Windows Intune and Mobile Devices

J.J. Antequino

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As the Windows Intune team adds more features to the service, more and more partners and customers are taking a closer look at it.

In June, we released our most recent update.  My teammate, Josh Condie, gave a great overview of the release in his blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2012/06/12/windows-intune-june-2012-release-available-today.aspx

One of the the new features in Intune is support for Mobile devices…. but what exactly does this mean?

It actually means a couple of things…. first of all:

“Windows Intune mobile device management allows you to manage mobile devices connected to your on-premises Exchange Server 2010. When you enable mobile device management in Windows Intune you can manage mobile device policy from the Windows Intune administrator console.” (Source)

Notice the phrase “connected to your on-premises Exchange Server 2010.”  Windows Intune requires the installation of the Windows Intune Exchange Connector in order to discover, manage, and secure mobile devices.  Once this connector is in place, even your non-Windows phone devices (such as iPhones and Android devices) with Exchange ActiveSync built in can be seen in the Windows Intune console.

For more information about setting this up, please take a look at:

Enabling Mobile Device Management

and

Connecting Windows Intune to Your On-Premises Exchange Server

Now you may ask, “What if I don’t have an on-premises Exchange Server… Can I still manage my mobile devices?”  From a policy/security standpoint, you will be unable to use the methods I mentioned above.  However, you can still take advantage of the ability to manage software on your mobile devices.

If you review “Software Distribution Requirements” you will see that you can wirelessly deploy mobile applications to Android 2.1+ and iOS 4.0+ devices.  This is done by publishing the applications in Windows Intune and then sending mobile device users to their Windows Intune Company Portal.  Once logged in, these users should see an “Apps” button which will then show them the available applications that apply to that user and device.