For all the attention paid to cloud computing, AI, and remote work, one critical piece of business infrastructure continues to be overlooked: print. It’s easy to understand why. Printing feels like a legacy function, a holdover from a pre-digital era. But that perception is not only outdated, it’s also risky.
Print isn’t going away. It’s evolving, offering organizations opportunities to save costs, improve security, and boost efficiency. Ignoring these changes can result in avoidable expenses, security gaps, and decreased productivity.
Despite years of predictions about the paperless office, print remains deeply embedded in many business processes. In healthcare, printed materials support patient care, administrative workflows, and compliance requirements. Educational institutions continue to rely on printed learning materials, testing documents, and operational records. Manufacturers depend on labels, shipping documents, and production paperwork. Legal, financial, and government organizations frequently handle documents that must be printed, reviewed, stored, or securely disposed of.
The reality is that organizations have become increasingly digital without becoming entirely paperless. As a result, print continues to play a role in day-to-day operations, even as the systems around it evolve. The question is no longer whether organizations should print. The question is whether print infrastructure can keep pace with modern expectations around security, flexibility, visibility, and efficiency.
Treating print as an afterthought can create operational bottlenecks. When printing fails, employees notice immediately. Productivity slows, support tickets increase, and business processes can be disrupted. Because printing often sits at the intersection of users, devices, networks, and security policies, even minor issues can have outsized consequences.
The wider IT landscape has undergone significant change over the past several years. Infrastructure has moved to the cloud. Applications are increasingly SaaS-based. Workforces are more distributed than ever.
Print, however, has lagged behind.
That’s beginning to change.
Cloud-native print management is gaining traction, permitting organizations to eliminate on-premises print servers and manage devices and printers centrally through the cloud.
The result is a print infrastructure that is more flexible, easier to scale, and more secure, and that reduces IT workloads, aligning tightly with the operational requirements of contemporary organizations.
The market reflects this shift. The global cloud print management market was valued at $6.18 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11.2% through 2035, driven by hybrid work, tightening security requirements, and the broader migration of IT infrastructure to the cloud.
Digital transformation initiatives often focus on highly visible systems such as collaboration platforms, customer-facing applications, analytics tools, and AI initiatives. Yet true modernization requires organizations to examine the full technology ecosystem, including services that operate quietly in the background.
Print is a good example. While it may not receive the same executive attention as cloud migration or cybersecurity programs, it remains an essential service for many organizations. Modernizing print can eliminate infrastructure, improve visibility, strengthen security controls, and reduce administrative burden.
More importantly, it allows organizations to create consistency across their technology environments. When applications, data, communications, and infrastructure are managed through cloud-based platforms, maintaining a separate, server-dependent print environment can create unnecessary complexity. Bringing print into alignment with broader IT strategy helps reduce that disconnect while simplifying operations.
Many organizations still rely on legacy print environments built around on-premises servers, complex driver management, and fragmented device fleets. That approach is becoming harder to justify for some workplaces.
Security and compliance requirements are increasing, especially in regulated industries — and print is no longer flying under the radar. According to Quocirca’s 2025 Print Security Landscape report, 56% of organizations have suffered data losses from insecure printing practices. The year before, that figure was 67%, with the average cost of a print-related breach reaching £1,028,346 — a 38% year-on-year increase. These are not theoretical risks.
Part of the problem is how organizations classify printers. Only 16% of IT professionals consider printers to be high-risk devices, and 43% don’t include them in their endpoint security strategy at all. Only 36% apply printer firmware updates promptly. Yet printers are fully networked endpoints that store data, process sensitive documents, and communicate across corporate infrastructure. Treating them differently from other devices is a gap that attackers are aware of, even if IT teams are not.
Modern print management solutions help organizations close that gap: improving visibility, applying security policies consistently, and reducing opportunities for unauthorized access to printed materials. In many cases, modernization efforts that begin as operational improvements also deliver meaningful security benefits.
At the same time, maintaining legacy systems requires time and resources that IT teams can no longer spare. As other parts of the business modernize, print becomes an outlier, creating friction rather than enabling productivity.
Even hardware is evolving. Printer manufacturers are shifting toward multifunction devices with embedded cloud services, designed to integrate directly into modern IT ecosystems rather than operate as standalone endpoints.
Sustainability goals are also influencing how organizations think about print. While reducing unnecessary printing remains important, the larger opportunity lies in understanding print behavior and making informed decisions based on data.
Many organizations lack visibility into who is printing, what is being printed, and how resources are being consumed. Print management platforms provide reporting and analytics that help identify waste, encourage responsible printing practices, and support broader environmental objectives.
Features such as secure print release, print policies, and usage reporting can help reduce abandoned print jobs and unnecessary paper consumption. For organizations pursuing sustainability initiatives, print modernization can contribute to measurable improvements without disrupting business operations.
The biggest mistake organizations can make right now is standing still. There is no single “right” way to modernize print, but there is a clear need for adaptability. Future-proofing print isn’t about making one big change. It’s about building the ability to evolve over time.
That starts with understanding what you have. Organizations should begin by conducting a comprehensive evaluation of their current print environment, including devices, usage patterns, security posture, and total cost of ownership. This creates a baseline for identifying problems and prioritizing improvements.
From there, a phased approach to modernization is key. Rather than attempting a full-scale migration, IT leaders can pilot cloud print solutions within particular departments or locations, test user experience, and fine-tune their strategy before expanding.
User participation is also critical. Printing is one of the most visible IT services in any organization. Changes to workflows, even positive ones, can create frustration if they are not communicated clearly. Bringing users into the process helps ensure adoption and reduces disruption.
Modernizing print doesn’t require an overnight complete overhaul. But it does require intent. Organizations that succeed will focus on a few key actions:
Following these actions provides organizations with a clear, sequential approach to innovation, ensuring critical print updates while supporting smooth business operations.
The future of print will continue to progress alongside the rest of enterprise IT. New technologies, new security requirements, and new ways of working will all shape what comes next.
The goal isn’t to predict exactly where things are headed. It’s to be ready. Organizations that build flexible, cloud-aligned print environments today will be more prepared to adapt tomorrow—avoiding disruption, reducing costs, and remaining competitive.
Print may not be the most visible part of digital transformation. But it’s one of the last to change, and one of the easiest to overlook. That makes it one of the most important things to get right.
By Willem Groenewald, Principal Product Manager, PaperCut
