What is our primary use case?
Essentially, we use it to manage devices. We are looking at potentially moving away from VMware and bringing mobile devices and tablets into Intune along with desktops and laptops, which we currently manage, so that it serves as an all-in-one active asset list where we can look at the health of the entire technical estate. We can manage against threats. We can roll out apps, policies, et cetera. We can also manage logins, reset logins, et cetera, and it's an all-in-one, 24/7 solution.
How has it helped my organization?
Microsoft Intune has absolutely improved the way our organization functions. We're currently going through the AAD migration, so we are transitioning away from the old on-premise domain to Azure. The ability to take devices that were locally managed via AD but weren't managed via Intune is brilliant. We can see who last logged in, who it's managed by, which OS is there when it was last updated, etc. It gives us a micro overview of what's happening there.
What is most valuable?
Generally, we find it quite useful. We don't use it to the full extent. We've only got a P1 license, but generally, the application health and the ability to create and manage policies are valuable. We can split them very quickly into groups, multiple policies, etc. So, it's those core basics that we use, but they work very well.
It's very informative when there is an error. It allows us to backtrace where the error is and resolve that ourselves. It's a bit of a Swiss Army penknife. We find that it fixes most issues.
What needs improvement?
I'd like some more reporting so that I don't have to delve into PowerShell and I can pull more of the local device information such as memory, apps installed, etc. It would be nice to be able to see the apps that are present there but might not be managed. For example, if they installed 7Zip, it could report that back via an installed program or feature to see what was currently installed. Generally, it works, and nobody complains about it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Sometimes, they can take a little while to come back in showing that they are compliant. Typically, they may show us as not compliant even when we are. Typically, we find that it takes a couple of hours or a couple of days at worst for the machines to show as being compliant for them to settle down, but generally, it does what it says on the tin. We can set the policy, and we can put a machine or put a device into a group. That policy gets defined or pushed out, and it works. We can then move on to the next job. From my perspective, it works well, and that's why I'm just looking forward to using more Azure technologies moving forward.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's deployed across multiple locations, departments, teams, and endpoints.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had any experience with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
At the moment, we're using VMware AirWatch, which isn't my first choice purely because it's a super segmented platform. We are predominantly, about 95%, Microsoft. It feels a bit of an oversight not having a solution on a Microsoft platform where we've got full transparency and can make live changes. Currently, we have to go through our outsourced IT to make the changes and then we have to wait to see those changes rather than me or a colleague being able to make those changes in a live environment, so it would be my personal preference to get that moved over, which we're looking at.
I wasn't a party to why they used AirWatch. I presume it was bundled in with the Microsoft service partner's offering originally. The IT team here is quite new. I've only been in the post for about a month, and my IT manager has only been in the post for about two months. We're just making sure that everything is easy to use and easy to manage, and it's cost-efficient for the charity moving forward.
How was the initial setup?
Essentially, the way it was set up, it wasn't set up as a hybrid model. At the moment, we have got on-premises, and we have a cloud, but they're not joined. There is no passthrough, which is interesting. A lot of the on-premise has been copied over to the cloud. We are now taking the cloud to default, and the overall plan is to mothball the servers and reuse those as very high-powered desktops wherever possible. I just predominantly use the cloud.
I was not involved in its deployment, but in terms of maintenance, typically, our MSP makes the changes, but I've got GA rights to make anything that is critical. Generally, there are about 20 people at the Microsoft solution partner, and there are four of us on the IT team. There are less than 30 people in total.
What was our ROI?
I'm not sure. Certainly, it has been at least three years since the software has been rolled out, but it's not particularly well maintained by the solution partner. So, it's hard to measure the ROI. It does have merit, but in our particular sector, it's just overkill. We just need to make small and light changes whilst having effective security. We don't need corporate class, biometric/conditional access level security. Whilst we have multiple offices, they're very small. They're all under 20 users, and there's a lot of work from home. So, as long as we've got encryption, a form of AV, an anti-spam, and good account security, it certainly staves off a lot of the threats.
Personally, I feel that we haven't had the ROI purely because we're paying about £13,000 for under 300 users a year, which is a little bit top-sized. My personal feeling is to make a business case to switch to Microsoft Defender. Obviously, we've got P1 in our business premium licensing, so we've got a very basic protection at the moment that we don't use. We've got a large number of credits, and we could use those credits to switch over for a year to a higher project and see where we go from there.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Generally, it's not too bad. Obviously, a cheaper price would be great. Typically, we are in touch with the partner to provide non-profit discounts wherever possible. Generally, we get favorable discounts, so it's not too bad. Obviously, we're looking at decreasing those wherever we can to bring value back to the public purse because it's all charity based. It's all publicly funded.
What other advice do I have?
Create a test group and create test policies, and then just test, test, and test before anything is rolled. It's the usual IT gambit. Test everything, and then just test it again before you roll it out.
I worked for a couple of MSPs before. I've seen it in very remote areas. I'm very impressed with it. Whilst it seems almost fashionable to criticize Microsoft, Intune is pretty much a well-laid-out product. It does what it says it's going to do. There is a lot of dependence on Microsoft products being pushed to it, and that's probably my only criticism. It would be good if Intune was a bit more open-source, but that would lead to more complications. It's a bit of a complicated beast, but generally, I like it.
I'd rate Microsoft Intune a nine out of ten. I'm happy with it.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Intune is really the best option for SMEs for MDM (Mobile Device Management), particularly for BYOD devices, but also corporate devices - and development in the technology means that it's pretty much now a strong option for enterprise deployment to corporate devices.
Deployment has its challenges - but now with Cloud provisioning - Intune management and deployment are becoming more straightforward.
Intune is essential for enforcing policies such as screen lock and MFA.
If you use Microsoft Authenticator - it's worth doing user awareness training around the design flaw below:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts...;