can also mean other things.
A different meaning of secure print can be found within the OEM channel. The printer manufacturers use the term secure print when they refer to protecting documents with a passcode. The user can change the properties or output option when submitting one or multiple print jobs and add a passcode. This code is required when releasing the print job.
So there is the print management solution way for secure print and the OEM way. Key differences between the two are the following:
- Secure printing with for example Cirrato is a company-wide way of printing, decided upon by IT and not something users can decide individually. While OEM secure printing is an option that users can decide to use (or not) for each print job
- With Cirrato and Secure Pull Print, users can walk up to a device, authenticate and then print jobs will be displayed. With OEM secure printing, the user walks up to the device, finds the print job via the printer panel and will need to enter the passcode in order to have it printed.
- Most printing devices offer the opportunity to add a passcode to individual print jobs. It is a way to print secure for organizations that do not have a print management solution.
Even though the two are both called secure printing, they differ greatly in how they work. With the key difference being that one is an IT decision and the other is a choice that the user has. Data security is an important element in any organization, but there are different ways to establish it. Cirrato is one way to increase security and added flexibility for users. There are many more benefits, for example cost reductions. Want to learn more? Contact our experts via eominfo@lrs.com.