Built to grow: strengthening Cirros document upload

Uploading documents to print through Cirros has become one of the most popular ways our customers work, and the volume of documents flowing through it has grown steadily. To keep that experience fast and dependable as demand grows, and as we bring more organisations on board, we have invested in re-engineering how Cirros prepares your documents for print. Here is what we have changed, and why.

Why we have made this change

The service has been a real success. More organisations, more users and more documents pass through Cirros upload every month. That growth is exactly what we want to support, so rather than let busy periods ever slow people down, we have rebuilt the part of Cirros that prepares documents so it can expand with demand. In short, we are investing ahead of the curve, so the service stays quick and reliable as it continues to grow.

What we have changed

Previously, the work of preparing each document, converting it, reading its page and colour detail, producing the preview and applying encryption, happened inside the upload website itself. We have moved all of that into a dedicated document preparation service that sits behind Cirros and does nothing else.

Because it is separate and purpose-built, this service can run across as much capacity as needed and have more added on demand, so the heavy work of preparing documents never competes with the website serving your screen. A little of the technical detail, kept simple:

• A dedicated engine. Document preparation is now handled by its own service, built and tuned for that one job, so it is faster and more consistent.
• Capacity that scales. That service can run on additional capacity and call on more at busy times, so performance holds up as volumes rise.
• Secure by design. Documents move between Cirros components over encrypted, mutually authenticated connections and are held in encrypted form while they are prepared.
• Shared across Cirros. The same engine now powers document upload and scan, and will soon power email-to-print, so every route benefits from the same improvements.

What this means for you

• FASTER — Progress you can see. The page count appears almost straight away, and a live progress bar shows your document being prepared, instead of a blank waiting screen.
• ACCURATE — Costed correctly. Colour and page counts are read correctly every time, so colour documents are no longer treated as black and white and jobs are priced right.
• RELIABLE — Handles more. Large and complex documents, Office files, images, long PDFs and merged files, are prepared dependably, and the same job is never processed twice.
• SECURE — Protected throughout. Your documents are prepared and held in encrypted form from the moment they are uploaded, with no readable copies left behind.
• READY TO GROW — Responsive at busy times. With room to add capacity on demand, uploads stay quick even when many people are printing at once.

Availability

These improvements are being rolled out across Cirros environments. Your Cirros contact can confirm timing for your organisation and answer any questions.