Google Cloud Print replacement

[tek9]

I have a customer that uses Google Cloud print to print to remote locations. He manages a few remote properties and uses this to print invoices from the Corporate office to printers located at each property. The remote office has Internet but no computer. Basically the Internet is there just to monitor his cameras and to print to a Brother printer connected to the router. Once I connected the printer at each property to his Google Cloud Print account, it works fine without needing a computer connected to it to share it out.
As you are probably aware, Google is shutting the service down at the end of the year, so I'm wondering if anyone has an alternative that works similarly. I've been looking into alternatives, but was hoping someone with experience has a recommendation.
Thanks.

 

[Sky-Knight]

HP Devices have their own cloud print services, aside from that...

There are exactly no printers designed from the use case of allowing prints to just happen from somewhere out in the ether blind.

You're probably going to have to slap a NUC or something on it.

 

[NJW]

You might want to investigate how the printer is exposed to the LAN at the remote location. I would expect it to be on <gateway-IP-address>:631, so by arranging outside (WAN) access, with appropriate security, it should be possible.

You can certainly do what's necessary on a router with OpenWRT. Using p910nd as a printer server has the advantage of not spooling to the router RAM (which may be too limited for a raster page).

 

[tek9]

HP Devices have their own cloud print services, aside from that...

There are exactly no printers designed from the use case of allowing prints to just happen from somewhere out in the ether blind.

You're probably going to have to slap a NUC or something on it.

Assuming I do install a computer locally and connect it to the printer, do you know of a service or software that would give them like a dashboard of all their remote printers so they can choose from a list to print to? I guess it would be similar to Cloud Print in that it bundles all the remote printers in one place, but the software would then communicate with the local computer on the remote network to send the job to the printer.

 

[AlohaTech]

We plan on looking at PaperCut Mobility Print

Free Google Cloud Print alternative - Mobility Print | PaperCut | PaperCut

Make the switch to easy printing from Chromebooks, iPads, iPhones, Macs, Windows, and Android devices. All 100% free.

www.papercut.com

 

[NJW]

We plan on looking at PaperCut Mobility Print

AFAICS, that needs an on-prem machine to host the print queues.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

There are a LOT of cloud based print manager services. Many designed for large scale business use, for schools, etc.
I do not have experience with any yet, but I have searched for them...thinking we'd start using them for some clients that could use this. Such as schools, for easy to print from BYODs, or some clients not setup with a DC...but spread out all over in workgroup mode.

https://www.printerlogic.com/

Simply Better Enterprise Printing Thanks to ThinPrint

Simply better enterprise printing: ThinPrint is the ideal print management solution for any IT infrastructure and application scenario.

www.thinprint.com

Home - Secure Printing Solutions in the Cloud Era - Printeron

www.printeron.com

I found this one not long ago...has the ability to be deployed with InTune...so great for 365 clients. https://www.printix.net/

 

[tek9]

We plan on looking at PaperCut Mobility Print

Free Google Cloud Print alternative - Mobility Print | PaperCut | PaperCut

Make the switch to easy printing from Chromebooks, iPads, iPhones, Macs, Windows, and Android devices. All 100% free.

www.papercut.com

Looking into this. Their site is so confusing. I can't figure out if their Google Cloud Print replacement works on Windows machines or not, and if it works from remote locations as well. They have downloads for the Mobility Print software for Windows, but their docs and videos say that Windows support is coming soon.

 

[NJW]

Looking into this.

You have to install it on a machine local to the printer – which you don't have – and then share it to the cloud service.

 

[tek9]

You have to install it on a machine local to the printer – which you don't have – and then share it to the cloud service.

I'm planning on setting up a small computer for each remote office, but their documentation seems to indicate it won't work for a cloud based application to print from Windows machines as of now.

 

[VISA MC]

I did some work for a group of salons and their salon management software is ran via RDP to a cloud server. They have printing handled by forwarding port 9100 (with appropriate firewall rules for source etc. ) and installed the printer on their main system using the public IP of the remote locations for the IP of the printer. Works like a charm.
This assumes you have something capable of a firewall at each location. We used the small Ubiquiti USG for this.