How hybrid work has changed print management

The shift is not simply about enabling employees to print from home. It is about managing print and document workflows across offices, remote users, cloud services, and changing IT environments without adding unnecessary complexity for IT teams. 

What hybrid work exposed in legacy print systems

Traditional print environments were often designed around a relatively predictable setup: users worked in offices; print servers were hosted on-site, and devices were managed within defined locations. Hybrid work disrupted that model.

Employees now work across offices, homes, and other locations. Organizations operate distributed sites, move offices, consolidate locations, and increasingly rely on cloud services. At the same time, security requirements have become more demanding, and IT teams are expected to manage more infrastructure with fewer manual processes. 

A print environment that depends heavily on fixed infrastructure and location-specific management can become difficult to adapt to.

The result is not necessarily that traditional printing stops working. The problem is that the infrastructure may require more administration, more intervention, and more workarounds as the organization changes.

How has cloud infrastructure changed print management?

Cloud infrastructure has made it possible to approach print management without assuming that every part of the environment needs to remain on-site.

Organizations can now choose different deployment models depending on their infrastructure and requirements. MyQ X supports on-premises and private cloud environments, including deployment on cloud infrastructure such as Microsoft Azure, while MyQ Roger provides a public cloud, SaaS approach designed around cloud, mobile, remote, and hybrid workplaces.

Cloud connectivity also changes how users interact with documents. Cloud storage integrations can allow users to access and print documents from services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, and SharePoint, while scanning can send documents directly to cloud destinations.

For IT teams, the important shift is flexibility. Print infrastructure no longer has to be designed exclusively around a single physical office or local server environment. 

How has print security changed for hybrid teams?

Hybrid work has expanded the number of locations, devices, networks, and services involved in document workflows. That makes security something that needs to be considered across the entire workflow rather than added as a separate layer around the printer.

Authentication, secure print release, encryption, access controls, and secure document transfer all become important when users and devices are distributed.

MyQ Roger, for example, uses a public cloud architecture with security features including TLS 1.3, end-to-end job encryption, access control, two-factor authentication, and configurable authentication methods.

MyQ also describes security as part of its print workflow design, covering areas from authentication through printing and scanning to delivery and storage. Its security approach includes regular penetration testing and vulnerability assessments.

For hybrid environments, the objective is clear: users need access to print and document workflows without creating unnecessary security gaps between the office, cloud, and remote workplace.

Why does hardware flexibility matter more in hybrid work?

Different offices may use different devices. Acquisitions can introduce new fleets. Hardware can be replaced at different times across regions. Office moves and consolidations can also change which devices are available at each location.

This makes flexibility across hardware manufacturers increasingly important.

A centralized print management platform should be able to maintain consistent management across supported devices rather than requiring every location to follow a completely different approach.

MyQ X and MyQ Roger are multivendor solutions, supporting a broad range of printers and MFP manufacturers. MyQ X, for example, expanded its supported hardware with Brother devices in 2026, further extending its multivendor capabilities.

For organizations operating distributed fleets, this flexibility can make it easier to manage change without making every hardware decision a print management decision.

How do employees expect to print in a hybrid environment?

Hybrid employees do not necessarily interact with printing from the same location or in the same way every day.

A user may prepare a document at home, work from an office the next day, and retrieve a document from a different device or location. That makes secure print mobility and simple user interaction more important than workflows built around a single fixed workstation. 

MyQ supports different approaches to print mobility. MyQ Desktop Client provides features including user identification, print job encryption, job accounting, automatic printer provisioning, client spooling, and fallback printing.

MyQ Roger extends this model into the public cloud with mobile printing, cloud document access, secure device authentication, and document workflows designed for distributed workplaces.

The expectation is changing from “send a document to this printer” to “give me a secure and convenient way to complete this document task wherever I am working.”

How is MyQ responding to the shift?

The evolution of MyQ’s product portfolio reflects different ways organizations are approaching hybrid and cloud environments.

MyQ X: on-premises and private cloud flexibility

MyQ X is designed for organizations that need print management in on-premises, private cloud, or hybrid environments. It can be deployed in cloud infrastructure, including Azure, while maintaining connections to on-premises printers and other local resources. MyQ X also supports Microsoft Universal Print, providing a cloud connection between MyQ X and end-user devices.

This approach allows organizations to modernize their infrastructure without assuming that every part of their print environment needs to move to a public cloud at once.

MyQ Roger: cloud by design

MyQ Roger takes a different architectural approach. It is a public cloud, multitenant SaaS platform designed for cloud-first, remote, and hybrid workplaces. Its architecture removes the need for local print servers and includes centralized web management, mobile workflows, cloud integrations, and security controls.

That distinction matters because cloud adoption does not look the same for every organization. Some need control over their own infrastructure and a hybrid deployment model. Others want a fully cloud-hosted service.

Multivendor support

The hardware environment is another part of that flexibility.

MyQ solution supports major printer brands including Brother, Canon, Epson, Fujifilm, HP, Katun, Kyocera, Lexmark, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba, Triumph-Adler, UTAX, and Xerox. 

This gives organizations more freedom to manage diverse fleets while maintaining a common print management approach.

Cloud and security investment 

The shift toward cloud print management is also reflected in MyQ Roger’s architecture. The platform runs as a public cloud service and includes cloud document workflows, mobile access, centralized management, encrypted data transfer, end-to-end job encryption, two-factor authentication, and granular access controls.

The result is not a single definition of the hybrid workplace. It is a portfolio that gives organizations different deployment options depending on how their infrastructure, security requirements, and working environments are evolving. 

What does this mean for organizations planning their next print environment? 

The question is no longer simply whether an organization can manage its printers remotely. IT teams need to consider how print infrastructure connects with cloud services, how users authenticate and access documents, how security is maintained across distributed environments, and how easily the platform can adapt as offices, devices, and working patterns change.

The right architecture will depend on the organization. Some environments will continue to require on-premises or hybrid infrastructure. Others will benefit from a public cloud approach.

What has changed is the expectation that print management should be able to accommodate both the technology and the workplace around it.

Hybrid work did not eliminate printing. It changed where, how, and under what conditions printing needs to work.