Welcome to the June edition of the Alnafitha IT newsletter. This month brought a defining moment for data residency in the Kingdom, an active event calendar across Riyadh and Jeddah, and a set of insights built around the compliance and security questions Saudi enterprises are working through right now. We start with the story that will shape IT decisions in the Kingdom for the rest of the year.Â
Spotlight: Zoom Launches Its First Data Center in Saudi Arabia
On June 8, Zoom officially launched its first data center in the Kingdom, under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Alnafitha IT participated as a Strategic Sponsor of the launching ceremony, alongside senior leaders and decision-makers from the government and enterprise sectors.
The significance goes beyond the ceremony. With PDPL enforcement maturing and NCA requirements tightening, where your collaboration workloads live is now a board-level question. A local Zoom data center means Saudi organizations can host meetings, contact center operations, and communication data inside the Kingdom, with the performance and compliance alignment that Vision 2030 demands.
As a Zoom Platinum Partner, our team spent the launch week in conversations with customers and partners on what sovereign communication looks like in practice.
Read our coverage from the launch:
- Strategic Sponsor announcement and ceremony recapÂ
- Highlights video from the launch eventÂ
- What the local data center means for Saudi organizations
June Event Highlights
Our teams were active across the Kingdom throughout the month:
IDC IT Security Summit Saudi Arabia 2026. We represented ManageEngine and connected with security leaders on the trends shaping cybersecurity and IT management in the region.Â
ServiceDesk Plus Cloud Workshop, Jeddah. Alongside ManageEngine, we worked through ITSM and ITAM best practices with customers, covering real-world use cases and strategies for stronger service delivery.Â
Global AI Show. Two days of meaningful conversations on how organizations across the Kingdom can gain total visibility and complete control over their IT, powered by AI. Thank you to everyone who visited our booth.Â
We also marked a special internal milestone this month. Our Egypt office welcomed a visit from our Chairman, Eng. Abdullah Bin Laden, our Managing Director, Eng. Alaa Samman, and our CEO, Mr. Ibrahim Agha, a visit that reflected how close our leadership stays to teams across every branch. Â
Featured Insights: Five Reads from June
Every piece below came from real conversations with Saudi enterprises. These are the five we recommend starting with.
- The ISO 27001 Gap Assessment, Done Right Most organizations walk into their first audit believing they are ready. Four control areas say otherwise, and auditors find them every time. Essential reading for any organization operating under NCA or SAMA obligations and preparing for Stage 1. Read it here
- Five Security Blind Spots Auditors Find Before You Do Most security gaps do not show up in a dashboard. They show up in an NCA ECC review, or worse, during an incident. We mapped the five blind spots Saudi enterprises hit most often and how to close each one ahead of time. View the full breakdown
- The Five Most Common Microsoft 365 Security Gaps Deployments are up and running across Saudi enterprises. Many are not properly secured. Missing MFA, over-privileged admins, and Defender on default settings are exactly what NCA ECC 2.0 auditors look for. We showed how to fix each one in a live environment. Read it here
- Azure Migration: The Compliance-First Checklist Microsoft Azure migration in Saudi Arabia is not just a technical decision. NCA, PDPL, and data residency requirements must be resolved before you move a single workload. We published the full checklist. Read it here
- Cloud Contact Center for Saudi Enterprises: A Complete Guide Moving your contact center to the cloud is about more than technology. It is about compliance, efficiency, and cost control. Our strategic guide covers what a cloud-based model built for Saudi enterprise requirements looks like, from PDPL alignment and local hosting to omnichannel support in Arabic and English, so you can assess your transition path with confidence. Read it here
Upcoming Events | July 2026
Three opportunities to learn directly from product experts, two of them in person. Seats are limited for all three.
UEMS Workshop KSA 2026 | Riyadh Monday, 6 July | 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM | Voco Riyadh Hotel A hands-on session for IT teams who manage, secure, and scale endpoints across the enterprise. Attendees walk away with practical solutions to real endpoint management challenges, a first look at the Endpoint Central roadmap, certification, and direct guidance from product experts.Â
UEMS Workshop KSA 2026 | Jeddah Wednesday, 8 July The same full-day, hands-on experience comes to the western region.Â
Live Webinar in Arabic | Everything Your Support Team Needs, in One Unified Platform Monday, 13 July | 1:00 PM (KSA time) A practical walkthrough of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, covering incident, problem, and change management, asset and service catalog management, and the role of automation and AI in raising efficiency. Presented in Arabic by Technical Solutions Engineer Sherif Sabry, with a live Q&A session.Â
A Final Word from Alnafitha
The questions Saudi IT leaders are asking have changed. It is no longer whether to move to the cloud or invest in security. It is whether your data lives where regulation says it should, whether you will pass the next NCA review, and whether your teams have the visibility to answer both with confidence.
July gives you three chances to work through those questions with our experts directly. We look forward to seeing you there.