Intune is the future of endpoint management, not just from a Microsoft perspective, but also from the perspective of enterprise organisations. SCCM might still be prevalent, but that is within a technology landscape where 81 percent of global enterprises have adopted Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft’s cloud revenue is also growing at a rapid 21 percent a year. These trends are all moving towards a point in the near future where the balance tips, with more virtual desktops existing in the world’s enterprise environments than physical PCs.
Slam Dunk Cost Savings
In addition to the feature and functionality benefits of migrating from SCCM to Intune, there are also financial benefits. The cost savings of switching to Intune include:
- Physical infrastructure saving – there is no need for physical servers when you use Intune, resulting in a 100 percent physical infrastructure cost reduction.
- SCCM licence savings – SCCM licenses are also no longer required when you switch to Intune, representing a further 100 percent cost reduction.
- Server OS and SQL license savings – the operating systems and databases needed on SCCM on-premises servers are not needed either, so you will save an additional 100 percent on OS and SQL licenses.
- Ongoing server management savings – your technical resources will no longer need to spend time managing the servers running SCCM, such as applying updates and security patches. This represents a significant resource saving.
- IT support savings – organisations that migrate to Intune report an ongoing reduction in support tickets, representing further resource savings.
- Intune features – Intune’s features, such as Autopilot, enable the automation of repetitive tasks, further reducing the time technical resources need to spend on managing endpoints.
Migrating from SCCM to Intune: A Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Partner With an Experienced Provider
Access IT Automation has everything you need to successfully plan and implement a migration from SCCM to Intune. This includes extensive experience, knowledgeable subject matter experts, and industry-leading automation products.
With our support, you can avoid common pitfalls, reduce workload through automation, and maximise the benefits of switching to a modern endpoint management solution.
Step 2: Assessment and Planning
Our SMEs will start by taking an inventory of your current SCCM-managed assets, including devices, applications, configurations, and policies. We’ll identify overlaps and gaps between the capabilities of SCCM and Intune, and we’ll recommend a migration approach. The two main options are:
- Co-management, where SCCM and Intune both manage endpoints during the transition
- Full migration to Intune
Applications and their dependencies can be the most difficult challenges to overcome, so we’ll work with you to assess application compatibility and make decisions on which apps should be migrated, updated, or retired.
As part of this process, we’ll calculate the ROI you can expect to achieve as well as a breakdown of the time it will take to complete the migration.
Step 3: Design and Prepare the Environment
This process will be tailored to your requirements, but common tasks include:
- Setting up and configuring Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and Microsoft Intune.
- Reviewing and updating security configurations and network requirements to ensure all devices can reach Intune endpoints.
- Preparing endpoint enrolment strategies and ensuring compliance with organisational security standards.
Step 4: Enable Co-Management
This step is optional, but we typically recommend it for large enterprises.
Where co-management is adopted, we will then gradually shift workloads (such as compliance policies, resource access, and application deployment) from SCCM to Intune, starting with pilot groups.
Step 5: App Migrations
Our team will work with you to utilise Access Capture, our application management product that will repackage the applications in your estate, so they are ready for Intune deployment. The testing and publishing of repackaged applications is also automated. We’ll also provide practical support for the creation of application deployment objects for the new application packages.
Access Capture’s automation capabilities reduce the time needed for this part of the process from months to days.
Step 6: Policy Migration
Our team will support and manage the process to convert, migrate, and test policies, configuration baselines, and scripts to Intune equivalents.
Step 7: User Communication and Training
Users are crucial to the success of an SCCM to Intune migration project. It is important to ensure users are fully informed about the upcoming changes. Training and/or documentation should also be provided to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.
The communication should be two-way to facilitate users expressing concerns and to provide support.
Step 8: Pilot Phase
It is often beneficial to implement Intune configurations and deployments within a small pilot group of users and endpoints. The project team can then monitor issues and collect feedback, refining the migration processes as needed.
Step 9: Broad Deployment
This is the stage where we roll out Intune management and migrate workloads to the wider organisation. While this is a broad deployment phase, it is typically implemented in closely managed stages. Throughout the process, there should be continuous monitoring of progress, endpoint compliance, and user experience.
It is also crucial to ensure SCCM clients and on-premises infrastructure are properly retired once all endpoints and workloads are fully under Intune management.
Step 10: Post-Migration Validation and Optimisation
The final quality assurance and compliance step involves validating that all endpoints, applications, and policies are functioning as intended in Intune. Configurations and processes can be further optimised during this step, based on operational feedback.
Processes and procedures should also be put in place to ensure ongoing compliance and security monitoring.
Modernising Endpoint Management
As you can see from our step-by-step guide, migrating from SCCM to Intune is not a simple lift-and-shift process. It requires expertise, careful planning, and best-in-class automation tools to ensure the process is efficient, structured, and properly planned.
By completing the migration project now, you will have an endpoint management solution that can be adapted to the continuously changing needs of your organisation, especially as you evolve your enterprise-wide technology infrastructure both physically and in the cloud.
To learn more about the rise of Intune and why it is beneficial to make the switch now, download our whitepaper, An IT Professional’s Handbook to Endpoint Management.
