Windows 365 Wednesdays – Windows 365 x Intune Suite: Looking Beyond the Feature List

A few weeks ago, I was working with a customer who asked me a simple question:

"If we're already moving to Windows 365 and Microsoft Intune, do we still need all these other tools?"

It sounded like an easy question, but the more we talked about it, the more I realized it deserved a proper comparison. Not based on marketing slides or feature matrices, but based on real-world scenarios and the challenges organizations are actually trying to solve.

So I spent some time researching the different options on the market. Looking at endpoint privilege management, remote support, endpoint analytics, application management, and digital employee experience solutions from various vendors. Some of these products have been around for years and have built an excellent reputation in their own area of expertise.

What surprised me wasn't necessarily that Microsoft had equivalents for many of these capabilities. It was how much the conversation had shifted from comparing individual features to evaluating an integrated platform.

This isn't intended to be a "Microsoft versus everyone else" article. There are plenty of scenarios where dedicated third-party solutions still make perfect sense. Instead, I wanted to take a practical, fact-based look at where Windows 365 and Intune Suite fit into today's modern workplace, where they shine, and where organizations should still carefully evaluate their options.

The traditional endpoint management toolbox

If you look at many enterprise environments today, it's not uncommon to find solutions from multiple vendors, each solving a specific problem.

You might have:

• Remote support
• Endpoint privilege management
• Digital Employee Experience (DEX)
• Third-party application packaging and patch management
• Device management
• Security and compliance tooling

Individually, these products often do an excellent job. Many organizations have invested in them over several years and built mature operational processes around them.

The challenge isn't necessarily functionality anymore.
The challenge is complexity.

Every additional product introduces another management portal, another integration, another licensing model, another deployment process, and another operational workflow for administrators to maintain.

Windows 365 changes the conversation

Windows 365 isn't just another virtual desktop offering.

It changes how organizations think about endpoint management.

Instead of managing a mix of physical devices, VPN dependencies, and complex infrastructure, organizations can provide Cloud PCs that are managed through the same Microsoft Intune platform they're already using for Windows endpoints.

Identity becomes the primary control plane.
Policies are applied consistently.
Security is integrated by design.
Management becomes significantly more predictable.

When customers adopt this model, they naturally start asking whether they still need separate products for every operational task.

And in many conversations I've had recently, that's exactly what's happening.

Looking beyond feature comparisons

When evaluating solutions, it's tempting to compare feature lists side by side.
In reality, customers don't buy features.
They buy solutions to operational problems.

So instead of comparing products, let's compare scenarios.

Endpoint Privilege Management

One of the most common requests from IT departments is surprisingly simple:

"A user needs administrator rights to install a printer driver or approved business application."

Historically, organizations often solved this by granting local administrator rights or deploying dedicated privilege management products.

Solutions from vendors such as BeyondTrust or CyberArk have built strong reputations in this space and continue to provide extensive capabilities for organizations with advanced requirements.

Endpoint Privilege Management in Microsoft Intune takes a different approach by allowing administrators to elevate approved applications without making users permanent local administrators.

For many Windows-first organizations, that may provide exactly the level of control they need while remaining fully integrated with Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra.

Will it replace every advanced privilege management platform? Probably not.

Will it be enough for a large number of organizations? Absolutely.

Remote Help

Remote support has traditionally been an area dominated by specialized vendors.

Products like TeamViewer and BeyondTrust have earned their place by providing mature and feature-rich remote assistance capabilities.

Intune Remote Help approaches the problem from within the Microsoft ecosystem. Authentication integrates with Microsoft Entra ID. Role-based access aligns with existing administration models.

Security and compliance policies remain part of the same management platform administrators already use every day.

For organizations already standardized on Microsoft technologies, reducing the number of separate support platforms can simplify operations considerably.

Enterprise App Management

Application packaging remains one of the biggest ongoing administrative tasks for IT teams.

Packaging applications, testing updates, and maintaining installers consumes significant time and resources.

Enterprise App Management helps reduce much of this overhead by providing a managed catalog of third-party applications that integrate directly with Microsoft Intune.

Especially for smaller IT departments and managed service providers, this can remove a significant amount of repetitive work.

Will it replace every dedicated third-party patch management solution? Not necessarily.
But it addresses a problem that many organizations have struggled with for years while remaining integrated into existing Intune workflows.

Intune Advanced Analytics

One area that deserves special attention is Intune Advanced Analytics.

When people hear "analytics," they often think of complex Digital Employee Experience (DEX) platforms with deep telemetry, sentiment analysis, and extensive reporting capabilities. Vendors such as Nexthink, Lakeside, and ControlUp have been focusing on this space for years and continue to offer very mature solutions.

However, that's not necessarily what every organization needs.

In many of the environments I work with, customers are primarily looking for answers to practical operational questions:

• Why are users experiencing slow logons?
• Which devices are performing poorly?
• Are application crashes increasing after a recent update?
• Which startup processes are impacting performance?
• Are there recurring reliability issues that we should investigate?

This is where Intune Advanced Analytics becomes particularly interesting.

Instead of introducing another standalone platform, organizations can gain valuable insights directly from within the Microsoft Intune portal they're already using to manage their endpoints and Cloud PCs. Administrators can identify trends, investigate performance issues, and proactively detect problems before they result in support tickets.

For organizations already invested in Windows 365 and Microsoft Intune, this integrated approach can be a significant advantage. The data is available in the same management experience, reducing the need to switch between multiple tools and simplifying day-to-day operations.

Will it replace every enterprise-grade DEX platform on the market? Probably not.

Organizations with highly specialized requirements or mature Digital Employee Experience programs may still benefit from dedicated solutions that offer deeper analytics and broader capabilities.

But for many organizations, Intune Advanced Analytics provides exactly what they're looking for: actionable insights that help improve the end-user experience without adding yet another management platform to the stack.

And to me, that's one of the recurring themes throughout the Microsoft ecosystem: not necessarily replacing every specialist tool, but reducing complexity while delivering the capabilities that most organizations actually need.

The biggest differentiator isn't a feature

After comparing the various solutions, I came to a somewhat unexpected conclusion.

The biggest differentiator isn't Endpoint Privilege Management.
It isn't Remote Help.
It isn't Enterprise App Management.

It's the platform itself.

Windows 365, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Entra ID, and Microsoft Defender increasingly work together as one integrated management and security platform.

Identity, device management, compliance, application management, and Cloud PCs all share the same ecosystem.

Administrators don't need to jump between multiple consoles.
Security signals are shared.
Policies work together.
Management becomes simpler.
Operational overhead is reduced.

That's difficult to capture in a comparison table, but in day-to-day operations it can make a significant difference.

Does this make third-party solutions obsolete?

No.

And I don't think that's the right conclusion to draw.

Many organizations have existing investments that continue to deliver tremendous value. Others have complex environments, multi-platform requirements, or advanced operational needs that justify specialized products.

Technology decisions should always be based on business requirements, not vendor loyalty. The good news is that customers now have more options than ever before.

Final thoughts

The customer's original question was simple:

"Do we still need all these other tools?"

My answer was equally simple:

Maybe not as many as you think.

Windows 365 combined with Microsoft Intune and the growing capabilities available through Intune Suite have fundamentally changed the conversation.

Rather than evaluating products feature by feature, organizations should look at the bigger picture: platform integration, operational simplicity, reduced complexity, and a unified management experience.

For some organizations, dedicated third-party solutions will absolutely remain the right choice.

For many others, the Microsoft platform has matured to the point where fewer products, fewer management consoles, and fewer integrations can actually lead to a better overall outcome.

And in my experience, making things simpler is often one of the biggest wins you can achieve.

That is it for now. Until next time. 👋

This article reflects my own experience working with customers and researching the available options in the market. Every environment is different, and the right solution will always depend on an organization's specific technical and business requirements.

Original Post https://www.burgerhout.org/windows-365-wednesdays-windows-365-x-intune-suite-looking-beyond-the-feature-list/