Brusafe Case Study

Customer Profile

Brusafe is the Brussels security campus. It comprises four schools - the Police Academy, the Training Centre of the Brussels Fire Brigade, the Institute for Training in Emergency Medical Assistance, and the Regional School of Public Administration.

The organisation became one in 2020, bringing all four schools together in one shared location. Brusafe trains around 500 people every year.

Challenge

The merger of the four schools provided an opportunity to upgrade and modernise legacy IT systems and create a new infrastructure.

IT Manager Grégory Hermans was keen to leverage the cloud and in particular, create a serverless environment that would eliminate on-premise infrastructure such as print servers, deliver flexibility and scalability to support future growth, and reduce the burden on IT.

It was also important that the print infrastructure supported secure print release and enabled guest printing.

Solution

The new office was equipped with six shared multifunctional workgroup devices, replacing a legacy decentralised print model.

With a true cloud-native serverless solution top of the IT Manager’s criteria, the print provider recommended Y Soft SAFEQ Cloud.

SAFEQ Cloud enables organizations to eliminate print servers and benefit from the agility and innovation of cloud technology. It’s completely serverless - the only hardware required is the print devices themselves.

“It was very important that the print infrastructure, except for the devices, was completely cloud-based. I was looking for a SaaS implementation, where I could simply define the services, availability, and infrastructure, and then hand over the effort of delivering everything to the platform provider,” Grégory explained.

“After carefully reviewing the SAFEQ Cloud platform and the architecture, I said yes, that's exactly what I want.”

SAFEQ Cloud is a multi-tenant cloud infrastructure platform that enables the entire printing infrastructure to be deployed and controlled from one web-based interface, reduces the pressure on IT, and lowers support costs. The SaaS model means customers benefit from an always up-to-date security model and continuous design improvement.

“From a security perspective, the multi-tenant architecture is very reassuring. I know that there is no dedicated virtual machine just for Brusafe. There is a single shared code base that guarantees security, stability, and innovation. We always get the latest version and the latest innovation, without having to make a project of it, it’s totally effortless,” Grégory said.

Benefits

One of the biggest advantages of cloud-based print infrastructure is that it removes the requirement to manually manage printer deployments to users, configure printers, install devices on client computers, roll out updates, etc. And with immediate end-user fulfillment and device provisioning is taken care of, Brusafe’s users can simply print from their devices to a secure cloud print platform.

“With SAFEQ Cloud, we don't manage the printing service or any technical configuration, we don’t have to spend time supporting print servers, troubleshooting, and keeping on top of security patches, it’s all handled on our behalf,” Grégory explained.

 “We've done the initial set-up and it’s now automated so we're really just enjoying the system.”

“We can log into the web-based interface to configure our users and keep control over things we want to, but there is a lot that we want to outsource to Y Soft, and in that regard, the model is working very well.”

Having migrated to a centralized print fleet, protecting confidential information and implementing secure print releases was a priority. In a traditional print environment, a secure pull printing solution involves managing and deploying multiple print queues based on individual manufacturers’ print drivers.

SAFEQ Cloud delivers one global print queue that connects every printer and every user, enabling seamless printing without IT intervention, which was another value-add.

“From our end-users’ perspective they simply send documents to print in the same way they always have, the only difference now, is they have to walk to any device on the network – and enter a PIN code to release it,” Grégory said.

One of the key requirements was the ability to provide external teachers with access to print. SAFEQ Cloud provides a simple solution to connect guests to the print infrastructure.

“External teachers don't have accounts in our environment. With SAFEQ Cloud, they can simply email an attachment from any network - public internet or via mobile data - to a designated address to submit a print job to a virtual print queue, they’ll then receive a PIN code which will enable them to release the job at any device,” Grégory explained.

“Print is no longer a headache. I would call this an invisible system, it's just there, and it works,”

In terms of feedback from the end-users, they had to get used to a centralized print model and use a PIN code to release documents. “I don't hear much about print at all and that’s a good sign, it means it’s available and it works” he concluded.

Learn more about how cloud printing enables the distributed workforce with the help of guest printing and digital infrastructure: