Can you move RIPs to the cloud?

Can you successfully move RIPping to the cloud? Or do the high rates of data needed to RIP files for print mean that RIPping in the cloud is simply not achievable?

Global Graphics Software’s chief technology officer, Martin Bailey, explores the topic at the CloudPrint 2013, a seminar on 12 February organized for visitors to the Hunkeler Innovation Days. CloudPrint 2013 will take place in the Wirtschaft zum Schutzenhaus Bannersaal starting at 13.00.

“Cloud solutions have traditionally been targeted primarily at compute-intensive applications that don’t require significant communications bandwidth,” says Martin. “RIPping files for print is usually regarded as requiring unachievable bandwidth given the data rates involved, but what is the current state of play?”

Attendees will learn about the potential advantages of cloud-based RIPs, gain an overview of how cloud-based RIPs are currently being used as well as where the future may lead. The session will cover many diverse sectors of print, drawing parallels between office print and ultra-high volume digital production, while identifying some sectors as ripe for a change in processor location as WAN technology becomes faster and more robust.

Global Graphics Software is the developer of the Harlequin and Jaws RIPs and a member of the PODi Cloud Printing initiative.