FSi Strategies

FSi Strategies bet big on Microsoft more than a decade ago. Nearly every client they supported was already using Microsoft, so FSi decided to go all in. They rewrote their mission around helping businesses "work better and more securely with Microsoft technology," then backed it by investing in training and making Microsoft certification a standard across the company.

President Nabil Aitoumeziane says every FSi employee is Microsoft-certified, every client is in the cloud, and FSi ranks among Microsoft's top partners worldwide.

But building a business with Microsoft as the technology and security foundation for every client also means securing it around the clock. FSi’s economic model couldn’t support a fully staffed, in-house 24/7/365 security team, so they looked for a partner who could. Today, Huntress is a core part of their Microsoft-centric security vision.

Challenge | Protecting clients at every stage of their Microsoft Security journey

FSi calls themselves a "modernization strategy partner." Their experts build configuration "recipes" for products like Entra ID, Intune, Defender, and Purview so those tools work together the way FSi wants them to. The team also handles the daily work of securing and modernizing client environments.

Every new client arrives with different roadmaps and levels of technology maturity, and, unfortunately, modernization doesn’t happen overnight. "Deploying the stack takes a long time and a lot of resources," says CEO Redha Morsli.

Once it's deployed, someone still has to monitor for, investigate, and respond to threats. Though FSi already had their own security operations center (SOC), their analysts were stretched thin responding to incidents, configuring Conditional Access and group policies, and building out clients’ Microsoft environments.

That left a gap in around-the-clock coverage. Morsli says leaving that gap uncovered would be "like leaving the front door completely wide open."

Solution | 24/7 threat detection and response across the Microsoft environment

How Huntress works with Microsoft was a deciding factor when FSi chose a security partner.

Every new FSi client is immediately onboarded to Huntress Managed Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) and Managed Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), which gives FSi identity and endpoint coverage as well as peace of mind while the broader Microsoft technology modernization takes shape. As the client matures, FSi adds additional Microsoft protections that run alongside Huntress.

"What really drove us to go with Huntress is their alignment with Microsoft,” says Aitoumeziane. "It's exactly what we're looking for. We were all speaking the same language."

Huntress is a Microsoft-verified SMB Solution and a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). The Huntress Agentic Security Platform is built to run alongside Microsoft Security solutions rather than replace them, enhancing managed detection and response around the Microsoft tools FSi’s clients already use.

Microsoft surfaces security signals across endpoints and identities through Defender, Entra, and Microsoft 365. Huntress ingests and enriches those signals, then adds their own telemetry and threat detection on top. Managed EDR works with Defender AV, Defender for Business, Defender XDR (as of September 2026), and Defender for Endpoint, while Managed ITDR continuously monitors Microsoft 365 and Entra identities.

That maps closely to how FSi's analysts actually work. "Huntress and all the tools in Microsoft 365 play together very well," says COO Charles Rutkowski. "It's a really good layered approach, and it also gives us telemetry from all angles."

Rutkowski’s team cross-references the two during investigations. Sometimes they start with a Managed ITDR alert and check what they're seeing in Microsoft Defender. Other times, they start in Defender and work back toward Huntress. Managed ITDR's auto-remediation helps FSi move swiftly when something suspicious appears.

Deployment fits the Microsoft environment, too. Rutkowski says Managed ITDR automatically attaches to licensed Microsoft 365 accounts, while Managed EDR can be pushed through Intune once a client's devices are managed there.

FSi also deploys Huntress Security Awareness Training (SAT) and its phishing simulations. Managed SAT easily integrates with Microsoft 365 and Teams, giving FSi a way to bring engaging security training into the Microsoft environments their clients already use.

On the 24/7 coverage FSi was once worried about, the Huntress SOC investigates and responds to threats around the clock. Huntress extends FSi’s existing security operation without requiring them to staff their own SOC for every hour of the day.

"Huntress is an extension of FSi," says Aitoumeziane. "If there's a problem, Huntress sends it to us and we take care of it. And if we have a problem, we just call Huntress and they help us."

Results | Finding compromised users faster

The benefits of partnering with Huntress have been most evident in Microsoft 365 account compromises.

A Managed ITDR alert can often be the first sign that something’s wrong. From there, FSi moves into their Microsoft response process: reset the password, review unusual sign-ins, check Outlook for suspicious forwarding rules, then monitor the account for more activity. Rutkowski says FSi can easily secure an account in about five minutes once that alert comes in.

Before Huntress, FSi leaned heavily on antivirus software, so a compromised Microsoft 365 account might not generate an alert at all. "Huntress is just light-years better than what we had," says Rutkowski.

This has become obvious during onboarding. Across new client environments, FSi repeatedly finds compromised users lingering, mostly among clients that come in without stronger security controls. Huntress surfaces those accounts so FSi can move quickly to secure them.

In one case, Managed ITDR caught a compromised account belonging to a C-level executive. FSi secured it in less than 10 minutes. After seeing the response firsthand, the client promptly added more of FSi's Microsoft security services.

Conclusion | Bringing Huntress deeper into FSi's Microsoft story

FSi has spent years helping clients get more out of Microsoft. And that work doesn't simply stop at setup. The tools have to be monitored closely, and someone has to act the moment something looks wrong, day or night.

With Huntress behind them, FSi gains another layer around that work, adding managed detection and response plus a 24/7 SOC that's watching when FSi's own team can’t.

That's the story Aitoumeziane wants to tell more often, with FSi, Huntress, and Microsoft in the same conversation.

Now, as FSi builds stronger Microsoft environments, Huntress makes sure the door stays shut behind them.