When businesses are rapidly shifting everything else to the cloud and printing is lagging, it begs the question: Has print been forgotten? From my perspective, not at all. It’s unlikely that anyone modernizing their infrastructure assumes print will disappear from their workflows entirely. I believe that the reason for the delay is much more practical. Today’s print landscape is in such a state of flux that it makes long-term planning genuinely challenging. 

Business leaders know that print still matters, but they can’t yet see exactly what the final model will look like or when the tipping point will come. Moreover, while I know that this can make it tempting to delay decisions, it also doesn’t make sense to stall business progress in a print-related holding pattern. Instead, what’s needed is a mindset shift, from maintaining the status quo to embracing adaptability.  

Understanding the Forces Shaping Enterprise Print 

Traditional enterprise print — built around drivers, group policies and local spoolers — is being phased out in favor of cloud-native models. Cloud is now a top investment priority for businesses, second only to cybersecurity and AI — and print is no exception. Physical on-premises print servers are being replaced with centralized, cloud-based print management platforms that reduce infrastructure complexity and better support remote and mobile printing.  

Microsoft’s Universal Print and Apple’s AirPrint are indicative of the rising trend of driverless printing, pushing enterprises toward modern IPP standards for secure connectivity. We’re also seeing new chips that are incompatible with traditional print infrastructure. As a result, hardware vendors are winding down support for legacy protocols and drivers, while manufacturers are instead focusing on multifunction devices with built-in cloud services.

Alongside this, identity and access management remain critical, with cybersecurity threats growing increasingly sophisticated. Print workflows still need to be able to authenticate users, but access control is moving to cloud-based platforms such as Microsoft Entra ID. Secure print release and user-based tracking? They’re standard requirements now in modern printing. It’s fair to say that there are a lot of individual forces putting pressure on organizations to update their printing fleets just to stay ahead of the curve. 

How to Plan for Continuity When the End State Isn’t Fixed 

While I know that it’s currently unclear where — or if — the shifting sands of enterprise printing will eventually settle, planning for continuity may feel like an impossible task. If I could give you any advice in such an uncertain environment, it would be this: Two aspects are key — adaptability and deliberateness. 

Firstly, you need an approach that allows you to respond to changes without being held back by outdated systems or incomplete data. In other words, you may not be able to fully define your future state print architecture, but you can start laying adaptable foundations by auditing your current infrastructure, usage patterns and dependencies.  

When you think deliberateness, see it as prioritization around the areas of high impact and low risk — by which I mean, not everything, everywhere, all at once. Don’t rush ahead blindly. Adopt a phased migration strategy that allows you to pilot new print solutions alongside your legacy systems, testing new models without disrupting day-to-day print workflows.

Now, yes, some things will always be mission-critical regardless of future changes. I’m thinking of secure print, user authentication and compliance requirements — so it’s safe to build your continuity plans around these non-negotiables. You’ll also need to have clear checkpoints for assessing the print landscape, giving you visibility into current and emerging trends. This will help you adjust your roadmap as needed, moving with shifts instead of chasing them.  

Your Roadmap for Print Modernization 

Planning and Assessment: Conduct a thorough audit of your existing print infrastructure, including print servers, devices, workflows and user groups. To prepare for a phased rollout, group users and devices, for example, by location, department or function. You’ll also need to determine what your goals are, according to priority. 

Phased Adoption: Start small with a low-risk user group, then scale across the business. Pilot programs like this can test performance and provide valuable user feedback before expanding to additional groups. To support a hybrid approach, invest in a vendor-agnostic, scalable print management solution that works for both on-prem and cloud environments. 

User Testing: Pilots also enable you to test performance and user experience in a real-world environment. Clearly define your test cases and engage real users to reveal pain points — this means involving regular employees, not just IT teams. You can use surveys or feedback sessions to collect user comments and suggestions. 

Change Management: Successful modernization depends on people as much as it does on technology. User trust is critical — communicate early and often about why changes are happening and what the benefits are.  

Ready to Be Ready

My final piece of advice is that when it comes to print, true readiness isn’t about knowing what lies ahead; it’s being ‘ready to be ready’. When the print roadmap does become clearer, there are going to be those who will move fast — and you want to be among them. Preparing now will ensure agility tomorrow, allowing your organization to act quickly when the shift accelerates.  

Ultimately, while print may no longer be the center of the IT universe, it remains a core function that deeply touches workflows, security, compliance and infrastructure. As the rules of the game change, standing still won’t be an option. But the good news is that you don’t need the perfect blueprint — or a crystal ball — to move forward confidently.