How to handle the changing printing requirements

Print server consolidation is the best way to handle the changing printing requirements. Why? One central print server in a network is more cost-effective than a distributed solution with printers attached to many different LAN servers or local desktop computers. Consolidating onto a central print server lets you use the right printer for specific print jobs.

z/OS with Infoprint Server lets you consolidate your print workload from many servers to a central z/OS print server. z/OS handles high volume printing, logs accounting histories, and provides data security and recovery. With z/OS, you can control host and LAN printing. You do not need to continually upgrade your server so it can handle more print requests.

Figure 1 illustrates the printing solutions that Infoprint Server provides. No matter what type of data you want to print (payroll, invoices, web documents, sales reports), you can use z/OS batch applications, VTAM® applications, applications running on remote workstations, and z/OS UNIX System Services applications to send print requests to Infoprint Server. Infoprint Server then sends the documents to be printed to local printers and remote printers in your TCP/IP or SNA network. Infoprint Server can also send documents over the Internet to printers that use the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) and to one or more email addresses.

Figure 1. How Infoprint Server handles printing requirements