INSIGHT Tony Lomax - Lexmark
“IT as a Service (ITaaS) solutions are a popular choice for IT teams because they provide support by moving
much of the security, availability and performance burden onto the cloud provider.“
Tony Lomax, Marketing Manager at Lexmark
The journey to as-a-service
With more businesses transitioning their data and mission-critical applications to the cloud, acquiring IT
products and technology infrastructure through as-a-service, subscription-based models is becoming a
dominant force in the enterprise space. In this piece, Tony Lomax, Marketing Manager at Lexmark, explains the
as-a-service impact on the IT department
e challenge is that they are
already faced with an endless ‘todo
list’; addressing security risks
from an increasingly complex
threat landscape; maintaining
uptime of overloaded technology
infrastructures; enabling
their businesses to increase
productivity while minimising
expenditure – the list goes on.
The ITaaS revolution
Historically, the IT department’s
job was the building and
maintaining of large data centers
which ‘housed’ a business’s
backend systems. Order
fullment took a long time and
the priority was to keep the
operational environment stable at
all costs, which is another way of
saying it was inexible and slow.
In contrast, when it comes to
the cloud-based oerings that are
replacing traditional on-premise
technology, today’s IT teams are
required to evaluate and make
recommendations on a growing
and diverse set of products and
services that might be delivered
from anywhere in the world. As
the central data server is replaced
by a directory of cloud services
delivered remotely throughout
the enterprise to be consumed
by users directly, IT must learn
how to select and manage them
whilst still looking after security,
availability, performance, cost
and more.
IT as a Service (ITaaS)
solutions are a popular choice for
IT teams because they provide
support by moving much of
the security, availability and
performance burden onto the
cloud provider. Cloud Print
Infrastructure as a Service –CIP –
is a good example of this as rather
than owning and managing a
physical print infrastructure with
all its accompanying service cost,
customers simply pay for what
they use.
A new approach to enterprise
print
CPI is one illustration of how
the ITaaS model is completely
transforming the way traditional
services are delivered. Providing
enterprise print users with
access to a modern secure
print environment through
a subscription service where
the physical infrastructure
required to support the printing
environment – including onpremises
print servers, print server
provisioning, driver deployment
and user management – is
eliminated.
Instead of sending documents
through a print server to a
designated print device, they are
transferred to the cloud service
provider where they are held
until a user logs in or swipes
their badge (authenticates) at the
printer. Cloud-connected device
The benets are well
documented, with the
promise of improved cost
controls, enhanced security,
greater agility, and the ability
to add strategic value through
access to the latest technologies,
all driving increased market
momentum.
Joining other consultants
pointing to traction in this space,
Deloitte Global estimates that
Enterprises will spend around
50% of their IT budgets on payper
use services by 2022. A clear
indicator that traditional, licensed
technology, deployed on-premise,
is losing its paramount position.
For IT teams, this
transformation in the way IT
is delivered, is forcing them to
evolve.
ey are being challenged
by their organisations to
identify new ideas and develop
perspectives on how as-aservice
solutions can align with
business needs, while at the same
time ensuring the successful
implementation of these new
cloud-based solutions.
settings, compliance, rmware
updates and data collection are
all monitored and managed
remotely.
With printer eets owned
and managed by a CPI provider,
capital expenditure becomes a
thing of the past and IT teams
are freed from the time it takes to
research and specify devices for
RFP cycles.
Complex contracts no longer
feature, as the provider does the
hard work of creating hardware
deployment plans designed to
address use patterns, security
protections and future print and
scan needs – all of which can be
easily scaled over time to meet
changing needs.
CPI also supports IT
with automated smart IoT
connected services such as
just-in-time supplies fullment
and anticipating the need for
intervention to help avoid
downtime. By oering access
to live performance, analytics
and governance data the IT
team can continually monitor
performance and drill down
to device-level detail on all
important aspects of their printer
eet.
e benets of the cloud
service era – self-service and
automated policy enforcement
to name just a few – should not
mean that IT teams can let ITaaS
solutions run unfettered. IT’s role
in this cloud service world is just
as vital as it’s always been but it
is evolving into being responsible
for capacity planning, ensuring
usage and billing are reconciled,
IT governance and, in the
example of CPI, to focus on the
print capacity they need while the
rest is taken care of.
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