By 2020, one out of two US employees will be working remotely, a new study finds. But the same is true for many other countries, e.g., the United Kingdom. While for some, this might seem like a futuristic fairy tale, others are already strategically preparing to manage this Digital Workplace — a conglomerate of (user- and/or company-owned) mobile devices, laptops, PCs and other peripherals in all kinds of connectivity and set-up scenarios. While some parts of this infrastructure will require granular management and rather strict control over devices, other parts can be managed just fine with a light, scenario-based approach.
Microsoft is at the forefront of this Modern/Digital Workplace movement with its Windows-as-a-Service, Office 365, Skype for Business, and many other tools to empower and connect the modern employee. In addition to productivity solutions, the software giant also offers a suite of tools to manage their Digital Workplace offerings. These all fall under the umbrella "Modern IT Management", which I want to walk you through today. My goal is to peel away the fancy marketing lingo and give you an objective view of these solutions.
Before we look into each of the tools in more detail, I want to spend two minutes on the overarching concept: Microsoft's Modern IT Management vision.
Ever since the introduction of Windows-as-a-Service, Microsoft has been urging large organizations to move away from their traditional IT management ways (think System Center Configuration Manager, Group Policies, and Active Directory) and embrace a more simplified, modern management approach using cloud-based device management solutions instead, such as:
Image Credit: Microsoft, 2018
Anything Microsoft has done in the past (e.g., placing the Windows operating system at the core of your user experience, moving core productivity applications into the cloud) is about making you and your employees more productive, connected, and secure — while broadening their reach across functions and infrastructure levels.
Their "mobile first, cloud first" strategy is all about turning every seat in your organization into a modern, in the cloud (always up-to-date and secure) device that is powered by Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus. By embracing the modern management approach, Microsoft hopes to:
Or, in other words, Microsoft wants to be part of your Evergreen IT journey!
As you research "Modern IT Management" you will also come across a term called "Co-Management" and the distinction between the two concepts can be a bit confusing. Basically, you can view "Modern IT Management" as the end goal, while "Co-Management" is Microsoft's bridge to get you there.
Why do you need a transition period? Enterprises have been very reluctant to change the way they manage their IT infrastructure, and Microsoft became painfully aware of this after receiving much push-back from its large enterprise and education customers, causing customers to skip upgrades and Microsoft to extend the support windows for several Windows 10 versions.
So what is Co-Management exactly? The term Co-Management here refers to a hybrid approach to help make the transition to modern management in a controlled, iterative way by using elements of traditional IT management (on-premises Windows Server Active Directory (AD) and System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr)) and Modern IT which is largely based on Microsoft Intune + Azure AD. The transition can be mapped out in four milestones:
Now that we looked at the basics, let's have a close look at the tools.
While there are many tools that fall under the Modern Management umbrella, I picked out the most important ones in the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility & Security (EMS) and Windows Analytics space.
When speaking of Microsoft's Modern IT Management, first and foremost the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite with its components Microsoft Intune, Azure Active Directory, and Azure Information Protection comes to mind:
Secondly, Microsoft has embedded Windows Analytics capabilities within Windows 10 ever since the Creator's Update. The goal of Windows Analytics is to gather and provide insights into the health and efficiency of your IT infrastructure. As a subset of Microsoft's Operations Management Suite (OMS), a cloud-based service to monitor and automate on-premise and cloud environments, Windows Analytics provides several tools that can be used as stand-alone solutions or together:
Microsoft's Modern IT Management vision — while a lot of bits and pieces that in themselves provide advanced capabilities and valuable insights — is still more visionary than practical. The vast majority of large organizations and enterprises are still not willing to completely throw their traditional ways out the window and move their entire IT management infrastructure into the cloud on a subscription-based service. What is missing is an overall framework to pull it all together and automate it in a bigger picture.
What are your plans and thoughts around Modern IT Management? We would love to hear what you have to say in the comments.