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Windows Intune Cloud-Based PC Management Utility Hits the Street March 23

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the proprietary-competition-for-established-open-source-software dept.

Roberto123 writes "Microsoft has announced a release date for Windows Intune, its cloud-based solution for PC management for businesses, whether computers are on the corporate network or operated remotely. Intune will be released on March 23 for $11 per PC per month."

37 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...one patch to wreck them all, for Intune surely binds them.

  2. ~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by commodore6502 · · Score: 2

    Versus the $70 I spent to BUY Microsoft Office in 1998. Yeah I think I'll say "no" to this rental deal, just like I said no to Comcast rental

    .

    ABC
    CBS
    FOX
    NBC
    CW
    MyNetTV
    ION
    Univision
    PBS

    --
    Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
    1. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Aha, but if you squander the money on software you can't spend it at the bar!

    2. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Most Americans think they can, which is why the country is in the financial situation it's in...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    3. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by commodore6502 · · Score: 2

      >>>God you're always so cheap

      And will be able to retire when I'm 45*, so I can enjoy the rest of my life having fun instead of in the "hell" I call the office. In contrast you'll still be working into your 80s (like my father) because you wasted all your money.

      *
      * Or work part-time because I Want
        to work, not because I "have" to work.

      --
      Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
    4. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by tgd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Rental?

      Its a managed corporate desktop management service. Its like hiring maids instead of going out and buying a bucket, sponges and bleach and spending two hours on your knees every week.

      I'm happy "renting" my maids. If you like cleaning your house, you certainly don't have to.

    5. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by commodore6502 · · Score: 1

      >>>This is not a software for home use.

      Yet. Fast forward to 2012 and we'll probably be reading about Microsoft Cloud - Home edition for a low-low rate of just $20 a month ($15 if you are a MSN customer).

      --
      Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
    6. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by DrgnDancer · · Score: 2

      Not that I think this is a great idea or anything, but you're looking at it all wrong. This is an enterprise thing, not a home user thing. For one PC, owned and operated by a knowledgeable user, it's clearly inappropriate. Assuming it works however, it's a much better idea at scale:

      For 25 PCs it may save you the cost of a full time systems person. You'll still need to contract people for problems or projects, but saving a full time employee is a big deal for a business that sized. For $3500 a year, not a bad deal.

      For 250 PCs it could save you one or two member of the IT staff. For $35000 a year, not a bad deal.

      For a bigger company, probably the cost is lost in the noise, but they could potentially see a savings too.

      Again, I'm sure as Hell not going to be the first one to run out and sign up. For one thing I can manage my own systems, for another I don't trust Microsoft to release something that actually works first time out. None the less, cost is not the reason that this is a potentially bad idea. You have a strong tendency to look at everything from the point of view of "This costs more than I would spend" rather than looking at the big picture. People have different amounts of money they are willing to spend for different things, and businesses have a completely different cost structure than households. Once a business gets larger than "I can do this all myself", head count becomes one of the biggest if not *the* biggest factor in expenses.

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    7. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by __aamnbm3774 · · Score: 1

      don't worry. Wall Street will fuck up again and destroy all your savings before you reach that age.

    8. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by clifyt · · Score: 1

      Sounds like an excellent deal. I know a lot of nerds are going to be upset about this, their entire world is built upon servicing computers that take up about 10% of their time and nothing more.

      And yet, that 10% of the time is absolutely needed because when a computer is down, it needs to get back up or someone isn't working. I always have to tell my team of nerds that the #1 thing I'm looking for is that they show up...I don't care if they goof off 90% of the time...I care that they are there when problems arise.

      I'm going through this sort of thing right now, moving everything to the cloud. Down to one tech person, and I have to do a lot of the tech work myself now (I am mostly a researcher / academic these days...non-tech related) and I can't wait to move this ALL to someone else in a centrally located manner. It will save me time and money and I won't have to worry. I've already moved most of my essential services to the cloud...now to get my desktops managed from the cloud and it will be awesome...

    9. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by peragrin · · Score: 1

      That is why many companies keep spare computers mostly setup, so when one goes down and it isn't a 5 minute fix, you replace the machine out, and take the old one back for it's 12-18 month reinstall.

      Reinstalling windows regularly is like changing the oil in your car. If your not doing it often you have hidden problems that you may not know about. This isn't even about viruses. Windows loves to randomly trash itself.

      Now to be fair I haven't used windows 7 yet. I have to get a copy of it but I am unwilling to spend $200 on something that i only need occasionally. I know somethings have changed for the better. Oh and it is $200 because I am not a student, and refuse to install limited versions when the full OS X is $130.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    10. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      My Windows XP install lasted for years, until the harddrive finally died. Of course, I didn't install every browser toolbar and plugin known to man. It's not the OS that gets overloaded, it's the dozens of additional crap that people install for no particular reason.

    11. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by Flyerman · · Score: 1

      Oh and it is $200 because I am not a student, and refuse to install limited versions when the full OS X is $130.

      Apple uses software to sell hardware. If you weren't paying out the nose for the hardware, then I might agree with you.

    12. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by DrgnDancer · · Score: 1

      You aren't reading. A company with 25 computer isn't a large company, they probably don't need a full time person to handle those things. If the router shits itself at 2:am you reset it in the morning when anyone might use it. You probably already outsource your mail and web service so no great loss. If that fails, you call the contract people I mentioned (or more likely just call the cable company, you probably just have Comcast business service with a router built into the modem). Your server backups likely fit on an external hard drive or smallish NAS device. Again, an IT servicing company can likely handle that for you as part of a package much cheaper than a full time employee.

      A 250 computer business is large enough that they probably have a small IT department.. I didn't say you could get rid of them, just that you probably needed one or two fewer of them.

      As to the reliable and sustainability of the cloud... I rather specifically say that I don't particularly trust this service, just that cost isn't the major factor in why you wouldn't choose it. You probably could save money using it... until it blew up.

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    13. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      Reinstalling windows regularly is like changing the oil in your car. If your not doing it often you have hidden problems that you may not know about. This isn't even about viruses. Windows loves to randomly trash itself.

      Rubbish.

      Now to be fair I haven't used windows 7 yet. I have to get a copy of it but I am unwilling to spend $200 on something that i only need occasionally. I know somethings have changed for the better. Oh and it is $200 because I am not a student, and refuse to install limited versions when the full OS X is $130.

      An upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home Premium is $110, and is no more "limited" than any copy of OS X you can buy.

    14. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It's also for those who are working remotely almost constantly - pushing patches and updates can be frustratingly hard when the IP address of the remote PC is always changing and may not be connected more than a few hours at a time. Especially if the only times it connects to the office LAN is the annual meeting, or for some PC, the time it was set up by IT for the guy who never stepped inside the building (PC shipped to them, phone interviews, etc.).

      Think salespeople and 1-person "satellite offices".

      Sure there are many solutions available but some companies prefer to deal with a single vendor (Microsoft) rather than multiple (Microsoft+remote PC admin software).

    15. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by clifyt · · Score: 2

      I wish I could keep standard builds around to do this...I work in research with no overlap of duties. I keep ghosted images of every users default build, but this needs to be done with a clean build. That means apps that are installed later are not included.

      A lot of apps because of licensing are a pain in the ass to ghost...to reinstall means I have to mess with the old computer to pull it off 'officially' and then put it onto the new. Yeah...I don't get the benefit to choose peoples preferred tools at this level. Lot of stuff that I use that is free is unusable by people that just want to get their work done without being a nerd. I'm happy to run my stats via command line. They aren't.

      Beyond that, I'm not given the budget to buy identical hardware. It is 20% of the machines this year, another 20% next...and that complicated things a lot. I'd actually tried waiting to have a common platform...and the money got removed by central admin because they had a shortfall...even though they had signed off on the plan. Meaning that we got screwed. Welcome to the real world.

    16. Re:~$140 a year - $1400 per decade by dupeisdead · · Score: 1
      er, intune is not renting microsoft office. In fact, it has NOTHING to do with microsoft office.
      http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/what-is-windows-intune.aspx - lists what it is.

      Intune is basic workstation maintainance really. It's not for home users, it's not for getting rid of Microsoft Office, it's for reducing the need of a helpdesk monkey to do patches and updates etc on machines... more importantly for the road warriors of the companies.

      --
      move along, nothing to see here.
  3. When they say "hit the street" by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

    They mean "... after it's been thrown out a window in frustration."

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  4. On a related note by snookiex · · Score: 2

    I thought Mandriva was dead, but yesterday I discovered its product for IT management (Pulse). I know this is old news, but it came to my mind reading this.

    --
    Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
  5. Is this a press release? by airfoobar · · Score: 1

    Because it must be.

  6. Re:ORLY by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

    You've obviously never heard of Logmein which BTW is a very successful product. Microsoft is wise to be throwing their hat into the ring.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  7. Lots of competition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Cloud services: Tivoli Live, Versiera
    Enterprise: Nagios, Zenoss, SolarWinds, Hyperic, Spiceworks, etc., etc.

    1. Re:Lots of competition by zero0ne · · Score: 1

      Those aren't competing products. Maybe complimentary, but definitely not competing.

      Nagios, ZenOSS, SolarWinds, etc are all Network Management Systems - Did you not see the screenshot? InTune is more on par with Altiris ITMS, KACE, etc.

    2. Re:Lots of competition by zero0ne · · Score: 1

      I tried Kaseya - it crashed my x64 Win 7 machine the second I installed it...

      Took me forever to scrub the agent off.

  8. False alarm by return+42 · · Score: 1

    At first glance I thought it said "Windows Immune". Now that's something I'd use.

  9. When the cloud is down or... by swb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ....deletes all your email, like Google did recently, what then? Or when a physical device doesn't work well enough to work with the cloud?

    I agree that the cloud concept makes a lot of sense, but speaking as a full time SMB IT consultant, your computer, local network, and internet service have to be pretty much working for the cloud concept to work, and I spend most of my time dealing with problems that cause the cloud to stop working altogether.

    1. Re:When the cloud is down or... by clifyt · · Score: 1

      "deletes all your email, like Google did recently"

      You mean, gasp, a free service is worth as much as you pay for it?!?!?!

      Please tell me more!

      I'm dealing with infrastructure that I pay for. And I'm not banking on everything being in one place. My data is stored offsite, in various locations, and I don't have a single point of failure. I hook up an external HD every few weeks and grab a snapshot in case of a catastrophe, but almost every event that a user lost data -- the new service allows the user to go back and look at archives of different versions of files, and go from there. The benefits far outweigh any of the negatives.

    2. Re:When the cloud is down or... by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      ....deletes all your email, like Google did recently, what then?

      You forgot the restore within a day part (a bit convenient to forget, dont you think)

    3. Re:When the cloud is down or... by swb · · Score: 1

      You forgot the "for some users" part.

  10. User productivity hit by lwriemen · · Score: 2

    No. It's like a maid hiring maids to clean someone else's house. The "amplify productivity" might apply to the sysadmins (more likely, it's a prelude to being shown the door), but IME the users are left with more delays, loss of access and loss of data.

  11. what does it do? manage updates? by jsepeta · · Score: 1

    ok for a corporate environment this might be nice but i'm not sure how it affects me as a home user. it would be nice to have a centralized management utility for Microsoft Security Essentials: I'm just not sure the boss would ever think it's worth $250/month for me to keep track of the workstations and servers in our environment. That's a lot of scratch.

    --
    Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    1. Re:what does it do? manage updates? by indraneil · · Score: 1

      Windows intune provides you with a simple web based console to do the following:
      Manage updates: Centrally manage the deployment of the Microsoft® updates and service packs you choose to all your PCs from the Windows Intune console—freeing up your IT staff from routine management tasks.

      Protect PCs from malware: Help safeguard your PCs from the latest threats with centralized protection that's built on the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine and uses the same trusted technologies as Microsoft Forefront® Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Security Essentials.

      Proactively monitor PCs: Receive alerts on updates and threats so that you can proactively identify and resolve problems with your PCs— before they impact end users and your business.

      Provide remote assistance: Help resolve PC issues, regardless of where you or your end users are located, with remote assistance.

      Track hardware and software inventory: Track hardware and software assets used in your business to efficiently manage your assets, licenses, and compliance.

      Set security policies: Centrally manage update, firewall, and malware protection settings across all of your PCs, even on remote machines outside the corporate network.

      You may read more details here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-faq.aspx
      Full disclosure: I work on the team that built it.

    2. Re:what does it do? manage updates? by arndawg · · Score: 1

      Can partners resell and manage this for customers from a central place?

    3. Re:what does it do? manage updates? by Genocaust · · Score: 1

      How is this different from Active Directory with SMS and WSUS? I'm not trying to be facetious; I'm genuinely curious. I mostly do optical fiber link work but have had to dabble in the PC/Software side of running things more than once, and last I did, was using SMS and WSUS to do most of what this seems to offer (to me).

      --
      It could be that the only purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others.
    4. Re:what does it do? manage updates? by indraneil · · Score: 1

      Partners can manage Windows Intune for multiple customers from a central place (the central place being https://manage.microsoft.com).

      In order to sell subscriptions to Windows Intune, you will need to first sign a Microsoft Online Services Partner Agreement (MOSPA).

      Subscriptions to Windows Intune will be sold like other cloud services from Microsoft—through the Microsoft Online Services website at http://www.microsoft.com/online/.

      For more details, please look at the http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-faq.aspx

    5. Re:what does it do? manage updates? by indraneil · · Score: 1

      With Windows Intune, you get the same list of updates as the Windows Software Update Service (WSUS), with the same level of control:

              * Windows Intune works over the cloud like Windows Update and Microsoft Update, but you don't need on-site infrastructure.
              * Updates are delivered directly to any of your managed PCs that have an Internet connection.

      So to me the fact that there is no set up needed to manage the service (for multiple clients) is the USP.
      For more details, please look at the http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/windowsintune-faq.aspx