Zero Trust Has a Blind Spot in Every Office
Why modernizing print is the entry point to digital transformation, cloud migration, Zero Trust, and unlocking AI readiness.
Victor Grund, VP Solutions Engineering, Vasion
October 6, 2026
5 mins
This spring, Vasion commissioned Censuswide to survey 502 IT leaders in the United States: CIOs, IT Directors, and System Administrators at organizations in government, healthcare, and manufacturing. We asked about infrastructure posture, 2026 priorities, and the obstacles between their modernization plans and progress. For the CIO setting that agenda, two numbers from the research belong side by side.
61% named strengthening cybersecurity and cyber resilience a top IT priority for 2026, virtually tied with establishing or expanding AI capabilities at 64%. Yet when the same leaders described their Zero Trust architecture, only 16% included print infrastructure. That is the lowest coverage of any category in the survey, 50 percentage points below cloud workloads and SaaS applications at 66% .
Every other category shows Zero Trust maturing: endpoint security at 61%, identity and access management at 58%, remote and hybrid work endpoints at 47%, network segmentation at 44%. Print is the outlier.
“Known and Accepted Risks”
When we asked leaders to describe their current print environment, the most common answer was candid: 54% chose “actively managed, with known and accepted risks.” Only 29% consider print a solved problem, and even among CIOs that figure reaches just 31%. Another 11% have identified print as a potential risk that has not yet become a priority.
That phrasing indicates leaders are aware of the exposure and have decided to live with it. Print reads as a legacy utility, something the helpdesk handles. In reality it is a fleet of networked endpoints that spool, store, and transmit sensitive documents. Print servers hold queues of jobs. Many devices authenticate loosely or not at all. In a Zero Trust model, each of those behaviors would fail the test applied to every other endpoint.The Weekly Cost of Deferral
The survey puts numbers on what accepted risk costs. 92% of organizations experience productivity disruptions from print or document workflow failures, and for 61% those disruptions arrive at least weekly. One in five deals with them daily, and respondents averaged three disruptions per week.
Each disruption carries more than lost minutes. In healthcare, a failed print job can delay patient records or specimen labels. In government, it can stall citizen services and records requests. In manufacturing, it can hold up pick lists and shipping documentation on the line. The same infrastructure that Zero Trust does not yet cover is interrupting work everywhere else, week after week. Those interruptions land on outcomes the CIO owns: operational continuity, compliance posture, and staff capacity.What Zero Trust Looks Like When It Reaches Print
Closing the gap means applying the same principles used everywhere else: verify identity before granting access, remove standing infrastructure that must be defended, and assume no network is trusted. This is the premise of Intelligent Print Automation (IPA): treat print as an automated, policy-driven layer of the Vasion Platform rather than a standing tier of servers and drivers.
In practice, that means three changes. First, eliminate print servers: PrinterLogic delivers serverless, direct IP printing, so there are no server queues holding documents and no additional infrastructure to patch and defend. Second, tie release to identity: Secure Release Printing holds jobs until the user authenticates at the device, which aligns print with the identity and access management investments 58% of leaders already prioritize. Third, remove network trust assumptions: Off-Network Printing lets users print without network line-of-sight to the printer.
For most organizations this is configuration, not a custom integration project, and deployment is measured in days. The outcome for the CIO is a smaller attack surface, one less infrastructure tier to fund and defend, and a modernization win delivered inside a single quarter.IT Leaders Are Ready to Act
We asked one more question: if a solution could eliminate legacy print infrastructure, enforce Zero Trust policies, and deploy in days, where would it rank as a modernization priority? 80% said high priority or top of their list, and among CIOs the figure rises to 82%. That answer aligns with how these leaders describe themselves: 94% identify as innovation leaders, fast followers, or pragmatic adopters.
The payoff reaches beyond security. With 64% prioritizing AI expansion and 38% citing legacy infrastructure and technical debt as a top obstacle to digital transformation, retiring legacy print removes a piece of the debt standing between IT leaders and their AI goals. The readiness is there. What remains is putting print on the Zero Trust agenda.
The full research, including all seven findings, is available in The 2026 Vasion Report. See where your Zero Trust architecture stands and what it takes to close the print gap by taking our assessment.
About This Research
Vasion commissioned this research in partnership with Censuswide to understand the real-world infrastructure challenges, security priorities, and digital transformation barriers facing enterprise IT leaders today. The survey was conducted among 500+ CIOs across enterprise organizations in 2026. Respondents were asked to select all applicable answers where indicated (up to three selections), or choose a single best-fit response for attitudinal questions. Percentages reflect the proportion of respondents selecting each option; multi-select questions will sum to more than 100%. Results are self-reported and may not be representative of all organizations. This report does not constitute an endorsement of any product or vendor, and nothing herein guarantees specific security outcomes, cost savings, or return on investment. Certifications, authorizations, and customer figures referenced are current as of September 2026, and subject to periodic review.
Vasion is an Intelligent Print Automation company making digital transformation attainable for all by eliminating print servers, consolidating print environments, and digitizing document workflows. Renowned for pioneering serverless, direct IP printing with PrinterLogic, Vasion is redefining modern output management with one of the world’s most secure cloud-native platforms. Vasion holds ISO 42001 and ISO 27001 certifications, a SOC 2 Type II report, and achieved FedRAMP® High Authorization to Operate. More than 14,000 customers globally including hundreds of the world’s leading enterprises, use Vasion to modernize, consolidate, automate, and secure their print environments, deploying and enabling AI at the document layer.