Skip to main content

Windows Intune

With Microsoft cloud services such as Office 365, CRM Online, and Windows Azure stealing most of the spotlight lately Windows Intune has almost gone unnoticed, though it is a pretty cool service in its own right. Imagine being able to secure and manage computers and mobile devices - track assets, generate software and hardware inventory, set policies, deploy software, configure security settings and endpoint protection, provide remote assistance - all without needing any infrastructure and at a cost of only $6 per user a month (each user can have up to 5 managed devices assigned), add a little more - $11 per user a month and you get Windows Software Assurance benefits (like free upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise). If this sounds great, Windows Intune might be a perfect solution for you!

Small and mid-size businesses can manage their IT environment entirely through the cloud, while larger enterprises may choose to extend their existing on-premises solution by integrating Windows Intune with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).   

Explore, try, or buy Windows Intune here

There's a wealth of technical knowledge on Windows Intune here.   

Once you start using Windows Intune you may want to bookmark the following URLs:
Still not sure if Windows Intune presents a good fit for your business, or don't know how to approach the provisioning and deployment of the service? Not to worry, you are not alone - engage one of the Microsoft Partners, it's an extremely diverse community. Naturally, I recommend Planet Technologies!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mail-enabled security groups in Office 365

Another update (11/19/2013):  further evolution of Office 365 services makes creation of distribution and security groups even easier, plus there's now an option of creating a dynamic distribution group (click here for more information):    Update (08/06/2012): a clear sign of Office 365 evolving along the same lines as other agile cloud services - small incremental features and minor new functionality are being delivered almost continuously and, unlike important major service updates,  without much fanfare. For example, there's no need to resort to using PowerShell to setup mail-enabled security groups anymore, it can now be done at creation using management portal:       Those managing Office 365 ( O365 ) tenant via the Microsoft Online Services Portal  ( MOS Portal ) interface would notice that there are two distinct group entities: Security Groups: can be created via MOS Portal (main portal page>Management>Security Groups) and used for assigning

Sample DS Command

PowerShell is all the hype these days, and rightfully so - you can do just about anything with it; but, call me old-fashioned I still like to use ds commands every now and then, it's quick and dirty. Here are a few samples that query AD and to get some basic counts and other information: # Get a count of enabled and disabled user accounts in the domain dsquery user -limit 0 domainroot | dsget user -dn -disabled | find /c /i " no" dsquery user -limit 0 domainroot | dsget user -dn -disabled | find /c /i " yes" # Get a count of enabled and disabled computer accounts in the domain dsquery computer -limit 0 domainroot | dsget computer -dn -disabled | find /c /i " no" dsquery computer -limit 0 domainroot | dsget computer -dn -disabled | find /c /i " yes" # Get a count of enabled, but inactive (at least 24 weeks) user and computer accounts in the domain dsquery user -inactive 24 -limit 0 domainroot | dsget user -dn -disabled | find /c /i

Drumbeat - Sales and Technical Resources for Office 365

​ Drumbeat - provides information as well as technical and sales resources for Office 365. From partnering with Microsoft, to building up your sales and technical readiness, to adopting proven methodologies for successful deployment - you will find lots of good information and many helpful links there. Here's a quick sample of topics covered: The Customer Decision Framework is Microsoft's selling methodology designed to help partners sell Office 365 to their customers. Office 365 FastTrack is Microsoft's new, 3-step pilot and deployment methodology designed so customers experience service value early in the sales cycle with a smooth path to advance from a pilot to deployment.