Microsoft Intune

What Microsoft Intune means in practice

Intune is how a modern Microsoft environment answers the question of what is running on the devices that hold company data. It replaced the on-premises model of domain join, Group Policy and imaging with cloud enrolment, configuration profiles and provisioning that works over the internet without a corporate network connection.

Device management covers enrolment, configuration and compliance. Windows Autopilot ships a device directly to a user, who signs in and receives the corporate configuration without IT touching the hardware. Configuration profiles apply settings — encryption, firewall, password policy, browser hardening, attack surface reduction rules. Compliance policies define what a healthy device looks like, and conditional access then requires that compliance before granting access to email and files. That link between Intune and Entra ID is the point of the platform.

Application management is the second half. Applications are packaged and deployed as required or available, with update rings for Windows and driver management. App protection policies handle the bring-your-own-device case: corporate data inside Outlook or Teams on a personal phone can be encrypted, prevented from being copied into personal apps, and wiped selectively, without the organisation managing the rest of the device. This is usually the right answer for contractors and for staff who refuse full enrolment.

Migration from Group Policy and Configuration Manager is where most projects stall. Settings do not map one to one, decades of accumulated policy usually contains rules nobody can explain, and co-management — running Configuration Manager and Intune together while workloads shift — is the realistic path for organisations with a large Windows estate.

Intune is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5. Intune Plan 2 and the Intune Suite add capabilities such as advanced endpoint analytics, remote help and privilege management, which are worth evaluating separately rather than assuming they are included.