What is Microsoft Unified Endpoint Management UEM?

Let’s understand what Microsoft Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution is. Microsoft UEM is not a single tool but a grouping of different tools that provides end-to-end device management solutions to the organization. Microsoft introduced the product called Endpoint Manager Microsoft Intune with UEM in mind.

The Endpoint Manager Microsoft Intune from Microsoft is a Unified Endpoint Manager product that allows managing multiple endpoint types in a single console. Microsoft combines Microsoft Intune with more tools like SCCM, Intune, etc.

As per industry standards, the UEM must include traditional client management tools (CMT). In the Microsoft scenario, it’s the combination of Configuration Manager with other traditional tools. Let’s have a more close look at Microsoft UEM solution in the following sections.

Read More on Autonomous Endpoint Management AEM and opportunities with AEM in this market and which are new players in the market. AEM is nothing but next-level automation of Workplace operations.

What is UEM Unified Endpoint Management Tool?

Let’s check out the following video to understand the question What is UEM Unified Endpoint Management? By 2027, unified endpoint management (UEM) and digital employee experience (DEX) tools will converge to drive autonomous endpoint management, reducing human effort by at least 40%.

By 2025, more than 90% of clients will use cloud-based UEM tools to manage most of their estate, up from 50% in early 2022.

• Latest Vendors:- Microsoft, VMWare, Ivanti, Manage Engine, Matrix 42, and IBM

What are the products included in Microsoft Unified Endpoint Management Products?

Microsoft’s UEM product is called Microsoft Intune. MS Intune combines many different products within the Microsoft ecosystem. The following is the quick list of tools included in the Microsoft Endpoint Manager solution.

• Microsoft Intune – Cloud-based unified management.
• Microsoft Configuration Manager – On-premises and cloud-based management.
• Microsoft Intune Suite of Advanced Solutions
• Microsoft Intune Remote Help
• Microsoft Tunnel for Mobile App Management
• Microsoft Intune Endpoint Privilege Management

Manage multiple endpoint types in a single console

Microsoft Unified Endpoint Manager product Endpoint Manager connects with the on-prem client management solution called SCCM (a.k.a Configuration Manager). You can manage multiple endpoint types (modern and traditional) in a single console.

The single console for the Microsoft UEM solution is called Microsoft Endpoint Manager Admin Center. You can start using the admin center portal once you have relevant subscriptions. You can access the single console for Microsoft UEM from the following URL.

• https://endpoint.microsoft.com/

Full Capabilities of Traditional Client management tools (CMT)

Let’s check whether the Microsoft Unified Endpoint Manager tool provides the full capabilities of traditional client management tools. Even though SCCM is no longer a traditional client management tool, the comparison is between SCCM and the Unified Endpoint Manager tool.

The Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM), with the integration of all the other products (covered in the above section), can deliver almost all the features of a traditional client management tool. I don’t think it’s straightforward to get all the integration working between some products like SCCM and Intune. However, the integration works very well!

NOTE! – The following picture shows integration between SCCM and Intune using the feature called Tenant Attach.

A single view of multidevice users

You can have a single view of multidevice users from the Admin center portal. You can manage SCCM and Intune-managed devices from a single console. In the following example, two of the devices are SCCM-managed devices (using tenant attach), and the other two are managed by Intune solution.

Client Management from one console

With the Microsoft UEM solution, you can manage devices part of the on-prem client management solution (SCCM) from the MEM admin center console. The following remote actions, application deployments options are available from the MEM portal.

• Sync Machine Policy
• Sync User Policy
• Resource Explorer (SCCM Hardware inventory information)
• App evaluation Cycle
• Run CMPivot Query
• Run PowerShell Scripts
• SCCM Collections
• SCCM Applications

Live Queries using CMPivot

You can run a live query (CMPivot) on the on-prem devices from the cloud admin center portal. This gives you the real power of the integration between SCCM and Intune. If the on-prem managed devices are connected online to the network, you can run the live queries to get the results immediately.

iOS, Android, and MacOS Management using Intune

You can natively manage iOS, Android, and macOS devices using Intune cloud solution. Intune is part of Microsoft’s Unified Endpoint Management solution. Intune can also manage MS Teams room devices, Surface Hubs, etc…

The Intune Endpoint Manager post gives you details about Intune device management features like application deployment, security policies, compliance policies, etc.

NOTE! – I have not covered all the aspects of the Microsoft UEM solution in this post.

Author

Anoop is Microsoft MVP! He is a Solution Architect in enterprise client management with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about technologies like ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.…