The biggest differences in Managed IT Services versus Break/Fix IT services are proactive and preventative capabilities. At its heart, a managed IT service provider is attempting to prevent hardware issues, software issues, and security issues from crippling the business. A managed service provider installs RMM (remote monitoring and maintenance) tools to get an up-to-date in-depth look at the systems in the business. Alerts can be set up by the MSP when certain issues arise, so that the MSP can act on them before the issue grows into something worse.
For example, if a computer has a drive that throws a SMART failure (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), an MSP can receive an alert that the drive is about to fail, and take preventative measures to prevent data loss. In a break/fix world, the drive will most likely fail, and all data will be lost before a break/fix computer technician is even notified that there’s a problem.