Blog – The History of Managed IT

The History of Managed IT Services

While the managed IT services model is common today, in the early days of technology, things looked a lot different. Business owners who relied on computers to expand found it was a struggle to address computing issues. Often, they turned to the company or individual from which the computers and hardware had been purchased for help.

At the time, most services operated on a break-and-fix model where an IT technician was only called upon when something broke. When a problem could not be fixed in-house, companies had to search for and find competent off-site contractors that were often very costly. Additionally, companies lost money from downtime.

This system was inefficient and led to more problems than it fixed. Things such as repair personnel not always having the proper tools due to rapidly evolving technology, periodic reviews of a company’s infrastructure that didn’t always give a full picture, and the need to correct end-user issues before addressing the real problem meant that issues were not always resolved as quickly as they could be.

A solution arises

More organized service providers began to emerge in the late 1990s as an answer to this problem, and they evolved over time into the Managed IT Services that business owners are more familiar with today. Initially, the focus was on remote management and monitoring of IT infrastructure, but managed IT service providers realized they needed to expand their services to include remote firewall administration, managed print services, security as a service, and more.

As the MSPs evolved, so did their methods. Key to the success of this business model has been the ability to resolve issues remotely and the development of a subscription-based model that ensured that businesses were not getting nickel and dimed to death.

The modern-day Managed IT Services Provider

Over time, the industry moved away from the break-and-fix model to a more proactive model where the goal is to prevent issues before they happen. To do this, Managed IT Service Providers have detailed issue monitoring and reporting standards that continue to improve as IT technicians devise more efficient and better ways to do this.

Nowadays, many companies see a managed IT services provider as a crucial component of running a business, whether they use it as a substitute for an on-site IT department, or to supplement the in-house team they already have. When typical day-to-day operations rely on working tech, this is no surprise.