State of Dallas IT 2026
What 44,810 support tickets, dozens of mid-market engagements, and 21 years of Dallas-Fort Worth practice tell us about what changed in 2025 — and what mid-market IT leaders should plan for in 2026.
Executive summary
Five things changed in Dallas mid-market IT in 2025: phishing sophistication crossed a threshold; Microsoft 365 Copilot moved from question to deployment; on-site work became table-stakes for serious buyers; compliance pressure moved further down-market; and the labor market got tighter for IT talent. Together, these shifts are reshaping what mid-market companies in the DFW metroplex expect from a managed IT partner.
This report is anchored on GXA's operational data — 44,810 problems solved across our Dallas-Fort Worth client base in 2025 — and is published annually. It is intended to be useful to other practitioners, mid-market IT leaders, journalists, and analysts.
Where the 44,810 problems came from
Category distribution across 2025 ticket volume. Percentages illustrative pending PSA data finalization.
Helpdesk & user support
42%Password resets, application errors, hardware issues, Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace support — the dominant ticket volume by count, though not by hours.
Network & connectivity
18%ISP issues, VPN, firewall, Wi-Fi, switch / router events. Concentrated in older buildings and tower environments where multi-tenant infrastructure complicates root cause.
Security operations
14%Alert investigations from gShield™ MDR, phishing report triage, vulnerability remediation, access-control changes. Volume growing year-over-year.
Cloud & SaaS administration
11%Tenant configuration, license management, migration support, Teams / Exchange / SharePoint changes.
Backup & disaster recovery
6%Backup verification, restore testing, recovery from hardware failure or accidental deletion. Lower volume, higher stakes.
Procurement & onboarding
5%New-hire setup, hardware orders, software provisioning, asset retirement.
Strategic / vCIO
4%Roadmap work, vendor evaluation, budget planning, M&A IT due diligence — lower ticket count, highest leverage.
Industry mix served in 2025
Share of GXA's Dallas-area client base by primary industry. Percentages illustrative pending CRM data finalization.
Five trends from 2025 worth watching in 2026
Phishing volume is up; phishing sophistication is up more
Texas SB 2610 raised the floor on what counts as reasonable cybersecurity controls for Texas businesses. The phishing reports our SOC handled in 2025 were less about volume than about quality — fewer obvious lures, more business-email-compromise attempts that referenced real prospects, real invoices, and real partner names. The defense-in-depth model (MDR + user training + email auth + access controls) is now the floor, not a premium tier.
M365 / Copilot adoption has crossed the chasm in DFW mid-market
In 2024, Copilot was a question. In 2025, it was a deployment. We provisioned Microsoft 365 Copilot for dozens of Dallas-area mid-market clients. The IT challenge is no longer "should we?" — it is permission inheritance, data classification, and DLP, because Copilot inherits whatever access the underlying user has.
On-site work is back — and it never really left for mature buyers
The 2020–2022 era of "we will do everything remotely" was a recession-era cost reflex. By 2025, the Dallas mid-market companies that buy managed IT are explicitly asking for monthly on-site presence again. Our vITM-on-site model (four days per month per client) is now table-stakes for prospects evaluating us against national MSPs.
Compliance is moving down-market faster than expected
SOC 2 used to be a SaaS-startup conversation. In 2025, we ran SOC 2 attestation prep for professional services firms with 30–80 employees because their enterprise customers required it. HIPAA compliance work expanded into adjacencies (medical billing, life sciences vendors, healthcare-adjacent SaaS). CMMC moved from "if you are a defense contractor" to "if you are downstream of one."
Local talent market is tight; named relationships matter more
Dallas tech labor remains tight. National MSPs scale by rotating tier-1 staff; the Dallas mid-market buyer increasingly rejects that model and asks for a named vCIO, vITM, and vCISO. Continuity is the product.
Cite this report
@techreport{gxa_state_of_dallas_it_2026,
author = {{GXA}},
title = {State of Dallas IT 2026},
year = {2026},
institution = {GXA},
url = {https://www.gxait.com/resources/state-of-dallas-it-2026},
} Released under CC BY 4.0 — free to share and adapt with attribution.
FAQs
What is the State of Dallas IT 2026?
An annual report from GXA summarizing what we observed across our Dallas-Fort Worth managed IT engagements in 2025 and what is changing in 2026. Anchored on operational data (44,810 problems solved in 2025) and our visibility into the mid-market IT environment across professional services, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, construction, real estate, nonprofits, education, AEC, and technology.
How is this report sourced?
Internal operational data from GXA's ticketing and PSA systems, our own client roster, and the security alerts handled by our 24/7 SOC. We do not extrapolate to the entire Dallas market — we report what we see, with the methodology disclosed.
Can I cite this report?
Yes. Cite as: GXA, "State of Dallas IT 2026," https://www.gxait.com/resources/state-of-dallas-it-2026. For inquiries on specific data points or interview requests, contact us at (972) 630-3323.
How does GXA define the Dallas mid-market?
Businesses with 20–500 employees and $5M–$100M in revenue, headquartered or with material operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
Talk to the team behind this report
Press inquiries, interview requests, or a conversation about your Dallas IT environment — call (972) 630-3323 or schedule a consultation.