The fastest-growing online lenders aren’t just innovating on the front end—they’re quietly investing in the back end, too. While you’re focused on customer acquisition and compliance, they’re relying on managed IT services to improve uptime and streamline operations.
If you’re wondering why your infrastructure feels stretched thin while theirs runs like clockwork, this blog breaks down exactly what they’re doing, and how you can apply it.
1. The Competitive Edge of Today’s Top Online Lenders
2. What Are Managed IT Services?
3. How Leading Lenders Use Managed IT Services?
4. Key Benefits for Mortgage Companies and Banks
5. What Happens When You Don't Invest?
6. Making the Shift: Where to Begin
7. Key Takeaways
Today’s top-performing online lenders didn’t get ahead just by digitizing loan applications or offering fast approvals. They’ve built their edge by creating resilient, secure, and scalable infrastructures behind the scenes, largely through the strategic use of managed IT services.
Here’s what sets them apart:
Downtime is non-negotiable in the lending space. Leading lenders ensure 24/7 system availability by outsourcing infrastructure monitoring, patch management, real-time support, and more through managed IT providers. The result: fewer disruptions, faster loan processing, and better borrower experiences.
Source: International Monetary Fund
Cyber threats target financial institutions more aggressively than ever. Thus, online lenders are turning to managed IT services for proactive threat detection, firewall management, and endpoint protection. These tools help maintain trust and stay ahead of evolving compliance requirements.
The ability to test, scale, and launch new tools like a new fraud detection layer, gives these lenders a major leg up. Managed service providers help streamline development pipelines and reduce deployment friction.
Managed IT services refer to the ongoing outsourcing of your organization’s IT operations to a specialized provider. This can include cybersecurity, cloud hosting, help desk support, infrastructure monitoring, compliance management, etc. These services basically eliminate the need to juggle fragmented vendors or be overwhelmed by in-house teams.
It’s not a niche trend, it’s a fast-growing standard. As per the Grand View Research report, from 2025 to 2030, the global managed services market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 14.1%, from its estimated $335.37 billion in 2024.
Source: Grand View Research
That kind of growth reflects how essential these services have become for industries like banking and mortgage lending, where downtime and data risk are simply not an option.
Top-performing mortgage lenders and banks use managed IT services to build safer and more scalable operations. Here are the five ways they’re putting these services to work in practice:
| 1. Centralized Microsoft 365 monitoring and security | Managed IT teams monitor SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive, and Teams usage in real time to catch anomalies, and enforce compliance policies across departments |
| 2. Cybersecurity assessments with real-time remediation | Instead of yearly audits, leading lenders partner with providers to conduct ongoing risk assessments and fix gaps before they’re exploited |
| 3. Deployment of Managed Extended Detection and Response (MxDR) | Lenders integrate MxDR to detect sophisticated threats across endpoints and cloud environments to automate incident response and reduce breach impact time |
| 4. Cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) | Managed IT teams host secure, compliant virtual desktops, allowing remote underwriters and support staff to work securely without risking data exposure |
| 5. Dedicated private server hosting for loan origination software (LOS) | Instead of using generic hosting platforms, lenders use managed private servers optimized for LOS performance, uptime, and compliance requirements |
| 6. Business continuity and disaster recovery planning (BCDR) | Managed providers design and test full recovery workflows so that critical lending operations continue uninterrupted during ransomware attacks or outages |
Managed IT services are a strategic advantage. Here’s what top lenders are gaining:
Holding off on managed IT services does more than just slow you down. It opens you up to real, measurable damage. One successful phishing attack can compromise borrower data and leave you stuck with breach notifications and reputational loss.
Loan processing becomes sluggish, not because your team isn't capable, but because your tools aren't keeping up. Security patches take longer to deploy. Backups? Often skipped or outdated. And compliance? It becomes a mad dash whenever an audit looms, with IT pulling all-nighters to pull reports together.
Worst of all, recovery from outages or cyber incidents becomes guesswork instead of a structured, time-bound process. That’s the kind of uncertainty lenders can’t afford, especially when your competitors are running smarter, faster, and more securely.
Ready to explore managed IT services but not sure where to start? Begin with a focused, step-by-step approach:
The shift doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You just need the right roadmap and the right partner.
Not sure where to start? Talk to an expert at Mortgage Workspace.
1. Why do top online lenders rely on managed IT services?
Top online lenders use managed IT services to ensure 24/7 infrastructure uptime, strengthen cybersecurity defenses, and accelerate technology deployment. These services help them streamline operations, reduce downtime, and maintain compliance, giving them a competitive edge in a fast-paced lending environment.
2. What types of managed IT services are most beneficial for mortgage lenders?
Mortgage lenders benefit most from services like centralized Microsoft 365 monitoring, continuous cybersecurity assessments, Managed Extended Detection and Response (MxDR), cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), dedicated private server hosting for loan origination software, and business continuity and disaster recovery planning (BCDR).
3. What risks do mortgage companies face if they don’t invest in managed IT services?
Without managed IT services, lenders risk increased downtime, slower loan processing, greater exposure to cyber threats like ransomware or phishing attacks, difficulties maintaining compliance, and chaotic recovery from outages or security breaches. These issues can lead to lost borrower trust and reputational damage.