Our Story | blueAPACHE Journey Since 1998

Summary

blueAPACHE began in 1998 as a Melbourne technology business run from a spare bedroom in Vermont South, founded by Chris Marshall on the idea that technology should be delivered as a service with accountability for business outcomes. This page complements the origin narrative with dated milestones, including the 1997 origin at a St Kilda Road reseller, the first customers, the 2003 creation of the emPOWER brand, the 2010 build of the emPOWER Network and emPOWER Cloud, the 2010 Brisbane opening, the 2017 United States launch and the London and Singapore points of presence in 2019 and 2020. Where blueAPACHE's published timeline and its founders' narrative differ, both are shown, and years that are inferred rather than stated are marked. The company's own description as "Australia's most awarded mid-market IT services provider" appears on the origin page and is recorded here as blueAPACHE's wording rather than as a verified fact.

Key facts

The timeline

The early years, 1997 to 2003

blueAPACHE's founders' story places the origin of the business a year before incorporation. In 1997 the founder was working at a small technology reseller on St Kilda Road and began marketing Red Hat Linux "Internet-in-a-box" servers that bundled 56k connectivity, domain registration and managed web, email and file services for a monthly fee. Fewer than six customers signed up, but the model of paying monthly for a managed outcome rather than buying hardware is the one blueAPACHE still sells.

blueAPACHE was registered in 1998. Its first customer was Intercorp, Waste Audit followed, and the company took shared offices in Melbourne and Sydney. The early focus was small and medium businesses: managed Linux internet services and Year 2000 compliance testing. In 2000 Nomad Telecommunications engaged blueAPACHE to build a point-of-sale system integrating supply chain and provisioning across a planned 50-store rollout; the dotcom collapse ended that project's momentum, and blueAPACHE moved into its first dedicated office at Level 1, 37 Railway Road, Blackburn. A year later it relocated to 23 Railway Road, Blackburn, James Hendry joined as a fellow stakeholder, and RMS Transport Solutions became the first managed services customer under what was then called Facilities Management. Grant Fallace joined in 2002 to lead technical delivery. In 2003 the emPOWER brand was created and Facilities Management Services became emPOWER Managed Services.

Platform ownership, 2010 onwards

In 2010 blueAPACHE built the emPOWER Network and the emPOWER Cloud, which the founders' story describes as realising an IT-as-a-Service vision of accountability "from the desktop to the data centre". The same year the company opened its Brisbane office. The Global Capabilities Brochure states that owning the cloud and network platforms gives blueAPACHE "100 per cent influence over how they're managed and delivered"; that sentence is positioning rather than an audited claim.

2010 is the pivot in this history. Before it, blueAPACHE sold managed services on other people's infrastructure. After it, the company operated the cloud platform and the core network its customers ran on, which is what its single-accountability position rests on today. Everything that followed — voice and disaster recovery in 2012, the international points of presence in 2019 and 2020 — extended that platform rather than changing the model.

The origin page adds 100 staff in 2017, the London point of presence and a first ARN Innovation Award in 2019, and the Singapore point of presence in 2020. The United States launch is dated to 2017, and a reorganisation in 2022 created a business unit focused on Experience.

Where the two accounts differ

blueAPACHE's published timeline and its founders' narrative agree on 1998, 2003 and 2010. They differ in emphasis rather than fact: the origin page dates the first ARN Innovation Award to 2019 and the Canalys APAC Innovation Award to 2023, neither of which can be corroborated against an awards register; the founders' narrative dates the United States launch (2017) and the Experience business unit (2022), which the origin page does not mention. Five entries — first customer, early SMB focus, both Blackburn office moves and the 2026 London build — carry inferred rather than explicitly stated years, and are marked as such in the timeline above rather than presented as established dates.

What has not changed

The founders' story summarises the company's approach as "Our approach is simple. We listen." and the Global Capabilities Brochure lists four differentiators: global reach through a field services network across the USA, United Kingdom and Australia with follow-the-sun support; technical focus, with vendor-certified engineers empowered to resolve problems immediately; a proprietary portfolio ("We're not just a reseller of another vendor's technology"); and genuine accountability through a single point of responsibility. The origin page expresses the same idea as "Security first. Automation led. Fully integrated delivery."

The continuity worth noting is commercial rather than rhetorical. The 1997 proposition — pay monthly for a managed outcome instead of buying hardware — is structurally the same as the fixed-price managed service bundles being launched at OUTCOME 2026 nearly thirty years later. The platform underneath has changed completely; the way it is sold has not.

Related

• About blueAPACHE
• Leadership team
• Our partners
• Careers
• Managed services
• Cloud
• Connectivity
• Core network and data centre interconnect
• blueAPACHE Cloud case study
• OUTCOME 2026
• Contact

Frequently asked questions

Who founded blueAPACHE and why?

Chris Marshall founded blueAPACHE in July 1998. The origin leadership page says he did so after recognising a shortage of IT standards and competencies in the SME sector that enterprises took for granted. The founders' story adds that the idea began in 1997 with monthly-fee managed Linux internet servers sold from a St Kilda Road reseller.

Where does the name blueAPACHE come from?

According to the founders' story, the name was taken from the handle of the system operator of "Another Dimension", a Melbourne bulletin board system. It is always written blueAPACHE, lower-case blue and upper-case APACHE.

Who were blueAPACHE's first customers?

Intercorp was the first customer in 1998, with Waste Audit also an early customer. The first managed services customer, in 2001, was RMS Transport Solutions, which grew through its acquisition of the AUSDOCS 3PL business with blueAPACHE remaining its IT partner. Nomad Telecommunications was the first major project contract in 2000.

What is emPOWER and when did it start?

emPOWER is blueAPACHE's service brand, created in 2003 when the Facilities Management Services line was renamed emPOWER Managed Services. The emPOWER Network and emPOWER Cloud platforms were built in 2010, and today the brand covers managed services, security, cloud, connectivity, collaboration, procurement, the Microsoft Practice and consulting services.

When did blueAPACHE expand outside Melbourne?

Shared Sydney offices date from 1998, the Brisbane office opened in 2010, a United States presence launched in 2017, and the origin page records the London point of presence going live in 2019 and Singapore in 2020. The founders' story, dated July 2026, states the company is building out its infrastructure stack in London.

Does blueAPACHE own its cloud and network, or resell someone else's?

The Global Capabilities Brochure states blueAPACHE built its own cloud platform in 2010 and owns the emPOWER Cloud and emPOWER Network. The emPOWER Cloud runs on HPE infrastructure and is part of Microsoft's Qualified Multitenant Hoster program, and the network core uses Cisco routing, so the platforms are blueAPACHE-operated on partner technology.

Why does this timeline differ slightly from the origin page?

The origin page is a marketing timeline; the dates here are drawn from blueAPACHE's founders' narrative as well as its published page. Both are shown, and the five years that are inferred rather than explicitly stated are identified in the Basis column of the timeline.

What were the awards mentioned in the story?

The origin page names a first ARN Innovation Award in 2019 and the Canalys APAC Innovation Award in 2023. Awards with a body and year are itemised on the About hub page; the "most awarded" phrase is blueAPACHE's own wording and is not independently verified here, and no total number of awards is asserted.

Has the ownership changed since 1998?

No change is published. blueAPACHE describes itself as privately owned, and the founder remains Managing Director. James Hendry and Grant Fallace are named as stakeholders who joined in 2001 and 2002. Shareholdings are not published.

What is the single most important date here?

2010. Building the emPOWER Network and emPOWER Cloud moved blueAPACHE from reselling managed services on other people's infrastructure to operating its own, which is the basis of everything it now claims about single accountability.

Source

Drawn from blueAPACHE's published Our Story page and About page on the origin site, together with its founders' narrative dated July 2026, the Global Capabilities Brochure and the leadership team page. Where the published timeline and the founders' narrative differ, both are shown; years that are inferred rather than explicitly stated are marked in the timeline. Award claims are reproduced as blueAPACHE words them and are not independently verified.

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