Despite the growing use of digital tools in education, drawing, writing, and hands-on learning remain crucial. In other words, paper isn’t about to disappear from classrooms any time soon.
In recent years, evolving print trends have caused many school districts to reconsider their approach to managing print resources.
With limited resources and increasing demands, IT sysadmins are turning to cloud printing solutions to simplify management, enhance security, and reduce their team’s workload, ensuring a reliable and secure print ecosystem across multiple campuses.
If your school district is still using on-site print servers, now may be the ideal time to embrace cloud printing.
Cloud-based printing solutions allow staff and students to print easily from any device to any printer, using a secure cloud-based service – all they need is an internet connection.
Before you jump headfirst into the magical world of cloud print, let’s make sure your school district is cloud print-ready.
Evaluate existing print infrastructure
First things first, you need to audit your current print environment by determining the number, types, and models of printers you have. Not all printers have built-in cloud capabilities so you should factor in the cost of replacement or upgrade to enable cloud printing.
Alternately, a school-specific print management solution like PaperCut means you can continue using your existing fleet regardless of cloud-readiness.
Then, assess the rest of your print infrastructure, including the print servers and print drivers in deployment. This will help you identify potential compatibility issues, outdated hardware, or inefficiencies that might slow down your cloud migration.
Centralize print management across multiple sites
District-wide infrastructure must scale across multiple campuses, but managing on-premise site servers at every school can be time-consuming and costly.
The main benefit of a cloud print solution is that IT teams can remotely manage all printers, users, and policies from a single dashboard. This puts the entire cloud-based print network at your sysadmin’s fingertips!
To centralize authentication and access control to your print services, the cloud print infrastructure will need to integrate with your school district’s directory services, such as Active Directory or LDAP.
Solutions for hybrid and BYOD learning models
Because cloud printing lets users print remotely from any device, including their own, it goes hand-in-hand with the hybrid and bring your own device (BYOD) learning models becoming standard in K-12 education.
Cloud environments are designed for a range of devices (including smartphones, tablets, and laptops) with no need for specific drivers or software installations. This flexible, mobile-first approach is crucial to accommodate staff and students working remotely, at the library, attending class from home, or moving between campuses.
Many school districts are introducing standardized Chromebooks for both staff and students due to their affordability, simplicity, and integration with Google Workspace for Education. A cloud solution supports this shift, enabling direct printing from a Chromebook to any printer in the network.
Security and compliance review
School districts handle incredibly sensitive student information, so compliance with data privacy regulations is critical.
Make sure the cloud print solution you choose has strong security features and protocols in place, including secure print release, end-to-end encryption, and robust access controls.
Additionally, look for vendors with third-party certifications (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001) to ensure that your district’s data governance policies are enforced across print workflows.
IT workload assessment
Transitioning to cloud print reduces the ongoing IT burden, freeing up your team to focus on broader print management strategy. Automation eliminates the need for installing individual print drivers, coordinating multiple queues, and manually setting up every new printer.
Plus, the user experience becomes seamless and intuitive, reducing IT help desk requests.
The migration itself will require some project management; consider whether your IT staff have necessary capacity, skillset, and support to manage deployment. You may decide to pilot the cloud print solution in a few schools before a district-wide rollout.
Network infrastructure and bandwidth requirements
Cloud printing relies on the internet and your local network to function. While print traffic is generally low, concurrent usage across campuses can still expose weak spots in bandwidth or latency.
Assess the strength and reliability of your wireless network: Can your current bandwidth and Wi-Fi infrastructure support increased traffic? Are there any bottlenecks or latency issues that might impact efficiency?
As well as checking your wireless network, review your firewall and proxy settings as these will affect connectivity between user devices and cloud printers. Make sure you pick a cloud print solution that supports standard network protocols such as TCP/IP, SNMP, or HTTPS. You may need to configure exceptions for specific cloud print services.
Scalability of your printing solution for future technology adoption (AI)
Today’s cloud print solutions are evolving rapidly, so in addition to integrating with your existing software, you want to be future-ready. The beauty of the cloud is that it’s more elastic than running your own print servers.
It can automatically detect and integrate new devices with minimal manual configuration – growing with your IT infrastructure.
You need to select a platform that not only meets your student and faculty needs today, but can also scale with future innovations, including AI integrations. For example, AI-based print usage forecasting can help your school district proactively manage toner supply, optimize costs, and minimize downtime.
Cost forecasting and budget planning
When budgeting for cloud print deployment, you need to think about more than your software subscription; there may be hardware upgrades, IT training, and potential network upgrades.
However, school districts benefit from a long-term ROI due to reduced on-prem server maintenance, IT support, and print waste. Cloud platforms also operate on a SaaS model which provides predictable costs over time.
The bottom line is, there’s a simple reason why so many school districts are switching to cloud-based print management systems: to deliver a streamlined printing experience for students, faculty, and IT staff.
By evaluating your current print capabilities and choosing the right tech solution, your school district can make a successful transition to cloud printing.
Remember, cloud printing is more than just a tech upgrade, it’s an investment in a modern, digital-first learning environment.
Improve your school’s printing, with or without the cloud
PaperCut has been helping schools around the world with their printing for decades – we’ll help you introduce easy printing from any device while protecting student information, cutting costs, and reducing waste.
If you want to chat with an expert about how to implement cloud printing at your school, fill out the below form and we’ll reach out!
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