Microsoft Intune Review

Integrates with the entire Microsoft ecosystem

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is managing mobile devices and applications. It really answers the question of managing BYOD end-point devices.

How has it helped my organization?

The benefit is the way it integrates with the entire Microsoft ecosystem. If you're a company that has a bit of this, a bit of that, and a bit of everything else, then Intune probably doesn't hold up so well. But if you say, "We're going down the path of Microsoft's strategy, we believe in what Microsoft is doing as a cloud provider," then Intune, as far as security and managing end-point devices and managing everything, brings in the story quite nicely.

What is most valuable?

When a customer asks me about the most valuable features, one is that Intune itself integrates with that entire Microsoft ecosystem. As an individual product, it's okay. It holds up. But when you start saying "I've bought this as part of a wider solution, as a company we are going Microsoft throughout," then it makes more sense to have Microsoft Intune, because it plugs into Azure AD Premium, it plugs into Information Rights Management, it plugs into Windows Defender, so you have that single dashboard. It also has an integration with System Center which means again, from a single pane of glass, I can manage everything.

I believe they've just released a Mac OS support so that's great. And it has its own sandboxing.

What needs improvement?



What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is better than it was. It's brilliant. It's a lot better than it was about three or four years ago. Four years ago, you wouldn't even have considered it as an MDM solution. Now, it's in the top-right quadrant.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is there. Microsoft has always said it's for SMB, public sector, and enterprise users. It needs to be there because, if you look at some of the bigger organizations using Office 365 and Microsoft 365, it's got the scalability.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would hinge on what your strategy is. It comes down to: If you're using Citrix then Citrix ZenMobile makes more sense. But if you've got a Microsoft strategy and you're looking at Microsoft security and you're looking at buying into the Microsoft cloud strategy, then Windows Intune is a very viable solution.

For me, the most important criteria when selecting a vendor depend on what is it I'm trying to achieve. I always want to check:

  • where it ranks in industry reviews
  • for the features that I'm looking for
  • pricing.

For example, I may have a product that's brilliant and is amazing and does 120 things, but costs $10 per month; if I only need two of those features and I've got another product that has only those two features and it only costs $2 per month, I'd rather go for that.

I would rate Intune at about a nine out of 10 because it has come a long way, it is continuing to be developed, and I can see it as part of Microsoft's wider vision. It's not 100 percent there but it's getting there. The fact that you can now plug Intune into third-party products is fantastic.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Licensing Service Provider.
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