When organisations look to migrate to the cloud, print infrastructure is often left behind – but this could be a mistake and something that resellers should be alive to, as Matthew Lee, product marketing manager at PaperCut, explains.
I often hear about the strategies that many organisations are applying as they consider their cloud migration options. And one thing tends to stick out. While many companies are forging ahead with cloud-computing – and that’s great – one legacy component is still lagging behind: print infrastructure. According to recent reports, organisations migrated 78% of their workloads to the cloud in 2025, but many are still running on-prem print servers that anchor them to clunky, outdated systems. What does this mean for efficiency and security?
Why print infrastructure often lags behind
When in the middle of a cloud-migration or digital-transformation push, it’s easy to think, like with many technologies that are working without issue, ‘we’ll just tackle print later’. It’s true that for many companies print simply isn’t front of mind. Organisations are focused instead on moving their applications, data and collaboration tools to the cloud. There’s a lot going on, and it’s easy for print to be pushed further down the list. The problem is, when committing to cloud-first, if print isn’t integrated properly, it can quickly become a significant problem.
So why does print so often fall behind? There are a few reasons.
Perceived legacy status. Unfairly or not, print is often considered ‘business as usual’ and not seen as part of the transformational agenda. For many organisations, their print server just sits quietly in the background. It doesn’t have the same spotlight as, say, their CRM or collaboration tools, even though print is just as important from a security, sustainability and visibility perspective.
On-prem anchoring. As mentioned, while many workloads are moving off-prem, print often gets tied to on-site print servers, device drivers and network shares; with the latter often introducing its own problems due to incompatibility issues when moving identities to cloud platforms like Microsoft Entra ID or Okta. This creates extra drag on progress toward serverless or cloud-native setups.
Complexity of endpoints. With multiple printers, multi-site locations, mixed vendor fleets, guest printing, mobility of end users and BYOD to consider, print remains one of the more complex pieces of infrastructure to migrate.
Security and compliance inertia. Because print is often out of sight, it doesn’t always get the same security scrutiny as other workloads, even though it should. Despite handling sensitive documents daily, print infrastructure can linger on legacy protocols, outdated drivers and unmanaged devices. This leaves a quiet but significant gap in an organisation’s broader security posture.
What it means for security and efficiency
In the old days of physical print servers and on-premise domains, there was an inherent trust built into the system. Laptops, printers, everything sat on the local network. In today’s cloud-based world, your server is no longer the point of identity on the network – it’s a platform like Microsoft Entra ID. And if your cloud migration isn’t handled properly, suddenly your users will be getting all sorts of prompts when they go to print, such as requests for admin rights when installing print drivers. It can unnerve a lot of inexperienced users.
Leaving print behind comes with other concerns, too:
Security risks. If a customer’s print environment still relies on traditional print servers or unmanaged print drivers, it basically leaves a part of the infrastructure outside the discipline and visibility applied mainly to the cloud infrastructure. In a world where organisations are massively concerned about governance, compliance and identity-based access in the cloud, print can quickly become a weak link.
Operational inefficiencies. From an IT ops perspective, maintaining on-prem print servers means manual setups, manual driver deployments, and site-by-site variability, plus a huge ongoing maintenance burden. In an era when IT teams are being asked to streamline, reduce manual intervention and shift to cloud-managed everything, print being stuck in the server-farm world is a massive drag on resources.
Cloud strategy misalignment. If the rest of a customer’s stack is cloud-first or even cloud-native, and print remains anchored on-prem, they may not fully reap the agility, scalability and cost-benefit advantages of a consistent cloud-managed environment.
A better alternative
This is where the next gen of print management solutions come into play. The goal should be to treat print like any other cloud-managed service, abstract away the on-prem burden, reduce manual overhead, and deliver print in a way that aligns with the organisation’s cloud-first strategy.
Print as a service
The ability to set up print queues on users’ computers using the cloud is a relatively new concept. If I’m honest, it’s probably the technology that will have the biggest impact on workplaces shifting their print management to the cloud; certainly it’s one of the biggest benefits. A Print Queue Deployment feature enables users to deploy, manage and retire print queues across sites from a central interface, apply drivers and set smart assignment policies, and align print with cloud-first goals. In other words, auto-deploy the right printers to the right users. No scripts, no mixed OS environment or Windows-on-ARM headaches, and no hassle. The result is fewer helpdesk tickets and happier users, which is, after all, what the world is always shooting for.
Eliminating print servers
This isn’t the only benefit of shifting to a cloud printing solution, and it won’t be suitable for every organisation, but it’s still worth mentioning. By shifting to serverless or minimal-on-prem print infrastructures, users get all the advantages of centralised management, scalability and reduced footprint. It also reduces the number of servers that need to be updated, patched, monitored and secured.
Simplified IT operations
With centralised dashboards, policy-based driver deployments, cloud-driven device onboarding and easy-to-read analytics, print management becomes much less labour-intensive. IT teams can spend time on innovation, not troubleshooting print queues.
If an organisation is championing a cloud-first or cloud-native strategy, but still running legacy print servers, they really need to think: ‘Is print the missing piece of the puzzle? Is it our weak link?’ I see it all the time: new cloud setups mixed with legacy print servers, where the integration’s so bad IT literally needs to visit someone’s desk to show them how to print in colour. That is not a good use of anyone’s time.
It’s quite possible, by giving print less attention, businesses may be introducing inefficiencies and security risks into an otherwise modern infrastructure. The answer? Don’t let your customers forget about print. Don’t let them leave it behind, forgotten on a server. Work with them to ensure they treat it for what it is: a critical piece of their cloud-first strategy.
This article first apperared in Print in the Channel magazine issue #39.
