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Non-Windows Devices with Microsoft Intune

Organizations that have already moved their Windows devices management to into MDM tools are now looking to bring other OS platforms like into existing tools and take advantage of a holistic, single pane view of the end-user computing environment. Microsoft Intune provides this capabilities

Cloud Attached is Your Future

Danny Guillory created a series of blog posts and a video which resonated with me in a number of ways. Every person engage in device management within an organization should read this document. It is an excellent blueprint for devices management strategy.

Dell Command Update and MDM

it is imperative that device manufacturer’s system software, firmware and BIOS up-to-date. In this article we point to how to videos to install Dell Command Update with Microsoft Intune and Workspace One.

Gathering Existing Devices Windows Autopilot Device IDs

Update 8/1/2020: Microsoft has updated their official blog post a number of times since this post to include automated ways from Intune and ConfigManager.

We have published a number of posts about what Windows Autopilot is and how to setup and test. Now that so many organizations have taken note of Modern Device Management advantages they want to know how to include those devices into the Windows Autopilot.

It needs to be clarified that Modern Devices Management in the context of Windows Autopilot, is comprised of three parts:

  1. Device Registration
  2. Device Enrollment
  3. Device Provisioning

This article relates to step 1) for existing devices within an organization. Specifically the question it is trying to answer is:

Is there a way we can generate the IDs without someone sitting down in front of hundreds / thousand of individual machines and manually starting the PowerShell script?

Here is high level steps what I have seen done out there:

Read More »Gathering Existing Devices Windows Autopilot Device IDs

Windows 10 Refreshing the OS – Operational Processes

Guest post by Colin Sainsbury

About Colin Sainsbury With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Colin provides strategic guidance and technology expertise that organizations need to transform their end user computing environments. He works at Dell Technologies Services as a Principal Consultant supporting global customers.  Twitter | LinkedIn   | 

In the past, operational process often involved to wiping and reloading/re-imaging a device between users or to fix issues that have crept in. This is both time consuming and costly representing an unnecessary overhead. In environments where contingent/contractor labour is a high proportion of the workforce, this has been a significant cost driver. Windows 10 provides new ways to address this challenge.

It should be noted that none of these approaches deliver true data sanitation nor do they claim to be NIST 800-88 compliant. In this sense, they might be appropriate between users within the same organisation or business sub-unit but not when end of warranty devices are being returned to lessor or sold on. Always take advice from your information security team before adopting one of these methods to ensure that it meets their need to protect your data.

Read More »Windows 10 Refreshing the OS – Operational Processes

Microsoft tools manage 175M endpoints

Not long ago, in August 2018, I wrote a blog post Microsoft Platform: Workspace Transformation in which I mentioned that each of the products included in the Microsoft 365 platform have already “changed and will continue to change the landscape of the way we are to manage end-user compute space

I mentioned several products by name including:

  • Azure Active Directory
  • Windows 10
  • Microsoft Intune
  • Windows Analytics
  • Windows Autopilot
  • Office 365 ProPlus
  • Microsoft 365

What has surprise me the most about the last year, is the adoption speed and acceleration of the platform.

Read More »Microsoft tools manage 175M endpoints

5G – A game Changer for Device Management

5G is fast coming to market with roll outs expected across the world in 2019 and 2020.      This technology is not only an core enabler for IoT, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, but also has significant implications as an enabled for Workforce Transformation and Modern Device Management.   

As many of you know there is an immense amount of work going on behind the scenes to enable 5G, the next generation of cellular network technology It is going to trans-formative technology offering three key advantages: 

    • Broadband capabilities multiple times the speeds today.     Speeds of 1Gbps to be the norm with 10Gbps possible. 
    • Massive connectivity scale  Allows the avalanche of devices powered by IoT coming into the market which the current technologies lack  
    • Low Latency allows much faster respond times –  Expected to be less than 5ms.    

 “5G will enable the era of hyperconnectivity where devices, machines, and humans will be interconnected in a very rich way.”    

Liam Quinn, Sr. Vice President, & Sr. Fellow, Dell Technologies Source: Dell Technologist Luminaries Podcast May 2019 

South Korea rolled-out 5G to the public in early 2019and it has been a game changer for them already. 

Read More »5G – A game Changer for Device Management

Updating Windows 10 Edition with Autopilot / Intune

As opposed to previous versions of the Microsoft Operating System, where each edition came as a separate ISO, there is only one package for the latest Windows 10 OS that can be “unlocked” when activated to have the edition you need.      (there are some restrictions/requirements based on licensing)

One of the most common questions I get when talking about Modern Device Management is how to upgrade the edition that comes with the device  from  Pro to Enterprise as part of the enrollment / provisioning process.

Read More »Updating Windows 10 Edition with Autopilot / Intune

Modern Device Management: More than Just Technology

Today, many companies are moving or seriously considering the move to Modern Device Management (or Modern Management) as their next step of their Digital Transformation Journey.  Most considering the move, have already completed their Windows 10 migrations and are looking for efficiencies to their deployment workflows.     Having said this,   I get asked on a daily bases:

 “What should I consider when moving to Modern Management?”

The first and most important item to address is a cultural one.  Simply said:

All of us need to switch “our current thinking” of how devices are deployed and managed. 

Let me address a bit more as to why this mind-set-change is  important:Read More »Modern Device Management: More than Just Technology

Unified Endpoint Management Field 2018

This post  was inspired by a tweet  from VMware’s COO Sanjay Poonen (part of Dell Technologies)

It is simply amazing how much the End User Computing  space has changed in the last four year…    For many of us in the industry the  way we were managing PC devices needed a radical change.    We simply could not continue to perpetuate the existing model.Read More »Unified Endpoint Management Field 2018