Right now marks a major shift in endpoint administration and safety. We’re launching the Microsoft Intune Suite, which unifies mission-critical superior endpoint administration and safety options into one easy bundle. The brand new Intune Suite can simplify our prospects’ endpoint administration expertise, enhance their safety posture, and hold individuals on the middle with distinctive person experiences. Microsoft Safety and Microsoft 365 deeply built-in with the Intune Suite will empower IT and safety groups with information science and AI to extend automation, serving to them transfer merely and rapidly from reactive to proactive in addressing endpoint administration and different safety challenges.
Microsoft Intune is an industry-leading, unified endpoint administration resolution that organizations rely on to make sure their units, working programs, and apps are up-to-date, protected, and performant. But evolving work habits and safety threats, harder financial local weather, and rising variety of units imply that organizations want extra assist in decreasing complexity. Think about this: in a current survey, two-thirds of respondents had been utilizing greater than ten instruments to handle and shield their digital property.1 Extra particular person instruments imply extra administration overhead, extra assault floor, and extra licensing prices—all issues organizations want to scale back.
On this weblog, I need to share three the explanation why the brand new Intune Suite will matter to you:
- Even higher safety by decreasing assault vectors.
- Simplification by consolidation and automation of IT and safety operations workflows.
- Financial savings by decrease administration overhead and lowered assist prices.
I’ll additionally share some outcomes from our newest survey of practically 4 hundred endpoint administration and safety professionals, which can present extra context for this new provide.
What’s the Microsoft Intune Suite?
First, let’s evaluate what capabilities the Intune Suite presents. These vital capabilities have been in growth for some time, and it’s possible you’ll recall we introduced our plans at Microsoft Ignite 2022 to launch the Intune Suite in March 2023 with an preliminary set of superior options:
- Distant Assist is a software that may help helpdesks—particularly vital as staff at the moment are working away from the workplace extra usually. Distant Assistance is already accessible for Home windows customers and also will come to Android and Mac endpoints in future releases. It permits IT helpdesk groups to remotely troubleshoot a person’s desktop and cellular units primarily based on a person’s current firm identification. The additional Android assist will show significantly helpful for managing frontline staff’ units. Study extra about current Distant Assist updates for Home windows.
- Endpoint Privilege Administration, in preview in March 2023 and usually accessible in April 2023, will allow the managed elevation of Home windows customary customers so safety controls don’t get in the way in which of productiveness. The precise customers may have the fitting privileges on the proper time, to scale back the safety threat of overprivileged customers and scale back the burden on the assistance desk by permitting higher self-serve for fundamental situations, like organising a neighborhood printer. Study extra about Endpoint Privilege Administration first launch capabilities.
- The Intune Suite additionally presents superior endpoint analytics options, data-driven insights that assist IT directors perceive, anticipate, and enhance the person expertise for the employees within the group.
- There’s additionally Microsoft Tunnel for Cell App Administration, a micro-VPN that connects company assets from private iOS/iPadOS and Android units, so staff can have entry to firm assets from their private cellular units when responsibility calls.
- The Intune Suite improves the administration of specialty units, to present staff the pliability to decide on the machine they should get the job executed with out these units changing into factors of vulnerability.
- Following the March 1, 2023, launch, one other functionality that shall be added to the Intune Suite is superior app administration, providing an enterprise app catalog and controls for straightforward app discovery, deployment, and automated updating to mitigate dangers launched by out-of-date apps. Later this 12 months, we may also introduce a cloud certificates administration resolution to concern and handle VPN and Wi-Fi certificates from Intune to units with out on-premises infrastructure. We are going to proceed so as to add extra superior capabilities to the Intune Suite over time, offering extra endpoint safety, automation, and management of the person computing panorama and expertise.
So, why is that this vital for you now? It goes again to raised safety, simplification, and financial savings.
1. Enhance safety and scale back assault vectors
Even when IT and safety organizations have gotten accustomed to supporting and defending distant and hybrid work, our surveys present there may be nonetheless a lot work to be executed to enhance enterprise endpoint safety. Solely 43 p.c of endpoint administration and safety professionals stated that their group actively manages greater than three-quarters of their endpoints.1 Put one other method, 57 p.c of organizations would not have visibility or management over 1 / 4 of their endpoints or extra. Additional, solely 37 p.c of organizations use patch administration, and solely 39 p.c use Endpoint Privilege Administration. As such, there may be clearly a chance to extend the breadth of units organizations can handle to have a extra full view of the well being and efficiency of their digital property. There’s additionally a chance to enhance the depth of safety supplied by extra Endpoint Privilege Administration and extra common patch updates. This fundamental “cyber hygiene” is core to the way in which the suite improves safety and is foundational earlier than any Zero Belief initiative can actually acquire traction.
Safety professionals see tighter product integration as a key step. When requested in our survey how they might enhance their group’s endpoint safety, “integration” was the highest reply. The Intune Suite delivers integration on a number of ranges: between the varied Intune Suite elements, with Microsoft 365, and with different Microsoft Safety belongings. Higher integration means fewer weak spots that might be attacked. Microsoft has realized to be intentional about creating built-in worth throughout its portfolio and with the Intune Suite, we’re dedicated to proceed constructing end-to-end worth for customers, IT, and safety operations.
One further benefit of utilizing a single vendor for extra of your endpoint safety wants is that there’s one single dataset somewhat than a number of disparate streams of information. Uniform, constant information means higher safety analytics and visibility to potential vulnerabilities and anomalies. You possibly can’t mitigate what you may’t see. Bringing collectively the info and actionable insights in a single place will increase your potential to evaluate, handle, and act on potential dangers throughout your machine panorama.
“The Microsoft Intune Suite goes to assist us consolidate our endpoint administration options, saving prices, making our lives simpler, and holding the hospital information safe. I might extremely advocate the Microsoft Intune Suite to any group seeking to improve their safety posture.”—Ibrar Mahmood, IT Cyber Safety Supervisor, Milton Keynes College Hospital NHS Basis Belief.
2. Simplify endpoint administration
Many organizations have reported elevated complexity inside their IT atmosphere over the previous few years. This is smart: smartphones, carry your individual machine (BYOD), hybrid work, and evolving safety threats can all enhance complexity. But, the response to the present complexity has been so as to add extra level options, which is a step backward as extra options imply extra vendor integration necessities, probably creating extra assault surfaces.
Given different prime IT priorities—cloud migrations, reducing prices, AI, analytics, and employees retention—it’s comprehensible why endpoint instruments haven’t been consolidated but. Nonetheless, I consider that the simplification and consolidation of endpoint administration instruments is required rapidly. By selecting the Intune Suite, you may simplify your method to superior endpoint administration, which means extra bandwidth to give attention to different priorities in 2023 and past.
Simplification additionally permits the consolidation of your safety distributors—A Gartner® survey reported in September 2022 that 75 p.c of organizations are pursuing safety vendor consolidation in 2022, up from 29 p.c in 2020.2 This not solely presents the chance to scale back threat and direct licensing prices however saves time and psychological overhead in not having to handle so many provider relationships.
One instance of lowered psychological overhead: the Intune Suite additionally simplifies your IT and safety operations. One unified admin console means unified workflows. You not must hop from one admin console to the subsequent or sew collectively workflows.
We’re devoted to serving to organizations use the ability and information of the cloud to additional automate and orchestrate IT workflows to chop complexity. As Omdia lately put it, when rating Microsoft a pacesetter, within the Digital Office Administration/Unified Endpoint Administration Platforms, 2023 evaluation, “The sheer scale of indicators Microsoft has visibility of permits extra analytics, automation alternatives, and insights throughout the endpoint property than some other UEM vendor.“3
3. Allow price financial savings
Many C-suite executives are searching for price financial savings in 2023—the Intune Suite delivers a number of methods to save lots of.
First, the Intune Suite reduces the overhead of negotiating and overseeing separate contracts with a number of distributors. It means much less integration of labor between elements and coaching on totally different instruments. It additionally means fewer prices from worker downtime because of a safety breach and decrease IT helpdesk prices by fewer inbound calls and sooner decision of remaining tickets.
Nationwide Railway Firm of Belgium (SNCB) simply manages greater than 21,000 units with Microsoft Intune. “Intune is a big success story for SNCB,” says Bouke Stijns, Chief Info Safety Supervisor, SNCB. His workforce absolutely containerizes SNCB purposes on smartphones in order that the corporate can’t entry staff’ private apps and information. He additionally appreciates that compliance with the Normal Information Safety Regulation (GDPR) is constructed into Microsoft options and the Microsoft licensing mannequin, which optimizes the IT price range in an {industry} that allocates assets to passenger expertise somewhat than IT expenditure. “Our Microsoft license presents an intensive set of safety options that optimizes price range and reduces the variety of distributors we have to coordinate with,” he explains. Learn the total buyer story.
Second, the Intune Suite bundled checklist worth is decrease than the sum of all the person capabilities of the Intune Suite and delivers Microsoft built-in worth higher than the associated fee and overhead of managing different vendor options.
The bundle is out there as an add-on to any plan that features Intune, which most prospects get by the worth of their Microsoft 365 subscription. For added flexibility, the person options throughout the suite may also be accessible as standalone add-ons to Intune, so organizations can migrate to the Microsoft resolution they prioritize primarily based on their wants.
Moreover, for superior options that stretch the worth of Intune past core endpoint administration performance—for instance, defending and managing specialty units or Tunnel for Cell App Administration for unenrolled units—we’re introducing a brand new plan, Microsoft Intune Plan 2, you could purchase for particular, focused customers.
Study extra concerning the new Microsoft Intune plans and pricing.
“I’m eagerly awaiting the migration of all our cellular units to the Microsoft Intune Suite as our core UEM System. Trying into the migration, we simply know—as a result of work the workforce and Microsoft put into Intune the final years—that we’re making an thrilling step ahead to a good higher dependable and built-in UEM platform for our cellular units, higher getting ready us for the longer term and all challenges that lie forward.”—Florian Weisenberger, Product Proprietor Cell Office iOS, Audi.
The online impact of the brand new, complete Intune Suite, Intune Plan 2, and the only resolution add-ons to Intune provide organizations versatile choices to plan their budgets, IT and safety lifecycle, and vendor contracts in a deliberate and calculated method—with safety, simplification, and financial savings in thoughts.
Be part of us at Microsoft Safe
In Omdia’s report, they wrote: “Microsoft’s focus is on bringing collectively this vary of mission-critical endpoint and software administration and safety instruments right into a single cloud resolution. In delivering this built-in set of capabilities, the seller will assist prospects simplify how endpoints are managed, strengthen safety postures, probably scale back complete price of possession, and enhance worker experiences.”3
The Intune Suite represents shift change in endpoint safety, simplification, and financial savings. I encourage you to study extra by watching the brand new Microsoft Mechanics video and visiting our Microsoft Intune Suite web page to find the increasing set of Intune merchandise. Lastly, please be a part of us at Microsoft Safe on March 28, 2023, the place our product management will add perspective concerning the Intune Suite and exhibit the built-in innovation and worth of the brand new bundled resolution.
To study extra about Microsoft Safety options, go to our web site. Bookmark the Safety weblog to maintain up with our knowledgeable protection on safety issues. Additionally, comply with us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Safety) and Twitter (@MSFTSecurity) for the most recent information and updates on cybersecurity.
1Endpoint Administration Vulnerability Hole, Enterprise Technique Group. Fieldwork was carried out in November 2022.
2 Gartner Press Launch, Gartner Survey Reveals 75% of Organizations Are Pursuing Safety Vendor Consolidation in 2022, Gartner. September 13, 2022. GARTNER is a registered trademark and repair mark of Gartner, Inc., and/or its associates within the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
3Omdia Universe: Digital Workspace Administration/Unified Endpoint Administration Platforms, 2023, Omdia. December 12, 2022.
