01732 759725 CLOUD 34 Quocirca’s 2024 Cloud Print Services market landscape study reveals the rate at which organisations are adopting cloud print services, key characteristics of the cloud print services market, and primary barriers to adoption these challenges, and providers should be leveraging this to deliver more cloud print solutions. For distributed working environments that need to be both agile and closely monitored, cloud print management makes a lot of sense.” Key customer concerns Protecting company data remains the top barrier to cloud print management adoption, although it has dropped from 36 per cent in 2023 to 32 per cent in 2024. A quarter of respondents are concerned about the perceived loss of functionality when switching to cloud print solutions, and this rises to 28 per cent for the largest companies. Cost is a key concern for almost a quarter of organisations, rising to 32 per cent for smaller businesses. The same proportion is worried about performance, consistency across multivendor fleets and data governance/ sovereignty concerns. “Cloud print service providers must focus on addressing these areas of customer concern and articulating the cost, efficiency, and agility advantages of moving print management to the cloud,” Louella warns, adding: “Many earlier concerns have been resolved through, for example, advances in universal print driver sophistication and improvements in cloud print functionality, but there is still work to be done to convince buyers.” Key findings n 74 per cent of respondents are taking a hybrid approach to print management using a mix of on-premise and cloud. n Only 4 per cent currently manage their print environment fully in the cloud; 16 per cent believe print will be fully managed in the cloud for print by 2026. n Despite the cloud transition, 58 per cent of organisations plan to install more print servers in the coming year. This figure rises to 68 per cent of those operating a multivendor fleet. n Data protection concerns are the top barrier to cloud print adoption (cited by 32 per cent), followed by functionality (25 per cent) and cost (24 per cent). www.quocirca.com Methodology: 500 ITDMS from a range of organisations in the UK, US, France and Germany were surveyed in March 2024. Cloud print adoption has surged over the past year, with 69 per cent of respondents now using a cloud print management solution, up from 55 per cent in 2023. However, the study also shows that businesses are not fully committed to a cloud-only print environment, with print server deployment continuing to increase. Louella Fernandes, CEO, Quocirca, said: “Right now there is a paradox in the cloud print environment. Despite accelerating adoption, we are also seeing more print servers being deployed and continuing concerns about security. It seems that providers are not positioning cloud-based solutions strongly enough and are failing to articulate the significant administrative and cost benefits cloud print management delivers.” Administrative burden Despite 58 per cent planning to deploy more print servers, customers are strongly aware of the difficulties surrounding traditional on-premise print management. Just under half say the IT administrative burden of managing print drivers is a top challenge, 42 per cent cite the complexity of print driver deployment, and 38 per cent note risks around outdated print drivers. Louella said: “Cloud print management solutions can address all Cloud print services adoption accelerates Louella Fernandes
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