Compare & decide
Managed IT vs in-house IT vs break-fix
A practical comparison for Dubai decision-makers: when to hire in-house, when break-fix is enough, and when a managed IT AMC is cheaper, safer and faster.
Quick answer
Break-fix is cheapest until the first outage. A single in-house generalist cannot cover security, cloud and 24/7. Most UAE SMEs (15–200 seats) get the best risk-adjusted cost from a managed IT AMC like Mignet, optionally keeping one internal IT coordinator.
Key takeaways
- Price the outage, not the invoice
- In-house shines at tribal knowledge; MSP shines at coverage
- Hybrid (coordinator + MSP) is the usual Dubai pattern
- See our outsourcing cost page for numbers
Side-by-side
Break-fix: you call when something is already down; you pay per hour; nobody patches, nobody watches backups. Fine for a two-person studio with no client data.
In-house: one or more employees who know your business. Expensive in Dubai, hard to cover leave and night incidents, and you still buy tools (EDR, backup, firewall).
Managed IT: a contracted team, SLAs, 24/7 monitoring, shared specialists. You trade some intimacy for coverage. Mignet often works with an internal coordinator who owns priorities.
A simple rule of thumb
Under ~10 users with no regulated data: break-fix or a light AMC. 15–200 users: managed IT. 200+ users: hybrid, with in-house owning architecture and the MSP owning operations.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Will we lose control if we outsource?
No — you keep strategy, budget and access reviews. The MSP executes. Monthly reports and a named vCIO keep you in charge.
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