Managing computers has traditionally been closely tied to the corporate network.
Configure Active Directory, join the computer to the domain, apply Group Policy and use on-premises management infrastructure.
That model remains important, but the definition of a corporate device is changing.
Employees use laptops, smartphones and tablets. They connect from outside the office. Some devices belong to the company while others belong to the employee.
This creates an interesting question:
How do you manage corporate access when the device may rarely be connected to the traditional corporate network?
Microsoft’s answer increasingly involves Microsoft Intune.
What Is Microsoft Intune?
Intune is Microsoft’s cloud-based device and application management technology.
One of its important roles is helping companies establish policies around the devices and applications that access business information.
Microsoft’s 2019 security guidance describes Intune as part of a unified endpoint management strategy and discusses using mobile device management to protect remote access to Office 365, SaaS applications and corporate data. [microsoft.com]
Why Cloud Management Matters
Consider a company laptop used by an employee working remotely.
Traditional management often assumes some form of connectivity back to corporate infrastructure.
Cloud management changes that relationship.
Rather than requiring every management operation to originate from infrastructure physically located inside the company, device management can become part of a cloud service strategy.
This model starts making more sense as cloud applications become more common.
Corporate Devices and Personal Devices
Another complication is ownership.
Employees increasingly use personal mobile devices to access business information.
Microsoft’s 2019 Intune guidance explicitly discusses scenarios involving both company-owned devices and employee-owned devices requiring access to Office 365 applications and company data. [microsoft.com]
That creates a delicate balance.
IT needs to protect the organization without treating a personally owned phone exactly like a corporate workstation.
Security and Device Management Are Converging
Perhaps the most important development is that endpoint administration is becoming part of the security conversation.
A username and password alone provide limited information about the environment from which somebody is connecting.
Organizations increasingly care about both the identity and the device.
Is the user legitimate?
Is the device managed?
Does the device meet organizational requirements?
Should it be allowed to access corporate information?
Those questions demonstrate why device management is becoming closely associated with cloud identity and security.
What Does This Mean for Windows Administrators?
Windows administrators should pay close attention.
The traditional skills around Active Directory, Group Policy and Windows management remain valuable.
But cloud management is introducing another administrative model.
It is increasingly important to understand concepts such as:
- Mobile Device Management
- Mobile Application Management
- device compliance
- cloud identity
- application deployment
- remote management
- data protection
Microsoft’s direction suggests that modern endpoint administrators will increasingly need both traditional Windows knowledge and cloud administration skills.
Intune and Office Applications
The connection between endpoint management and productivity applications is also becoming stronger.
Microsoft currently documents the ability to use Intune to assign and install Microsoft 365 applications on managed Windows devices. [learn.microsoft.com]
That illustrates the broader principle: application deployment, device configuration and cloud productivity are becoming pieces of the same management ecosystem.
Final Thoughts
Intune represents an important change in Microsoft’s approach to endpoint administration.
It does not simply replace every traditional management technology.
Instead, it introduces a cloud-first way of thinking about the relationship between users, devices, applications and corporate information.
As employees become more mobile and Office 365 adoption expands, this model is likely to become increasingly important.
For Windows administrators, now is a very good time to start understanding modern device management.