The Future of Enterprise Printing
The Internet has profoundly changed how networks are used and managed, and printing is no exception. The ability to manage and configure network printers via a Web interface has been around for the last several years. But the emergence of the IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) will represent a major step forward in printer management, making it easy to print to output devices anywhere on the network (given the proper security is in place). IPP, a protocol that outlines the requirements and semantics for Internet printing, was born out of work previously done separately by IBM and Novell. IPP is now being developed by a working group of the IETF to be submitted as an Informational RFC to the IETF.
IPP works over HTTP to provide a mechanism for communication and printer status retrieval. When completed, IPP will provide the means for users to submit, manage and gather status information on print jobs. Future implementations of IPP will address security issues such as authentication and access control. For example, the IPP working group is looking to utilize TLS (Transport Layer Security) for encryption, but this has not been formally accepted.
In addition, IPP has defined attributes that can be used in a directory service, such as LDAP, to help users search for and locate a printer. IPP attributes can define the type and capabilities of the printer and possibly even its cost information. This will allow users to find and submit print jobs to a commercial print shop. The print shop can then notify the user when the job is completed and bill him/her for the cost. All this will be done using a standard set of protocols, providing users and administrators with the same ease of access available with HTTP and Web browsers.
The current version of IPP, 1.0, is focused on the needs of the user. Version 2.0 will focus on the needs and requirements of the administrator. Look for features such as job routing, job suspension and job accounting to be implemented in IPP 2.0. One of the features not scheduled for version 1.0, which will be quite useful, is the ability for the IPP client to receive information about the location of and installation status of a print driver for that printer. It is conceivable that the print driver could use a digital signature to guarantee that it is from the vendor and not from some rogue hacker. This will allow the print drivers to be installed with little or no intervention from the user or administrator.
Currently, only a few print servers support IPP. HP offers some. In addition, there are no client tools available, but this should change with the arrival of Windows NT 5.0 in the near future. Even though IPP capable printers or print servers and client software are not yet widely available, look for IPP to become more predominant in the next 18 to 24 months.
Summary
As the enterprise has changed, so have the demands and requirements of network printing. It's no longer sufficient to simply hook up a printer and hope for the best. Implementing a successful network printing strategy takes some work, namely effective planning. The key to effectively implementing enterprise network printing is to understand users needs and then translate those needs into specific products and implementations, while paying attention to cost accounting and manageability. In this way, you can both reduce the total cost of ownership and provide reliable output services to your end users.
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