Cre8 IT

When regulators and auditors raised the bar, Cre8 IT’s clients turned to the team they already trusted. Since the Dubai-based managed service provider (MSP) was already handling their IT support and Microsoft 365 environments, clients started asking them for security services, even though Cre8 IT didn’t offer them yet.

CEO Rob Crossley saw the opening. “If we’re already in the door with these clients and they’re asking us for these things, it’s silly if we don’t do them,” he says.

But building a security practice from scratch raised two problems. Cre8 IT couldn’t justify hiring a large security team, and Crossley wanted his engineers to fully understand the security work, including the parts they outsourced.

Challenge | A new practice with no security department behind it

Crossley founded Cre8 IT in 2012 after working for a UAE-based MSP he felt wasn’t “doing IT properly.” To date, Cre8 IT has nearly 40 full-time employees across their Dubai headquarters and an office in Riyadh.

Cre8 IT supports financial firms, law practices, and other businesses that, in Crossley’s words, “take IT very seriously.” That’s because most of those clients are regulated. Firms in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) face regular cybersecurity audits and annual penetration tests, and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) sets similar requirements.

Apart from antivirus for some clients, Cre8 IT was starting from scratch. Because IT support remained their core business, their cyber team would have to stay small. That meant Crossley needed a partner to carry the specialist work while Cre8 IT kept the client relationship.

“We wanted to outsource it, but we also still wanted to have ownership of it,” Crossley explains.

He had one more condition. His engineers had to learn to remediate well enough to fix problems themselves if, for some reason, Cre8 IT’s security vendor wasn’t there for them.

Solution | Specialist backup, and a way to learn the work

Cre8 IT compared Huntress with larger, enterprise-focused vendors, and Crossley quickly found that Huntress was the ideal solution for MSPs serving small- and mid-size businesses. He also appreciated that they explain threats in plain, comprehensible English.

Huntress also fit the tools Cre8 IT was already using. The platform integrates with Datto RMM, so engineers easily deploy the Huntress agent through an existing script as well as onboard or offboard a client in one click.

Relationships also played a role in Crossley’s decision. He says the culture he saw at Huntress matched the one he tried to build at Cre8 IT. He adds that his Huntress account manager thoughtfully and knowledgeably talks him through his business needs rather than pushing more products.

Behind the platform, the Huntress Security Operations Center (SOC)—a 24/7 team of threat analysts backed by AI—handles investigation and response. For Crossley, though, the remediation guidance is what sets Huntress apart. When an issue needs fixing, engineers have two options. They can let automated remediation take care of it and save themselves the time, or they can follow Huntress’ step-by-step instructions and make the fix by hand. Crossley notes he hasn’t seen guidance like that on other platforms.

“I think that’s the best feature, because it’s not just dumbing down the job, it’s actually enabling our team to learn from it,” Crossley says.

As client requirements grew, Cre8 IT was able to add to their stack without adding vendors. Clients often arrive with a list of controls they need for a regulator or a certification, and that list can include identity protection and log monitoring. Cre8 IT covers those with Huntress Managed Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) and Managed Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), alongside Managed Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Managed Security Awareness Training (SAT). All four run from one console.

“Where you’ve got multiple clients, you don’t want to be logging into different systems each time,” Crossley says.

Microsoft 365 is another place where the partnership comes to life. Most of Cre8 IT’s clients already have Microsoft Defender through their Microsoft 365 licenses, and Huntress helps build on that existing investment. Together, the solutions support a stronger, more layered approach to security. As a result, Crossley’s team plans to retire a separate antivirus product and reinvest that budget in additional Huntress services.

Configuration is the other piece. In 2026, a third-party penetration test for a regulated client found that a Microsoft 365 policy required by the regulator had been switched off. Cre8 IT tightened permissions for the client, but Crossley also wanted a way to catch the next change without checking every setting by hand.

“Unless you’re looking at that policy and making sure it’s enabled, how do you know if it’s staying enabled, right?” he says.

To date, Crossley’s team is trialing Huntress Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) to monitor those settings, and Cre8 IT plans to deploy it in place of their older posture-management tool.

Results | A lean team that operates like a large one

To date, Cre8 IT protects roughly 600 endpoints with Huntress while keeping their cyber team small.

Crossley states Huntress has saved his team considerable time and has let Cre8 IT grow their security practice without adding headcount. “Huntress allows us to stay lean, and not have that massive CapEx of wages, but still act like we do,” he says.

Security is now part of Cre8 IT’s standard offering. As annual support contracts come up for renewal, Cre8 IT moves clients onto a baseline cybersecurity package that includes Huntress Managed EDR, mail filtering, and password management.

Regulated clients that must train staff also get Managed SAT, and the training pays off at audit time. On a recent visit, an ADGM-regulated client told Crossley they can now show regulators which employees completed each lesson and who passed.

That package also makes the security work easier to sell. Regulators and cyber insurers expect controls like EDR and security awareness training, so clients often arrive already knowing what they need. With Huntress in the package, Cre8 IT can meet those requirements on the spot.

Conclusion | A security practice clients seek out

Cre8 IT saw their clients’ security questions as an opening. Three years later, they run a security practice those same clients seek out. Huntress carries the specialist work in the background, which lets a small cyber team serve regulated clients across the UAE.

And because every remediation shows its steps, each fix teaches Crossley’s engineers a little more of the job, which is the condition he set from the start.