Lantronix
Taking Print to Cloud

The smart device revolution is bringing drastic changes in the work culture, along with a direct effect on the print management in organizations. “Businesses are no longer bound by the four walls of the brick-and-mortar office and neither is business printing. Based on the increasing number of employees using their smartphones and tablets for work purposes, it follows that there is a strong need to be able to easily print from these devices,” says Kurt Busch, CEO, Lantronix.

Headquartered in Irvine, CA, Lantronix provides smart networking and communication solutions for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. The company’s flagship product family, xPrintServer, targets legacy printers that are not equipped to handle printing from mobile devices. The solution eliminates the need for new printer investments, by turning legacy printers into ‘Air Printers’ or Google cloud print-enabled printers.

Based on the increasing number of employees using their mobile devices for work, it follows that there is a strong need to be able to easily print from these devices

Claimed to be the first and only print server certified by Google to support cloud print technology, xPrintServer–Cloud Print Edition can handle multiple printers and virtually unlimited number of iOS, Android devices as well as devices running Google’s ChromeOS, enabling hassle free printing. Customers can simply open the box and plug the xPrintServer into the network. With automatic printer discovery and configuration, the xPrintServer automatically links user IDs to all printers on the network, enabling wireless cloud printing to networked (wired or wireless) or USB printers from anywhere.

Along with the revolutionary Cloud Print Edition, the xPrintServer family has two more versions, xPrintServer–Office Edition and the xPrintServer–Home Edition.

The xPrintServer–Office Edition has been designed for business and IT professionals wishing to print from their iPad, iPhone or other devices to virtually any printer. It offers security and enterprise management features, including remote authentication/Active Directory and proxy server support, as well as the ability to network-enable USB printers. While the xPrintServer–Home Edition is geared for consumers in the home, it supports USB printers and up to two network printers.

Lantronix also provides a bevy of other IT and data center management M2M solutions, ranging from remote power management to branch office management to KVM-over-IP solutions. “We provide a full suite of products and solutions designed to connect, manage, monitor and control virtually any device, machine, equipment or ‘thing’–truly enabling the ‘Internet of Things’,” says Busch.

Lantronix’s mobile printing family of products are currently in use over thousands of businesses, across wide variety of verticals, including education, retail, transportation, energy and medical. Many educational institutions–including school districts, K-12, libraries, and universities–are using Lantronix to empower their student body and faculty to print in class and at home from iPads, iPhones, Chromebooks, and more.

The company works closely with leading printer manufacturers like Konica Minolta, Ricoh and HP; printing and field sales teams at Google and Apple; and providers of POS and retail printers and software. “We regularly talk to customers, partners and others in the space to keep a pulse on the varying needs of both business users and consumers,” says Busch.

Busch envisions a future where the industry will move into the integration of mobile print standards. “This will support advanced printing across a mixed fleet. The mobile print experience at that point will resemble desktop printing experience,” he says. As this happens, Lantronix will continue to expand the capacity and performance of its products, to keep pace with the shifting trends.