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Zellarc
Muhasib — explore our flagship business management tool

AWS

AWS cloud hosting for UAE businesses, including the UAE region (me-central-1) for data residency, with scalable compute, storage and managed databases.

Where we use it

Amazon Web Services is the cloud platform we use most for hosting business applications. It covers everything a typical system needs, from servers and containers to managed databases, file storage, email and backups, and it has a Middle East (UAE) region, me-central-1, so data can stay in the country when regulation or customers require it. We recommend the account is opened in your company's name so you own the infrastructure, and we set up security defaults and cost alerts from the start.

Strengths

  • Vast range of services and features.
  • Scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure.
  • Pay-as-you-go pricing model.
  • UAE region (me-central-1) for in-country hosting.
  • Managed services reduce day-to-day server administration.

Trade-offs

  • Complex pricing can be difficult to predict.
  • The sheer number of services can be overwhelming.
  • Vendor lock-in can be a concern.
  • Not every AWS service is available in every region, including the UAE region.

Questions

Yes. The AWS Middle East (UAE) region, me-central-1, lets you keep compute and data in the UAE. AWS also has a Middle East region in Bahrain (me-south-1). Not every AWS service is offered in every region, so we check the services a project needs against the UAE region before committing to a design.

It depends on your sector and the data involved. Some regulated sectors and government-related work have explicit in-country requirements, and the PDPL (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021) sets rules for personal data. Many businesses host in the UAE anyway for latency and customer confidence. Confirm your requirements with your regulator or legal adviser; our guide to cloud hosting and data residency in the UAE sets out the questions to ask.

Both have UAE regions and both are solid choices. Azure is often the easier fit for companies already on Microsoft 365 and Microsoft identity services; AWS has a very broad service range and is where we do most of our cloud work. If you already have a cloud account and in-house skills, staying with it is usually the right call.

It depends on traffic, database size, backups and whether you need high availability across multiple data centres. AWS bills by usage, so we size the setup during scoping, set budget alerts, and review the bill after launch. We do not quote a monthly figure before we understand the workload.

We recommend it is opened in your company's name with your billing details, and that we work in it through named, limited-permission access. That way you keep the infrastructure and the data if you ever change supplier.

AWS secures the physical infrastructure; securing what runs on it is the customer's responsibility, which AWS calls the shared responsibility model. We set up private networking, encryption in transit and at rest, least-privilege access, backups and logging as the baseline.

When we choose AWS

AWS is our default for business applications that need a backend, a database and room to grow: ERPs, CRMs, portals, SaaS products and mobile app backends. It is the natural choice when data should stay in the UAE, when the system needs managed databases, queues and file storage under one roof, or when a client wants infrastructure in their own account rather than with a smaller host.

When we recommend something else

Microsoft-centred organisations
If you run on Microsoft 365, Entra ID and an existing Azure subscription, Azure, which also has UAE regions, keeps identity, billing and support in one place.
Marketing sites and simple frontends
A Next.js website without a database is usually simpler and cheaper on Vercel, with no servers to manage.
Small, predictable workloads
A low-traffic internal tool can run perfectly well on a fixed-price virtual server, which some businesses prefer for budget certainty.

What it costs to run

AWS charges for what you use, and the main drivers are always-on servers and databases, storage and backups, and data transferred out to users. Managed services such as RDS cost more than a raw server but remove patching and backup chores, which is usually the better trade for a business without its own operations team.

Beyond the AWS bill, budget for someone to watch it: applying updates, checking backups restore, reviewing alerts and adjusting capacity. We provide that as part of cloud and DevOps support, and we explain the likely monthly running costs during scoping once the workload is known.

How AWS fits a typical Zellarc build

A common pattern is an API running in containers, a managed PostgreSQL database, file storage for documents and images, and a CI/CD pipeline that deploys each tested change. Separate staging and production environments let you review changes before customers see them, and infrastructure is defined in code so it can be rebuilt or audited.

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