The IT leader’s guide to saving hours and securing every endpoint

Mid-market IT leaders are feeling the squeeze as end-user expectations and security pressures rise — yet the IT teams remain small. Kaseya’s latest research shows that 36% of organizations now operate with IT departments of five or fewer employees — up from 30% in 2024 — even as cybersecurity remains both their biggest challenge and top priority.

When you combine lean staffing with a threat landscape that never sleeps, saving time and locking down endpoints becomes an uphill battle. This blog uncovers the pressures holding IT teams back and shows how a unified remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool can help regain control.

The growing strain on IT teams

Behind every efficient IT operation is a team racing against time, defending against threats with fewer resources than they need.

Ticket volume overload

The day-to-day reality for IT teams is a cycle of nonstop requests and limited time. Data shows technicians manage hundreds of tickets each week, leaving little room for strategic work or system improvements.

IT Glue’s State of IT Report shows technicians juggle an average of 160 level 1 tickets, 66 level 2 tickets, 39 level 3 tickets and 33 on‑site visits every week. On‑site visits consume about 100 minutes per ticket, level 3 tickets take roughly 98 minutes and even simple level 1 issues eat up 35 minutes.

Sky‑high user expectations

The pressure doesn’t stop at ticket volume. Users have grown accustomed to instant results, and patience for slow response times has all but disappeared. The latest data shows just how demanding the support environment has become.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents to the IT Glue Report indicated that their end users now expect faster ticket resolution times, with 31% expecting almost instant resolution and 43% expecting faster resolution.

Security pressure

Security has become the biggest test for IT teams stretched thin by growing workloads and impatient users. Every breach now carries greater financial and operational consequences.

Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report recorded 22,052 security incidents and 12,195 confirmed breaches across 139 countries — the largest dataset in the report’s history. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach study paints an equally serious picture, with the average global breach now costing US $4.44 million. Recovery is slow too: 76% of organizations required more than 100 days to recover, and about a quarter took more than 150 days.

Hiring challenges

Even as responsibilities expand, team sizes remain stagnant. Many organizations are holding back on new hires, leaving existing technicians to shoulder more work with fewer resources. According to Kaseya’s 2025 Global IT Trends and Priorities Report, only 27% of organizations plan to increase IT staffing. Economic uncertainty, budget constraints and difficulty hiring skilled personnel put additional strain on existing teams.

How fragmented tools create challenges

When every function, including ticketing, patching, remote access, documentation and monitoring, lives in a separate application, productivity suffers. Jumping between dashboards eats up precious minutes and increases the likelihood of oversight. Here’s how fragmented tools consume time and slow IT teams down:

Tool fragmentation also leads to blind spots. Without a single source of truth, technicians may miss critical alerts or apply inconsistent policies across devices. This lack of visibility can lead to unpatched systems, misconfigured endpoints and security gaps.

How a unified RMM solves the problem

A unified RMM platform solves these problems by consolidating core functions. Key features include:

• Centralized monitoring: All endpoints are visible in one dashboard, allowing technicians to assess device health and compliance quickly.
• Automated patching and software deployment: Keeping systems up to date becomes a background process rather than a manual chore.
• Integrated ticketing and alerts: Events generate service tickets automatically, ensuring issues are captured and tracked without extra clicks.
• Remote control and scripting: Technicians can troubleshoot and fix problems without travelling to the device and can run scripts to remediate incidents at scale.
• Contextual documentation: Documentation is embedded within the management interface, reducing the need to search separate knowledge bases.

Why Datto RMM stands out

Datto RMM is a unified endpoint management platform designed for time‑starved, security‑conscious IT teams. Here’s why it’s essential:

• Automated updates and patching: Keeping devices current is one of the most effective ways to block exploits. Datto RMM automates OS and application patching across diverse endpoints, ensuring they’re always up to date.
• Remote access and device management: Physical access to an endpoint is impractical when managing thousands of them across hybrid environments. Datto RMM provides one‑click remote connectivity, letting technicians troubleshoot, deploy software and monitor devices without leaving their desks.
• Centralized information: The platform’s device landing page offers a consolidated view of each endpoint’s status, health metrics and history, enabling technicians to assess issues quickly and accurately.
• User‑friendly interface and integrations: Datto RMM integrates seamlessly with tools like Autotask PSA and IT Glue. Organizations using both Autotask and IT Glue manage an average of 250 endpoints per technician, compared with 100 for Autotask alone and 40 for non‑Autotask users, which shows how a unified tool stack multiplies productivity.
• Security at the core: Datto RMM is the foundation for advanced security layers like Datto AV, EDR and MDR. Coupled with Datto’s SOC services, it helps reduce alert fatigue and augments lean teams with specialised security expertise.

Building a resilient IT framework

Automation, integration and proactive security are the foundations of a scalable IT strategy. Datto RMM helps you achieve that by streamlining operations, reducing manual workloads and strengthening endpoint protection across your environment.

If you’d like to explore broader strategies for IT preparedness, our eBook Future Ready: Your IT Preparedness Playbook offers additional insights. It covers how to build a balanced approach across service management, endpoint management, cybersecurity and backup and disaster recovery, helping your organization stay ready for anything.

Learn practical ways to strengthen your IT resilience.