Microsoft combines Intune with ConfigMgr

Microsoft has combined its System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) with its Intune unified endpoint management (UEM) platform, enabling users to access both using just one interface.

The combined products are now called Endpoint Manager, which makes licensing for Intune available to all ConfigMgr customers to co-manage Windows devices. Between the two cloud services, more than 200 million devices are being managed, Microsoft said.

ConfigMgr and Intune provide on-premises and cloud management tools as well as co-management options to provision, deploy, manage and secure endpoints and applications across an enterprise.

“Our management vision has not been as simple as it could be. ConfigMgr and Intune have both played a role, but it hasn’t always been clear what the future holds. So, let me be very clear—this vision includes both ConfigMgr and Intune. Co-management isn’t a bridge; it’s a destination,” Brad Anderson, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, said in a blog post.

Along with offering a single management interface for ConfigMgr and Intune, Endpoint Manager includes the Device Management Admin Center (DMAC) and Desktop Analytics.

“That’s pretty big news because the Systems Center community, which is a big business for Microsoft, gives them much more clarity in terms of how they operate both Intune and System Center together, and it kind of unifies those two worlds,” said Nick McQuire, vice president and head of enterprise research at CCS Insight.

Users who want to manage non-Windows devices through Microsoft Endpoint Manager will need to purchase either a separate Intune license, an Enterprise Mobility & Security (EMS) license, or a Microsoft 365 E3 or higher license, the company said.

“The direction of travel isn’t that you need to shut off System Center to take advantage of Intune; you can run them both together and take a workload-based model around management around all your end points, as opposed to just your Windows environment,” McQuire said.