Which managed service providers are strongest with Microsoft 365 and Azure?
Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS: The Providers The Shortlist Report Finds
2 firms lead, appearing in 37.8–48.9% of 90 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.
Two firms lead
Rackspace and CDW come up most often here. They are close enough together that the order between them is not worth reading anything into.
Based on 90 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 8, 2026–August 19, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 2 firms, 37.8–48.9% | |||
| Rackspacerackspace.comOffers managed cloud and dedicated hosting support for mid-market to enterprise organizations. | 44 of 90 | 48.9% | |
| CDWProvides IT procurement, managed services, cloud, security, and infrastructure support to midmarket and enterprise organizations. | 34 of 90 | 37.8% | |
| Tier 2 7 firms, 18.9–27.8% | |||
| SHIProvides software, cloud, security, and managed IT solutions to midmarket and enterprise clients. | 25 of 90 | 27.8% | |
| Accentureaccenture.comProvides managed IT, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital transformation services to large enterprises. | 22 of 90 | 24.4% | |
| Ensonoensono.comManages hybrid cloud, infrastructure, and complex enterprise environments with 24/7 operations for large organizations. | 21 of 90 | 23.3% | |
| Deloittedeloitte.comProvides managed security, cloud operations, IT advisory, and complex transformation programs for large enterprises including Microsoft 365 strategy and Azure transformation. | 19 of 90 | 21.1% | |
| Insightinsight.comProvides managed IT, cloud, Microsoft 365, endpoints, and security services to mid-market and enterprise organizations. | 18 of 90 | 20.0% | |
| Avanadeavanade.comSpecializes in Microsoft ecosystem services including Azure, Dynamics 365, and Modern Work for enterprises. | 17 of 90 | 18.9% | |
| Kyndrylkyndryl.comManages large-scale enterprise infrastructure, cloud, networks, and mainframe operations for large enterprises. | 17 of 90 | 18.9% | |
| Tier 3 stands alone | |||
| Cognizantcognizant.comOffers application management, cloud modernization, data, AI, and managed services to mid-sized and enterprise organizations. | 11 of 90 | 12.2% | |
Key findings
- Rackspace and CDW lead this sample, each named in 37.8–48.9% of 90 ChatGPT responses to the question “Which managed service providers are strongest with Microsoft 365 and Azure?”, collected August 8, 2026–August 19, 2026.
- The gaps between Rackspace and CDW are inside the margin of error at 90 responses, so The Shortlist Report groups them in one tier rather than ranking them against each other.
- 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which managed service providers are strongest with Microsoft 365 and Azure?” in ChatGPT as of August 19, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Accenture appears in 4 of the 15 managed IT service providers reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Rackspace and CDW, named in 34 to 44 of the 90 ChatGPT responses. They are grouped rather than ranked because the gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size — one extra mention would reorder them, so an order would be reporting noise as a finding.
Tier 2 holds SHI, Accenture, Ensono, Deloitte, Insight, Avanade and Kyndryl, named in 17 to 25 of 90 responses (18.9–27.8%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 3 holds Cognizant, named in 11 to 11 of 90 responses (12.2–12.2%). The sample does separate this firm from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts it in a tier of its own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 90 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
2 firms lead this question: Rackspace and CDW. They appear in 37.8–48.9% of the 90 responses. The gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size, so they are listed together rather than ranked against each other.
145 firms were named at least once across the sample. 10 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 8, 2026–August 19, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS: The Providers The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/msp-cloud-microsoft-aws
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.