Foreign companies in Portugal: how to have network and IT ready on opening day

• Portugal attracts international companies And IT is one of the first practical problems to solve.
• Internet has the longest lead time It must be ordered weeks before the move.
• A local partner Avoids coordinating suppliers remotely, in another time zone.
• DataRoad is already the local IT arm Of companies from the USA and several European countries in Portugal, with support in English.

The scenario repeats itself: the office has been leased, the first hires have been made and the team has nowhere to connect. Dedicated internet takes weeks, nobody knows the local operators and the quotes arrive in Portuguese.

On the other side, the IT manager is several time zones away. We see this pattern in companies setting up in Lisbon and Cascais — and it can be avoided when someone in Portugal handles it from day one.

1. Dedicated internet — order it as soon as the office lease is signed. Preferably with redundancy: a second connection or 5G/Starlink backup.
2. Structured cabling — make the most of the empty space to cable the office from scratch, once and properly.
3. Business Wi-Fi — professional wireless coverage sized for constant video calls with head office.
4. Firewall and access — firewall, secure connection to the parent company's network and policies aligned with the group's global rules.
5. On-the-ground support — someone who answers in English, in the office's time zone, and goes on site when needed.

Strategy belongs to head office. Getting the network running in Portugal is the job of whoever is here.

Managing a Portuguese office's IT from Austin, Berlin or London means choosing unfamiliar operators, coordinating installers by email and only discovering failures once the team has already stopped.

With a local partner, the order is reversed. The partner talks to the landlord and the operator, receives the equipment, installs, tests and reports to head office through a single point of contact. The company keeps control — it simply no longer needs to be present to exercise it.

DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting set up from scratch the office of ReStream, a US company, in Cascais: network, Wi-Fi 6, firewall and a redundant Starlink connection. It is the kind of project in which we take care of everything, from network infrastructure to managed IT services, with communication and reports in English for head office.

If your company is preparing to open an office in Portugal, talk to us before signing with an operator. No-commitment proposal for companies with more than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support.