HP has released the first out-of-the-box printers that are compatible with Google Cloud Print, giving users the ability to print from anywhere as long as they have Internet access. For resellers and MSPs working with Google’s services — or any channel partner whose customers are connected to the web — this new technology provides a major value-add. Read on for the details:

App, computer, smartphone, even someone else’s laptop — device doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all about the Internet. With this new line of HP ePrint-enabled printers, users can simply log on to certain Google apps and print away, as long as the printer is also connected to the Internet. 

Google Cloud Print enables printing without the need for driver support through a unique protocol, reducing setup time and potentially increasing customer use and satisfaction, not to mention ubiquity. (In a previous life as a help desk tech, I spent far too much time installing printer drivers for different shared network printers for different departments with different print privileges. It was, in a word, a nightmare.) To facilitate printing, each HP ePrint printer has a special e-mail address that users add to their Google account.

Currently, apps supporting Google Cloud Print are Gmail for Mobile, Google Docs for Mobile and Chrome OS. Google is set to expand these applications into third-party apps in the near future.

Meanwhile, the channel can easily benefit from this new technology. It’s clearly a value-add for any reseller, especially those in the mobility space. The idea of anywhere, any device printing capability is one most customers would happily embrace.

Obviously, this isn’t a replacement for large-scale managed print services, but it would be a natural technology for smaller-scale operations to take advantage of. Now we’ll just have to wait for Microsoft Office to integrate Google Cloud Print, right?

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