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Microsoft Intune is an acknowledged leader in the Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) space. To remain a leader we keep simplifying management, improving the value of our offering and providing the best possible experience for enterprise.
Our customers have shared that the best possible experience would be a single solution capable of managing all their endpoints across platforms in one place. And we have listened. In the last few months, the experience of Mac management with Intune has been completely transformed, and new features are coming early next year will drive even better outcomes. Everything that makes Intune the preferred management solution for mobile devices and other endpoints for thousands of enterprises will be part of our Mac management experience—thanks to a close relationship with Apple and our desire to serve our customers and remain leaders.
As evidence that Intune Mac management is ready to be your truly unified endpoint management solution, we offer the opinion of Jeffrey Ward, Associate Director, Desktop Configuration Product Manager at EY. He posted on LinkedIn:
Simplicity, value, and secure productivity
Our commitment to maintaining UEM leadership means connecting the dots between capabilities and business objectives. Here’s how our new and improved Mac management does just that:
Tool consolidation
Have you had the experience of trying to check an incoming text message while writing an email or of losing your way while talking on the phone in the car? Then you can appreciate the tax that task-switching imposes on focus and productivity. Keeping all your management tools in a single solution reduces that tax.
A single source of data also relieves the burden of collating and translating data from multiple sources to get complete visibility over your estate.
Simplifying operations
Having a single tool isn’t enough—that tool must also make endpoint management easier. Here are some highlights of Intune Mac management that enable admins to secure devices and operate efficiently:
Whether administering a Mac or using one, Microsoft Intune management reduces friction from provisioning through daily use, and Intune now gets day zero settings catalog updates, which means that when there’s a new macOS configuration to be defined, it can be defined with Intune.
User-centric features
Streamline the process of setting up and working securely with a Mac in the enterprise environment.
Admin-centric features
Comprehensive management in a familiar interface.
With all these new features for Mac (and more to come), in addition to the cross-platform capabilities and tight integration with Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Defender security offerings, the opportunity to retire on-premises solutions and consolidate to a single solution is more compelling than ever. Reducing the expense of multiple solutions, reducing the time spent managing multiple vendor relationships, and reducing the amount of training and orientation on different tools can have a real impact on budgets and free up more time.
To go even deeper on how these capabilities work, we have an episode of Microsoft Mechanics dedicated to showing these features in action:
For a comprehensive look at all of our capabilities, we encourage you to visit the Microsoft Intune for Mac learn page at aka.ms/IntuneForMacDocs.
We also have a community on Viva dedicated to Mac admins, where we want to hear your feedback on the work we’ve done, and help us identify your most pressing needs as an admin. Sign up and share your voice at aka.ms/MacAdmins.
Continue reading...
Our customers have shared that the best possible experience would be a single solution capable of managing all their endpoints across platforms in one place. And we have listened. In the last few months, the experience of Mac management with Intune has been completely transformed, and new features are coming early next year will drive even better outcomes. Everything that makes Intune the preferred management solution for mobile devices and other endpoints for thousands of enterprises will be part of our Mac management experience—thanks to a close relationship with Apple and our desire to serve our customers and remain leaders.
As evidence that Intune Mac management is ready to be your truly unified endpoint management solution, we offer the opinion of Jeffrey Ward, Associate Director, Desktop Configuration Product Manager at EY. He posted on LinkedIn:
| “In the end, the positive feedback from our pilot and the improvements switching to Intune makes to the TCO of the Mac@EY service made the decision to finally switch off our legacy macOS MDM easy.” |
Our commitment to maintaining UEM leadership means connecting the dots between capabilities and business objectives. Here’s how our new and improved Mac management does just that:
Tool consolidation
Have you had the experience of trying to check an incoming text message while writing an email or of losing your way while talking on the phone in the car? Then you can appreciate the tax that task-switching imposes on focus and productivity. Keeping all your management tools in a single solution reduces that tax.
A single source of data also relieves the burden of collating and translating data from multiple sources to get complete visibility over your estate.
Simplifying operations
Having a single tool isn’t enough—that tool must also make endpoint management easier. Here are some highlights of Intune Mac management that enable admins to secure devices and operate efficiently:
- Enable data protection whether enrollment is via Automated Device Enrollment (ADE) or end user BYOD self-serve enrollment.
- Deploy and update apps with flexible tools that support a broad array of macOS app types.
- Use templates verified by Apple thanks to our close collaboration.
- Configure security settings like FileVault encryption, Firewall, and Gatekeeper.
- Manage Conditional Access policies and multifactor authentication.
- Deploy and manage Microsoft Edge.
- Integrate with Microsoft Defender.
- Enforce compliance on check in for device health, properties, and security settings.
Whether administering a Mac or using one, Microsoft Intune management reduces friction from provisioning through daily use, and Intune now gets day zero settings catalog updates, which means that when there’s a new macOS configuration to be defined, it can be defined with Intune.
User-centric features
Streamline the process of setting up and working securely with a Mac in the enterprise environment.
- Single sign-on (SSO) reduces password fatigue and simplifies device setup.
- Microsoft Entra ID passwords can be used to log in to Mac (estimated Q1 2024).
- Exclusive to Intune, SSO can also pre-configure user accounts in Office apps (including Outlook, Microsoft Edge, and Safari).
- SSO enables conditional access to company resources, eliminating the need to launch the Intune Company Portal app and making the experience simpler and faster while reducing costs and time.
- Reducing a confusing step and multiple passwords, local primary account creation during provisioning will be automated (estimated Q1 2024).
- Apple-native apps are optimized for Apple processors: Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Edge, Office apps, Microsoft Defender, Company Portal, and the Intune agent.
- Remote Help for macOS is part of the Microsoft Intune Suite or available separately as an Intune add-on.
Admin-centric features
Comprehensive management in a familiar interface.
- Declarative Device Management (DDM) protocol-capable.
- Configure SSO with a simple user interface.
- SSO improves security by using platform hardware to bind secrets.
- Provision users’ apps from Intune—SSO can be expanded to additional apps.
- Simple interface to support pre-install and post-install, scripting for additional customizability to app installs.
- Awaiting final configuration support during Setup Assistant will ensure that the most critical device configuration policies get to the device before the end user lands on the home screen (estimated Q1 2024).
- Customize Setup Assistant screens for ADE Macs.
- Carry out remote actions like restart, merge, wipe, or erase.
- Microsoft Cloud public key infrastructure (PKI) will include certificate lifecycle management for Mac when it launches as part of the Intune Suite (estimated Q1 2024). (Learn more about Microsoft Cloud PKI at the Microsoft Technical Takeoff.)
With all these new features for Mac (and more to come), in addition to the cross-platform capabilities and tight integration with Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Defender security offerings, the opportunity to retire on-premises solutions and consolidate to a single solution is more compelling than ever. Reducing the expense of multiple solutions, reducing the time spent managing multiple vendor relationships, and reducing the amount of training and orientation on different tools can have a real impact on budgets and free up more time.
To go even deeper on how these capabilities work, we have an episode of Microsoft Mechanics dedicated to showing these features in action:
For a comprehensive look at all of our capabilities, we encourage you to visit the Microsoft Intune for Mac learn page at aka.ms/IntuneForMacDocs.
We also have a community on Viva dedicated to Mac admins, where we want to hear your feedback on the work we’ve done, and help us identify your most pressing needs as an admin. Sign up and share your voice at aka.ms/MacAdmins.
Continue reading...