Microsoft Managed Desktop Service
Today Microsoft officially announced a new service: Microsoft Managed Desktop or MMD.
Although it was known Microsoft was working on this, no official word or announcement has been published until now.
We believe that MMD will be an option that allows organizations to fundamentally shift how they think about and manage their IT. Through MMD, customers will be able to move toward a secure, always up-to-date environment with device management by Microsoft. As we expand the offering, our partners will play a key role in helping us bring MMD to market and support customers in their transition to a modern desktop. We encourage customers who are interested in MMD to contact their local Microsoft account manager as we work to broaden the offering.
Users whose companies opt for MMD will be able to take their PCs out of the box, enter their credentials, and have their devices automatically populated with preset security and management policies and required company apps. In a perfect world, no IT person will need to be involved in this set up and deployment process, as Microsoft will take over those functions.
We are also partnering with key strategic partners like Dell, HP, DXC, HCL, Computacenter, and Accenture/Avanade in our MMD journey. We see great opportunities for our partner ecosystem to expand their existing Microsoft 365activities and provide devices and experiences alongside MMD.
According to Mary Joe Foley’s ZDNet blog post
Those who buy MMD will get Microsoft 365 Enterprise — the combination of Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security — that is ready to run on Windows 10 devices which meet Microsoft’s MMD specification and runtime quality bar. At first, qualifying devices will be Surface PCs only, but in the coming months, devices from HP, Dell and other PC makers will be offered as options, too, as long as they meet Microsoft’s criteria.
I am sure we will hear a lot more about this in the coming weeks, including at Microsoft Ignite next week.
