Technology Rewired: IT Operations

How has the it operations team changed across five eras?

1. Era 1 · On-prem

   Before 2005

   0.4

   IT was a help desk phone line, desk-side support, and imaged PCs on a corporate network. Technicians handled tickets, installs, and password resets, and asset tracking lived in spreadsheets.

2. Era 2 · SaaS and cloud

   2005 to 2020

   1.2

   SaaS ITSM, MDM, and SSO let small IT teams manage remote fleets and hundreds of SaaS apps. Service catalogs and automation cut some tickets, but resets, access requests, and app sprawl kept the queue full.

3. Era 3 · AI-assisted

   2020 to 2024

   1.8

   Virtual agents and ML routing deflected simple requests and classified tickets. Most fixes still needed a technician to act in the admin console.

4. Era 4 · Agentic

   2024 onward

   2.3

   Agents now handle access requests, password and MFA resets with identity checks, app provisioning, and common device fixes directly in the underlying systems. Reset flows are a favorite attack path, so verification design matters more than speed, as the help desk is the new perimeter shows.

5. Era 5 · Next 5 years

   2026 to 2031

   3.4

   My bet: most routine IT requests resolve without a human touching them, and IT teams become platform owners who design policies, identity checks, and automations. The service desk shrinks; endpoint and identity engineering grow.

Which it operations software is being rewired?

No deep dives yet. The first ones are in the queue below.

Coming next

• IT service managementwave 3
• Device management (MDM)
• SaaS management
• IT asset management
• Password managers
• Remote support
• Network monitoring

Also wired into this category: Firewall and Network Security, Help Desk and Ticketing, Identity and Access Management (IAM and CIAM), SIEM and SOC Platforms.