Intune and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

Today an announcement was made around Service Pack 1 Beta availability for System Center 2012.  While this will steal a fair amount of attention, it's worth paying attention to another VERY important bit of information that went alongside it with relation to some Intune changes.

I've heard rumblings about a possible gateway solution to allow for interaction between the two products for a while and today that information was lent some official credence.

From the Server & Cloud Blog:

Microsoft offers two separate endpoint management solutions – System Center 2012 Configuration Manager for on-premises management, and Windows Intune for management through the cloud.  With System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 and the next version of Windows Intune, Microsoft is taking the first step in delivering interoperability between these products through Configuration Manager’s administration console.  This will enable customers to add mobile devices managed through the cloud with Windows Intune into their System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 console and manage all the devices through one tool.


Hopefully (I'll find out some more info ASAP) this will allow for inventory information to be pulled down from Intune regarding the clients it manages and absorbed it into the ConfigMgr database allowing for seamless inventory reporting across both client bases.  We may even see more seamless management features!

 

There are also to be some license changes that mean customers that already own ConfigMgr client ML licenses will get even more discount towards Intune licenses and those with Intune licenses already can use these to manage devices through ConfigMgr.
Also the licensing model will shift away from per-device to a per-user model with rights for up to 5 devices per user!

All in all, some interesting news and I'll post back soon with more details when I've hunted them down.