2016 Predictions: The Future of Virtualized Printing
As companies and businesses evolve with developments in technology, it is only natural that their enterprise printing solutions evolve alongside with them. A variety of technological developments are introduced every day impacting the way businesses operate. Today, it is mobile technology, the digital work space trend and security to users to protect against corporate data breaches and hacking.
Enterprise printing has seen its fair share of technology developments that put their work at risk. The long talked about ‘paperless’ work place showed merit to potentially eliminate printing entirely, but rather than admitting defeat, printing has kept up a continuous evolution to fit in with the developing landscape. 2016 will be another year for enterprise printing to extend this evolution in the following areas:
1. Printing will be streamlined by the technology driving the mobile workforce. The reason behind this is within the technological developments that make it possible for mobile employees to be mobile – the software used across the company’s network. The cloud has changed the entire dynamic for mobile working and printing. Most, if not all work-related materials can be accessed through a connected cloud drive. This presents the opportunity to reduce common printing infrastructures that are the norm and convert the hardware to become adaptable to a business’s cloud network. For businesses to see the complete benefits in 2016, they will have to task themselves with proper steps to ensure they aren’t left out of the loop with services that are both enterprise- and mobile-ready. The next step, which will become a headache for businesses, will be to find the best solution and apply it to their needs.
2. Security will be put on the front lines to ensure corporate data is protected. The mobile movement has seen an increase in the need for security across all systems. As it stands, by the end of 2015, the worldwide spending on information security will have jumped 4.7 percent from 2015 to $75.4 billion, according to a security leading analysts at Gartner. With the act of printing becoming a document that can happen remotely to a selected device, it is necessary to ensure that the paper is getting into the right hands. Secure pull printing will continue to advance and increase over the next year.
3. The ‘paperless’ trend will not eliminate printing, because it will not be possible yet in 2016. With the ability to access information digitally on mobile devices, from iPads, to tablets to smartphones, “going paperless” is on everyone’s mind to be the next best transformation in our eternal quest to simplify our communications, streamline team efforts and eliminate piles of clutter in the workplace. But for all of those “Team Printing” members out there, don’t fret because printing will not become obsolete. There is still a tangible need for hard copies and black and white documents. For paperless to become the mainstream standard across the board, not only would mobile devices need to become more prevalent, but nearly all documentation would need to be digitized as the standard that all users can recognize.
It is certain that enterprise printing will evolve with technological advancements throughout 2016, the way it has continued to do for over the last 40 years since mainframe and DOS. Printing technology will have to be versatile enough to keep up with advancements in newer mobile technologies and still be compatible with older systems in order to meet business goals in the New Year and beyond.
