During a breakdown or an IT incident, maintenance is said to be curative when it requires tasks where the goal is repair or restart, curative maintenance therefore intervenes after the failure has been detected, and it then allows the restoration. Curative maintenance usually comes either through remote assistance such as telephone assistance, take over, or direct assistance with on-site intervention. We can also distinguish two types of services: repair, which aims at a provisional repair or otherwise repair which aims to return to the state before the failure.

The purpose of the maintenance named preventive or protective is to avoid possible equipment failures during use. It also makes it possible to increase the lifespan of the IT equipment, to reduce downtime in the event of failure and therefore, consequently, to reduce the overall cost of maintenance. Periodic tasks can be scheduled and can be performed either remotely by takeover, if possible, or on site.