campusgeek

The web print simple mode only supports PDF documents. Again, that whole "cloud" terminology is a bit confusing. But your can require the web print as cloud-based in a sense the docs are being upload to a remote server somewhere either on their network or in an Cloud provider, as mentioned (Azure or Amazon). There is also a mobile print app, so you could certainly regard that as a cloud-based app. I guest you instead of referring to it as "Cloud" printing you can refer to it as "Mobile" printing.

I would make sure you set a good foundation for management For example, If you have multiple departments will each staff member in their lab manage the printers. Do you have open labs where guest patrons come in. Are you going to charge these users and so look at the different payment options you can offer. We've been using GoPrint for years and they allow use to use PayPal for charging students and guest patrons. We have Active Directory and could offer students a certain level of free prints but for our management goal we allow users to create their own account and purchase print funds with their credit card. We also have this coin/bill payment device that they can optionally use if they don't have a credit card. GoPrint allows use to create different admin permissions to allow staff members to only manage printers in their lab. Hope this helps

My point being if you want a true cloud-based (mobile printing) solution you should go with an application that specializes in cloud printing. PrinterOn is the granddaddy of cloud printing and were in set up in hotels way before the term cloud or mobile printing even came about. Papercut's web print add-on doesn't even touch the true meaning of a cloud base-solution and I believe offering this feature is more of a marketing ploy so they can just lead prospects to believe their web printing solution is truly cloud-based. Prospects are told it's included in the total package, so no add on fee's and will save money. From what I see, you still need to build a new server to host it and then install the supported Office Products on the server (which are limited file formats compared to PrinterON) and if you want the solution in the cloud then you need to host your own Azure or Amazon Cloud environment plus set up the VPN to your internal network and finally support all of this. Going with someone like PrinterOn covers all these area's.

Everyone Print is a good product. PrinterOn is best and looks like they just came with an express edition. PaperCut's Web and Email Printing is not at all a cloud-based solution and is sort of misleading. It requires you to install a second web print server someone on campus - which could be and issue if wireless users cannot access the network - which defeats the purpose of supporting laptop users. A cloud based solution is the way to go.