Microsoft Intune overview and its features

Welcome to the post on Microsoft Intune overview and its features. In this post I will be giving a brief information about what is Microsoft Intune, what are the features of Intune and why is it popular. Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that lets you manage mobile devices, PCs, and apps. Using Intune, organizations can provide their employees with access to corporate applications, data, and resources from virtually anywhere on almost any device, while helping to keep corporate information secure. Microsoft Intune solves the network connectivity problem by delivering a reliable and secure service from the Internet, meaning that every user can access it no matter where they are physically located. The good part is Microsoft Intune provides the subscription service with a low cost per user per month. We can start with a single user, then add and remove users as required by our business needs. We can also add MDOP to the subscription to provide additional support options.

Microsoft Intune overview and its features

What are the benefits of Microsoft Intune

Choice of Device – With Microsoft Intune you can provide employees with the ability to register, enroll, and manage their devices as well as install corporate applications from the self-service Company Portal – all from the devices of their choice.

Management of Office mobile apps – With Microsoft Intune you can increase the Mobile productivity for your employees with access to corporate resources on Office mobile apps they know and love.

Data Protection – Secure corporate data, including Exchange email, Outlook email, and OneDrive for Business documents, based on the enrollment status of the device and the compliance policies set by the administrator.

No need to maintain Infrastructure – Eliminate the need to plan, purchase, and maintain hardware and infrastructure by managing mobile devices from the cloud with Intune.

Integration with Enterprise – Extend your existing System Center Configuration Manager infrastructure through integration with Intune to provide a consistent management experience across devices on-premises and in the cloud.

Flexible Licensing – Spend less time counting devices with per-user licensing for Intune. Intune is also included as part of the Enterprise Mobility Suite, the most cost-effective way to acquire Intune, Azure Active Directory Premium, and Azure Rights Management.

Excellent Support from MS – Get answers to your questions with Microsoft support available online and by phone worldwide which is included with every Intune subscription.

Microsoft Intune Capabilities – Mobile Device Management

Let’s look at some of the capabilities of Microsoft Intune. Intune helps minimize complexity by offering mobile device management through the cloud with integrated data protection and compliance capabilities.

Provide a self-service Company Portal for users to enroll their own devices and install corporate applications across the most popular mobile platforms.

Deploy certificates, WiFi, VPN, and email profiles automatically once a device is enrolled, enabling users to access corporate resources with the appropriate security configurations.

Deliver comprehensive settings management for mobile devices, enabling the execution of remote actions such as passcode reset, device lock, data encryption, and full wipe to protect corporate data on lost or stolen devices.

Protect corporate data by restricting access to Exchange email, Outlook email, and OneDrive for Business documents when a user tries to access resources on an unenrolled or non-compliant device based upon policies set by the administrator

Simplify enrollment of corporate devices with bulk enrollment using Apple Configurator or a single service account, enabling IT administrators to set policies and deploy applications on a large scale.

Streamline the enrollment of iOS devices purchased directly from Apple or an authorized reseller with the Device Enrollment Program (DEP).

Enable the enforcement of more strict “lock down” policies for Supervised iOS devices, Android devices using Kiosk Mode, and Windows Phone devices using Assigned Access

Microsoft Intune Capabilities – PC Management

As the number of device types allowed in corporate environments grows, management becomes more challenging. Intune provides a comprehensive management solution through a single administrative console that allows you to manage across a variety of devices, including PCs and laptops.

Integrate your existing System Center 2012 Configuration Manager infrastructure with Intune, further enhancing your ability to manage PCs, Macs, and Unix/Linux servers, as well as mobile devices from a single management console, while building on existing investments and skills.

Provide real-time protection against malware threats on managed computers, keep malware definitions up-to date, and automatically scan computers to help protect against malware infections and other potentially unwanted software.

Collect information about hardware configurations and software installed on managed computers, allowing you to generate reports, organize groups of computers, and more effectively target software deployments.

Simplify administration by deploying software and configuring Windows Firewall settings on computers based upon policies defined by the administrator.

Ways to manage your devices with Microsoft Intune

You have several options for using Intune. You can go with any of these options based on your requirements.

Intune as standalone – You can use Intune as a standalone solution for device management. As a cloud-based service, you manage devices and protect company data without the overhead of network infrastructure costs. Intune can manage iOS, Android, Mac OS X, and Windows Phone devices, as well as Windows RT and Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 devices as mobile devices.

Intune as an extension of Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager – If you already use Configuration Manager to manage on-premises devices and are looking for a way to manage many of today’s mobile devices, you can use Intune as an extension of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. Two key benefits of this option are a unified management experience for both on-premises and mobile device management, and scale. This hybrid implementation of Intune gives you the capacity to manage more than 50,000 devices.

Intune with Office 365 – If you have a commercial subscription to Office 365, you can use the Intune mobile device management capabilities built into Office 365. While this option is not as extensive as Intune standalone or Intune and Configuration Manager, you can still manage iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices, create security policies, limit access to Office 365 email and documents on managed devices, and use selective wipe to remove Office 365 from managed devices.

Intune as part of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite – Intune is a core component of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), a set of cloud-based services that provide threat detection, identity management on top of the data protection and device management that Intune standalone delivers.