Guten Tag! This week I am at TechEd Europe in Berlin, Germany. The big theme at TechEd this year is Microsoft’s cloud strategy with lots of sessions on cloud solutions such as Office 365, Windows Azure, and Windows Intune.
In the keynote this evening here in Berlin, Brad Anderson talks about how many customers are turning to the cloud to address their needs because it gives them new IT capabilities with lower upfront investment. As Brad mentioned, this first version of Windows Intune, which is currently in beta, is designed for customers of all sizes – from small to enterprise size businesses - who want simple PC management and who don’t already have a management infrastructure in place. By using Windows Intune, these companies are able to deliver PC management including updates, inventory and malware protection through the cloud. Longer term, Windows Intune will integrate and deliver similarly rich functionality as on-premises products such as System Center Configuration Manager, Forefront Endpoint Protection and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). And, as a cloud service, Windows Intune will refresh on a more frequent release cycle enabling new capabilities to be delivered to customers sooner.
Today, Brad also shared the story of our largest Windows Intune beta deployment so far - Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment, a leading manufacturer and marketer of construction equipment – including the well-known Bobcat skid steer loader. Doosan has been using the Windows Intune beta to help manage and protect nearly 3,000 PCs in offices spread across 30 locations in 15 countries. Doosan was looking for a solution to help them with the essentials of PC management and protection across their large global workforce and chose Windows Intune.
Their Global Desktop Support Services Manager, Ryan Kurpiers (shown in the video below), is tasked with keeping all these PC’s current and protected. Prior to Windows Intune, he spent a significant amount of time on the road for his job. Using Windows Intune today, Kurpiers has realized tremendous benefits such as easing his day-to-day responsibilities and improving the state of health of all his PCs. In fact, he mentioned that he was surprised to learn how many PCs were lacking key security updates and pleased to have Windows Intune to help him address that problem for his company. But don’t just take my word for it, here is a video of Ryan himself.
With Windows Intune, Ryan found it to be far simpler and easier to manage Microsoft updates, protect PCs from malware, and get insight into what was running across the entire environment – all from a single, web-based console.
“There’s a definite benefit to having management and security integrated into one console” according to Ryan. He continues “We decided to go with Windows Intune because the speed at which we could roll it out to our workforce and because of the lack of the capital investment made it a very attractive solution.”
If you find yourself in a similar situation as Doosan, you may ask “how do I know Windows Intune is right for my organization?” Well, if you have a highly distributed workforce, limited IT resources, and need the essentials of PC management and protection, Windows Intune could be a great solution for your business. It’s’s a single, integrated management and protection solution and has no infrastructure requirements so it’s quick and simple to set up and use. Not to mention it offers you the flexibility to pay as you go, as opposed to an upfront investment in the hardware and deployment of an on-premise infrastructure – all of which may be appealing to larger companies.
In addition, for those of you who already have an on-premises solution today, there may be some hard-to-reach PCs in your organization where Windows Intune can help. Some examples include non-domain joined PCs, remote PCs, field employees who are on the road all the time, or integrating companies you may have recently acquired and are looking to manage immediately. With Windows Intune, you can quickly get these PCs managed and protected as long as they just have an Internet connection.
If you are at TechEd Europe and want to learn more about Windows Intune, please stop by the Windows Optimized Desktop booth and say hi or join me at the following sessions:
To receive information on future releases, you can receive notifications here. For more information on Windows Intune, check out our Windows Intune homepage.
- WCL202 - Windows Intune: PC Management with Cloud Services and Windows 7 - Wednesday, November 11th @ 1:30 PM)
- WCL201-IS - Under the Hood with Windows Intune – IT Pro Deep Dive - Wednesday, November 11th @ 3:00 PM)
Thank you to all of you who are evaluating the beta today. We look forward to bringing Windows Intune to market in 2011!
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