Nine in ten organizations embrace cloud printing as part of their cloud strategy
The benefits of moving to cloud printing are now clearer than ever in IT leaders’ minds. That’s one of the key findings of the Digital Workspace Ecosystem Alliance’s (DWEA) 2023 State of the Digital Workspace 2023 study. An overwhelming 93.1% of survey respondents said that their cloud strategy involved cloud printing. Read on to find out more about the benefits of making the switch to cloud printing.
Cloud printing is the future of print management
The commitment to long-term hybrid working has been a powerful catalyst for cloud adoption. Historically print was one of the last areas to be considered, but that’s all changed and the cloudification of print is now an integral part of organizations’ digital workspace strategies.
Today’s employees are combining in-office working with remote working, but they still need access to the right technology and services on demand regardless of location. So, it’s not surprising that managing printing and scanning at remote locations because of a hybrid workforce was cited as the top challenge for over half (53.5%), of respondents to the DWEA survey.
People want to print wherever they are – and from multiple devices. That’s where cloud print management comes into its own. Edge Print enables users to print when they are not on the same network as the printer, whether they’re at home, on a guest network, or even between different offices.
Importantly, Edge Print also gives IT admins fine-grained control over which printers are available for remote printing and provides full visibility of printers outside of the corporate network.
Keeping data secure
As BYOD skyrockets, so have security concerns for a staggering 86.5% of the IT decision- makers polled. By managing print infrastructure in the cloud, users benefit from automated patching and monitoring, safe in the knowledge it’s always up to date and secure.
Almost half (43.7%), of the organizations surveyed said that securing sensitive information was a key challenge. Migrating print to the cloud addresses that pain point too. directprint.io combines the power of cloud administration and local network printing. Print jobs never leave a customer’s network, keeping information secure. The directprint.io cloud-based print management platform also features a secure print wizard, supports zero trust environments and is packed full of features to keep end-users secure such as enabling existing single sign-on, login and authentication policies, to be connected to the software.
Roadblocks to digital workspace adoption
The study revealed the two biggest roadblocks to digital workspace adoption are concern for the impact on the end-user experience (38.5%), and complexity (32.3%). Driver management (31.1%) and supporting end-users (22.1%), are two further challenges ranked highly by survey participants.
Intuitive end-user experience
directprint.io’s client application ensures ease of use and user-friendliness. The user interface features a logical split between devices, printer settings and print queues, and has a consistent look and feel across all operating systems, thus reducing friction and support.
Directory sync capabilities with Google Workspace and Microsoft Azure AD ensures simple printer deployment. Users are allocated printers based on their log in, so as soon as they turn their machine on, they automatically get the correct list of available devices, as well as access to advanced finishing options across all printers, ensuring a seamless, consistent print experience, regardless of the printer brand or brands in place.
Reducing complexity
directprint.io’s secure, serverless, technology solves the complexity of printer deployment, management and analysis of print within an organization – and reduces the requirement for IT to support end-users.
End-users benefit from easy predictable printing and can continue to print as they’ve always done – the only difference is that they won’t be so reliant on the helpdesk to fix printer- related issues!
directprint.io also enables the entire print infrastructure to be centrally managed, empowers end-users to self-serve, and reduces the time IT spend troubleshooting printer issues. It’s easy to manage and automate time-intensive tasks such as device deployment and driver updates; configure default settings; apply print policies; enable secure print; monitor print queues, control access, add users and more – all from a central point.
Simplifying driver management
Our unique full-stack universal print driver allows IT to automate time-intensive tasks and eliminate the need to manually deploy multiple printer drivers and manage numerous updates. The driver supports an array of printer languages and protocols, it works across virtually all printer makes and models – so there’s no need to download or update individual print drivers, and importantly, brings feature parity with OEM drivers, including secure print and native account coding.
Save money on print-related costs
Managing print in the cloud removes the requirement to purchase and manage costly on- premise print servers. Cloud services are billed and consumed as-a-service – freeing up CapEx budgets to be allocated elsewhere. Plus, a subscription-based pricing model is predictable and flexible, allowing organizations to scale up or down in line with their business needs. directprint.io also includes an array of paper and toner reduction features designed to save more money along the way.
Cloud printing – finding out more
Migrating print management to the cloud can free up valuable resources. So, if you’re looking to take back control of printing within your organization and learn more about cloud printing, sign up here for a free 30- day trial.