Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Unified Printing
From: Joel Rosenblatt <joel () COLUMBIA EDU>
Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 09:25:32 -0400
Hi, We wrote our own system - it runs all the printers in public areas, does quotas, allows you to buy additional printing, tracks usage, etc. It is also being used by large departments - libraries for example. This will give you some ideas <http://www.columbia.edu/acis/facilities/printers/> Thanks, Joel Rosenblatt Joel Rosenblatt, Manager Network & Computer Security Columbia Information Security Office (CISO) Columbia University, 612 W 115th Street, NY, NY 10025 / 212 854 3033 http://www.columbia.edu/~joel --On Friday, May 08, 2009 8:28 AM -0400 Richard Miller <miller () KUTZTOWN EDU> wrote:
We largely do this. We have two main print servers on our campus: One for faculty and staff departmental laser printers across the University One for student (lab & library) laser printing This has allowed us to centralized management of the printers. It also allows us to add printers for people via login scripts. In general it has worked out well. On the downside, many faculty have printers on their desktop which still must be managed the old fashioned way. The main challenge we have is printer drivers. Departments tend to purchase any printer they want and then expect us to make it work. We end up with printer drivers interfering with each other and causing problems for the whole print server. We actually had to re-do the student print server this past semester due to driver issues. Because of this, we will be much more selective of the printers we allow to be installed on the server in the future. Oddball printers may be set up locally on the clients. My best suggestion is to standardize on a limited number of printer models across campus if possible. On the student print server, we are able to track print usage and (sort of) limit the number of pages per student using software called PCounter. While I am sure there are better options, it does a decent job and is cheap. We do not currently charge for printing, but this may be inevitable. We impose a 300 page per semester limit for students, but they are able to freely request more pages via a web form. By doing this, we have reduced our printing by about 30% (very roughly). We are starting to see the number of pages creep upward again so charging may be inevitable (or at least no free increases). On the faculty and staff print server, we do not track or limit in any way. It is merely a convenience for us to manage things rather than configuring each client. Rick Miller Manager of Servers and Security Kutztown University Shamblin, Quinn (shamblqn) wrote:Question for the larger universities out there: Is there anyone out there that is doing unified printing in a complex environment (multiple colleges/departments/buildings spread out over an area with a large volume of varied printing needs)? Just to make sure we are on the same page: Unified Printing is a "centralized means by which an enterprise can manage and better utilize their printing assets". In this type of setup, all print jobs for an entire institution are typically set to a print server or servers then routed back to the printer. If you have been able to do this successfully, what approach did you take? Did you achieve any of the touted advantages? (The ability to monitor printer usage, consistency of printer setup/security across the institution, cost savings due to having the ability to understand/manage the institution's print needs as a whole, reduced need for staff/training due to centralized control) I'd be interested in any success stories in a complex environment ...or any horror stories for that matter :) Thanks! Regards, Quinn R. Shamblin Senior Information Security Officer GCFA, CISSP, PMP University of Cincinnati (513) 556-0803 quinn.shamblin () uc edu
Joel Rosenblatt, Manager Network & Computer Security Columbia Information Security Office (CISO) Columbia University, 612 W 115th Street, NY, NY 10025 / 212 854 3033 http://www.columbia.edu/~joel
Current thread:
- Unified Printing Shamblin, Quinn (shamblqn) (May 07)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Unified Printing Sachnoff, Neil (May 08)
- Re: Unified Printing Richard Miller (May 08)
- Re: Unified Printing Joel Rosenblatt (May 08)
- Re: Unified Printing Shamblin, Quinn (shamblqn) (May 12)
- Re: Unified Printing Keith Furrow (May 12)