Ilia Arestov: Fractional CTO & IT Consultant in Dubai
Fractional Chief Technology Officer
Real-world case studies, proven strategies, and the latest trends will help you gain deeper insights into IT, implement innovations, and optimize business processes to increase profitability and ensure security.
Drawing on unique experience across diverse industries, I employ a comprehensive approach encompassing architecture, planning, risk management, and technology to achieve long-term results.
About Me
Ilia Arestov
Fractional Chief Technology Officer
Ilia Arestov
Fractional Chief Technology Officer
- Over 15 years of experience in information technology and automation.
- Developed the first MP3 player in Belarus, designed an audio circuit for a HiFi player, and created Russia’s first laser printer.
- Successfully ran my own business and was repeatedly recognized as the best young entrepreneur in the field of innovation in Russia.
- 10 years of expertise in IT and information security consulting, working across various sectors (B2B, B2P, B2G, B2B2C).
- My products are used by over 50,000 people in 38 countries.
- Experience managing teams of more than 100 people; executed more than 1000 projects, including large-scale digital platforms, specialized hardware and software solutions for biometrics and counterparty scoring, and IT solutions at the state level.
- Author of six active patents in the fields of information security and big data processing.
My services
Fractional CTO Services
A company outgrows the point where technology decisions can be made in passing long before a full-time CTO is easy to justify. A fractional CTO closes that gap: architecture, vendor…
IT Consulting
Companies bring in IT consulting in two situations: when the stack has grown to the point where nobody can say what the company is actually paying for, and when a…
Information Security
In most companies information security amounts to an antivirus and the Wi-Fi password shared in a group chat, and the first real incident reveals there are no logs, no owner…
Strategic IT Planning
Strategic planning usually breaks not at the idea stage but at the handover to execution: the goals are written down, yet nobody knows whose quarter this is or which number…
Business Process Automation
Business automation does not pay off everywhere: a process that changes every month costs more to automate than to leave manual. So I start with a measurement (where the time…
Data Analytics and BI
Data analytics usually stalls not on tooling but on the fact that three departments count the same revenue three different ways. So before dashboards I get the definitions and the…
My expertise
Security Audit and Monitoring
Information and Device Protection
Risk Management and Compliance
Data Backup and Recovery
Development of Security Products
Zero Trust networks and access
WireGuard and secure tunnels
YubiKey, GPG and hardware keys
Hidden OS and disk encryption
MDM platform for device fleets
SIEM on an open core
Server telemetry and inventory
Remote wipe and lockdown
Ansible configuration automation
Terraform and environment definitions
Proxmox clusters and virtualisation
CI/CD and GitOps pipelines
Server and network infrastructure
Infrastructure architecture and design
ESP32 and embedded devices
Firmware and code signing
Access controllers and NFC
Hardware integration with smart home
Flutter and cross-platform apps
Native Android and iOS
Release automation for App Store and Google Play
Signing, certificates and provisioning
Business Process Automation
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Infrastructure Optimization
Equipment Lifecycle Management
Contract negotiation and vendors
LLM agents in operations
AI-assisted log and incident triage
AI in education products
Self-hosted models and privacy
Strategic Management
Project Management
Implementation of New Technologies
Development of Specialized Systems
Standardization and Unification of Technologies
Strategic planning usually breaks not at the idea stage but at the handover to execution: the goals are written down, yet nobody knows whose quarter this is or which number…
Companies bring in IT consulting in two situations: when the stack has grown to the point where nobody can say what the company is actually paying for, and when a…
Risk Identification and Assessment
Incident Management
Business Continuity
Backup Communications
Emergency Planning
Monitoring Systems
Data Analysis
Big Data
Data Visualization
Creation and Maintenance of Knowledge Bases
Documentation of Processes and Instructions
Budgeting and Costs
Economic Efficiency
Attracting and Working with Investors
Debt financing
Financial management breaks in predictable places as a technology company scales: revenue recognised in one country, costs booked in another, and a regulator in a third asking why the two…
Work on investor readiness usually starts a month before the round, when it should have started six months earlier. The investor sends a list of questions and it turns out…
My works
Certificates
My blogs
09 Sep 2026 An employee left a laptop in a taxi on Friday evening. The machine goes into lockdown from the panel, which…
01 Sep 2026 With a dozen servers, the state of the estate lives in an administrator’s head. With hundreds of them spread across…
25 Aug 2026 When a contractor calls a SIEM “our own product”, it is worth asking what exactly is theirs. In our case…
18 Aug 2026 Device fleets are usually managed with Intune, Jamf or Hexnode, and in most cases that is the right call. We…
11 Aug 2026 A hidden OS is a second encrypted Windows perimeter on the same disk of an ordinary laptop, whose existence cannot…
04 Aug 2026 A great deal has been written about Zero Trust, and almost all of it is about principles. It is far…