Managed IT and cyber security for regulated firms in Dubai & Abu Dhabi
Managed IT and cyber security for regulated firms in Dubai & Abu Dhabi
Ask every IT company the same 10 questions: who answers at 2am and what the SLA says, who has admin access, when they last tested a backup restore, whether they are independently certified, whether they understand your regulations, who covers holidays, what costs extra, how you can see their performance, what they would change first, and how you would leave. A good provider answers without flinching. A bad one suddenly needs to “check with the team”.
From the outside, every IT company looks the same: a logo, a stock photo of a server room and the words “end-to-end solutions”. We should know. We’re one of them.
So here’s the honest version. These are the 10 questions we’d ask if we were hiring an IT company ourselves. A good provider will answer them without flinching. A bad one will suddenly need to “check with the team”.
Every proposal says “24/7 support”. Ask what that means. Is it a person, a ticket that waits until Monday, or a voicemail in a time zone you’ve never heard of? Ask for the name of the team and where they’re based.
Good answer: a named team, an emergency number that isn’t someone’s personal mobile, and a proper SLA (service level agreement).
An SLA is the bit of the contract that turns “we’ll get back to you ASAP” into an actual number. It should set out how quickly they’ll respond and how quickly they’ll fix things, by priority. For example, a critical issue (nobody can work) gets a response within 15 minutes, while a request for a new mouse can wait until after lunch. Ask what happens when they miss it. If the answer is “we never miss it”, ask to see the figures.
If they’re taking over from another provider, they should want to find this out on day one. Ex-employees, old suppliers and that one freelancer from 2019 often still hold the keys. If your new IT company doesn’t ask, they’re not going to check.
Not “do you do backups”. Everyone says yes. The question is whether anyone has actually restored one and watched it work. A backup that’s never been tested is less of a backup and more of a hope.
Good answer: a date, what was restored and how long it took. More on this in our page on data backup and recovery.
Anyone can write “secure” on a website. Certifications such as ISO 27001 (information security) and ISO 9001 (quality) mean an outside auditor has checked how the company actually works. It’s not a guarantee, but it does mean someone other than their marketing team has looked.
A retailer in Al Quoz and a wealth manager in DIFC have very different obligations. If you’re in a free zone or a regulated industry, ask whether they’ve worked with firms like yours and which regulations they deal with. If the answer is “we’re very flexible”, that’s a no.
Regulated in DIFC or ADGM? See our guide to IT vendor management for DFSA and FSRA firms.
Smaller providers often rely on one person who knows everything. That’s fine until they’re on a beach with no signal. Ask how knowledge is documented and who covers your account when the usual person is away.
The monthly fee looks lovely until the first invoice for “out of scope works”. Ask for a plain list: what’s covered (support hours, number of users, devices, site visits), and what’s billed on top (projects, new starters, hardware, after-hours call-outs).
Our guide to managed IT services costs in Dubai goes through the usual inclusions and extras in detail.
Ask what they’ll report and how often, and whether you can see it yourself without having to ask.
The best providers give you a customer portal where you can log tickets, see who’s working on them, and check in real time whether they’re hitting their SLAs. You should be able to see open and closed tickets, response and fix times against the SLA, and recurring problems that keep coming back. It’s the difference between “trust us, it’s fine” and “here’s the dashboard”.
On top of that, expect a regular review covering security updates applied and risks they’ve spotted. If the only report you get is the invoice, you’ll only hear from them when something breaks.
Ask them to look at your set-up before you sign and tell you the three things that worry them most. A good IT company will find something. One that says everything looks perfect either hasn’t looked or wants to keep you happy until the contract is signed.
Nobody likes talking about the break-up on the first date, but you should. Ask who owns your accounts, passwords and documentation, and how handover works. If leaving sounds difficult, staying will be too.
Before you compare anyone, decide what kind of help you actually need. Plenty of companies in Dubai describe themselves as “IT solutions providers”, but they do very different jobs, and comparing a help desk with a software house gets you nowhere.
Most small and mid-sized firms in Dubai need the first three from one provider, so nobody can blame the other one when something breaks. Larger or multi-site organisations sometimes split them: a local partner for hands-on support and a specialist for big projects or security testing.
Matching the provider to the business: a wealth manager in DIFC usually needs managed IT plus cyber security and audit evidence. A hotel or restaurant group needs network reliability, guest WiFi and point-of-sale support across sites. A retailer needs devices, stock systems and backups that work at every branch. A start-up mostly needs Microsoft 365 set up properly and security that scales with it.
Give every provider the same short scenario (for example: “a director’s mailbox has been compromised on a Friday night”) and score their answers on the same criteria. It stops the shortlist turning into a beauty contest.
| What to compare | Why it matters | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Service focus | Avoids paying a generalist for specialist work | A clear answer on what they do and, just as important, what they don’t |
| Response process | Shows what happens when something breaks | Written SLA by priority, a ticketing system, an escalation path and an out-of-hours number |
| Industry and regulation | Cuts the learning curve | Clients like you, and working knowledge of the rules you follow, such as DFSA, FSRA or UAE data protection law |
| Independent certification | Proves someone outside the company has checked | Current ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certificates you can see, plus Microsoft partner status |
| Security approach | Protects your data, money and reputation | Multi-factor authentication, tested backups, monitoring and staff training discussed in the first meeting, not as an upsell |
| Visibility | Lets you check performance yourself | A customer portal with your tickets and SLA figures, and a regular review meeting |
| Local presence | Matters when something needs hands on | Engineers in the UAE who can get to your office in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, and a clear charge for site visits |
| Exit terms | Protects you if it doesn’t work out | You own your accounts, passwords and documentation, with a defined handover |
Local or international? A UAE-based provider is usually quicker on site, knows the free zones and keeps the same working week as you. A large international firm may suit a multi-country group with round-the-clock needs. Whichever you choose, make sure the people doing the work, not just the salesperson, are named in the proposal.
Cre8 IT has supported businesses in the UAE since 2012, with engineers in Dubai, Riyadh and the UK. We’re ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified, and every client gets a baseline level of cyber security whether they asked for it or not. Some of them grumbled. None of them have asked us to remove it.
If you’d like us to answer these 10 questions about your business, book a free 30-minute consultation. We’ll tell you what we’d change first, even if you don’t hire us.
Last reviewed 9 October 2026. This guide is general information, not legal or contractual advice.
A service level agreement is the part of your IT contract that sets out, in numbers, how quickly the provider will respond to and fix issues at each priority level, and what happens if they miss those targets.
It depends on the support level you pay for. What matters is that response and fix times are written into the SLA for each priority, with critical issues handled fastest, and that you can see how they perform against it.
Yes, ideally. A portal lets you log tickets, track progress and see SLA performance without chasing anyone, which makes it much easier to judge whether you are getting what you pay for.
Plan the handover. Ask your current provider for documentation, admin passwords and licence details, check you own your accounts, and give the new provider time to review your set-up before the old contract ends.
A managed IT provider runs your IT day to day for a monthly fee: help desk, devices, Microsoft 365, backups and security. An IT consultant or project team handles one-off changes such as an office move, migration or new network. Many Dubai firms use one company for both so there is a single point of responsibility.
A UAE-based provider is usually faster on site, understands free-zone and local requirements and works the same week as you. A large international provider can suit multi-country groups. Either way, check who will actually do the work and where they are based.
Not necessarily. Many managed IT providers include security monitoring, backups and staff training. If you are regulated by the DFSA or FSRA, or a client asks for it, you may also want independent penetration testing so the people testing your security are not the same people who built it.