Microsoft Universal Print and ezeep

We’re excited to see that Microsoft is supporting the cloud printing trend with a native Azure offering. Microsoft Universal Print has been announced at the end of February, once more confirming that Cloud Printing is the future of printing.

What is Microsoft Universal Print?

Microsoft Universal Print is an Azure Service enabling Windows 10 devices to use a print service in the Azure cloud to send print jobs to a printer that has a corresponding service installed.

For printers that don’t have built-in support for Microsoft Universal Print, a connector can be installed on a local print server. Printing is facilitated using a protocol defined by the Printer Working Group. Print jobs are processed in the cloud, the client receives a notification prompting it to download the job and print it. Printers are using relatively extensive location information to enable the user to easily find them. To make a printer visible to the user it must be set as discoverable within the admin portal of Microsoft Universal Print.

Is ezeep supported by Microsoft Universal Print?

Microsoft Universal Print is a very open system based on open standards set by the Printer Working Group. ezeep will fully and extensively support Microsoft Universal Print. ezeep customers can rest assured that Microsoft Universal Print functionality and features will be usable within the ezeep context once Microsoft Universal Print is released. Microsoft’s customers using Microsoft Universal Print will be able to easily add ezeep functionality and features to their environment.

Why should Microsoft Universal Print users add ezeep?

ezeep wouldn’t be ezeep if we just added support for Microsoft Universal Print. Microsoft Universal Print is a good platform to get started with enterprise cloud printing, but ezeep will add many, exciting and highly useful features:

• Support for printing from MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, Android and Chromebooks
• Support for printer properties and features of printers without Microsoft Universal Print support
• Secure release printing
• Reporting
• Quotas, payments and more
• Use of MacOS and Linux thin clients as connector servers

Additionally, but not just for Windows Virtual Desktop:

• Highly optimized print speeds through streaming and other optimization technologies
• Automatic mapping of printers ensures users always have the best and correct printer available without having to search for them
• Enhanced security for incoming IPPS connections, including the option to opt out of incoming connections entirely

We are especially proud to be able to offer the ezeep Hub as one of the first appliances supporting Microsoft Universal Print. Customers with a need for ezeep’s added functionality and value can upgrade from Microsoft Universal Print to ezeep any time.

Registration for the public preview of Microsoft Universal Print is available here.