Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023. Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
What’s in store for 2023? The good, the bad and the unknown
By Henning Volkmer, President and CEO of ThinPrint Inc
What does the future hold for next year? With so many variables, it is apparent that 2023 predictions will not be something that can be discovered with a cheap crystal ball. Will COVID make a comeback? What about the economy? How will the mergers in the EUC space play out? What about the supply chains? The war in Ukraine? Energy supplies in Europe? Something else I forgot that will surprisingly rear its head on January 4?
2023 is another of those years that will require us to have a strategic game plan while also understanding that we need to remain flexible and react to whatever happens as best as we can. We can speculate on what will transpire, but it is much more useful to understand what we have to work with and how to be ready to leverage these opportunities to our advantage. I am confident that there will be exciting prospects in legacy technologies if you understand the nuances of what is possible.
Disrupting legacy technologies
Since early 2019, the rate of digital transformation in our industry has been faster than ever before. This is seen through the many legacy processes that have been transformed into digital strategies, where we have learned that some legacy technologies and processes deliver incredible value. At the same time, there is still a significant need for a better way to deliver them.
Printing is one of these technologies. Between temperamental printers, opinionated, complex printer drivers, security concerns (remember Print Nightmare?), and the intricacy of delivering print jobs across networks (show of hands for those running a VPN to deliver print jobs from a centralized system to a remote site) and the requirements imposed by work from home, work from anywhere and hybrid work environments — it is easy not to like printing.
But printing can and does deliver more than its share of value to organizations. Consider letting a cloud-based print solution disrupt and improve our print environment so that we can easily enjoy the benefits of printing without everything that gives printing a bad name. This is all possible and will make waves in the coming year.
Increasing need for the right partnerships
Whether it is building a native cloud application, making an existing application cloud-ready, or creating a cloud-based desktop/workspace, it has never been easier to bring partners to the table. When integrated into an overarching strategic plan, each can bring their respective know-how to the table. The sum of these parts makes an excellent product for our internal or external partners.
Printing remains a relevant, critical component of these solutions, bridging digital silos and creating a tangible connection between digital worlds and humans. The rise of cloud printing solutions has made it easier to provide precise, fast and secure printing that is needed as part of whatever solution one might be building. Whether the integration is made through APIs or by connecting a traditional “printer object” to an application so that jobs can be delivered precisely where they need to go, it has never been so easy to provide an application’s users with the documents they need.
Developing new opportunities
The ease of building partnerships between cloud solutions and the people behind them also provides an unprecedented opportunity to develop new opportunities for customers – both outside of the organization and those inside that rely on the technologies and solutions provided.
Can you move a legacy app to the cloud by running it on AVD? Are you building a cloud-native application but need to connect it to resources on the customer’s premises? Maybe there are reasons to tighten your organization’s security further. Does aging infrastructure in stores, affiliates, or remote sites, needs to be replaced? Are our work-from-anywhere and hybrid work setups as good as they need to be? When questions like these are asked – new opportunities can be uncovered.
Embracing security and business continuity planning
While not a new trend, security sure remains relevant in 2023. What many might overlook is that printers are not inherently secure. When they come out of the box, they have a myriad of network protocols and services enabled that you will likely not use in an enterprise environment. However, this is where you can leave your network open to nefarious users gaining access to the device and the sensitive data it processes.
Printers usually sit directly on the same network as the devices that print to them. As a result, the printer driver installed on someone’s computer can directly talk to the printer. While this approach can be convenient for the user, it is not secure. Any malware or bad actor on the network has unregulated access to the printer and the data it processes (or stores for specific release print applications).
As you improve the security of your environment next year, make printing part of a zero-trust strategy. Moving printers onto separate networks ensures that they are not directly connected to the internet, requiring users to authenticate before they can print to a printer while also establishing identity at the printer to pick up their job. Implementation of these solutions is minimal, and the security gains well offset the cost and effort.
Tapping into cost savings strategies
With the uncertainty about economic prospects comes an increased urgency to save money. The seemingly easy way to save money is not to spend it — especially when it comes to technology. However, the reality is that true cost saving goes beyond the initial spend.
With printing, the apparent cost is the devices themselves, paper and toner or ink. And there is also the cost savings accumulated by introducing release printing to avoid “print and forget” jobs that are never picked up at the printer. But this is just the beginning.
The actual cost of printing is in the setup and maintenance of print servers where there is selection, verification, deployment and constant updating of printer drivers. There are also VPNs and other network acrobatics that need to be made to deliver print jobs from a (cloud-based) backend application to the on-prem printer, the necessary user support, and the financial exposure through the inherent security risks of traditional print environment setups.
It wouldn’t take much to eliminate many of these costs through a more modern print infrastructure. Just a thought…
While there are some uncertainties as we head into 2023, there are plenty of opportunities and chances to make 2023 successful. On the forefront of technology, well in tune with our organization’s needs, we are in an unprecedented position to shape the future professionally and personally. Have a great 2023!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Henning Volkmer drives the execution of ThinPrint Inc.’s strategy in the Americas as an expert in print management. A cloud printing innovator and launch partner for Azure Virtual Desktop, ThinPrint is the technology leader for fully processing print jobs in its ezeep cloud without having to rely on on-premises printer drivers. He has established a broad technological background and has been at the forefront of technology trends for more than two decades. Originally from Berlin, Germany, Volkmer currently resides in Denver, Colo.
