Frequently Asked Questions

Ricateka is a comprehensive IT infrastructure management company based in Costa Rica. We provide end-to-end support for all your IT infrastructure needs, from office workstations and local networks to production clusters, cloud environments, security, and connectivity. Our main value: you can completely avoid having your own in-house IT infrastructure team—we take care of everything.

We are headquartered in Cartago, Costa Rica. While our physical location is in Costa Rica, we serve clients worldwide and work remotely with teams across different time zones to ensure seamless collaboration.

We serve businesses of all sizes across diverse industries including fintech, e-commerce, healthcare, education, SaaS, and professional services. Any organization that needs reliable, secure IT infrastructure but prefers to focus on their core business instead of managing infrastructure operations can benefit from our services.

We support on-premise, cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), and hybrid infrastructures. Whether you run servers in your own data center, use cloud platforms, or have a mix of both, we manage and maintain all of it. We handle everything from office workstations and local networks to production clusters running your critical applications.

Yes. We manage all aspects of network infrastructure including LAN, WAN, VPN, Wi-Fi, routing, firewalls, and network segmentation. We also manage internet connectivity with BGP for multi-ISP redundancy, ensuring high availability and predictable traffic routing. We configure secure remote access so your team can work safely from anywhere.

Absolutely. We deploy and manage Web Application Firewalls (WAF) to protect your applications from common attacks like OWASP Top 10 threats, bots, and malicious traffic. For email, we design, migrate, and operate corporate email systems (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or on-premise servers), implement secure mail gateways, spam and phishing protection, and configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to ensure reliable, secure email delivery.

We implement comprehensive security measures including system hardening, identity and access management, least-privilege access controls, VPN and secure remote access, vulnerability management, regular patching, logging and monitoring, and basic SOC-like incident handling. We also support compliance requirements where relevant and help you maintain a strong security posture across all infrastructure.

Yes. We select, configure, and operate Content Delivery Networks (CDN) for your websites and applications. We optimize performance through caching strategies, traffic routing, and continuous tuning to ensure fast, reliable content delivery globally. This reduces latency and improves user experience for your customers.

Onboarding timelines depend on your infrastructure complexity. For small to medium environments, we typically complete assessment and transition in 2-4 weeks. Larger, more complex infrastructures may take 1-3 months. We work collaboratively to minimize disruption and ensure a smooth transition with no downtime to your operations.

We implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting across all systems, networks, and applications. We perform proactive maintenance including regular patching, capacity planning, performance optimization, and backups. Our team responds to alerts 24/7, handles incidents promptly, and keeps your infrastructure running smoothly so you can focus on your business.

Minimal involvement is required—that's the whole point. We handle day-to-day operations, monitoring, patching, and incident response. You'll receive regular status reports and we'll consult with you on strategic decisions like infrastructure upgrades or major changes. You stay informed without the operational burden.

Yes. We seamlessly integrate with your current infrastructure, tools, and processes. Whether you're migrating from an existing IT team, transitioning from another provider, or setting up new infrastructure, we adapt to your environment and maintain business continuity throughout the transition.

We offer flexible pricing based on the scope and complexity of your infrastructure. Pricing depends on factors like number of servers, network complexity, security requirements, support level (business hours vs. 24/7), and any specialized services like BGP management or advanced security. We provide transparent, predictable monthly pricing after assessing your environment.

Yes. Building an in-house infrastructure team requires hiring multiple specialists (network engineers, security experts, system administrators), offering competitive salaries, benefits, training, and covering absences or turnover. With us, you get a full team of experts for a predictable monthly fee—typically at a fraction of the cost of hiring even one senior infrastructure engineer.

Our packages include infrastructure monitoring and alerting, regular maintenance and patching, backup and disaster recovery management, security hardening and vulnerability management, incident response, capacity planning, performance optimization, and ongoing consultation. Third-party costs (cloud services, ISP fees, software licenses) are separate and billed transparently.

Absolutely. We tailor our service packages to your specific needs and budget. Whether you need basic monitoring and maintenance or comprehensive 24/7 support with guaranteed response times, we create a solution that fits. Contact us to discuss your requirements and we'll design a package that works for you.

We offer flexible support options ranging from business hours coverage to full 24/7/365 monitoring and response. For critical infrastructure, we provide around-the-clock monitoring with guaranteed response times for incidents. You choose the support level that matches your business needs and uptime requirements.

Response times depend on your service level agreement and incident severity. Critical outages receive immediate response (typically within 15-30 minutes for 24/7 plans), high-priority issues within 1-2 hours, and standard requests within 4-8 business hours. We provide clear SLAs tailored to your requirements.

We implement comprehensive backup strategies with regular automated backups, off-site storage, and tested recovery procedures. We design disaster recovery plans with defined recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) that match your business requirements. We regularly test recovery procedures to ensure they work when needed.

We provide comprehensive documentation and knowledge transfer to ensure a smooth transition. You retain full ownership and control of your infrastructure at all times. If you decide to transition to an in-house team, we'll work collaboratively to transfer knowledge, document configurations, and train your staff. There are no lock-ins or barriers to bringing operations in-house.