A full cloud adoption journey takes around 12 to 24 months, depending on the industry, business goals, and priorities. With the right tools, organizations can quickly transition one element of their IT infrastructure at a time. Migrating print-heavy operations to the cloud, for instance, can be done in as little as 10 minutes.
When looking at the entire journey, the transition can be challenging without proper guidance. This article will discuss how an IT cloud-first agenda can help your organization increase agility and scalability while reducing costs –and why you need print to be part of the strategy.
Understanding the Value of Cloud Transitioning
What exactly does "journey to the cloud" mean (Sorry to disappoint, but it does not involve a magic lamp or flying carpet)? The perks can be just as exciting, though— especially when considering massive savings, streamlined workflows, better security, overall agility, IT efficiency, and sustainable practices.
Your cloud journey refers to your cloud migration or cloud adoption journey. It is the process of migrating your business operations to a remote facility that can be securely accessed online and managed by a trusted external provider. This typically entails moving from a legacy on-premises infrastructure to a cloud-based model (either private or public). In some cases, however, it can also refer to moving from a cloud enabler to a cloud-centric provider.
Cloud migration is an elaborate process that involves moving data, computing resources, and applications to the cloud. While it inarguably carries risks, its long-term benefits make it well worthwhile. In addition to cost savings, most organizations report improved system performance, easy scalability, and sky-high resilience. In other words, embracing the cloud can be vital in staying competitive in the digital landscape.
Make Print Part of Your Cloud-first Agenda
Transitioning to cloud-based printing capacities is a key part of the cloud adoption journey. Cloud printing allows you to manage your entire print fleet and infrastructure from one pane of glass, making it easier for IT teams to monitor and manage printing operations. This includes access control, usage tracking, print driver installation, troubleshooting, and other print management functions.
With a cloud-centric print setup, IT teams like yours get complete visibility of the print environment, regardless of the size of your printer fleet. The infrastructure makes for a more efficient, streamlined print workflow that reduces document waste and withstands areas of vulnerability that may cause information leaks or data hacks. As such, more organizations are switching to cloud-based print management, focusing on modernizing and optimizing current legacy print infrastructures and amping up IT efficiency.
Integrating cloud-based printing solutions into a cloud-first strategy can help free up valuable IT resources and ensure your organization's internal processes remain secure, efficient, and accessible across multiple platforms. It also means you won't have to worry about complicated server maintenance or tedious printer setup tasks.
How to Make the Most of Your Cloud Adoption Journey
A reliable external provider with experience in cloud print solutions can help you implement a tailored print management solution that meets your organization’s needs and goals. If you’re considering transitioning to the cloud, remember that print should be integral to the conversation.
To make the most of your cloud adoption journey, consider what IT projects and ad hoc's are taking up too much time. A lot of the time, you’ll realize that your print environment is stealing away both money and time, better utilized on mission-critical tasks. By getting your print prepped for the cloud, your team will finally be able to get mission-focused, not bogged down, and let go of print management once and for all.
Take SAFEQ Cloud as an example. The cloud-native software solution effectively eliminates the need for print servers and multiple print drivers–as well as the maintenance of them.
The platform centralizes your entire print ecosystem in one user-friendly web-based UI. With it, your team can enjoy new heights in automation, full visibility into your print fleet and activities, easy reporting, and much more. Powered by Y Soft, SAFEQ Cloud migrates your entire print environment to the cloud in just 10 minutes and unlocks the gates to a host of benefits that’ll make your IT team ecstatic. For instance, it’s:
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Highly scalable regardless of business needs
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Flexible by design, both in the software and for your team
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Made to streamlined operations across any devices and systems
Among the benefits of SAFEQ Cloud are:
Bottom-Line Savings
Studies show that businesses can save more than 15% on IT costs thanks to cloud adoption and up to 30% overall by switching to cloud-based printing. Savings come from a huge reduction in physical equipment needed onsite, licensing fees saved thanks to a subscription-based SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, and lower maintenance costs overall.
Fast Implementation & ROI
Implementation is quick and hassle-free if you partner with a reputable provider. You can easily manage print functions through a web-based central interface as soon as the installation is complete. Most companies see a return on investment in 6 to 12 months, but you'll likely see an improvement in IT-reliant processes much sooner.
Seamless Cloud Printing
With cloud printing, gone are the days of lost print jobs and broken-down servers–as are the days of paper jams, troubleshooting calls, and other print-related user dilemmas.
Powerful cloud computing enables users to execute print jobs from all kinds of devices to all types of printers, saving both end users and IT teams valuable time.
Innovative pull printing capabilities also give team members control of print jobs down to the location and timing, eliminating the risk of leaking confidential documents, print errors, and abandoned print jobs.
FAQs on the Cloud Print Potential
How does a cloud-first strategy help clients?
Cloud-based platforms are always working, meaning that customers, employees, and suppliers can access them on any device at any time, from any location. Whereas physical hardware is prone to issues, cloud storage offers overlays and backups to keep data safe and accessible.
What is the difference between cloud-first and cloud-only?
Cloud-first prioritizes the cloud architecture and allows IT teams to decide when to use it to optimize their processes. In contrast, cloud-only wholly relies on the cloud and removes any physical hardware availability.
Is cloud printing secure?
Yes, cloud printing is secure. Printing jobs remain behind a firewall, and all data is encrypted with the highest security protocols. Additionally, pull printing allows users to control when and where a print job will be released and zero-trust networking ensures no unauthorized users or unverified devices enter the infrastructure.
Final Points
Moving to cloud-first solutions is inevitable- and beneficial for IT teams who want to eliminate tedious infrastructure tasks and scale operations while staying ahead in the industry.
Leveraging cloud computing for your print environment offers you a secure and reliable way to print, copy and scan documents across multiple devices and platforms, making document management processes much easier. By offering bottom-line savings and fast implementation, our cloud offerings specifically make it easy for businesses of all sizes to accelerate their cloud-first strategy.
Mars Inc., a multinational confectionery, food, and pet care products manufacturer, is a great example of how to become cloud-first with print capacities in the cloud stack. With 100k employees and offices on every major continent, Mars Inc. was able to successfully switch their large-scale print infrastructure from on-premises to on-cloud, using SAFEQ Cloud as their vessel.
Find out how their cloud journey went here → Cloud First with 100K Employees and Offices on Every Major Continent