Does your mobile/BYOD strategy include print integration of personal devices with the office workflow from a functionality perspective?
Brent Richtsmeier, chairman of Mopria Alliance Steering Committee and vice president of Solutions Innovation Group at Samsung Research America, has shared his concerns with IoTEvolution on how more employees are working from their own devices instead of PCs and working on the go. He feels that they still require a key office capability: the ability to print.
Richtsmeier believes that this means that a company’s mobile/BYOD strategy must include print because personal devices need to integrate with the office workflow from a functionality perspective. Building a print strategy allows CIOs ensure that security and assets are not being compromised.
IoT Evolution: Remind me and the rest of the world: how does remote printing work? What are the standards? Are there any other mobile printing solutions that use home WiFi to print?
Brent Richtsmeier: Mobile printing using the Mopria Print Service is conducted through Wi-Fi (mobile to network), when both the printer and mobile devices are connected to the same network, or Wi-Fi direct if your printer is enabled (peer to peer over wireless). Printing is done in-app, usually found in the app’s main menu under Print or Share options. From there, users simply select the Mopria certified printer and choose their settings for printing. Mopria is the closest thing to a “universal print driver” on Android. In fact, starting with Android 8.0 Oreo, Mopria technology is baked into the operating system as part of Android 8.0 Oreo’s integrated printing solution.
The Mopria Alliance was formed to create a unified mobile print standard that printer manufacturers can adhere to, providing a simplified option for mobile app publishers to utilize for print integration. Prior to the Mopria standard, there was no industry standard to integrate print – resulting in options that are complicated for the end user, offer limited business IT support, and are difficult for mobile device manufacturers and software application developers to adopt in a cohesive manner.
Regarding other mobile printing solutions that use home WiFi to print, many printer manufacturers have their own print service app but the beauty of the Mopria Print Service is the app is universal and therefore, the user can print from their mobile device to more than 100 million Mopria certified printers without having to download multiple print service apps from various print manufacturers depending on the printer they are trying to print to. The Mopria mark shows all end-users that they can instantly and easily wirelessly print from their Android (4.4 or later) mobile devices to identified printers without additional set up procedures.
IoTE: What are the risks in security? My printers are identifiable in my house and I don't remember a protocol with a secret key. Am I vulnerable? What are the known threats?
BR: Mopria will use SSL (secure encryption) of all the data transmitted to the printer (as long as the printer supports), which is the core security that is also used by Windows when you print at home.
For business users, the Mopria Print Service enables several enterprise features which enable things like secure release, accounting and other more advanced features such as stapling.
IoTE: When it comes to sharing documents in the corporation, I expect this gets more complicated. Is there a framework about levels of trust?
BR: Mopria builds on any file access deployed by the business. Android enables features like enterprise mobile management, or secure PDF workflow. The Android device has to have the capability to manage these permissions. When the Android framework can pass off a job with credentials, Mopria can accurately print these jobs.
IoTE: What is happening in the future? Is 3D printing part of this mix or a separate group? Is anyone suggesting the use of Blockchain?
BR: The next releases for Mopria are to focus on Scan and Cloud Print integration. Additionally, in 2018 we will ensure that we continue to add the EMM/MDM features as they are deployed in volume to businesses. We are continuously looking at how to add more functionality, bringing value to our customer. Currently, 3D printing has not been a large area of focus, as the use of mobile devices for 3D printing is fairly low today. We expect security standards such as Blockchain to be integrated into the OS framework, allowing Mopria to fully support these standards.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
