Cirrato allows you to manage printers with minimal network traffic, even in remote offices. Print related network traffic is typically reduced a thousandfold which considerably speeds up both printing and other services.

In organizations with multiple geographical locations and a consolidated server environment, network printing soaks up considerable bandwidth. Print files are typically sent to the various printers via a central server and travels at least twice over a wide area network (WAN).

For some organizations, printing is critical to production. When a user prints a large complex document, the printer driver converts the job to a format that the destination printer understands. In this process, the file grows in size several times; a complex document with graphics and text can become hundreds of MBs in size.

When such files are shuttled through a WAN link, printing slows down considerably (or even comes to a temporary halt) as do other applications and services.

With Cirrato's Single Server Printing files are sent directly to the printer without causing network congestion. In fact, Cirrato controls printing and manages all queues from one central location. This is done via tiny messages that are sent to the Cirrato server each time you print, a method that was first developed and patented in 2005.

When you print with Cirrato, around 3kB of total network traffic is sent over the WAN. This is a thousandfold decrease in network traffic for each print job.

Therefore, Cirrato offers unmatched printing performance and removes wide area print traffic - allowing your users to print smoothly while optimizing other network services, even in remote locations.

With Cirrato Single Server Printing, slow print speeds are a faint memory - even in remote offices with narrow bandwidth and weak WAN links.

Slow printing is an increasingly common problem as organizations centralize their IT infrastructure. Centralization often results in fewer print servers, and these servers are often far away from smaller, remote offices.

In a conventional environment, when a user in a remote location prints, the entire file is sent over the wide area network to the print server, and then from the print server to the printer. Before the files are sent, they are usually converted to a printer-readable language, rendering them much larger. With such large files clogging up the network, printing is often slow for users in remote locations. (Other network services also suffer.)

These problems don't occur with Cirrato Single Server Printing. Cirrato sends print jobs directly from the computer to the printer and just once over a local area network. The data that travels over a wide area network are small messages - no more than 3-5kB for an entire print job including TCP/IP data and headers, regardless of what is printed. The Cirrato server retains full control over the printing and valuable statistics are collected and kept in one central location.

With Cirrato Single Server Printing software, printing "just works" at all times - even when the Cirrato server cannot be reached. Many Cirrato users perform server maintenance during office hours.

In traditional print environments, print jobs are sent to printers via specialized servers. So what happens if a driver causes a server crash, or network problems make servers temporarily unreachable?

Printing comes to a full halt and the helpdesk is inundated with calls. Production that relies on printing stops and the business suffers. Tempers flare. The IT department remains in "alert mode" until printing is back on line.

Cirrato Single Server Printing is different. While the server enforces rules, enables Follow Print and collects statistics, printing is fully operational even if the server is not reachable. End-users won't notice any difference, unless they are printing to a Follow Print queue - in which case, they will be given the option to print normally instead.

All local clients, even laptops, retain statistics until the server is back online, at which point the statistics are uploaded retroactively. This works so well that many of our customers perform server maintenance during office hours.

Cirrato easily scales from a few printers to over 30,000. You can add new printers or users, modify individual printer functions, or add/change locations on the fly.

Cirrato's administrative interface lets you easily add new printers to the network. Printers are mapped and displayed in a tree-structure by office location. Right click anywhere in the tree to add new locations and printers. Configure printers by model, upload the driver to the server and you're good to go. Cirrato ensures that any user-installed printer automatically uses the correct printer driver.

New clients added to the organization will either automatically be loaded with the Cirrato Client software, or the administrator can opt to deploy the software as a .msi package. Users can thereafter install any printer that is defined in the Cirrato server.

The workflow is identical for new office locations with the additional option of automatically migrating existing printers for each client to Cirrato. Users won't notice any difference.