ZTABS provides IT consulting for Riyadh enterprises — cloud migration strategy aligned with the Saudi Cloud First Policy, enterprise architecture modernization for Vision 2030 programs, and technology infrastructure design that meets NCA cybersecurity requirements and NDMO data classification.
Saudi Arabia's Cloud First Policy, mandated by MCIT in 2020, requires government entities to evaluate cloud services before any new IT investment. This single directive has transformed Riyadh's enterprise IT landscape from on-premises everything to a cloud migration scramble. Government entities that operated data centers for decades now need to classify their data per NDMO guidelines, select cloud providers from the MCIT-approved list, migrate workloads without disrupting critical government services, and build internal capabilities to manage cloud infrastructure. The private sector faces parallel pressure: Saudi banks must comply with SAMA's Outsourcing Guidelines for cloud adoption, healthcare providers must meet SFDA and MOH requirements for health data in the cloud, and enterprises pursuing government contracts find that cloud-ready infrastructure is increasingly a procurement prerequisite. The challenge is not whether to migrate — that decision has been made at the national level. The challenge is how to migrate intelligently: which workloads move to public cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle — all with Saudi region availability or announced plans), which stay on private cloud (STC Cloud, Mobily Cloud, solutions.sa), and which remain on-premises because the data classification does not permit cloud hosting. Most Saudi enterprises lack the internal expertise for this planning. Their IT teams manage existing on-premises infrastructure competently but have never designed a cloud architecture, negotiated a cloud provider contract, or executed a migration that must maintain zero downtime for citizen-facing government services. The Big 4 and global systems integrators offer cloud advisory — but at day rates of SAR 8,000-15,000 per consultant, a 6-month cloud migration program costs more than the first 3 years of cloud hosting.
Riyadh's IT consulting demand is driven by the simultaneous digitization of government, the scaling of mega-projects, and the modernization of Saudi enterprises. Government: 150+ government entities need cloud migration aligned with MCIT's Cloud First Policy. The Digital Government Authority (DGA) coordinates digital transformation across government. YESSER (the Saudi e-government program) provides shared infrastructure that many entities still need to modernize away from. Major government IT projects include the National Unified Procurement Platform (Etimad modernization), the Saudi Business Center (business licensing digitization), and the health sector's digital transformation. Enterprise: Saudi Aramco's IT operations (one of the world's largest enterprise IT environments) influence standards across the Saudi private sector. Banks (Al Rajhi, SNB, Riyad Bank) face SAMA-regulated technology transformation requirements. Telecom (STC, Mobily, Zain) are both consumers and providers of IT services. Retail (Jarir, Extra, Panda) modernizes for e-commerce competition. Mega-projects: NEOM, The Red Sea, Diriyah Gate, Qiddiya, and ROSHN each require greenfield IT architecture — networks, data centers, enterprise applications, cybersecurity, and end-user computing for organizations that did not exist 5 years ago. These projects hire thousands of employees who need functioning IT from day one. The Saudi IT services market exceeds SAR 40 billion annually, with cloud services growing at 25%+ year-over-year. The talent gap is acute: Saudi Arabia needs an estimated 20,000+ additional IT professionals to execute its digital transformation plans. This talent gap creates the consulting demand — organizations that cannot hire the expertise need to buy it.
Our Riyadh IT consulting covers three primary engagement types: cloud migration strategy, enterprise architecture for new organizations, and technology due diligence. Cloud migration strategy: (1) We start with the NDMO data classification exercise — every dataset the organization holds is classified per NDMO categories (Top Secret, Secret, Confidential, Restricted, Public). This classification determines where data can reside: some classifications permit public cloud, others require government-community cloud or on-premises. (2) Application portfolio assessment: we inventory all applications (typically 50-300 for a Saudi government entity), assess their cloud readiness (6R framework: rehost, replatform, refactor, repurchase, retire, retain), and estimate migration complexity and cost per application. (3) Cloud provider selection: we evaluate options against the organization's specific requirements — AWS (me-south-1 Bahrain region, with Saudi local zone announced), Azure (UAE North, with Saudi region development), Google Cloud (Dammam region launched), Oracle Cloud (Jeddah), STC Cloud (Saudi-hosted, government community cloud), and Alibaba Cloud (partner with STC for Saudi market). Selection is based on data sovereignty requirements, application compatibility, cost modeling, and the organization's existing technology investments (an organization deeply invested in Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory has a natural Azure alignment). (4) Migration roadmap: sequenced by risk and dependency — we migrate low-risk, non-critical workloads first to build team capability, then progress to production and citizen-facing systems. For enterprise architecture: new Saudi organizations (mega-projects, government entities created by Royal Decree, newly licensed companies) need greenfield IT design. We architect: network infrastructure (SD-WAN, with Saudi connectivity requirements — STC, Mobily, or Zain backbone), identity and access management (Active Directory/Azure AD, with integration to Nafath for citizen-facing services), productivity platforms (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace — the Saudi market overwhelmingly uses Microsoft), ERP selection (SAP S/4HANA or Oracle for large organizations, Odoo or custom for smaller entities), and cybersecurity architecture aligned with NCA Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC-1:2018) — the mandatory framework for all Saudi organizations.
Government / Public Sector
A Saudi government entity serving 4 million citizens through 35 digital services operated entirely on-premises: 4 data centers, 280 physical servers, 65 applications, and 22 databases. The MCIT Cloud First mandate required a migration plan. The entity's CIO faced multiple constraints: (1) 12 applications were classified as running on "Confidential" data per NDMO — requiring government-community cloud or approved public cloud. (2) 3 legacy applications (built on Oracle Forms in 2008) had no vendor support and undocumented interfaces. (3) Citizen-facing services could not tolerate more than 4 hours of downtime per year (99.95% availability). (4) The IT team of 45 staff had zero cloud experience — all infrastructure knowledge was on-premises. (5) Budget was constrained: the entity could not justify the SAR 8 million quote from a Big 4 firm for the migration program.
We delivered a comprehensive migration strategy in 8 weeks: (1) Data classification: completed NDMO classification for all 65 applications and 22 databases. Result: 8 applications with Top Secret/Secret data (remain on-premises), 12 Confidential (eligible for government community cloud — STC Cloud G-Cloud), 45 Restricted/Public (eligible for public cloud — AWS or Azure). (2) Application assessment: of 65 applications, we recommended: 28 rehost (lift-and-shift to cloud VMs — lowest risk, fastest migration), 12 replatform (move to cloud-managed services — e.g., Oracle database to Amazon RDS), 8 refactor (modernize architecture — the legacy Oracle Forms applications rebuilt as web applications), 10 repurchase (replace with SaaS — e.g., on-premises email to Microsoft 365), 7 retire (applications with zero active users discovered during assessment). (3) Cloud provider recommendation: dual-cloud — STC G-Cloud for Confidential-classified workloads (government community cloud with Saudi data residency guarantees), AWS me-south-1 for Restricted/Public workloads (cost-effective, broad service catalog). (4) Migration roadmap: 4 phases over 18 months. Phase 1 (months 1-4): retire 7 applications, migrate 10 to SaaS (Microsoft 365, etc.). Phase 2 (months 3-8): rehost 28 applications to cloud VMs. Phase 3 (months 6-14): replatform 12 applications. Phase 4 (months 10-18): refactor 8 legacy applications. (5) Team upskilling plan: AWS and Azure certification paths for 15 IT staff, with hands-on training during Phase 1 migrations.
The entity approved the migration strategy and began execution. Phase 1 delivered SAR 450,000 in immediate savings (7 retired applications eliminated SAR 280,000/year in licensing; Microsoft 365 adoption eliminated SAR 170,000/year in on-premises Exchange costs). The discovery of 7 applications with zero users — still consuming server resources and licensing fees — was a finding the entity's leadership called "embarrassing but valuable." Phase 2 migration (28 applications rehosted) completed on schedule with zero citizen service disruptions. Total projected 5-year TCO reduction: SAR 12 million (from SAR 35 million on-premises to SAR 23 million cloud — including migration costs). The consulting engagement cost SAR 280,000 — versus the SAR 8 million Big 4 quote for a similar scope.
Review current systems, identify gaps, and recommend improvements for cost and performance.
System and software architecture for scalability, security, and maintainability.
Objective guidance on frameworks, databases, and tools for your use case.
Roadmaps for digital transformation, product evolution, and technical debt reduction.
Evaluate build vs. buy, review vendors, and guide implementation decisions.
Riyadh's IT consulting market includes global systems integrators (Accenture, IBM, DXC, Wipro, Infosys — all with Saudi offices), the Big 4's technology practices (Deloitte Technology, PwC Digital, EY Technology, KPMG Digital), Saudi IT companies (elm, Thiqah, Solutions by STC, Al Moammar Information Systems — MIS), and cloud provider professional services (AWS ProServe, Microsoft Consulting Services, Google Cloud Consulting). The gap: global firms charge SAR 8,000-15,000/day and produce comprehensive but slow deliverables. Saudi IT companies have local knowledge but limited strategic advisory capability. Cloud provider consulting is inherently biased toward their own platform. ZTABS delivers cloud-agnostic IT strategy at competitive rates, combining strategic assessment with practical migration planning grounded in Saudi regulatory requirements (NDMO, NCA, MCIT).
IT consulting in Riyadh ranges from SAR 80,000 ($21,000) for cloud migration assessments (application inventory, data classification, provider recommendation) to SAR 400,000+ ($107,000+) for comprehensive enterprise architecture programs (greenfield design, migration strategy, team upskilling). Cloud migration strategy (65 applications, as in the case study): SAR 250,000-350,000 over 8-12 weeks. For comparison: the Big 4 quotes SAR 5-8 million for similar scope. We deliver equivalent strategic value at a fraction of the cost, with the advantage of actually building the technical architecture — not just recommending it.
Verified reviews from real client engagements — sourced from our public testimonial archive and Clutch profile.
My experience is throughout positive. Communication, service, the short response times and the flawless execution of a challenging topic was absolutely great. ZTABS is definitely my first choice again.
Christian Neff
Bank Software Advisory · Bank Software Advisory
Fintech
Fantastic Agency! I couldn't fault them even if I tried. They always go above and beyond to meet your expectations and always produces quality work. Thank you ZTABS.
Stephanie Kal
CEO · Beauty Finder Australia
Marketplace
It has been great working with ZTABS. They bounce off the ideas along the way. Amazing Experience.
Joel Rowe
CEO · Drill Quoter
Marketplace
We don't just contract — we ship and operate our own software. 17 products in production.
Common questions about IT consulting for Riyadh businesses
It depends on your data classification and existing technology stack. For Top Secret/Secret data: on-premises or Saudi government community cloud (STC G-Cloud). For Confidential: STC G-Cloud or approved public cloud with Saudi data residency. For Restricted/Public: AWS (Bahrain, with Saudi local zone), Azure (UAE North), Google Cloud (Dammam), or Oracle Cloud (Jeddah) — choose based on application compatibility, cost, and existing investments. We recommend the provider that fits your specific situation, not the one that pays us referral fees.
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