We’d wager that most people reading this post here on the Preferred Document Solutions blog are familiar with drivers—and, if you’re over the age of 25, most likely the frustrating and time-consuming process of finding, installing, and configuring the right drivers for the right things.
The good news is that driver technology has become much, much better in recent years, particularly if you’re working with Xerox equipment. Generic drivers that ship with common operating systems like Windows have a far wider range of compatibility, and manufacturer-specific drivers are easier to acquire and maintain thanks to the internet (believe it or not, kids, there was a time when we had to get our drivers from floppy diskettes—fun, right?).
If you haven’t kept up with printing technology, it may surprise you to know that in many cases it isn’t necessary to install a driver at all in order to interact with the printer in your office. This is all thanks to a technology called cloud printing, which we’ll examine now.
Cloud Printing vs. “Old School” Wired or Wi-Fi Printing
Traditionally, printers and other office equipment had to be connected to user’s computing devices by means of a wired or wireless connection (like an Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi). This further required that the device had the correct printer drivers installed—a driver is a software component that allows an operating system (like Windows or Mac OS) to “talk” with another hardware component, like a printer.
Cloud printing ultimately achieves the same thing: people can use their computers, mobile phones, or other computing devices to tell the printer, “Hey, print this document for me.” However, cloud printing eliminates the need for drivers because instead of having a direct connection to the printing device, users connect to them over the internet. Note that when properly configured cloud printing is very secure, since users will still have to authenticate themselves to the device.
No More Drivers, Please: the Benefits of Cloud Printing
In many cases, modern offices still use the traditional wired-or-wireless method of printing—and that’s fine when the use case calls for it. However, thanks to cloud printing, it’s much easier to allow larger groups of people and devices to access the printer securely without bothering with drivers. The big benefit here is that team members wishing to access the printer can be running nearly any operating system on nearly any device.
However, since cloud printing is conducted over the internet rather than a local network, it means that your team can securely access the printer no matter where they are. Say you’re on a business trip but you need to access a document that an employee scanned in back at headquarters—you can access it now without them having to email it to you, with the right setup. Needless to say, especially here in the age of remote work, that’s a huge boon to productivity.
Learn More About Cloud Printing With Xerox Technology at Preferred Document Solutions
Modern Xerox technology empowers users to print, scan, copy, and fax (and much more) the way that’s convenient for them—not the other way around. In addition to today’s post, we covered another example of this design philosophy in our post Scan to Anywhere: How Xerox Technology Helps You Scan Documents to the Cloud, Email, or Your Own Network.
If you’d like to upgrade to a Xerox multifunction printer to enjoy the benefits of cloud printing, we invite you to request a free online quote. If you have questions, you’re also welcome to contact us.
