Mobile printing on the go is a concept that 10 years ago, most people couldn’t imagine. But, thanks to the Cloud, Wi-Fi almost everywhere, and data where Wi-Fi isn’t, printing on the go Is possible. Not just possible – it’s easy. Today, employees can be productive and efficient whether at work, home, at the doctor’s or on a dog walk.

To accommodate this, organisations need to manage a network that is capable of coping with multiple nodes, and plenty of potential vulnerabilities.

However, as liberating as printing on the go may be, it has its fair share of complications:

  • Companies need to secure their printing network while enabling it to still be usable by different members of staff, wherever they are, on potentially wide-ranging devices that may not even belong to the employer.
  • Maintaining the protection of data printed out by people not on site.

Securing your printing network

Securing your printing network with employee access wherever they are accessing from must be managed at multiple levels. Your IT network needs to be secure, but also those granted access must be managed effectively too.

So, to protect the network, you need robust and reliable network architecture and effective malware that is managed and updated actively.

Then, to manage users, those users with permission should be reviewed regularly. Employees who have left the company or who shouldn’t need access to the printing network should be removed from the permitted list and the passwords of those on the list update regularly. These regular password resets reduce the risk of unauthorised access or password sharing.

When work get busy, businesses tend to fall into firefighting mode and work hard to get orders out the door, or make more sales, and managing network hygiene, despite being a critical task, is on that often falls by the wayside. This is where working with managed print service providers can make life easier. Working with ASL Group, you can focus on growing your business, safe in the knowledge that our specialists are running the routine tasks that help keep your network safe. We can take care of these things, ensuring your system is set up to allow those who need to print on the move, can do so, without creating vulnerabilities in your network. Not only can we help you set up the right anti-software protection and manage it effectively, but we can also help you manage those with access and passwords too, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities resulting form failure to update, patch, or protect your systems in the way they need.

Then, there’s the protection of the actual data itself. This is where it really helps to understand the printing and copying market and the products available. There are a wide range of products that use technology to protect your data with features such as pull printing.  This ensures that the person who printed the data is actually at the printer at the time of printing and removing the risk of data being left redundant on a copier or printer. You can see more about the security features of photocopiers designed to protect your data in our blog Printer, scanner and fax technology that’s keeping your data safe – ASL Group.

To discuss how we can help you keep your data safe from loss and how to protect your network while offering employees all the tools they need to be as efficient with their time as possible, contact us on 0345 207 7000.

We look forward to talking with you soon.