Strategic + operational managed IT for DFSA, ADGM, and SCA-licensed firms.
Financial-services firms need IT that satisfies their regulator while also moving the business forward. Operational AMC handles the day-to-day; strategic IT handles compliance maturity, thematic-review readiness, and the technology evolution your regulator expects to see. Managed IT delivers both under one accountable team.
- DFSAAware design
- ADGMAware design
- ISO 27001Aligned baseline
- StrategicPlus operational
Ten capabilities scoped for regulated financial operations.
Identity and access programme
Microsoft Entra ID with hardware-token or biometric MFA, conditional access tuned to financial-services baseline, just-in-time privileged access management, quarterly access reviews.
SOC and SIEM operations
24/7 Microsoft Sentinel-based SOC with regulator-grade alert rules, monthly threat hunt, quarterly red-team drill, incident response retainer.
Audit trails and evidence programme
Immutable audit logs across critical systems, retention to regulator-mandated periods, quarterly evidence-pack assembly. Thematic-review readiness as a programme, not a fire drill.
Trading-system reliability ownership
Daily ops plus strategic ownership of trading-platform evolution. Near-zero-downtime upgrade patterns, change-freeze calendars aligned to trading schedule.
Cloud governance (Azure UAE regions)
Azure UAE North and UAE Central for data residency. Landing zone, cost governance, reserved instances, Hybrid Benefit. Aligned to DFSA/ADGM data-residency expectations.
Microsoft 365 with regulator-grade governance
M365 admin with Purview classification, DLP for financial data, retention policies aligned to your regulator, eDiscovery readiness, Copilot deployment with appropriate controls.
AML/KYC/transaction-monitoring IT
Operating environment for AML platforms, KYC systems, transaction-monitoring engines, sanctions screening. Integration health monitoring and false-positive triage.
Outsourcing notification and oversight
Outsourcing register maintenance, fourth-party risk assessments, regulator notification packs, contractual data-residency and incident-notification clauses, exit plans.
Regulator-ready KPI reporting
Monthly KPI report sized for compliance-officer consumption: tickets, SLA, security incidents, evidence-pack updates, vendor-risk register changes. Quarterly review with senior management.
Copilot for financial productivity
Copilot for Microsoft 365 deployed where it accelerates non-client-data productivity: research summarisation, internal comms drafting, presentation generation. Strict guardrails on client-data exposure.
Four reasons DFSA/ADGM firms consolidate managed IT here.
Regulator vocabulary at every layer
From the engineer triaging a trading-floor issue to the senior consultant in the regulator-readiness QBR. Our team understands GDAP, outsourcing notification, thematic reviews, EROC, MLRO IT interactions.
Strategic + operational under one team
Most financial firms split strategic-IT consulting (compliance advisory) from operational MSP (helpdesk and infrastructure). We deliver both under one team, with strategy informing daily ops.
Engineers in Business Bay, not offshore
Sensitive financial conversations stay onshore. Named UAE engineers running your tenant, no offshore L1, no ticket bouncing across time zones, no jurisdictional concerns over engineer location.
Trading-day rhythm
Change-freeze windows aligned to market hours, weekend maintenance, dealer-desk peak coverage. The IT operations calendar respects your trading calendar by default.
Six financial-firm profiles.
DFSA Category 2/3/4 firms
Asset managers, advisors, broker-dealers in DIFC. Regulator-readiness as ongoing programme.
ADGM FSRA-licensed firms
Asset managers, fintech sandbox graduates, regulated crypto firms in Abu Dhabi Global Market.
Family offices
Single-family and multi-family offices. Reporting infrastructure, secure family-portal exchange.
Payment processors and remittance
PCI-DSS scope, transaction uptime, sanctions integration, Central Bank reporting infrastructure.
Exchange-houses and money services
Central Bank-licensed money services. AML/CFT monitoring, multi-branch transaction capture.
Fintech startups and scale-ups
Pre-launch to scale-up infrastructure, security posture for licensing applications.
Three approaches.
| Feature | GR managed IT | AMC + compliance advisory | In-house IT (small firm) |
|---|---|---|---|
Strategic compliance ownership | Split | In-house | |
Operational SOC and ops | AMC vendor | ||
Outsourcing notification pack | Advisory firm | Self-built | |
Sentinel SOC | Rare in AMC | Possible | |
Regulator-readiness QBR | Split | Internal | |
Trading-day awareness | AMC only | Internal | |
AML/KYC IT ownership | Compliance owns | In-house | |
Vendor-risk register | Compliance owns | Self-managed |
From regulator-aware audit to ongoing supervision-ready ops.
- 1
Regulator-aware discovery
1-2 weeks
Workshop with senior management, MLRO, compliance officer, IT lead. Map current systems, regulator obligations, recent thematic-review findings.
- 2
Strategic + operational scope
1-2 weeks
Written scope covering both layers: regulator-readiness programme, operational SLA, escalation chain, evidence-pack cadence, outsourcing notification pack.
- 3
Foundation build and cutover
6-12 weeks
Identity baseline, Sentinel SOC operational, Purview classification, audit-log retention configured, outsourcing register populated, BCM/DR refreshed.
- 4
Quarterly regulator-readiness QBR
Day 90+
Joint review with senior management. Roadmap updated, regulator-readiness milestones tracked, vulnerability-scan output reviewed, vendor risk-register refreshed.
“We are a DFSA Category 3 asset manager in DIFC. We had separate compliance advisory (for thematic-review prep) and operational MSP (for helpdesk and infrastructure). Two relationships, two sets of priorities, neither owned the end-to-end outcome. GR consolidated both under one team. Our most recent DFSA thematic review closed at zero material findings, the first time we have managed that in five years. The integration of strategy and operations is what enabled it.”
What financial firms ask before engaging.
Services that pair with financial managed IT.
Book a regulator-aware consultation and get a written strategic + operational scope.
A two-week regulator-aware discovery covering strategic compliance posture, operational pain points, and recent thematic-review findings. Output: a written engagement plan covering both layers.
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