The IT Issues Internal Teams and MSPs Will Face in 2026, and How to Prepare Now

IT environments are entering a phase where complexity is no longer growing slowly, it is compounding. By 2026, most organizations will be managing more endpoints, more tools, more security requirements, and more automation than ever before, often with the same sized teams.

Internal IT teams and Managed Service Providers share many of the same pressures, but the way those pressures surface is different. Understanding the specific issues ahead is the first step toward building an IT operation that can scale without breaking.

This is not about predicting distant futures. These issues are already visible today, they will simply become unavoidable by 2026.

1. Tool Sprawl Becomes an Operational Risk

Over the last decade, IT teams solved problems by adding tools. A monitoring platform here, a patching tool there, separate software for remote access, scripting, asset tracking, compliance reporting, and security visibility.

By 2026, this approach starts to collapse under its own weight.

Internal IT teams inherit overlapping tools from past decisions, leadership changes, acquisitions, and emergency purchases. MSPs accumulate tools to support different client needs, verticals, and security requirements.

The result is not just higher cost. It is fragmented visibility, duplicated effort, and workflows that depend on stitching together data from multiple systems.

When monitoring lives in one tool, patching in another, scripting in a third, and reporting in a fourth, even simple tasks require context switching. Over time, this slows response, increases error rates, and makes automation fragile.

Tool sprawl also increases failure points. An integration breaks, an API changes, or a license lapses, and suddenly critical workflows stop working.

By 2026, organizations that have not consolidated core IT functions will find that tool sprawl itself becomes a source of outages and security gaps.

2. Endpoint Growth Outpaces Human Capacity

The number of endpoints under management continues to rise. Laptops, desktops, virtual machines, cloud workloads, kiosks, and specialized devices all count as endpoints now.

At the same time, IT headcount growth remains flat.

Internal IT teams are expected to support hybrid workforces, remote offices, and always on systems without proportional staffing increases. MSPs face similar pressure as they onboard more clients while trying to maintain healthy technician to endpoint ratios.

Manual processes that once worked at 200 endpoints do not scale to 2,000 or 10,000. By 2026, any IT operation that relies heavily on manual checks, one off scripts, or reactive ticket handling will struggle to keep up.

This is where automation stops being optional. The issue is not whether automation exists, but whether it is reliable, visible, and easy to maintain.

Automation that lives across multiple tools is brittle. When environments change, those automations silently fail.

Platforms that centralize monitoring, scripting, and endpoint control reduce that fragility and allow teams to manage growth without constant firefighting.

3. Security Responsibility Without Security Resources

One of the most consistent issues internal IT teams face is being responsible for security outcomes without dedicated security staff.

Patching, access control, endpoint hardening, and alert response often fall on generalist IT teams already stretched thin. MSPs face similar challenges when clients expect enterprise level security while resisting enterprise level pricing.

By 2026, threats will be faster, more automated, and more targeted. Attackers already exploit misconfigurations, delayed patches, and unmanaged endpoints. Those gaps grow wider in fragmented environments.

Security tools alone do not solve this. In fact, adding more point solutions often increases noise and alert fatigue.

What teams need is operational security. That means consistent enforcement of policies, visibility into endpoint state, and the ability to act quickly across large device fleets.

Security improves when IT teams can see and control their environment from a single operational layer, rather than chasing alerts across disconnected tools.

4. Alert Fatigue Masks Real Incidents

Alert fatigue is no longer just an annoyance. By 2026, it will become a serious reliability issue.

Legacy monitoring setups generate large volumes of low value alerts. Technicians learn to ignore them, tune them out, or silence them entirely.

The problem is not that alerts exist, it is that they lack context and prioritization.

Internal IT teams miss early warning signs because everything looks urgent. MSPs risk SLA breaches when critical alerts get buried under noise.

Modern IT operations require smarter alerting tied directly to actionable workflows. Alerts should indicate what changed, why it matters, and what action is required.

This is difficult to achieve when monitoring and remediation live in separate systems. Platforms that connect monitoring with automation reduce noise and shorten response times.

5. Compliance Pressure Increases Without Better Tooling

Compliance requirements continue to expand across healthcare, education, finance, and regulated industries. Audits demand evidence of patching, access controls, system health, and incident response readiness.

The challenge is that many IT tools were never designed with reporting in mind.

Internal IT teams often scramble to collect data manually before audits. MSPs spend unpaid hours pulling reports to satisfy client requests.

By 2026, this approach will become unsustainable.

Compliance needs to be operational, not reactive. Reporting should be generated from day to day IT activity, not assembled after the fact.

When endpoint management, patching, and monitoring are centralized, compliance reporting becomes a byproduct of normal operations instead of a separate project.

6. Client and Stakeholder Expectations Rise

For MSPs, clients increasingly expect proof of value, not just uptime. They want to see what is being managed, what risks were reduced, and what work was performed.

Internal IT teams face similar scrutiny from leadership. IT is expected to justify spending, demonstrate efficiency, and support business continuity.

By 2026, vague assurances are no longer enough. Teams need clear visibility into their environment and the ability to communicate outcomes in business terms.

This requires tools that surface meaningful metrics, not just raw data.

7. Burnout Becomes a Structural Problem

Burnout is often treated as a people issue, but it is usually a systems issue.

Small IT teams managing complex environments with fragmented tooling experience constant cognitive overload. MSP technicians jump between platforms, interfaces, and workflows all day.

By 2026, burnout contributes directly to operational risk. Knowledge silos form. Turnover increases. Incident response slows.

Reducing burnout requires simplifying the operational surface area. Fewer tools, clearer workflows, and better automation all reduce mental load.

Preparing for 2026 Starts with Simplification

The common thread across these issues is not technology itself, but how technology is managed.

Organizations that continue to stack tools without consolidating workflows will struggle. Those that focus on simplifying endpoint management, automation, and visibility will scale more smoothly.

This is where modern RMM platforms play a critical role.

Level was built with this reality in mind. Instead of adding complexity, it focuses on giving IT teams and MSPs a clean, centralized way to monitor, manage, and automate endpoints at scale. By reducing tool overlap and keeping core IT operations in one place, teams spend less time managing their tools and more time managing their environments.

The goal is not to do everything. It is to do the essential things well, reliably, and visibly.

Final Thoughts

The IT issues coming in 2026 are not surprises. They are the natural outcome of years of increasing complexity, growing endpoint counts, and rising expectations.

Internal IT teams and MSPs that prepare now by simplifying their stacks, improving automation, and centralizing visibility will be in a far stronger position.

Those that do not will find themselves fighting fires with fewer resources and less clarity.

The future of IT operations is not about more tools. It is about better systems.