The workplace has changed—and so has printing. Once confined to central office equipment and on-premise networks, printing is now a decentralized, cloud-connected, and mobile-first capability supporting work-from-anywhere models. As remote and hybrid work become permanent fixtures in today’s professional landscape, print infrastructure is adapting to meet a new set of demands around security, flexibility, and productivity.
This blog launches part one of a two-part series, where we’ll explore how remote work has changed the way we print, what challenges and innovations have emerged, and why cloud-first, mobile-friendly print technology is no longer optional—it’s essential.
The Remote Work Shift Is Here to Stay
The global shift toward flexible work isn’t a trend—it’s a structural transformation. According to Owl Labs, full-time in-office work decreased six percent from 2023 to 2024. Meanwhile, hybrid models are rapidly becoming the dominant standard. Employees are printing from home offices, coworking spaces, hotels, and even cars—not just from office desktops.
This evolving work environment creates new challenges for traditional print systems, many of which were built for centralized IT environments. The question facing many organizations today isn’t just can employees print?—it’s can they print securely, reliably, and easily from anywhere?
Four Ways Remote Work Has Transformed Printing
Later in this series, we’ll hear from Mopria Alliance members including Adobe, who points out four key areas where the print experience has fundamentally changed:
- Where print jobs originate: Personal laptops, mobile phones, and tablets are now key sources of printing.
- Where printing occurs: Home offices, shared spaces, and remote locations have replaced a single office floor.
- What gets printed: Documents now often include high-resolution imagery, charts, and layered PDFs that demand more sophisticated rendering.
- How printing happens: Users expect driverless, app-free printing with consistent quality—regardless of location or device.
These shifts underscore the need for cloud-native, device-agnostic print solutions that reduce friction for remote workers while minimizing IT complexity.
Enter Cloud Print Management
Cloud printing is increasingly emerging as the backbone of remote-friendly print workflows. According to Quocirca, cloud print adoption is projected to hit 55% in 2025, a sharp rise driven by the demands of distributed workforces.
In a hybrid environment, cloud print management offers:
- Centralized control over decentralized devices
- Print-anywhere access without VPNs or local servers
- Built-in security features like end-to-end encryption and pull printing
- Lower infrastructure costs, especially for SMBs or organizations without dedicated print servers
As a Mopria Alliance member, PaperCut emphasizes in their blog, cloud print management simplifies operations while meeting employee expectations for seamless access and IT’s need for control.
Productivity, Security, and Sustainability: A New Balancing Act
While cloud printing addresses convenience and accessibility, security remains a top concern. Remote work environments lack the perimeter defenses of traditional offices, pushing IT leaders to adopt zero-trust print architectures, where users must authenticate before printing and where encrypted data paths are standard.
At the same time, sustainability goals are influencing print strategy. Adobe’s insights highlight how hybrid workplaces are rethinking print volumes, focusing on intentional printing rather than high-volume output. Print tech that supports smarter job routing, duplex defaults, and usage analytics helps companies stay green—even outside the office.
Looking Ahead: The Role of Mopria
As printing evolves, standards-based technologies like Mopria’s universal specifications are enabling businesses to simplify and standardize print experiences across devices and locations. Mopria’s universal print framework eliminates the need for custom drivers or complex setups, making it easier to support hybrid and mobile workers.
Whether printing from an Android tablet at home, scanning documents at a coworking space, or accessing cloud-enabled MFPs at the office, Mopria-certified solutions offer the simplicity and reliability modern workflows demand.
Up Next: What the Industry Thinks
In Part 2, we sit down with members of the Mopria Alliance—including voices from Adobe, HP, Lexmark, and Kyocera—to explore how the print industry is responding to these shifts with innovation across cloud infrastructure, secure access, intelligent print management, and mobile-first design.
💡 Want to explore how Mopria makes printing and scanning easier for today’s mobile workforce? Visit our Print for Business page.
