Overview
IT system continuity for print management can be achieved by combining high-availability concepts with MyQ X software. As a comprehensive print and document management solution, MyQ X provides users with a set of failover features which can be used on their own or combined with other high availability technologies to provide an added layer of failover. MyQ X can be deployed within several network architectures, on-premises, hybrid, and private cloud.
The Problem
Access to IT, data, and services – including print management services — is essential in an organization’s day-to-day activities and their disruption may lead to adverse business impacts. There are often multiple potential single points of failure in print networks and the installation of IT systems on physical hardware alone is not enough to provide resilience against planned or unplanned downtime.
How widespread is the problem?
All organizations, regardless of size or location, are susceptible to planned or unplanned downtime in their IT systems. Downtime can occur due to several factors, whether planned (system maintenance, hardware upgrades etc.) or unplanned (hardware failures, loss of network connectivity etc.).
What is the value of solving it?
It is essential to have a strategy and a set of solutions in place to minimize the impact of IT system downtime. Providing for the continuity of print and document minimizes the risk and impact from downtime on the individual employee and on the organization. It enables users to have access to these services, protects against the loss of data, and helps them to remain productive during downtime. For organizations, it protects against the loss of business operations which may result in financial loss.
Who faces this issue?
Small and medium-sized enterprises from all business verticals.
What do organizations with this problem do now?
Smaller organizations with budget constraints and limited skilled IT staff are often not fully protected against downtime. Larger organizations and enterprises may have a high availability strategy implemented which may or may not include print and document services. However, there are still limitations to printing at a multifunction printer during the loss of connectivity between device and server.
MyQ X’s Proposed Solutions
As there is no “one size fits all” solution, MyQ recommend two overlapping sets of solutions, one for SMEs with limited IT resources and staffing and the second for larger organizations with greater high availability needs and resources.
- Organizations with budget constraints and limited IT staff
Protect the print environment with MyQ X’s free set of failover features;
- Client Spooling with local job parsing by MyQ X Desktop Client
Prints jobs are spooled and parsed locally on the end user’s workstation and only job metadata sent to the server. Print jobs are sent directly to the multifunction printer when the end user authenticates and selects release. Reduces server resource requirement and reduces network load to server.
- Fallback Printing with MyQ X Desktop Client
MyQ X Desktop Client automatically detects when the connection to the print server is lost and defaults to print directly to a predefined printer or will prompt the user to select from a list of printers. When the connection is re-established, standard operation will be resumed. Users can continue printing during downtime with full job accounting maintained. - MyQ X Device Spooling with Offline Login
MyQ X embedded failover features are provided directly by the multifunction printer. With MyQ X’s device spooling feature, users print directly to the MyQ X embedded multifunction printer. The embedded terminal application manages the print jobs and accounting when the connection to the server is lost. It can function independently and maintains job accounting. MyQ X’s offline login feature caches user login details and provides secure device authentication and copy services with job accounting during downtime.
Benefits
These features are already available to all MyQ X customers free of charge. They provide continuity of print and copy services to end-users during downtime and maintain job accounting.
- Organizations with high availability implementations
The MyQ X server can be protected with an application clustering solution such as Microsoft Failover Cluster or VMware’s virtual clustering. Compute resources are distributed over several server nodes and combined with a shared storage solution like a high-speed network attached storage.
In addition, the high availability solution should also be complimented with MyQ X’s set of free failover features – client spooling, fallback printing, device spooling, and offline login.
Benefits
High availability application clustering solutions protect the MyQ X print server and its services against downtime. There is an added layer of failover protection provided by MyQ X’s own set of features. All services provided by MyQ X are subsequently protected and available with little to no impact during a failure, planned or unplanned downtime.
Target Audience
IT System Administrators, System Integrators, Professional Service Providers, Solution Consultants
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
Organizations rely on availability of IT systems, including print and document services, to be available for daily operations. Downtime of these systems can result in a negative impact; therefore, IT systems need to be protected via implementing a high availability strategy.
There are different technologies available that can be used to achieve high availability for print services. In addition, the features already included with MyQ X provide an accessible way to provide failover and continuity.
The MyQ X’s high availability whitepaper provides a more in-depth analysis of MyQ X and various high availability options.
SOURCE MyQ
Print Management, A Renewed US Strategy and Next Gen Features
