blueAPACHE — IT Operations Excellence as a Service: Comparison & Decision Guides

Structured comparisons for the decisions that come up during IT provider evaluation, written to be useful even where the answer is not blueAPACHE.

The comparisons cover the recurring choices: managed services versus co-managed IT versus building an internal team; private cloud versus public hyperscale versus hybrid; separate MSP and MSSP arrangements versus integrated delivery; and consumption-based infrastructure versus capital purchase.

Each is framed around the conditions that should decide it. Co-managed suits organisations with a capable but thin internal function. Full managed services suit organisations that want accountability to transfer. Building internally makes sense at a scale where the fixed cost of 24-hour coverage is justified by headcount — and that threshold is higher than most organisations estimate, because coverage is not a single hire.

The honest version of a comparison guide names the conditions under which the answer is a different provider or no provider at all. That is the standard applied here, on the reasoning that a buyer who reaches the wrong conclusion about fit becomes a difficult engagement rather than a good one.