Episode 7 companion
What I Wanted the Printer Roadmap to Fix
Putting printers in the real device list was the easy part. I wanted the roadmap to kill the firmware scavenger hunt and make printer data useful enough to act on.
At a glance
The short answer
The recorded roadmap focused on three improvements: putting printers in the normal device list, sending useful fleet data into Workspace ONE Intelligence and Freestyle, and simplifying supported firmware updates. This article preserves the product thinking from that recording. It is not a current commitment or release schedule.
Recorded-time product direction: This article explains the roadmap as it was described when Episode 7 was recorded. It is not a statement of current availability or a product commitment. Product names, timing, licensing, supported data and actions, firmware behavior, and OEM or model coverage can change. Verify current official information before making deployment decisions.
Roadmaps move. Printer fleets seem to regard retirement as optional.
That tension is behind most of Episode 7. I am not asking you to treat the recording as a date or a promise. I wanted to show the problems we were trying to remove: printers hidden in a side section, useful data sitting idle, administrators hunting the internet for firmware, and manufacturer support that still has to grow one real model at a time.
Put printers where the devices are
Administrators already have enough places to look.
A printer should not require a trip into a separate peripheral section simply because it happens to contain a roll of labels. I wanted printers beside the other managed endpoints in the main device experience.
That can sound like a navigation change. It is not only navigation.
A printer in a side section feels attached to the platform. A printer in the main device list feels like the platform actually knows what it is and intends to manage it. That was one of the clearest differences I wanted to draw from the connector experience earlier in the series.
The goal was not to build a nicer corner for printers. It was to stop treating them like guests.
A device record should do some work
Seeing a printer in a list is useful. By itself, though, that is closer to a sighting than management.
At recording time, the plan was to send as much useful printer data as possible into Intelligence, where administrators could use it in dashboards, widgets, automation rules, and workflows.
Printer number 500 should not have to teach the organization the same lesson printer number 12 already did.
If a condition matters, the platform should be able to notice it and help drive the next action. Freestyle was part of that thinking. I describe it in the episode as a flowchart-like way to say: do this, wait for that condition, and then take the next step.
One recorded example is post-enrollment placement. A printer enrolls and reports a useful attribute, perhaps a UUID, an IP-related value, or another identifier. A workflow could evaluate it and move the printer into the appropriate Organization Group or management area.
The video does not define every available attribute, trigger, or action. Which printer data currently reaches Intelligence, what Freestyle can do with it, and how those capabilities are packaged all belong in current official information. The idea I was arguing for was simpler: do not collect printer data just to admire it.
Please end the firmware scavenger hunt
The firmware journey described in the recording begins with a supported printer retrieving firmware and updating itself.
The next step I wanted was almost boring, and I mean that as a compliment. Workspace ONE knows which printer is enrolled. It knows an appropriate update is available. It asks whether you want to apply it.
An administrator should not have to search a manufacturer's site, compare nearly identical model names, work out which file applies, and hope the answer is correct. That is not sophisticated device management. That is a scavenger hunt with higher stakes.
The longer-term recorded vision connected firmware decisions with risk information. If a version had a known vulnerability and a corrected version was available, the platform could surface that fact, recommend the update, or potentially support an automation rule based on severity, such as a CVSS threshold.
That remains recorded product direction. It is not a claim that every printer, repository, vulnerability source, or automatic update path works that way today.
More manufacturers, with one honest dependency
We wanted to support as many printer manufacturers as practical. The dependency I call out is compatible MQTT firmware from those manufacturers.
We can build a foundation and work closely with OEMs. We cannot manufacture support on behalf of every printer already sitting in the field. These devices live a long time, and the modern path will arrive model by model.
I also say in the video that we were speaking with many manufacturers, and I deliberately do not name them. I am keeping that boundary here. An NDA conversation is not a support matrix. Administrators need verified manufacturers and models, not suspense.
That was the roadmap I wanted on the table: treat the printer like a real managed device, make its data useful, get administrators out of the firmware scavenger-hunt business, and expand support without pretending that conversations equal availability.
The final episode asks the obvious next question: if that foundation works for printers, what other frontline problem has earned a place on it?
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Transcript
Reviewed against the recording, with punctuation and formatting added for readability. The claims and caveats are unchanged.
[00:07] Hey folks, welcome back to the Jam. Thank you for joining us. Today we'll be talking about what the roadmap for printers looks like, where we are, where we're heading, what's important. So I won't really beat around the bush. I think I'll try to be very straightforward and I'll try to compare what we have coming up in this that really makes a difference, how it stands apart from what we've offered in the past with Connector, and really what there is new and differentiating to be excited about.
[00:34] So first things first, we start with the new device list view. Your printers will be along with all the other platforms, which will make management that much easier. You won't go to a different peripheral section or a different part in Workspace ONE. It's going to be a single pane of glass where you see all your devices. You're going to see printers as well. So that's going to be one huge differentiator really from Connector model.
[00:58] Second thing is, it's going to be very connected to Omnissa's suite of applications. And what that really means is, number one, from an Intelligence perspective, we're going to pipe a lot of data, in fact, all the data we can, to Intelligence. And that means for your automation, for your new workflows, for your dashboards, for your widgets, whatever you want to do, however prescriptive you want to get with your management modality, you're able to do it because all the data is at hand. So you want to set up new workflows. You want to set new automation rules. All of that will be available. Basically all the goodies that you already have in Intelligence for all the other platforms, you will also have for printers, and you'll be able to use that data as you like. So that's a big one.
[01:43] Number two, very soon, as we pipe all this data to Intelligence, you'll be able to use Freestyle Orchestrator in Intelligence to really do post-enrollment orchestration. And what that means is, when printers are enrolled, let's say in Workspace ONE, based on certain attributes, whether it's UUID, whether it's IP, something about the printer, some unique identifier, you're going to be able to use post-enrollment and say, if this has this attribute, move it to a different OG or a different area in Workspace ONE. And this will allow, again, that automation, but also it will allow for very easily and dynamically moving the printers to where they need to be. So that's a big one. And number three, you'll be able to use Freestyle to do the same thing. So that's going to be really cool. Now, if you don't know much about Freestyle, it's understandable. I suggest you reach out. We can certainly teach you a lot more about Freestyle. Really, it's game-changing what Freestyle can do. The way I think about it, it's kind of like a flowchart way of configuring things. So do this and then wait for this action to happen before you do that, that kind of stuff. So really when we think about something like enrollment and post-enrollment orchestration, and movement of devices and actions on devices, this is really going to be right up the alley there.
[03:12] Third thing I'll hit on is going to be firmware upgrades. So we're going to allow for firmware upgrades for printers. Some of this we're going to talk about with what's coming with GA, which is going to be especially for supported printers, the ability for the printers to go get a firmware and be able to update itself. That's part one of this. What's coming in the near future is we want to also work with the vendors to get direct access to their update repos. And instead of having admins go and look for updates online, have to Google it, figure out which one's compatible, we hope to make that journey that much easier. So when you're in Workspace ONE, we tell you, hey, you have this printer, there's an update available. Would you like to upgrade? Hopefully the experience is you simply like, yes, I want to upgrade. And we automatically have the firmware and we directly download it or send it to the printers. So that is our near-term vision. Also what's in our vision, which is a little more complex, so pragmatically it's not coming out in the next six months, but perhaps a little bit after that, is eventually connecting these firmware updates to MPD. So not only are we going to tell you, hey, we already have the firmware, you can update your printers, but what we're also going to be able to tell you is, hey, your firmware is affected with some malware, or we found out online that this firmware has some security vulnerabilities, and there's a new one available. So update ASAP, or click here to update, or you maybe even set automation rules to say, if you ever find a vulnerability that has a CVSS score higher than this, automatically update my printers, something like that.
[04:55] So those are the top three things I would say are really good that are differentiating. Of course, there are tons of other profiles and features and enhancements that I think are better not said on this video just to keep it succinct, but look forward to that. And hopefully you understand how flexible, how expandable, how extensible this platform has become. Some of the highlight features of these, as we have mentioned, is going to differentiate it from peripherals. That ranges from how easy the enrollment will be, to how fast the enrollment will be, to how scalable solutions will be. And finally, to how deep our control over not only the printer will be, but also how expansive it will be. And what that means is how many OEMs we'll support. Our goal is to support as many OEMs as we can. And the only thing really that will stop us is how fast OEMs can come with MQTT firmwares on the printers. And we're working with a lot of printer manufacturers. I can't take their names just for NDA purposes, but really, when you think about printers and you can think of a manufacturer, we're probably talking to them as we speak. So in very short term, you will see the list of printers that are supported in Workspace ONE to drastically increase. And again, this is not some long-term goal. This is immediate goal for us to make printer management as extensive, as expandable, and as interesting to admins as it can be, so they have as much control as possible.
[06:38] Anyway, we'll end this here. Hopefully this makes a lot of sense. Hopefully now you know where the roadmap is going. In the next episode, we'll touch on not only the printer roadmap, but we'll touch on the IoT roadmap. Because remember, this is not just the printer platform. This is also the IoT platform. So we'll talk about some of the different types of devices and peripherals we'll be looking at. Anyway, thanks again for joining. See you later. Bye-bye.
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