If there's a prevailing theme for 2023 technology trends, it’s that “everything old is new again”. Enterprises will leverage existing, everyday technology in new, exciting and innovative ways.
Here’s what to look for in the upcoming year.
1. More Companies Embrace Printer Management and Security
The growth of industrial and mobile printer management has always been like the tortoise in the Aesop’s fable The Tortoise and the Hare: slow and steady. Only 40% of businesses rely on a managed printer environment, and a whopping 56% of printers are at risk of a security threat.
In 2023, expect the tortoise to become the hare – as in organizations will quickly adopt connected printer management as part of their overall mobile technology strategy.
The reason printer management isn’t a priority is, well, printers aren’t a priority. They aren’t seen as a threat source; even though 60% of enterprises have experienced a data breach at an average cost of $500,000 (CAD) and only 48% of organizations regularly apply firmware updates to maintain printer security.
That should change come 2023 as more organizations – in retail for example – become attuned to the following regarding printer management:
- It can be done remotely and proactively: Hopefully in 2023, gone will be the days of shipping problematic printers back-and-forth between IT and distributed locations. It’s costly, time-consuming and bad for the planet. There is no longer a need to physically go to each printer in person to provide maintenance or get a status update on its health only to find there are no pressing issues. Instead, problems can be detected and remediated proactively before they lead to costly downtime.
- It’s easy: Manually pushing certificates or updating firmware can take an average of 20 minutes, maybe longer if it’s being done on a very small printer screen. In 2023, organizations will finally see the simplicity in remote printer management and decide not to settle for the status quo.
- It’s robust: Businesses with multiple printer manufacturers – think Brother, SATO, TSC Printronix or Zebra – are reluctant to utilize printer management because of the belief that there isn’t a “one size fits all” solution. There is, and more organizations will take advantage of it in 2023.
2. Behavior and Technology Drive Sustainability Together
Does behavior or technology drive sustainability? In 2023, both will play an equal role in maximizing the lifespan of devices – an objective which takes on greater importance when you consider that 55% of IT decision-makers say all enterprise devices are disposed of unnecessarily.
The lifecycle of enterprise devices is only 2.42 years, and it usually follows this format:
- Device gets purchased
- Device gets used
- Device gets recycled or reused (maybe)
- Device gets trashed
- Repeat
Remember, that all happens in a span of just over two years.
Annually, 54 million metric tons of e-waste end up in landfills. Hopefully that number will drop significantly in 2023, and here’s how:
- More available device data: Many devices are discarded because people think they’re on the verge of failure. But access to metrics such as charge cycles or memory capacity, or battery temperature provides real insights into how much life a device has left. Look at it this way: if you thought your car battery had six months of life left but then found out it had three years, there’s no reason to discard or replace it early or unnecessarily. The same idea applies to enterprise devices.
- Behavioral changes: This is two-fold. Firstly, more powerful device recycling programs must be developed at both the community and enterprise level. A study in 2019 asked the public at large how much e-waste they thought was recycled. They guessed around 50% when the actual answer was only 17%. There aren’t strong incentives to recycle devices.
Secondly, it must be easier to return older, but still serviceable, devices directly to manufacturers. Retail purchases can be returned with a few clicks or swipes of an app. Hopefully in 2023, devices can be returned just as simply: Use an app and the device manufacturer arrives at your door with a new device (with all the data from your old device on it, ready to go), and they take away your old device, which has been wiped.
3. Cloud Security and the Growth of Zero Trust
In 2021, 81% of companies experienced a cloud security incident.
In 2023, it’s expected that 50% of business workloads will occur in the Cloud. So, as more work gets migrated to the Cloud, security to protect against data theft and leakage will take on a greater role.
This is where zero trust comes in. The concept of zero trust – where anything and anyone trying to access a corporate network or corporate data should be considered untrustworthy and forced to validate their credentials or permissions – isn’t new. However, only 21% of enterprises use zero trust within their architecture. This leaves organizations blind to who is accessing their apps and how data is being used and shared.
That number should skyrocket in 2023 as at least 40% of enterprises will adopt zero trust, if not more.
Working from home or remotely due to COVID-19 isn’t the “new normal”, it’s just normal. The increasing number of mobile workers, combined with increasingly complex threats against data and device security – will lead more organizations to embrace zero trust.
SOTI Can Help You Take Advantage of These Trends
With the SOTI ONE Platform, you can build business-critical enterprise apps with SOTI Snap, secure and manage your printers with SOTI Connect, gain visibility into device health with SOTI XSight and manage your devices on the Cloud with SOTI MobiControl Cloud.
Want to know more? Here’s how:
