Do you work on site in the UAE?

Yes. Our engineers work at customer sites in every emirate and remotely from Dubai, and most engagements combine the two. Every engagement is contracted with Mamluk LLC-FZ, which is registered in Meydan Free Zone, Dubai.

Can the Bahriya Kubernetes Engine run inside the UAE?

Yes. BKE is installed on the customer's own servers, in the customer's own data centre, so the cluster and the data it holds stay wherever that hardware is. The requirements for each node are published in full.

BKE is licensed at a flat annual fee per cluster, whatever the number of nodes, cores or memory. The figure and a worked example are on the BKE pricing page , and a 14-day trial can be started from the Mamluk console without a sales call.

Does UAE law require our data to stay in the country?

It depends on the data. Health data is subject to a federal localisation requirement. Personal data under the federal PDPL may be transferred abroad, but only to adequate jurisdictions or under safeguards. Licensed banks need Central Bank approval to move confidential consumer data abroad. Government and critical-infrastructure entities are bound by the National Cloud Security Policy. Running the platform on your own hardware in the UAE satisfies all of these by construction, which is why it is the arrangement we design for.

United Arab Emirates

Kubernetes and enterprise architecture in the United Arab Emirates.

Mamluk is an engineering company registered in Meydan Free Zone, Dubai. We design, build, support and operate Kubernetes platforms for organisations across the seven emirates, and we develop the Bahriya Kubernetes Engine, an enterprise Kubernetes distribution built in the UAE.

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The market

Federal rules, emirate rules and free-zone rules.

An organisation in the UAE can be subject to three layers of regulation at once. Federal law sets the baseline for personal data, health data and cybersecurity. Each emirate adds standards for its own government entities and, in Abu Dhabi's case, for its healthcare sector. The financial free zones, DIFC in Dubai and ADGM in Abu Dhabi, have data protection laws of their own.

The practical consequence for a platform team is that where a workload runs is a decision with a regulatory answer, and the answer can differ between two workloads in the same organisation. Health data has a federal localisation requirement. Personal data under the federal PDPL does not, but its transfer abroad is conditional. Government and critical-infrastructure entities are bound by the national cloud policy.

A Kubernetes platform that runs on the organisation's own hardware keeps that decision with the organisation. That is the case for BKE and for our managed on-premise service, and it is the reason we built both.

What we do in UAE

Five services and one distribution, delivered on site and remotely.

Our engineers work at customer sites in United Arab Emirates and remotely from Dubai. Every engagement is contracted with Mamluk LLC-FZ, and the same engineers deliver every service below.

Enterprise Architecture as a Service

A senior architect on call, paid for by the day.

Kubernetes Consulting

Strategy, architecture and platform design for Kubernetes done properly.

Kubernetes Development

Custom operators, charts, controllers and the long maintenance tail.

Kubernetes Support

A Kubernetes support contract with named engineers and a defined response time.

Managed Kubernetes on Premise

A fully managed Kubernetes practice running inside your own data centre, on BKE.

Bahriya Kubernetes Engine

The only enterprise Kubernetes distribution developed and supported from within the GCC.

Sectors we have worked in, in United Arab Emirates: Travel and tourism.

Regulatory context

The frameworks that shape where workloads run.

The federal frameworks below apply across the UAE. The pages for Dubai and Abu Dhabi cover the rules each emirate and its financial free zone adds.

National Cloud Security Policy UAE Cyber Security Council: Sets security requirements for cloud service providers and the organisations that use them. It requires the location of data to be known and governed under UAE law, rather than imposing a general obligation to keep all data in the country.
UAE Information Assurance Standard (UAE IA) UAE Cyber Security Council: The national control framework for government entities and critical-infrastructure operators, originally published by NESA and now maintained by the Cyber Security Council. It is a set of security controls rather than a localisation rule.
Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (PDPL) UAE federal government: Governs the processing of personal data by the private sector, outside the DIFC and ADGM, which have their own laws. It does not require personal data to be stored in the UAE, but permits transfer abroad only to jurisdictions with adequate protection or under defined safeguards.
Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on the Use of ICT in Health Fields UAE federal government: Requires health data relating to health services provided in the UAE to be stored and processed inside the country, except in cases set out by ministerial resolution. It is one of the few federal rules that is a localisation requirement in the strict sense.
Outsourcing Regulation and Standards for Banks Central Bank of the UAE: Applies to licensed banks. Material outsourcing, which includes the use of cloud services, requires a non-objection from the Central Bank, and confidential consumer data may not be transferred outside the UAE without the prior approval of the Central Bank and of the consumer.

This summary is provided as context and is not legal advice. Which frameworks apply to an organisation depends on its sector, its licences and the data it holds, and should be confirmed with its regulator and its own counsel. Mamluk does not claim certification against any framework listed here.

Questions

Common questions from organisations in the UAE.

Do you work on site in the UAE?: Yes. Our engineers work at customer sites in every emirate and remotely from Dubai, and most engagements combine the two. Every engagement is contracted with Mamluk LLC-FZ, which is registered in Meydan Free Zone, Dubai.
Can the Bahriya Kubernetes Engine run inside the UAE?: Yes. BKE is installed on the customer's own servers, in the customer's own data centre, so the cluster and the data it holds stay wherever that hardware is. The requirements for each node are published in full.
How is BKE priced?: BKE is licensed at a flat annual fee per cluster, whatever the number of nodes, cores or memory. The figure and a worked example are on the BKE pricing page, and a 14-day trial can be started from the Mamluk console without a sales call.
Does UAE law require our data to stay in the country?: It depends on the data. Health data is subject to a federal localisation requirement. Personal data under the federal PDPL may be transferred abroad, but only to adequate jurisdictions or under safeguards. Licensed banks need Central Bank approval to move confidential consumer data abroad. Government and critical-infrastructure entities are bound by the National Cloud Security Policy. Running the platform on your own hardware in the UAE satisfies all of these by construction, which is why it is the arrangement we design for.