The modern workforce is a diverse one, with employees using a variety of devices to get their work done.
This creates challenges for businesses that need to manage those devices, protect company data, and reduce the risk of malware, unauthorized access, and data loss. Microsoft Intune is designed to help organizations manage and secure endpoints without creating unnecessary complexity for IT teams or end users. Today, Intune is Microsoft's cloud-based endpoint management solution for managing access, apps, and devices across platforms such as Windows, macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and more.
Here are three reasons why organizations should use Microsoft Intune to manage their devices.
Intune helps your organization stay secure and compliant
Compliance requirements can be difficult to keep up with, especially when employees use a mix of company-owned and personal devices. Whether your organization is required to follow industry regulations or simply wants to protect company data, it is important to have a consistent way to manage device health, access, and security settings.
Microsoft Intune helps organizations do this by providing a scalable way to manage devices and enforce policies across Windows, macOS, iOS/iPadOS, and Android devices from a central admin experience. Intune supports compliance policies that can check for requirements such as password rules, firewall status, minimum OS version, and other device health signals. If a device does not meet those requirements, Microsoft Entra Conditional Access can help block access to resources such as Outlook, SharePoint, and Teams.
With Microsoft Intune, you can also configure security policies that help reduce risk across managed devices. For example, Intune can help:
Protect company data on lost, stolen, or unmanaged devices.
Require approved apps and prevent risky data movement between work and personal apps.
Enforce device compliance before allowing access to corporate resources.
Configure endpoint security settings such as antivirus, firewall, disk encryption, attack surface reduction, and account protection policies.
For organizations using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Intune can also use Defender risk signals as part of compliance and access decisions. If Defender identifies a device as high risk, Intune can mark it noncompliant and Conditional Access can block that device from reaching corporate resources until the issue is remediated.
Intune also supports security baselines for Windows, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, and Windows 365. These baselines give IT teams a practical starting point for applying recommended security configurations while still allowing room to tune settings for business needs.
Intune helps your organization stay productive and efficient
Today's workforce needs flexibility. Employees may work from the office, from home, while traveling, or from multiple device types. Security is still required, but it should not create unnecessary friction that slows down normal work.
Intune allows organizations to provide access to corporate resources from managed and supported devices while still protecting company data. For personal or BYOD scenarios, Intune app protection policies can protect corporate data inside approved apps without requiring full device enrollment in every case. These policies can require app-level PIN or biometric access, prevent copying corporate data into personal apps, and restrict corporate data access to approved apps.
This helps employees use familiar productivity tools while giving IT better control over where company data can go. It also helps reduce the need for users to manage separate workarounds, multiple unsupported apps, or inconsistent access methods.
Intune also simplifies app deployment. IT teams can deploy Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Teams, Win32 apps, line-of-business apps, web apps, Managed Google Play apps, Apple apps, and Microsoft Store apps from the Intune admin center.
Note: The Microsoft Store experience has changed since the original version of this article. Microsoft Store for Business and Education retired in 2023, and Intune now uses the newer Microsoft Store app experience for deploying supported Store apps.
Other productivity benefits include:
Employees can access business apps from more locations while IT keeps app and data controls in place.
New Windows devices can be enrolled using options such as automatic enrollment, Windows Autopilot, BYOD user enrollment, or co-management with Configuration Manager.
Organization-owned Windows devices can be pre-configured with Windows Autopilot so users can sign in with their work account and be automatically enrolled into Intune.
IT can deliver a more consistent experience for employees working from the office, home, or on the road.
Intune saves time and money through automated management
Managing a growing number of devices manually is difficult for any IT department. Microsoft Intune helps reduce that workload by allowing admins to manage policies, applications, security settings, compliance, and updates from a cloud-based platform.
Instead of relying on one-off device configuration or manual setup, IT teams can create policies once and assign them to the right user or device groups. Intune can deploy policies for apps, security, device configuration, compliance, Conditional Access, and more. Devices only need internet access to receive assigned policies.
Intune also helps simplify update management. For Windows devices, Intune uses Windows update policies and Windows Autopatch-backed capabilities to manage feature updates, quality updates, and driver updates. Organizations can approve updates automatically or manually depending on their deployment strategy.
For Apple devices, Intune supports update policies using Apple's Declarative Device Management model for supported iOS/iPadOS and macOS versions. These policies can target a specific OS version, enforce the latest version, set enforcement deadlines, and reduce user disruption.
Intune also integrates with Microsoft Entra ID for identity management. This allows organizations to use users, groups, device groups, compliance policies, and Conditional Access together to control access to company resources.
Organizations can also deploy applications such as Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, which was previously called Office 365 ProPlus.
Learn more about Microsoft Intune
Microsoft Intune gives organizations a modern way to manage endpoints, protect company data, support remote and hybrid work, and reduce administrative overhead. It brings device management, app management, compliance, security policy, and access control together in a way that helps IT teams support users without managing every device manually.
For organizations that want to improve endpoint security, simplify device onboarding, manage updates, and give employees secure access to the apps they need, Microsoft Intune remains a strong platform to build around.
Ready to modernize your endpoint management?
Safari Micro can help your organization deploy and manage Microsoft Intune across all your devices. Contact us to learn more.