Break-fix support means calling someone when something stops working and paying for the time. A managed service means paying a fixed monthly fee for the environment to be looked after. The difference is in who carries the risk.
How break-fix works
You pay by the hour or from a block of prepaid hours. Nothing is charged in a good month. In a bad month, the bill is large and the business was down while it was earned.
The problem with the incentives
A break-fix provider earns more when more goes wrong. Most are decent people, but nobody is paid to prevent the fault, so updates, backups and security checks tend not to happen.
How a managed service differs
With a fixed fee, the provider does better when your systems run well, because every fault costs them time. That pays for monitoring, patching and prevention.
What you get that you didn't before
Expect a service desk, monitoring, patching, security tooling, backup checks, documentation and regular reporting. Expect someone to tell you what needs attention before it fails.
When break-fix still makes sense
A very small office with a few computers, cloud software and little sensitive data may be fine with occasional help. So may a business with capable internal IT that only needs specialist projects.
When to switch
Switch when downtime costs real money, when you hold customer or financial data, when an insurer or customer asks about your security, or when you have grown past about 15 people and nobody is watching the environment.
What the switch involves
A provider should start with an audit, fix the urgent gaps, document the environment and then settle into a steady rhythm. The first few months usually surface problems that were always there.
Want your IT looked after for a fixed monthly fee? Managed IT services
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