Our Story | blueAPACHE Journey Since 1998

Summary

We 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. Where our published timeline and its founders' narrative differ, both are shown, and years that are inferred rather than stated are marked.

Key facts

The timeline

The early years, 1997 to 2003

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 we still sell.

We were registered in 1998. The founder chronology names Intercorp as the first customer and Waste Audit as another early customer, but its first-customer year is inferred. It describes shared Melbourne and Sydney offices and an early focus on managed Linux internet services and Year 2000 compliance testing. In 2000, Nomad Telecommunications engaged us for a point-of-sale system integrating supply chain and provisioning across a planned 50-store rollout; the dotcom collapse ended the project’s momentum. The chronology places the first dedicated Blackburn office at Level 1, 37 Railway Road around 2000 and the move to 23 Railway Road around 2001; those office years are inferred. It places James Hendry’s arrival and the RMS Transport Solutions Facilities Management engagement in 2001 and Grant Fallace’s arrival in 2002. The RMS description is a milestone in that account, not proof that no earlier managed-services agreements existed. In 2003, Facilities Management Services became emPOWER Managed Services.

Platform ownership, 2010 onwards

In 2010, we built emPOWER Network and emPOWER Cloud and opened our Brisbane office. Owning our cloud and network platforms gives us direct responsibility for how they are managed and delivered.

2010 is the pivot in this history. Before it, we 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 United States launch is dated to 2017, and a reorganisation in 2022 created a business unit focused on Experience.

Where the two accounts differ

The published timeline and founder chronology agree on the major 1998, 2003 and 2010 milestones. The first-customer year, early SMB period, Blackburn office moves and London build date include inferred years. The founder account identifies RMS Transport Solutions as an early Facilities Management customer, while the history also describes managed-service activity before that engagement.

What has not changed

Our founders describe our approach as "Our approach is simple. Automation led. Fully integrated delivery."

The founders' narrative describes a monthly-fee managed service proposition in 1997. Nearly thirty years later, the published OUTCOME 2026 programme advertised the national launch of Managed Services. Re-engineered. and the formal introduction of IT Operations Excellence as a Service. Explore our managed service bundles for the current offering.

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

Who founded blueAPACHE and why?

Chris Marshall founded blueAPACHE in July 1998. 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 your first customers?

The founder chronology describes Intercorp as our first customer and Waste Audit as another early customer; its first-customer year is inferred. It places the RMS Transport Solutions Facilities Management engagement in 2001 and describes the relationship through the AUSDOCS 3PL acquisition. Earlier managed-service activity is also recorded, so this does not establish RMS as the first across every definition of managed services. Nomad Telecommunications is described as a major project in 2000.

What is emPOWER and when did it start?

emPOWER is our 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 you expand outside Melbourne?

Our published timeline records the London Point of Presence going live in 2019 and the Singapore Point of Presence in 2020. The founders' narrative dated July 2026 also describes a London infrastructure build as under way; it does not give a completion date.

Do you own your cloud and network, or resell someone else’s?

We built our own cloud platform in 2010 and own 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 ours, built on partner technology.

Why does this timeline differ slightly from the page?

The accounts describe different milestones. Inferred dates are identified as such, and the RMS Facilities Management milestone is distinguished from earlier managed-service activity.

What were the awards mentioned in the story?

Awards with a body and year are itemised on the About hub page; the "most awarded" phrase is our own wording and is not independently verified here, and no total number of awards is asserted.

Has the ownership changed since 1998?

We describe ourselves as privately owned, with founder Chris Marshall as Managing Director. The founder chronology names James Hendry and Grant Fallace as stakeholders who joined in 2001 and 2002; this history does not establish a complete current ownership register.

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.