How Windows Intune Can Lower Costs and Raise Productivity

While many large organizations have PC management tools in place, a significant number of other firms don't have solutions that handle essential PC management tasks such as providing updates and endpoint protection and keeping track of hardware and software inventory.

As a consequence, end users may experience hours of lost productivity due to missing updates or malware, and IT staff can be overwhelmed with reactive troubleshooting. As businesses grow and deploy new PCs into the environment, a new set of challenges can emerge: managing a range of PCs running different operating systems and software versions. Mixed environments can be an even greater chore to manage when the support of mobile workers is included. After all, remote workers may have high-speed connections but may not always be able to connect to a corporate network and gain access to support. Knowing what's on those PCs, as well as those that are in headquarters attached to the corporate network, would certainly be helpful, but this information may simply not be available.

Research conducted by IDC indicates that limited resources whether in terms of IT manpower or budgets is a commonly cited barrier to adopting a systems management solution. An alternative approach to traditional PC management solutions is cloud-based PC management, which can help organizations avoid lengthy server deployment projects and the overhead associated with the ongoing maintenance of on-premises servers. The approach can also enable IT to manage connected users located virtually anywhere, from anywhere.

With these issues in mind, Microsoft has developed Windows Intune, a cloud-based solution for PC management and security to help IT professionals manage today's increasingly complex and distributed workforce. Windows Intune was in public beta testing through the course of this research. It will be offered to customers via a monthly, per-PC subscription, providing financial flexibility so that companies pay only for the number of PCs they wish to manage.

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