Managing endpoints in today's hybrid work environments has never been more challenging or important for businesses. With employees working from anywhere using various personal and corporate devices, IT teams must now secure a wider range of endpoints while still enabling productivity and flexibility. At the same time, threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated as bad actors take advantage of new remote access risks - a recent study revealed that 68% of organisations have seen an increase in endpoint and IoT security attacks over the past year. Meanwhile, IT teams are stretched thin dealing with a growing number of endpoints that require patching, configuration management, and security updates on a daily basis.
It's therefore no surprise that endpoint management has become a top priority for many organisations in 2024. In this blog, we will discuss some of the key challenges businesses currently face, and how a unified endpoint management solution like Microsoft Intune can help streamline operations, empower remote work, and mitigate risks through intelligent automation and visibility across all your endpoints.
What are the challenges of endpoint management?
The variety of devices that connect to corporate networks has ballooned in recent years. From laptops to smartphones and the growing trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, the boundaries of traditional office spaces have been broken.
This creates a complex web of endpoints that businesses must manage and protect. Here are some of the primary challenges and risks associated with endpoint management:
- Increased attack surface: each device opens a new door for cyber threats. As the number of endpoints grows, so does the attack surface, making it more challenging to secure every entry point against breaches.
- Data security and privacy: endpoints often contain sensitive business data. In the absence of stringent controls, this data is vulnerable to unauthorised access and leaks.
- Remote and hybrid work environments: the shift to remote work has underscored the need for secure access to corporate resources from anywhere. This requires robust endpoint security measures to prevent unauthorised access and data loss.
- Patch management: keeping software up-to-date with the latest security patches is critical. However, ensuring that every endpoint is consistently updated is a significant challenge for IT teams.
- Compliance requirements: various industries are subject to strict regulatory requirements concerning data protection and privacy. Ensuring that all devices adhere to them is tricky.
- Resource-intensity: The time and effort it takes to manually manage, update, and troubleshoot devices can place considerable strain on IT teams, detracting from their capacity to engage in strategic projects.
To address these challenges, businesses need an integrated, comprehensive, and intelligent endpoint management solution, which is where Microsoft Intune comes into play.
How can Microsoft Intune help overcome these challenges?
Traditional endpoint management requires significant time and effort to monitor and maintain each device. Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based endpoint management solution. It manages user access to organisational resources and simplifies app and device management across your many devices, including mobile devices, desktop computers, and virtual endpoints. Here's how:
Cloud-based unified endpoint management
Microsoft Intune is a unified endpoint management solution. This means that IT teams can manage and deploy applications on all endpoint devices from a single cloud-based dashboard.
Intune supports managing a wide range of devices including Android, iOS/iPadOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows. It even integrates with Configuration Manager for managing on-premises devices like desktop workstations.
This unified approach ensures that policies are applied across all devices and that endpoint security risks aren’t missed.
Simplified app management and deployment
Organisations use many different types of applications, including mobile apps, web apps, line-of-business (LOB) apps, and more. Intune streamlines app management by providing tools for deploying, updating, and removing apps across a variety of devices.
You can create app configuration policies that automatically configure apps before they’re even installed on user devices. Users may not ever need to enter any configuration information when they open the app.
To mitigate any patch management issues, you can set policies for apps to be automatically updated.
Policy deployment
Intune allows IT administrators to create and automate the deployment of policies across a wide range of categories, including security, device configuration, compliance, conditional access, and more.
A brilliant example of Intune’s policies in action is how Belgium’s national train operator, SNCB, was able to manage more than 21,000 devices with Microsoft Intune.
The organisation was able to fully containerise SNCB applications on smartphones so that the company can’t access employees’ apps and data - allowing the safe use of BYOD devices and saving millions on potential work device deployment costs.
Once policies like these are configured, they can be systematically deployed to user groups and device groups within the organisation.
Self-service features
Microsoft Intune’s self-service capabilities empower employees by allowing them to manage common device tasks without IT intervention.
Through the Company Portal app, users can reset passwords and PINs, install corporate applications, join user groups, and even troubleshoot common issues.
This autonomy not only enhances productivity but also reduces the burden on IT support teams. You can even use Intune’s customisation options to apply your company’s branding to the Company Portal, ensuring a cohesive experience for your users.
Integration with other Microsoft services and apps
Intune’s integration with other Microsoft services and apps provides a cohesive management experience. As previously mentioned, it works in tandem with Configuration Manager for managing Windows Server on-premises devices.
It also integrates with Windows Autopilot for streamlined OS deployment and ensures that all Microsoft 365 applications are kept up-to-date.
Endpoint Analytics can be used for performance reporting and hooks in with Outlook and Teams to give IT teams a holistic overview of how devices are being used.
Additionally, Intune's connection with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint fortifies your cloud network.
Next steps
As our work environments become increasingly complex and distributed, effective and efficient endpoint management is more critical than ever. Microsoft Intune provides a robust and integrated solution that simplifies this process, helping to protect your data, ensure compliance, and free up your IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives. However, implementing and fully leveraging such a comprehensive solution can be a daunting task. That's where working with a Microsoft Partner like Advanced - a leading Managed Services Provider - can be invaluable. Advanced's expertise in Intune and broader Microsoft technologies can help your business seamlessly transition to a more secure and efficient endpoint management strategy. By entrusting your endpoint management and other IT needs to Advanced, you can focus on your core business, knowing that your IT infrastructure is in capable hands. Get in touch with our team today to see how we can help!