Pharos Beacon Update: October 2020 Release Notes

This release represents the latest version of the Beacon platform and Sentry Print. This update includes several important new features, including support for Chromebook printing, Mobile Device Management (MDM) support for the Sentry Print app, and support for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments. 

New Features

Chromebook Printing

Chromebooks are widely used in educational organizations because they are inexpensive and easy to manage. In the corporate enterprise, the shift to a work-from-home model has led to a significant increase in Chromebook use. Organizations need to provide a secure and cost-effective solution for remote workers, and Chromebooks are often a good fit.

Chromebooks have used Google Cloud Print (GCP) as the default printing option. In 2019, Google announced that it will no longer support GCP as of December 31, 2020. To continue to support Pharos customers using Chromebooks, we built Pharos Chrome Print, a lightweight browser extension that makes it easy to print from Chromebooks or the Chrome browser on any OS.

Note: Chromebook Printing is available for organizations with OpenID authentication.

Key features of Pharos Chrome Print

• It's easy for Chromebook users to print to the office and to home printers

• It allows printing from any OS running the Chrome browser

• No print driver is required

• It’s easy for IT managers to deploy the extension to employees

• It promotes document security and confidentiality: documents can only be released (printed) when the document owner is present at the device to collect it.

Pharos Chrome Print Workflow

1. Add and configure the Pharos Chrome Print extension on user Chromebooks or Chrome browsers using any of the following methods:

• An IT administrator can deploy the extension to all users via the Google Admin Console.

• Employees can add and configure the extension individually. Employees receive an email with instructions to install and configure the extension.

Note: Configuring the extension is easy. All that is required of employees is to copy and paste the configuration URL (from the email invite) and click the Submit button. 

2. Upon successful configuration, the employee is prompted for their corporate login credentials.

3. The employee prints to the default Secure Printer.

4. The employee modifies the print attributes as desired (e.g. double-sided, number of copies, etc.)

5. Employees release documents as they normally do at any secured printer.

Note: The Secure Printer will be automatically selected for subsequent print jobs.

More Information:

Pharos Chrome Printing Support

Mobile Device Management (MDM) Support for the iOS App

Setting up mobile submission functionality on iOS devices has been simplified by allowing IT administrators to push the configuration profile to all managed users via their preferred MDM solution. Sentry Print currently supports the following MDM solutions:

• MobileIron

• AirWatch

• Intune

A new Mobile Deployment section has been added to the Secure > Settings screen. It includes the Allow manual profile installation setting, which enables IT admins to control whether employees can manually set up the app configuration profile. When enabled, employees need to manually install the configuration profile on their iOS devices. This setting is ON by default for customers without MDM solutions, to ensure users can print immediately.

If your organization prefers IT admins to automatically push the configuration profile to employee devices via MDM, simply turn this setting off. Admins can download the configuration profile to deploy to multiple iOS devices using their preferred MDM solution.

More Information:

Deploying the Sentry Print mobile app using Microsoft Intune

Downloading the Config Profile for iOS MDM

Print Scout Update: Support for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)* (preview) 

*This feature is currently in preview – if you would like to participate in the preview program, please reach out to beacon-beta@pharos.com.

The Print Scout has been updated so that it can be used with some Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) systems such as Citrix® XenDesktop or Microsoft® Terminal Services. This allows organizations with VDI environments to take advantage of secure printing workflows via Sentry Print.

In a VDI environment, the Print Scout can be installed on a base image instead of a standard desktop. A local print queue is added to the base image. The base image is then ‘cloned’ to create multiple virtual desktops. Employees print to the local queue just as they would in non-VDI environments.

Both persistent and non-persistent VDIs are supported. For organizations using non-persistent VDI, IT administrators must set up a user roaming profile or user folder redirections so that employees do not need to re-authenticate every time they start a new session.

When installing the Scout on a VDI base image or template, a special command line parameter must be specified on the installer command line. See the Installing the Print Scout on VDIs document for information on how to install the Print Scout on VDIs.

Print Scout Update: Automatic Proxy Bypass

Administrators can now configure Print Scouts to automatically stop using the configured proxy should the system detect that it's not working. This feature is especially helpful for the traveling user who goes between home (no proxy) and the office (proxy).

You can enable this feature by selecting the Bypass proxy when proxy is not available option in the Print Scout Configurator tool.

Component Release Versions

This release includes the following software components and release versions.