Microsoft Launches Mobile Device Management Suite

Newly-installed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company’s new mobile device management (MDM) platform, Microsoft Enterprise Management Suite (EMS) could be “the most strategic piece of infrastructure we’re doing for enterprises.”

Speaking at his first major press event since being promoted last month, Nadella discussed his vision of the intersection of mobile and cloud, and detailed EMS, which offers device, identity and access management with data protection from within the cloud.

EMS includes Windows Intune, which provides MDM and Mobile Application Management (MAM) features, Azure Active Direct Premium, which controls identity and access management with single sign-on to more than 1,000 popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, and Azure Rights Management Services, which offers data protection.

Microsoft Enterprise Management Suite

Microsoft says EMS will make it easier to deploy mobile devices within the enterprise, while reducing IT costs. It works with iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone devices, while Intune has also been updated to support Samsung Knox and the latest version of Windows Phone OS.

“Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device,” said Nadella. “It’s a unique approach that centres on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers.”

Nadella said employees are using a variety of different form factors, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, and Microsoft had to be mobile first and cloud first.

“A cloud that is not connected to devices is just latent potential,” he added. “This is a cloud for everyone on every device.”

During the event in San Francisco, Microsoft also took the wraps off the long-awaited version of Office for iPad, with Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications now available for Office 365 subscribers. The decision to launch dedicated apps is a shift in strategy for Microsoft, which has often touted full versions of Microsoft Office as a unique selling point for Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets.

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