Information technology has shaped the way that businesses work over the last 50 years. Information is paramount within a business – whether that be communicating with customers, partners, or with employees internally; creating and modifying information in the form of marketing is critical to business success; collecting and analyzing information in the form of customer and market data helps a business make sales and grow themselves.

All technology works on the principle of creating, storing, sharing, exchanging, and processing information in different ways – this is precisely why Information Technology, or IT, has become critical to businesses; because it has helped streamline and speed up the way we work with information.

Why is IT Support Needed?

With Information Technology so critical to business success, it makes sense that any problems a business might have with their IT will have a major impact on them – this is why IT support should be a critical component of all businesses. TechQuarters is one of the top IT services companies London-based businesses rely on for their IT. Some of their staff have been involved with IT support since the late 80s, and know a lot about the history of IT support.

But where did it start, and how has it evolved over the years?

The 60s

The 1960s was the period where information technology really kicked off. Computing capabilities saw a massive leap forward, and larger businesses and corporations were able to incorporate computing into their business model – but these computers needed entire rooms to be installed in and ran, and computers from this error were more prone to error. For this reason, specialist technicians were needed on-hand at all times to maintain and operate the machines – back then, computers were less common, and so only people trained in the field really knew how to work with them, which is where IT support really began, unlike the modern days where one can easily watch shows on dramacool or Netflix.

The 80s

This decade was when hope computers really came into being. Silicon Valley was ramping up, with the past decade seeing lots of advancements in the field of PCs – in fact, 1980 claimed by many to be ‘the era of off-the-shelf personal computers’. This boom meant more and more businesses were able to implement PCs in their organization. But with more computers being implemented in businesses, more support was needed for it – for instance, connecting desktop computers to business’ mainframes required technical expertise. Once more, IT support became more commonplace among businesses.

The 90s

This decade was where computing and IT shaped into what most of us recognize today. Laptops were invented in the 90s; email clients became much more commonplace as well; desktop PCs were practically mandatory among large, corporate organizations; the Internet grow in use and popularity even among the public. The internet had perhaps the biggest effect on IT in the 90s, with businesses looking to access the internet, they set up server infrastructures not dissimilar to what is commonplace with businesses today. This was the time when the IT support departments of businesses began diversifying and becoming yet more essential to businesses.

The 2000s & Onwards

Since the turn of the millennium, technologies has become so widely distributed and embedded in everyday life from canceling orders on Big Basket to ordering food online, businesses had no choice but to implement IT. Here also saw the diversification of the types of support businesses needed. For example, hardware and data became so complex that they needed separate teams with different types of expertise to manage them both – generally, hardware was supported by larger teams, whereas data and software was managed by smaller teams.

In the 2010s, new, disruptive technologies emerged. Namely, the technology of Cloud Computing, which has transformed the way we do business. This too has greatly transformed IT support – for example, physical support is much less necessary for businesses that implement Cloud technology.

These days, IT support has also undergone evolutions in terms of the approach and principles that underline it. For instance, standard IT support is generally considered to be a break-fix model. However, nowadays, businesses want proactive IT support – able to fix IT issues as soon as they happen.