Tungsten’s Hybrid Cloud Print Solution Addresses Diverse Print Management Needs

October 30, 2024
Article, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Cloud print, Managed Print Services, Security, Trends

To address the evolving print management needs of businesses operating in hybrid cloud environments, Tungsten Automation has introduced its Hybrid Cloud Print Solution. This innovative platform combines the power of Printix and ControlSuite, providing integrated print and capture functionality. The latest release includes additional features to support home printing, streamline administration, and leverage the capabilities of AI through the new CoPilot for Printix.

The growing need for hybrid cloud print management

Organisations continue to rely on printing, with 70% of respondents in Quocirca’s Print Security, 2024 study identifying it as very important or critical to their operations. This dependence on printing can be costly to organisations and create security risks if the print infrastructure is not effectively managed and secured. The rise of remote work has further increased the need for effective print management solutions that can support distributed workforces while maintaining security.

Quocirca’s research highlights the increasing concerns surrounding print security. Only 18% of organisations express confidence in the security of their printing infrastructure in hybrid work environments. This growing concern is reflected in the rise of print-related data breaches, with 67% of organisations reporting one or more incidents, up from 61% in 2023.

Traditional print management is typically conducted in an on-premise environment that offers a range of benefits, including data security, enhanced functionality, and performance. However, it can also create complexity and risk in managing and deploying a patchwork of printer drivers and software, leading to increased IT administrative burden. This includes the procurement and management of print servers – Quocirca’s research shows that 57% of organisations are increasing their use of print servers, reflecting an ongoing reliance on on-premise print.

Some organisations prefer on-premise print management. However, because of concerns with data security, data sovereignty, and functionality with cloud printing, others are accelerating their shift to the cloud to offload print management and capture tasks to cloud providers.

Quocirca’s Cloud Print Services, 2024 study revealed that while cloud adoption is indeed accelerating, the majority of organisations (80%) continue to operate a mix of on-premise and cloud-based IT environments. This hybrid approach is expected to persist, with only a slight decline to 70% of organisations by 2026.

As they seek to modernise their IT infrastructure and take advantage of the flexibility of the cloud, organisations need robust print management platforms that can effectively support distributed workforces while integrating seamlessly with existing private or public cloud architectures.

Scalable and secure across cloud and on-premise environments

Tungsten’s Hybrid Cloud Print Solution aims to address diverse print management needs through an integrated approach that brings together Printix, its public cloud print platform, and ControlSuite, its mature, fully featured, on-premise print management and capture platform.

Printix has developed a strong reputation in the cloud print market because of its flexibility and ease of administration across both print and scan. ControlSuite is a fully featured print management and capture platform with advanced features around reporting and security. Particularly innovative is its Content Aware printing feature, which triggers print rules based on words on the page, not just the header and footer.

Through the Printix Hybrid Cloud Print Enabler, the new Tungsten Hybrid Cloud Print platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools and features, including:

• Efficient creation and management of print queues
• Optimised network performance and elimination of bottlenecks
• Enterprise-wide visibility and control over all printers
• Modernisation of legacy print infrastructure without new cloud-based tools
• Centralised control with automated print driver management and real-time analytics

Particularly unique is Tungsten’s creation of a complete document workflow ecosystem that organisations can leverage to further optimise their print and capture workflows. For instance, the Tungsten Hybrid Cloud solution can be complemented with Tungsten Power PDF for document automation and routing and Tungsten Total Agility, which offers advanced AI-enabled intelligent document automation.

Tungsten CoPilot for Printix: AI-powered assistant

AI is already strongly embedded across Tungsten’s broader document automation portfolio and being extended to Printix. In January 2025, Tungsten will introduce CoPilot for Printix, an AI-driven assistant that streamlines IT administration tasks. CoPilot provides guided setup and management for subscriptions, user roles, site and network additions, and analytics. It also assists with printer discovery, capture workflows, cloud storage integration, and support requests. Additionally, it offers enhanced authentication options with multiple provider choices, including Microsoft Entra ID, Google, and Okta.

Tungsten has already released a new Tungsten Power PDF AI Copilot this quarter.

Quocirca opinion

Tungsten Automation’s deep expertise and ongoing investment in print management and AI-enabled intelligent document automation are evident across its product portfolio. Tungsten stands out for unique capabilities such as Content-Aware print and capture, which can help with document security and data loss prevention (DLP), and its broader AI-enabled Total Agility intelligent automation platform. This extensive portfolio, focused on document workflow automation and a broad partner ecosystem, particularly sets Tungsten apart from other traditional print management vendors.

By combining its on-premise print management capabilities with ControlSuite, cloud-based print management with Printix, and AI-driven CoPilot for Printix, Tungsten offers a comprehensive, flexible solution for enterprises facing the complexities of managing mixed print environments.

As organisations accelerate their cloud journey and more traditional on-premise print management functionality becomes available to the cloud, this will create new opportunities to take advantage of cloud-based print management and address some of customers’ concerns.

This hybrid cloud offering will be particularly appealing to organisations seeking enhanced security across remote and office printing. Tungsten must ensure that the products offer feature parity to address any concerns regarding functionality and performance, as well as navigate potential security integration challenges arising from the different architectures of ControlSuite and Printix.

As Tungsten unifies its product offering, it presents a key opportunity to assist customers in future-proofing and modernising their print environments. In the age of AI, this is increasingly critical as technology infrastructures are optimised to support the evolving demands of the modern workplace.