News

Microsoft Beefs Up the Intune Suite

• By Kurt Mackie
• February 05, 2024

Microsoft added three new capabilities to its Intune Suite, per an announcement this month.

The three Intune Suite additions, now at "general availability," are Enterprise Application Management, Advanced Analytics and Cloud PKI (public key infrastructure). The Intune Suite, introduced last year, is a bundle of about eight capabilities designed to add to Microsoft Intune core capabilities. When it was introduced last year, the Intune Suite had lacked these three new capabilities, which are now commercially released.

Enterprise Application Management is used for finding, deploying and updating enterprise apps. IT pros get a "new app catalog" for the purpose, which will keep the apps "patched and always up to date." They can just download apps from a publisher and opt to have the apps self-update, if wanted. Microsoft also touted using its Endpoint Privilege Management capability, included in the Intune Suite, with Enterprise Application Management, which lets IT pros delegate app privileges for timed intervals.

The Advanced Analytics capability is an artificial intelligence-powered capability for examining user device issues. For instance, it might be used to estimate device battery degradation across a fleet of devices, Microsoft indicated. One perk in the Advanced Analytics capability lets IT pros conduct "real-time device querying on-demand using Kusto Query Language," which can help with troubleshooting.

The Cloud PKI addition lets IT pros "set up a PKI in minutes." They can also "manage the certificate lifecycle." Certificates can be issued, renewed or revoked "from the Intune admin center automatically or manually." Cloud PKI can help "minimize the effort and cost of maintaining on-premises infrastructure," Microsoft claimed.

The three new additions to the Intune Suite join five other existing capabilities. They are:

• Tunnel, a "lightweight VPN solution for iOS and Android mobile devices that does not require device enrollment."
• Management of Specialty Devices, which lets organizations manage and configure devices such as "augmented reality and virtual reality headsets."
• Firmware-Over-the-Air Updates, enabling the remote updating of device firmware.
• Endpoint Privilege Management, which lets organizations delegate permissions for apps.
• Remote Help, providing secure helpdesk connections to end users.

The Intune Suite is priced at $10 per user per month on top of Intune core capability costs (known as "Plan 1"), according to Microsoft's pricing page. It's possible to pay for some of the add-ons individually, on top of the Intune costs, per the pricing page.