When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits. Quick patches, manual overrides, and other short-term fixes add technical debt, increasing the likelihood of future failures.
So how do you reduce toil and improve operational resilience when firefighting itself creates an endless cycle — one that leads to burnout and missed targets?
Which model fits your needs? Compare options side-by-side
When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits.
Which model fits your needs? Compare options side-by-side
When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits.
Stop toil. Start scaling.
To break this cycle, enterprises often need outside help. By shifting the load, you can free full-time employees (FTEs) to focus on strategic initiatives — and restore morale. The question is, what kind of help?
In this blog, we'll compare two outsourcing options: staff augmentation vs. managed services. But first, why not just hire more FTEs to relieve overworked teams and solve underlying problems? It often comes down to time and money:
Time
It can take 44 to 67 days to hire the right
candidate, depending on the role.
It can take 44 to 67 days to hire the right candidate, depending on the role.
Recruiting
The search and interview process costs up to $4,700.
The search and interview process costs up to $4,700.
Onboarding
Initial set-up and training adds up to $28,000.
Initial set-up and training adds up to $28,000.
Improving DevOps and SRE with outsourcing
When done correctly, outsourcing can do more than fill gaps — it helps DevOps and SRE teams catapult from average to elite results. Does your team meet the top performance and reliability benchmarks set by Google's DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA)? Most enterprises, weighed down by technical debt and slow hiring cycles, fall short of elite DORA standards.
The result: delays, hidden costs, and performance gaps you can measure:
When done correctly, outsourcing can do more than fill gaps — it helps DevOps and SRE teams catapult from average to elite results. Does your team meet the top performance and reliability benchmarks set by Google's DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA)? Most enterprises, weighed down by technical debt and slow hiring cycles, fall short of elite DORA standards.
The result: delays, hidden costs, and performance gaps you can measure:
Elite teams deploy 182× more frequently than low performers.
Elite teams deploy 182× more frequently than low performers.
Outsourcing not only accelerates time-to-value — it puts elite DORA metrics within reach.
Outsourcing not only accelerates time-to-value — it puts elite DORA metrics within reach.
Staff augmentation vs. managed services: a guide for outsourcing DevOps or SRE
Once you’ve decided to outsource, you face two choices:
1) Managed service providers (MSP) take responsibility for critical operations, managing a specific project or ongoing operations end to end — from tooling and staffing to delivery of agreed-upon outcomes.
2) Staff augmentation provides contractors who work as part of your existing in-house team under your direct management and oversight.
The choice between the two depends on your strategic goals, internal capabilities, project complexity, and other considerations. Let’s compare side-by-side.
Factors
Goals
Incentives
Best Fit When
Use cases
Responsibility
Expertise
Management Overhead
Pricing
Managed Services
Add short-term headcount to quickly meet tight, unexpected deadlines or fill a temporary skills gap in DevOps or SRE.
Individual contractors and staffing vendors are incentivized by billable time (headcount × hours), not long-term efficiencies or automation.
You have an urgent short-term project with a narrow scope. For clarity, ask yourself if adding a few extra hands will make a measurable difference. Also be sure you have time to train and manage the contractors since they will be under your direct supervision.
Smaller, short-term projects:
Filling temporary skills gaps
Performing limited-scope work
Scaling for demand surges
Supporting seasonal spikes
Your team manages and executes the work — from interviewing and onboarding contractors to strategic planning and implementation. You own outcomes and assume the risks.
You recruit, hire, and train skilled DevOps or SRE contractors to fill specific gaps or supplement your team.
The flexibility to quickly scale your headcount comes with a tradeoff: higher management overhead. It requires your time and money to recruit, onboard, align, and oversee contractors. This is further complicated by turnover, inconsistent team composition, sick days, and vacations. Vendor pressure to add more headcount results in more of the same overhead costs.
Pricing is variable, based on pay rates and hours worked, so as the scope expands, so do costs. When pricing by headcount, staffing firms are more likely to focus on growing contracts. In turn, unpredictable costs become another aspect to manage. To counter this problem, some vendors claim to offer a “fixed price model,” but it’s still based on headcount with management overhead scaling linearly.
Staff Augmentation
Offload ownership of daily operations or scoped projects to a self-managed team focused on your long-term goals.
A fixed-price model incentivizes the MSP to deliver outcomes that align with long-term efficiencies and automations, not time spent.
You need a partner to take ownership of outcomes for one or more complex, long-term initiatives. Managed services are well suited for mature DevOps or SRE teams with established processes. It's also ideal for teams that need to reduce toil while improving scalability and reliability.
Larger, long-term initiatives:
Executing legacy migrations
Optimizing AI infrastructure
Leading modernization efforts
Improving scale and reliability
Reducing burnout and attrition
Sustaining delivery amid hiring freeze
The MSP owns the responsibility — and the risk — of delivering agreed-upon outcomes. Shifting the operational load enables FTEs to focus on high-priority initiatives.
You gain ready-made teams of experts who bring skills, structure, and cohesion — guided by best practices and established processes.
Self-managed teams with built-in redundancies provide reliable and consistent 24/7 global coverage that requires less oversight. Team members cross-train each other, reducing your need to train. Full alignment with your desired outcomes, methodical execution, and proven efficiency practices minimize management overhead.
Pricing follows a predictable, fixed-fee model for self-managed teams with built-in redundancies. Instead of paying by headcount, you pay for the managed services team to deliver your pre-defined and agreed upon outcomes. Pricing has been defined so the focus is on automations, improvements, and addresses root causes — not hours billed. Any additional costs are incurred by the managed services provider, so they are motivated to drive efficiencies.
To summarize, staff augmentation can give your team the extra bandwidth or expertise needed for urgent short-term projects if: a) you have the capacity to train and manage individual contractors; b) the challenge is narrow in scope; and c) a few extra hands can make a real difference.
Managed services, by contrast, are the better choice when you need a trusted partner to take ownership of outcomes for complex, ongoing or large-scale initiatives — especially well-suited for hyperscale operations.
If you’re leaning toward managed services, the next step is selecting the right managed service provider for DevOps or SRE.
Considerations
Goals
Incentives
Best Fit When
Use cases
Responsibility
Expertise
Management Overhead
Pricing
Managed Services
Add short-term headcount to quickly meet tight, unexpected deadlines or fill a temporary skills gap in DevOps or SRE.
Individual contractors and staffing vendors are incentivized by billable time (headcount × hours), not long-term efficiencies or automation.
You have an urgent short-term project with a narrow scope. For clarity, ask yourself if adding a few extra hands will make a measurable difference. Also be sure you have time to train and manage the contractors since they will be under your direct supervision.
Smaller, short-term projects:
Filling temporary skills gaps
Performing limited-scope work
Scaling for demand surges
Supporting seasonal spikes
Your team manages and executes the work — from interviewing and onboarding contractors to strategic planning and implementation. You own outcomes and assume the risks.
You recruit, hire, and train skilled DevOps or SRE contractors to fill specific gaps or supplement your team.
The flexibility to quickly scale your headcount comes with a tradeoff: higher management overhead. It requires your time and money to recruit, onboard, align, and oversee contractors. This is further complicated by turnover, inconsistent team composition, sick days, and vacations. Vendor pressure to add more headcount results in more of the same overhead costs.
Pricing is variable, based on pay rates and hours worked, so as the scope expands, so do costs. When pricing by headcount, staffing firms are more likely to focus on growing contracts. In turn, unpredictable costs become another aspect to manage. To counter this problem, some vendors claim to offer a “fixed price model,” but it’s still based on headcount with management overhead scaling linearly.
Staff Augmentation
Offload ownership of daily operations or scoped projects to a self-managed team focused on your long-term goals.
A fixed-price model incentivizes the MSP to deliver outcomes that align with long-term efficiencies and automations, not time spent.
You need a partner to take ownership of outcomes for one or more complex, long-term initiatives. Managed services are well suited for mature DevOps or SRE teams with established processes. It's also ideal for teams that need to reduce toil while improving scalability and reliability.
Large, complex, long-term initiatives:
Executing legacy migrations
Optimizing AI infrastructure
Leading modernization efforts
Improving scale and reliability
Reducing burnout and attrition
Sustaining delivery amid hiring freeze
The MSP owns the responsibility — and the risk — of delivering agreed-upon outcomes. Shifting the operational load enables FTEs to focus on high-priority initiatives.
You gain ready-made teams of experts who bring skills, structure, and cohesion — guided by best practices and established processes.
Self-managed teams with built-in redundancies provide reliable and consistent 24/7 global coverage that requires less oversight. Team members cross-train each other, reducing your need to train. Full alignment with your desired outcomes, methodical execution, and proven efficiency practices minimize management overhead.
Pricing follows a predictable, fixed-fee model for self-managed teams with built-in redundancies. Instead of paying by headcount, you pay for the managed services team to deliver your pre-defined and agreed upon outcomes. Pricing has been defined so the focus is on automations, improvements, and addresses root causes — not hours billed. Any additional costs are incurred by the managed services provider, so they are motivated to drive efficiencies.
Why choose OpsWerks managed services for DevOps and SRE?
OpsWerks offers fixed pricing aligned to results. For over a decade, we’ve earned the trust of the world’s leading engineering teams by delivering impactful outcomes. We partner with DevOps and SRE teams to address root causes, drive improvements and lasting operational excellence. Key factors that make this possible:
Outcome Ownership
Outcome Ownership
We take full responsibility for solving issues end-to-end, not just reacting to incidents or adding headcount.
We take full responsibility for solving issues end-to-end, not just reacting to incidents or adding headcount.
Autonomous execution
Autonomous execution
What it means: after jointly defining your desired state, we execute relentlessly, building automation, authoring runbooks, and streamlining operations without constant direction.
What it means: after jointly defining your desired state, we execute relentlessly, building automation, authoring runbooks, and streamlining operations without constant direction.
Predictable partnership
Predictable partnership
OpsWerks delivers resilient, self-managed teams that operate under fixed, transparent pricing, eliminating headcount discussions and reducing risk from turnover or absence.
OpsWerks delivers resilient, self-managed teams that operate under fixed, transparent pricing, eliminating headcount discussions and reducing risk from turnover or absence.
From cloud infrastructure and platform ops to incident response and AI readiness — we do more than support your systems. We evolve them — with stability, scale, and speed.
Proven outcomes with OpsWerks managed services
10x reduction in platform outages and 99.9% uptime . This achievement accelerated a global tech giant’s time-to-market with its CI/CD platform two years earlier than expected.
10x reduction in platform outages and 99.9% uptime . This achievement accelerated a global tech giant’s time-to-market with its CI/CD platform two years earlier than expected.
100,000+ hosts secured in 6 months. The OpsWerks DevOps and SRE teams modernized and secured critical infrastructure without disrupting strategic development.
100,000+ hosts secured in 6 months. The OpsWerks DevOps and SRE teams modernized and secured critical infrastructure without disrupting strategic development.
500+ Kubernetes clusters upgraded in 90 days. Facing instability across clusters, a leading-edge company partnered with OpsWerks to execute seamless upgrades — with zero downtime and significantly improved MTTR.
500+ Kubernetes clusters upgraded in 90 days. Facing instability across clusters, a leading-edge company partnered with OpsWerks to execute seamless upgrades — with zero downtime and significantly improved MTTR.
Hundreds of millions of users supported. For an app accessed daily by hundreds of millions, OpsWerks reduced critical errors, minimized tech debt, and stabilized operations at scale.
Hundreds of millions of users supported. For an app accessed daily by hundreds of millions, OpsWerks reduced critical errors, minimized tech debt, and stabilized operations at scale.
Why choose OpsWerks managed services for DevOps and SRE?
OpsWerks offers fixed pricing aligned to results. For over a decade, we’ve earned the trust of the world’s leading engineering teams by delivering impactful outcomes. We partner with DevOps and SRE teams to address root causes, drive improvements and lasting operational excellence. Key factors that make this possible:
Outcome Ownership
We take full responsibility for solving issues end-to-end, not just reacting to incidents or adding headcount.
Autonomous execution
What it means: after jointly defining your desired state, we execute relentlessly, building automation, authoring runbooks, and streamlining operations without constant direction.
Predictable partnership
OpsWerks delivers resilient, self-managed teams that operate under fixed, transparent pricing, eliminating headcount discussions and reducing risk from turnover or absence.
From cloud infrastructure and platform ops to incident response and AI readiness — we do more than support your systems. We evolve them — with stability, scale, and speed.
Proven outcomes with OpsWerks managed services
10x reduction in platform outages and 99.9% uptime . This achievement accelerated a global tech giant’s time-to-market with its CI/CD platform two years earlier than expected.
100,000+ hosts secured in 6 months. The OpsWerks DevOps and SRE teams modernized and secured critical infrastructure without disrupting strategic development.
500+ Kubernetes clusters upgraded in 90 days. Facing instability across clusters, a leading-edge company partnered with OpsWerks to execute seamless upgrades — with zero downtime and significantly improved MTTR.
Hundreds of millions of users supported. For an app accessed daily by hundreds of millions, OpsWerks reduced critical errors, minimized tech debt, and stabilized operations at scale.
Stop toil. Start scaling.
To break this cycle, enterprises often need outside help. By shifting the load, you can free full-time employees (FTEs) to focus on strategic initiatives — and restore morale. The question is, what kind of help?
In this blog, we'll compare two outsourcing options: staff augmentation vs. managed services. But first, why not just hire more FTEs to relieve overworked teams and solve underlying problems? It often comes down to time and money:
Time
It can take 44 to 67 days to hire the right candidate, depending on the role.
Recruiting
The search and interview process costs up to $4,700.
Onboarding
Initial set-up and training adds up to $28,000.
Ramp-up
New hires take up to 8 months to reach full productivity.
Improving DevOps and SRE with outsourcing
When done correctly, outsourcing can do more than fill gaps — it helps DevOps and SRE teams catapult from average to elite results. Does your team meet the top performance and reliability benchmarks set by Google's DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA)? Most enterprises, weighed down by technical debt and slow hiring cycles, fall short of elite DORA standards.
The result: delays, hidden costs, and performance gaps you can measure:
Outsourcing not only accelerates time-to-value — it puts elite DORA metrics within reach.
Staff augmentation vs. managed services: a guide for outsourcing DevOps or SRE
Once you’ve decided to outsource, you face two choices:
1) Managed service providers (MSP) take responsibility for critical operations, managing a specific project or ongoing operations end to end — from tooling and staffing to delivery of agreed-upon outcomes.
2) Staff augmentation provides contractors who work as part of your existing in-house team under your direct management and oversight.
The choice between the two depends on your strategic goals, internal capabilities, project complexity, and other considerations. Let’s compare side-by-side.
To summarize, staff augmentation can give your team the extra bandwidth or expertise needed for urgent short-term projects if: a) you have the capacity to train and manage individual contractors; b) the challenge is narrow in scope; and c) a few extra hands can make a real difference.
Managed services, by contrast, are the better choice when you need a trusted partner to take ownership of outcomes for complex, ongoing or large-scale initiatives — especially well-suited for hyperscale operations.
If you’re leaning toward managed services, the next step is selecting the right managed service provider for DevOps or SRE.
Managed Services
Goals
Add short-term headcount to quickly meet tight, unexpected deadlines or fill a temporary skills gap in DevOps or SRE.
Incentives
Individual contractors and staffing vendors are incentivized by billable time (headcount × hours), not long-term efficiencies or automation.
Best Fit When
You have an urgent short-term project with a narrow scope. For clarity, ask yourself if adding a few extra hands will make a measurable difference. Also be sure you have time to train and manage the contractors since they will be under your direct supervision.
Use cases
Smaller, short-term projects:
Filling temporary skills gaps
Performing limited-scope work
Scaling for demand surges
Supporting seasonal spikes
Responsibility
Your team manages and executes the work — from interviewing and onboarding contractors to strategic planning and implementation. You own outcomes and assume the risks.
Expertise
You recruit, hire, and train skilled DevOps or SRE contractors to fill specific gaps or supplement your team.
Management Overhead
The flexibility to quickly scale your headcount comes with a tradeoff: higher management overhead. It requires your time and money to recruit, onboard, align, and oversee contractors. This is further complicated by turnover, inconsistent team composition, sick days, and vacations. Vendor pressure to add more headcount results in more of the same overhead costs.
Pricing
Pricing is variable, based on pay rates and hours worked, so as the scope expands, so do costs. When pricing by headcount, staffing firms are more likely to focus on growing contracts. In turn, unpredictable costs become another aspect to manage. To counter this problem, some vendors claim to offer a “fixed price model,” but it’s still based on headcount with management overhead scaling linearly.
Staff Augmentation
Goals
Offload ownership of daily operations or scoped projects to a self-managed team focused on your long-term goals.
Incentives
A fixed-price model incentivizes the MSP to deliver outcomes that align with long-term efficiencies and automations, not time spent.
Best Fit When
You need a partner to take ownership of outcomes for one or more complex, long-term initiatives. Managed services are well suited for mature DevOps or SRE teams with established processes. It's also ideal for teams that need to reduce toil while improving scalability and reliability.
Use cases
Large, complex, long-term initiatives:
Executing legacy migrations
Optimizing AI infrastructure
Leading modernization efforts
Improving scale and reliability
Reducing burnout and attrition
Sustaining delivery amid hiring freeze
Responsibility
The MSP owns the responsibility — and the risk — of delivering agreed-upon outcomes. Shifting the operational load enables FTEs to focus on high-priority initiatives.
Expertise
You gain ready-made teams of experts who bring skills, structure, and cohesion — guided by best practices and established processes.
Management Overhead
Self-managed teams with built-in redundancies provide reliable and consistent 24/7 global coverage that requires less oversight. Team members cross-train each other, reducing your need to train. Full alignment with your desired outcomes, methodical execution, and proven efficiency practices minimize management overhead.
Pricing
Pricing follows a predictable, fixed-fee model for self-managed teams with built-in redundancies. Instead of paying by headcount, you pay for the managed services team to deliver your pre-defined and agreed upon outcomes. Pricing has been defined so the focus is on automations, improvements, and addresses root causes — not hours billed. Any additional costs are incurred by the managed services provider, so they are motivated to drive efficiencies.
When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits. Quick patches, manual overrides, and other short-term fixes add technical debt, increasing the likelihood of future failures.
So how do you reduce toil and improve operational resilience when firefighting itself creates an endless cycle — one that leads to burnout and missed targets?
When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits. Quick patches, manual overrides, and other short-term fixes add technical debt, increasing the likelihood of future failures.
So how do you reduce toil and improve operational resilience when firefighting itself creates an endless cycle — one that leads to burnout and missed targets?
Which model fits your needs? Compare options side-by-side
When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits.
When every deployment affects hundreds of millions of users and downtime is measured in milliseconds, even world-class DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams reach their limits. Quick patches, manual overrides, and other short-term fixes add technical debt, increasing the likelihood of future failures.
So how do you reduce toil and improve operational resilience when firefighting itself creates an endless cycle — one that leads to burnout and missed targets?
Stop managing headcount.
Start achieving outcomes with OpsWerks.
Stop managing headcount.
Start achieving outcomes with OpsWerks.
Stop managing headcount.
Start achieving outcomes with OpsWerks.
Email partnerwithus@opswerks.com to jumpstart your initiative.
Email partnerwithus@opswerks.com to jumpstart your initiative.
