Compare API, managed-platform, and self-hosted AI paths
Compare what the provider operates, what your team must own, and what evidence would justify taking on more infrastructure.
Direct answer
The cheapest line item is not always the lowest-cost operating path. Managed services usually transfer more platform work to a provider. Self-hosting transfers more security, scaling, observability, capacity, and recovery responsibility to your team.
Decision sequence
- List the capabilities the provider manages for each path, including serving, patching, scaling, isolation, logging, and regional availability.
- List the responsibilities that remain with your team, including data handling, access, evaluation, application security, fallback, and user communication.
- Price the engineering and operational work that does not appear on the provider invoice.
- Choose the least complex path that meets the workload's measured requirements and preserves a credible exit.
Evidence to keep
- A responsibility matrix for the actual service tier.
- A total-cost range that includes people and operations.
- A test of the hardest non-negotiable requirement.
- An exit trigger and migration artifact list.
Sources and interpretation boundaries
Microsoft LearnAI shared responsibility modelHow customer and provider responsibilities change across SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS approaches.Amazon Web ServicesGenerative AI LensLifecycle review across scoping, model selection, integration, deployment, and continuous improvement.National Institute of Standards and TechnologySecure Software Development FrameworkOutcome-based secure software practices for preparing, protecting, producing, and responding.
Decision boundary
This guide is an original educational synthesis. It does not inspect your workload, validate a contract, test a provider, certify security, recommend an investment, or promise cost, performance, funding, revenue, savings, or growth.