The end is near.
Come December 31, 2021, it’s “hasta la vista” Google Cloud Print. Actually, it’s more like “auf nimmerwiedersehen”—until we never meet again. Having monitored IT and printing news since I first picked up on this—i.e., paid closer attention to it in early February 2021—I’m still waiting for the big drama reports. Every day that passes by without an outcry, I wonder more and more: Was Google Cloud Print ever relevant? And if so, for whom?
A Quick Recap
Since its first release some 10 years ago, Google Cloud Print has always been in beta status. And we can all surmise why; printing is a seriously complex matter. Moreover, office printing requires a bit more than just an easy way to get content from a device, stationary, or on-the-go to paper. I know, technically speaking, it wasn’t that easy; set-up, admin, etc., even with Cloud Print, was a bit of a challenge.
Office printing, increasingly part of managed print services strategies, has requirements beyond producing a document hard copy. Security and cost management are only the first two items on a long list that come to every MPS expert’s mind. I can remember uniFlow and PaperCut jumping on the Cloud Print bandwagon.
Other areas, such as education, at least in the U.S., where Google is dominating the market, and home-office/family printing seem to have been the only heavy-duty users of Google Cloud Print. This could, of course, be somewhat related to the attractive licensing structure Google offered back then. Now, someone else is catching up.
I was never able to warm up to it. That may have something to do with the fact that printing/paper, in general, isn’t really a thing at my company, 3 Across The Sea. We use a tiny, USB-connected laser printer in the odd case of absolutely needing to produce a hard copy of a document or because we want to have fun with the cats in the home office (or a bit of both). But I digress.
Corporate Printing = Cost & Security Challenge
Printing is a security challenge for every business, large or small. As soon as the output device becomes part of a network, it faces the same risks as any other peripheral. Its hard drive is an open book, and sometimes, it even is a gateway to much more. Printing is also a cost center we must monitor and optimize constantly.
I don’t know of any full integrations of Google Cloud Print and an MPS program in the corporate world. While Cloud Print struggled to gain traction as a mainstream offering, vendors united to create the Mopria Alliance (mopria.org), setting new mobile printing standards and scanning, including security standards and mobile apps. And Microsoft increased its efforts to bring a more standardized print server and printer driver approach to the market, rolling out its Universal Print in preview in mid-2020. The solution is already seeing its first successes.
Integration Is On Its Way
Aware of the necessity for a more flexible, mobile-friendly, remote-work-friendly, integrated, and unified approach to printing, pretty much all OEMs are on board (yes, just like they were with Google Cloud Print), and software vendors like Pharos, EveryonePrint, Y Soft, and basically all the well-established players have started to add Microsoft Universal Print to their print management systems. The first releases are hitting the market as I write.
Having greater flexibility on the user end and control over user rights, security, and cost on the admin end, Microsoft Universal Print, in my honest opinion, already looks much more like a winner than Google Cloud Print ever did. It is part of all Microsoft 365 professional and education subscriptions, and it is already in its standard set up, via Microsoft Azure, with usage and budget reports available at a mouse-click.
Can I Have a Bit of Both Worlds, Please?
Don’t get me wrong; I love Google Workplace. But I also grew, over the past year, to love Microsoft Teams and Azure. I can’t make up my mind which platform to prefer for document collaboration. Maybe the two can integrate? That would be perfect! Ease of use, collaboration, printing, and security—my dream come true.
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