4 business objective considerations before moving print infrastructure to the cloud
Time: 5 minute read
Where your company is headed should be your initial focus when considering a move to the cloud, and it will bring up many important questions to consider. For example, if you estimate an addition of 1,000 new employees over the next five years, you might see the need for a platform that automatically updates software to help your staff keep up with the new growth.
Each concern that arises will lead to a number of questions that can provide insight into what you need from a print-cloud service. The example above might also lead you to ask:
Looking at projected business growth leads to many pertinent questions about scalability. If a cloud service you’re considering can’t scale up to meet this projected growth in a cost-effective way — quickly and with minimal disruption to workflow — cross it off your list.
This type of research not only provides insights into the type of service you need, it also provides you with data that can help you get buy-in. Stakeholders will see how a shift to the cloud can eliminate the need to make capital investments in print infrastructure, software and staff reveals opportunities for reinvestments in other, more strategic areas of business, such as analytics and digital transformation.
Once you’ve done this preliminary research, shift your focus to more specific concerns related to print-cloud management.
To help safeguard data, documents and other proprietary information that will be shared over your print-cloud ecosystem, make sure the service you go with includes:
If data privacy and security is a concern, look to the as-a-Service model to help ensure that security features and patches are fully managed and kept up to date — look specifically for a service that continuously monitors and updates the security configurations of your print devices, and performs third-party penetration testing on the service software and infrastructure. A service partner that offers this level of support should also provide 24/7 monitoring and alerting for more visibility into your overall print infrastructure.