Microsoft Intune is a cloud service that centralizes the management and protection of an organization’s devices and apps from a single console. It lets IT teams control which devices access corporate resources, which apps they have installed, and whether they comply with established security policies, all without on-premises servers. With Copilot built in since 2024, tasks that used to require reviewing logs manually are now assisted by artificial intelligence, reducing the IT team’s operational workload.
Key takeaways
- Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service for mobile device and app management within the Microsoft Security family.
- With Intune, you can manage Windows, Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Linux devices from a single console in the Microsoft Intune admin center.
- Intune combines mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) to protect corporate data on company-owned devices and on personal devices (BYOD).
- Conditional Access connects Intune with Microsoft Entra ID to grant access only to devices and users that comply with your policies, following a Zero Trust security model.
- Copilot in Intune uses artificial intelligence to summarize policies, suggest configurations, and speed up device management tasks that used to be manual.
Managing thirty laptops and sixty phones by hand is not feasible. Each one has its own operating system, its own updates, and its own level of risk. Microsoft Intune solves that problem by centralizing device management in the cloud. Since 2024, with Copilot built in, repetitive tasks that could once take between 20 and 40 minutes per incident are assisted by artificial intelligence, reducing the time spent on manual troubleshooting. This article covers what Intune is, how its MDM and MAM model works, how to get started step by step, and where artificial intelligence fits into day-to-day administration.
What Microsoft Intune is and what it’s used for
Microsoft Intune is a cloud service that is part of the Microsoft Security family and is used to manage and protect an organization’s devices and apps.
With the service, an IT team controls from a single platform which devices access company resources, which apps they have installed, and what level of security they meet. Because it is a cloud-based service, you don’t need on-premises servers or heavy infrastructure: the configuration lives in the Microsoft Intune admin center and is applied remotely to each endpoint. According to Microsoft Learn, the platform covers 6 different operating systems, from Windows to Linux, making it one of the MDM solutions with the broadest platform coverage on the enterprise market.
Intune was born within what Microsoft called Microsoft Endpoint Manager, the brand that also included Configuration Manager. Even earlier, it was sold as Windows Intune, a name that still appears in older documentation. Over time, Microsoft simplified the branding, and today the solution is sold as Microsoft Intune. If you check the Intune website or Microsoft Learn, you’ll see that all of those references point to the same product family within the Microsoft ecosystem. The Intune service is, in short, the core of modern endpoint management in the Microsoft cloud, and its evolution toward unified endpoint management reflects Microsoft’s commitment to centralizing control of all endpoints from a single platform.
The real value of Intune lies in Microsoft security applied to mobility. You can require a phone to have encryption turned on before it opens corporate email, wipe the data from a stolen laptop, or deploy an app to your entire workforce with one click. All of this without relying on each person to configure their device correctly, and with the strength of the Microsoft ecosystem behind it. If you work with other collaboration tools in the ecosystem, you may also be interested in this article on Microsoft Loop as a tool.
Who the Intune service is designed for and why manage mobile devices
The Intune service is designed for IT teams, SMBs, and companies with flexible work environments. If your workforce combines office work, remote work, and travel, you need to manage mobile devices without being physically in front of each one. Mobile device management through Intune MDM is especially relevant for organizations that have adopted hybrid models, where endpoints are spread across offices, homes, and travel.
It is especially useful in BYOD (bring your own device) scenarios, where people use their own device for work. Here, the challenge is securing corporate data without invading the employee’s privacy. Intune achieves this by separating work from personal on the same phone through separate device and app management, a point we’ll cover in detail later on.
What you can do with Microsoft Intune: devices and apps
Intune lets you manage the full lifecycle of a device and its apps. These are the most common tasks an IT team performs every day as part of Microsoft Intune administration:
- Enroll hardware in the organization, from new laptops to phones employees already use, through the MDM device enrollment process.
- Apply security and configuration policies to groups of managed devices.
- Deploy a corporate app to the entire workforce or to specific departments.
- Run a remote wipe of company data if a device is lost or someone leaves the company.
- Force updates to the operating system and apps to close vulnerabilities.
- Configure access to Wi-Fi, VPN, and certificates without user intervention.
The big advantage over manual device management is scale. In the past, a technician configured each computer one by one, with a paper checklist. With Intune, you define the policy once and it is automatically applied to hundreds of devices and apps. According to Microsoft Learn documentation, the console brings together in a single pane what used to require several separate tools. An individual enrollment process that once took between 30 and 45 minutes per device can be completed in under 10 minutes once the policies are configured.
Operating systems and hardware supported for device management
One of Intune’s strengths is its cross-platform coverage. Device management isn’t limited to a single ecosystem:
| Operating system | Typical use | Management mode |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Corporate laptops and desktops | Full MDM |
| Android | Company phones and BYOD | MDM and MAM |
| iOS / iPadOS | Corporate and personal iPhones and iPads | MDM and MAM |
| macOS | Creative and executive teams’ computers | MDM |
| Linux | Specialized workstations | Basic management |
Compatibility based on official Microsoft documentation. Exact features may vary by operating system version.
This breadth is why Intune is so widely used in mixed environments, where Windows in administration, macOS in design, and a mix of Android and iOS in the sales force all coexist. The unified endpoint management (UEM) that Intune offers covers that entire ecosystem from a single pane, making the endpoint manager a benchmark for enterprise-scale device management.
How Microsoft Intune works: MDM, MAM, and Conditional Access
Microsoft Intune applies policies from the cloud through two complementary models: MDM, which manages the entire device, and MAM, which protects the data inside the app. On top of this is Conditional Access, which decides who gets in and under what conditions.
The underlying layer that makes all of this possible is Microsoft Azure. Intune relies on Azure infrastructure to process policies and communicate with each endpoint, that is, every point where corporate data lives. This endpoint management approach centralizes control of all endpoints on a single platform, which also makes it easier to manage endpoints at scale. When a device enrolls, it maintains a connection with the service and receives the policies that apply to it based on the group it belongs to.
The integration with Microsoft Entra ID (Microsoft’s cloud identity service, formerly known as Azure AD or Azure Active Directory) is what connects people with their devices. Azure AD knows who the user is; Intune knows which device they’re using and whether it complies with the rules. Together, they decide whether to grant or deny access to data, in line with a Zero Trust security model where nothing is assumed valid without verification. Protecting corporate data on every endpoint is, precisely, the central goal that guides Microsoft Intune configuration in most organizations.
This model makes it possible to protect data at the exact point where it is used. If a phone stops complying with a policy, for example because the user has turned off their PIN, Intune MDM can block access to corporate email until the issue is fixed. Protection is dynamic, not a one-time check at the moment the device enrolls in MDM.
Mobile device management (MDM) vs. mobile application management (MAM)
The difference between MDM and MAM in Intune is practical and affects the employee’s level of privacy:
| Model | What it controls | Ideal device | Level of control |
|---|---|---|---|
| MDM (mobile device management) | The entire device | Company-owned devices | High: configuration, full wipe, system policies |
| MAM (mobile application management) | Only the data inside the app | Personal devices (BYOD) | Medium: protects company data without touching personal content |
With MDM, the company manages the entire device. That makes sense for a corporate laptop. With MAM, Intune only controls the work mobile app. It can prevent you from copying data from corporate Outlook to your personal WhatsApp, but it doesn’t touch your photos or your settings. This balance is what makes BYOD, where employees use their own device, viable without privacy conflicts. Data security is maintained at the app perimeter, not the hardware, which makes regulatory compliance easier in mixed environments.
Conditional Access and authentication with Microsoft Entra ID
Conditional Access is the decision layer of the endpoint manager. It evaluates several signals before granting access to a corporate resource, relying on Microsoft Entra ID authentication.
In practice, access control works with rules such as: “if the user accesses email, require multifactor authentication (MFA) and check that the device complies with Intune policies.” If both conditions are met, the person gets in. If the device isn’t encrypted or the user fails MFA, access is denied or the user is asked to fix the issue. This combination of identity and device state is the core of modern access security and strengthens protection against unauthorized access, reinforcing the Zero Trust security model that runs through Microsoft’s security strategy.
Copilot in Intune: how artificial intelligence speeds up device management
Copilot in Intune uses artificial intelligence to assist the IT team with device management tasks that used to require reviewing policies and logs by hand. It is the most significant addition to Microsoft Intune configuration in recent years, and it changes the pace of day-to-day work.
When a device enrollment failed, a technician would open the logs, look up the error code, cross-check it against the documentation, and work out the cause. That process could take between 20 and 40 minutes per incident. With Copilot built in, the technician asks the question in natural language and, in many cases, quickly receives a summary of the problem and a possible solution, without having to jump between logs and documentation.
Microsoft Copilot has brought this type of conversational assistant into real-world work. In the case of Intune, the artificial intelligence specializes in the context of Microsoft security: it understands policies, compliance states, and telemetry from managed devices. Under the hood, Copilot relies on Microsoft’s API to read and correlate that data, and using it within the Microsoft Intune admin center keeps the experience consistent with the rest of the ecosystem.
It’s worth being clear about the limits. AI assists; it doesn’t decide on its own. Copilot suggests a policy configuration, but someone responsible for Intune administration must review it before applying it across the organization. Human oversight is still necessary, especially when a misconfigured policy could lock hundreds of people out.
Which Intune endpoint tasks AI can assist with today
These are the specific areas where artificial intelligence is already contributing to endpoint management:
- Summarizing security alerts and grouping similar incidents to prioritize them.
- Generating baseline policies that the team reviews and adjusts before applying.
- Explaining enrollment errors by translating technical codes into understandable causes.
- Analyzing the compliance status of a set of endpoints and detecting patterns.
- Suggesting configurations based on industry best practices.
AI cuts the time spent on repetitive tasks and frees up capacity for judgment calls: choosing what level of restriction makes sense for your company, how to balance security and productivity, and which exceptions justify the risk. For teams that already use the Microsoft ecosystem, integrating Copilot in Intune reduces the burden of manual tasks without the need for additional tools. Intune’s strengths in this area are amplified when artificial intelligence acts as a support layer on top of the management platform.
Benefits of Microsoft Intune for your business: Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Defender
The advantages of Microsoft Intune are concentrated in four areas that affect day-to-day work:
- A single console. You manage Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS from a single Microsoft Intune admin center, without jumping between tools. This is one of the major advantages of using Microsoft Intune in mixed environments, and it is part of Intune’s strengths as a unified device management platform.
- Data security for BYOD. You protect corporate data on personal devices without invading employee privacy, thanks to the MAM model. Protecting corporate data on the user’s own device is one of the most valued use cases in flexible work environments.
- Integration with Microsoft 365. Intune connects natively with Outlook, Teams, and the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem, applying consistent policies. Microsoft 365 business plans are the most common entry point for activating the service. According to Microsoft, Microsoft 365 has more than 300 million active commercial seats, which makes this integration a critical touchpoint for corporate security.
- Secure remote work in flexible work environments. You enable access from anywhere while keeping control over which devices and users get in, in line with mobility-focused Microsoft 365 plans.
Integration with Microsoft Defender adds a threat detection layer. Defender identifies a risk on a device and shares that signal with Intune, which can respond by restricting access until the device is clean again. This cooperation between Intune, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Defender turns separate pieces into a coordinated defense within Microsoft’s security model. Protecting data on every endpoint, from start to finish, is the premise that guides this integration within Microsoft’s business-focused plans.
How to get started with Microsoft Intune step by step: Company Portal and admin center
Getting started with Microsoft Intune follows a clear sequence. These are the basic steps to go from zero to your first managed device:
- Activate your subscription. Intune is included in several Microsoft 365 plans and is also available as a standalone plan. Check that your Intune licenses cover what you need before you start configuring Microsoft Intune.
- Set up roles. Apply role-based access control so that each member of the IT team has only the permissions they need within the Microsoft Intune admin center.
- Prepare your Microsoft Intune configuration. Define user and device groups in the admin center before creating policies.
- Enroll the first device. The user installs the Company Portal app (Intune Company Portal) on their phone or laptop and follows the guided MDM enrollment process.
- Create policies. Configure compliance rules, restrictions, and app deployment for the groups you’ve defined.
Company Portal is the app employees use to enroll their device and access apps approved by the organization. From the Intune Company Portal, a person can install authorized software without calling support, which reduces the IT team’s workload. This user self-service is one of the advantages of Microsoft Intune that help desk teams value most.
A practical tip: start with a small pilot group. Apply the policies to five or ten devices, check that everything works, and then scale to everyone else. That way, you prevent a configuration error from affecting your entire workforce at once. If you need detailed guides on how to manage Intune, Microsoft Learn documents every step of the process with up-to-date examples, covering everything from the basics of MDM device enrollment to advanced policy configuration in the endpoint manager.
Microsoft Intune pricing and licensing, and Microsoft 365 plans
Intune isn’t sold as a standalone product with a single price. Its licensing model is structured as follows:
- Included in Microsoft 365 plans. Several Microsoft 365 business plans include Intune as part of the subscription, at no additional cost. Microsoft 365 Business Premium and E3/E5 plans are the most common ways to activate the Intune service.
- Standalone plan. You can purchase Intune separately if your subscription doesn’t include it. Microsoft offers a per-user, per-month plan within its Intune licensing; check the official Microsoft Intune pricing page for the current rate, as it is updated frequently.
- Advanced solutions (Intune Suite). Microsoft bundles additional capabilities into Intune Suite, available with Microsoft 365 E5 and as an add-on, for more demanding management needs within the Microsoft cloud. This option is relevant for organizations that need expanded endpoint management capabilities or deep integration with Microsoft Defender.
Because pricing and plans change frequently, always check the official Microsoft Intune pricing page to see the current options and what each tier includes. Also check which Microsoft 365 plan you have before assuming you need an extra license.
Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Intune
What is Microsoft Intune and what is it used for?
Microsoft Intune is a cloud service for mobile device and app management within the Microsoft Security family. It enables an IT team to remotely control, configure, and protect an organization’s devices and corporate data. Intune lets you apply security policies, deploy apps, and enable remote work without the need for on-premises servers or manual configuration of each computer.
What can I do with Microsoft Intune?
With Microsoft Intune, you can enroll hardware, apply security policies to managed devices, deploy a corporate app to your entire workforce, force operating system updates, and run a remote wipe if a device is lost. You can also configure Wi-Fi and VPN access, and secure corporate data on personal devices through mobile application management, all from a single console. Intune also lets you integrate these capabilities with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Defender for coordinated protection.
How does Microsoft Intune work?
Microsoft Intune applies policies from the cloud to enrolled devices through two models: MDM manages the entire device, and MAM protects the data inside each app. It integrates with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD or Azure Active Directory) to identify users and with Conditional Access to grant or deny access based on device compliance. Microsoft Azure infrastructure supports the entire service as a cloud-based platform. That is how Microsoft Intune works in practice: by combining identity, device state, and policies in a single control flow.
What is the difference between MDM and MAM in Intune?
MDM (mobile device management) controls the entire device, which is ideal for company-owned devices where the organization manages the full configuration. MAM (mobile application management) only protects the data inside the work app, without touching the user’s personal content. MAM is the option for BYOD scenarios, where employees use their own device and the company needs to protect corporate data while respecting their privacy.
How much do Microsoft Intune licenses cost?
Intune licenses are included in several Microsoft 365 business plans and are also available as a standalone plan with a per-user, per-month rate. There are advanced solutions bundled in Intune Suite, tied to Microsoft 365 E5. Because prices change frequently, it’s best to check the official Microsoft pricing page to see the current options and confirm what your current subscription includes before purchasing an additional license.
What is Copilot in Intune and what can it do?
Copilot in Intune is the artificial intelligence assistant built into the service. It can summarize security alerts, generate baseline policies, explain enrollment errors, and analyze the compliance status of endpoints. It assists the IT team with tasks that used to be manual, although human review is still necessary before applying any configuration across the organization. Accessing the most advanced Copilot in Intune features requires a license compatible with Microsoft Copilot for Security.
Your next step with Microsoft Intune and Microsoft AI
Managing and protecting devices in flexible work environments is no longer a matter of configuring computers one by one. With Microsoft Intune, you centralize management in the cloud, and with Copilot built in, you spend less time on repetitive work and more on the judgment only you can bring.
The next leap in skills lies in mastering the artificial intelligence layer that comes with these tools. The better you know how to ask Microsoft Copilot for what you need, and when to trust what it gives you, the more you’ll get out of Intune and the rest of Microsoft 365. That is the kind of practical skill developed in the Founderz Productivity with Copilot program, the online business school specializing in applied AI. If managing devices and data is part of your daily work, learning to integrate Copilot is the logical next step. Founderz is an AI training platform, in collaboration with Microsoft, with more than 700,000 students and more than 1,700 companies.
