What is Microsoft Intune?

The core capabilities of Intune include the following:

• Mobile device management (MDM) — IT admins can configure and manage desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones accessing the corporate network, including both company-owned and bring-your-own (BYOD) devices.
• Mobile application management (MAM) — Admins can deploy and update Microsoft and third-party applications on devices enrolled in Intune. In addition, they can control access to and usage of those apps.
• Policy enforcement — Organizations can apply security policies to devices enrolled in Intune. Examples include requiring strong passwords, encryption, and specific VPN settings. For instance, a policy might require a device to have antivirus software enabled and not be jailbroken in order to access email or SharePoint.
• Centralized management — IT admins can manage all enrolled devices from the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center. In particular, they can wipe, reset, or lock devices remotely, which is especially important with the modern hybrid workforce.
• Conditional access — Intune integrates with Entra ID, so organizations can use conditional access policies to ensure that only trusted users on secure devices can access sensitive data. For example, they can restrict access to particular content based on factors like device compliance, user location, and risk level.
• Compliance reporting — Intune offers dashboards and reports that help IT admins track device and user compliance with organizational policies.

Microsoft Intune is a robust solution that enables powerful and flexible device and application management. Top features and benefits include the following:

• Cross-platform support — Intune enables IT teams to manage a diverse fleet of devices from a single platform. Whether users choose to work on Windows laptops, iPhones, or Android tablets, policies will be applied accurately and consistently.
• Device lifecycle management — Intune supports Windows Autopilot, so organizations can ship new devices directly to employees and have them configured automatically with the appropriate settings and apps when they are first booted. Admins can then use Intune to manage the devices effectively throughout their lifecycle and securely deprovision them when they are no longer needed.
• Security and regulatory compliance — Intune enables accurate device configurations, consistent policy enforcement, and deep visibility, which helps organizations meet internal requirements, industry standards, and regulatory mandates.
• App protection policies — Intune policies can protect corporate data at the application level, which is especially critical for organizations that allow BYOD and remote work.
• Scalability — Intune is a cloud-based solution, so it scales easily to meet the changing device and application management needs of each organization.
• Improved user experience — Thanks to Intune’s centralized management of both corporate and employee-owned devices, users can work on their preferred machines without compromising security or regulatory compliance.

Intune is an integral component of the Microsoft ecosystem. In particular, Intune integrates seamlessly with:

• Entra ID for identity and access management, including conditional access policies
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for device threat protection
• Microsoft Security Copilot for insights about Intune data
• Microsoft 365 for management of Office apps
• Windows Autopilot for device provisioning and configuration
• Azure Information Protection (AIP) for data encryption and rights management
• Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for tracking compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA

Microsoft Intune also supports integration with third-party solutions. For example, it can work with TeamViewer for remote support, Cisco AnyConnect for VPN configuration, and Jamf Pro for managing Apple devices.

Microsoft Intune protects corporate data through a combination of device-level and application-level controls:

• Device-level policies can require secure passwords, mandate minimum operating system versions, enforce encryption, block jailbroken or rooted devices, and more. If a device is not compliant, attempts to access corporate resources can be automatically denied.
• App protection policies control how data is used within apps. For instance, they can prevent users from copying data from a corporate app to a personal one, block screen capture operations, allow only approved apps to access corporate data, or require a PIN or fingerprint to access corporate email from a mobile device.

Other data protection capabilities already mentioned include:

• Remote wipe — If a device is lost or an employee leaves the company, IT admins can remotely wipe corporate data without affecting personal content.
• Conditional access — Intune policies can block non-compliant devices from accessing corporate data and other resources, or selectively require multifactor authentication (MFA) based on risk factors.

To get the most from Microsoft Intune, organizations should follow these best practices:

• Inventory and document user roles and device types.
• Organize users and devices into logical groups. Criteria for grouping users might include department or location, and devices should be segmented into BYOD and corporate devices.
• Thoroughly define your device and application policies, including configuration requirements, access controls, and exceptions.
• Implement regular monitoring and reporting. Intune’s detailed dashboards and compliance reports help IT teams stay informed and respond quickly to issues.
• Leverage the conditional access in Azure ID to control access based on risk.
• Help business users understand how Intune works, the purpose of your policies, and what’s expected from them. Clear communication helps ensure user buy-in and reduces support requests.
• Test new policies on a subset of users with a pilot deployment before rolling them out organization-wide.

Intune is a valuable component in a robust security and compliance strategy for the modern workforce. By enabling IT teams to effectively manage a wide range of devices and applications, it enables organizations to adopt flexible BYOD and hybrid work arrangements while minimizing risk to corporate systems and data. For instance, they can limit network access to devices running a supported operating system and antivirus software, as well as keep applications updated on enrolled devices.

Intune includes reporting capabilities that make it easy to track compliance trends, identify outliers, and demonstrate adherence to regulatory requirements. For instance, IT admins can quickly identify devices that have fallen out of compliance with defined policy and promptly remediate the issue.

Deploying Microsoft Intune involves the following steps:

1. Set up Intune in the Endpoint Manager admin center.
2. Define your organizational structure and device groups.
3. Create and assign device compliance policies.
4. Configure app protection and configuration policies.
5. Enroll devices.
6. Use pilot tests to review and refine policies, and then proceed to organization-wide deployment.
7. Monitor performance and compliance through the Intune admin center.

Enrolling new devices in Intune is straightforward. However, many organizations have a legacy on-premises Active Directory (AD) environment with a large fleet of laptops, tablets, and smartphones that are still being managed primarily through Group Policy, although they can also be enrolled in Intune. Organizations are often eager to join these devices to Entra ID and fully manage them through Intune to take advantage of all the associated security, productivity, and cost benefits.

Key migration challenges

Unfortunately, Microsoft’s method for migrating devices from AD to Entra ID and Intune can be a truly Herculean task. Here are two key reasons:

• With Microsoft Autopilot, joining existing on-prem devices to Entra ID requires a complete device reset. That process is quite time-intensive and error-prone for the IT team. Moreover, it is exceedingly disruptive and frustrating for business users, who must painstakingly rebuild their profiles, copy their data, and reconfigure their desktop settings.
• One of the most important technologies for managing on-prem devices, Group Policy, simply does not exist in Entra ID, so organizations cannot simply move their current device management policies to Intune. Instead, they need to build new policies that reflect their current security and productivity requirements and take advantage of the broad Intune feature set.

Overcoming these migration challenges

However, organizations do not have to let these common hurdles keep them from reaping the benefits of moving fully to the cloud for comprehensive device management using Intune. With the right tools, they can overcome both of the key challenges above:

• An innovative SaaS migration solution makes it quick and easy to migrate devices to Entra ID while retaining all user settings and data — eliminating the headaches of manual migration and saving hours of lost productivity. It updates user profiles automatically during the join process, so users experience just a brief interruption while their computer restarts. And it offers self-service scheduling, so each end user controls the timing of their own device migration — minimizing business disruption while freeing IT teams from manual orchestration.
• Another powerful solution dramatically simplifies the process of transitioning from managing devices through Group Policy to using Intune. It eliminates the tedious and error-prone process of manually assessing current GPOs to determine which ones should be migrated and then painstakingly importing them one by one into Intune. Instead, the solution automatically generates an easy-to-read, exportable assessment of the impact, connections, and roles of all existing GPOs in the environment based on Microsoft Group Policy Analytics criteria.