Hi, I’m Alex Heaton, Group Product Manager for Windows Intune at Microsoft. Today, I’m happy to share some news about Windows Intune, which is our forthcoming solution for PC management and security. Windows Intune brings together both Windows cloud services and software to keep PC’s well managed and up to date with the latest version of Windows. Windows Intune is the newest addition to Microsoft’s cloud family where -- we’re using our experience with cloud services and IT infrastructure solutions like Windows Update to help customers and partners manage their PCs.

It is the first day of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) and we have great news about how Windows Intune can create new opportunities for partners, as well as pricing and the details on the second public beta that we just opened today.

Second Windows Intune Public Beta

On April 19, Brandon LeBlanc announced the first public beta of Windows Intune, available to more than 1,000 customers and IT partners in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. We saw a lot of excitement from partners and customers and the beta filled up very quickly.

Now we want to give more of you an opportunity to try Windows Intune. Today we are expanding the scope of the beta to 10,000 accounts and increasing the regions to the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, UK, and Italy.

The goal of this beta is to gather the feedback we need to ensure a quality final release—so we ask that you only sign up for this beta if you are able to test it on at least five PCs . If you just want to take a look, you can check out our videos on the Windows Intune site. To sign up for the beta or watch the videos, please visit the experience Windows Intune page.

Pricing

Today we are also announcing pricing for Windows Intune. Windows Intune will include the cloud management service with integrated antimalware (AV and antispyware) plus Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade rights all in a single subscription for $11 USD per PC, per month.

Businesses get a great deal with Windows Intune for several reasons. Because Windows Intune is built on a cloud service, customers and partners can realize the benefits of having a modern PC management and security system without the upfront software licenses, server hardware, and IT labor costs that are required to setup a traditional on-premise solutions

The value of upgrading to Windows 7 Enterprise alone can more than cover the costs of the subscription. According to recent report from IDC on the benefits of Windows 7, “small and medium-sized businesses with 250 or fewer PCs that are deploying Windows 7 are gaining more than happier users; they are lowering support costs, improving security, and making end users more productive.” Their research found that upgrading to Windows 7 can save $277 per year in IT labor, and $1,123 in end user labor.

Customers and partners also have the flexibility to choose if they want to use an all cloud or hybrid solution to manage their PCs. For an additional dollar per PC, per month, customers have the option to subscribe to the  the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a collection of on-premise management tools that complete what Windows Intune can do from the cloud.  

More pricing and licensing details are included in the Windows Intune FAQ.

New feature for partners

Windows Intune is a tool that IT pros can buy and use directly, but we expect in many cases partners (IT solution providers) will use it to manage their customers’ PCs. We see this as a great opportunity for partners to use Windows Intune to boost their revenues through Windows Intune sales, using Windows Intune to provide managed service, and assisting customers with Windows 7 upgrades. Since Windows Intune works over the cloud, with no onsite infrastructure required, partners can help their customers from anywhere. We had many partners in the first beta who told us they wanted to use Windows Intune to manage several of their customers all at the same time. Based on their feedback, we’ve added a feature in this beta called the Multi-Account Console, which is designed to help partners manage multiple accounts through the single Web-based console.

From the account selection screen, partners will have an aggregate view of the environments they manage, so they can easily monitor the status and health of client PCs, including Agent Health, Alerts, Anti-Malware, and Updates. Partners can change the filter to view by health status, so customers in need of urgent assistance will rise to the top of the list. This addition makes the experience simple for partners to scale and will hopefully save them time, and ultimately money.

What Partners are Saying

We’re only wrapping up our first public beta, but we’re excited to hear from partners that based on what they’ve seen so far, they think Windows Intune is a powerful new tool that will help them work more effectively and expand their customer base.

One of the partners in our beta program, Christopher Foote, President of JCF Managed Solutions, told us:

“I save about 40% of the time I used to spend managing PC updates, thanks to Windows Intune. It frees me up to focus on developing more custom applications—and bring on more customers.”

Brian Britton, from Microload in London, sees opportunities for Windows Intune to grow his business:

“With the efficiency improvements that Windows Intune will enable, I think we could expand our customer base by at least 10-15 percent immediately.”

Partners and customers also see great opportunities with Windows 7 Enterprise and the upgrade rights that are included in Windows Intune.

Anders Grönlund, marketing and alliance manager of Enfo Zipper remarks:

“Knowing that they have rights to upgrade to Windows 7 on all Windows Intune-subscribed PCs provides an extra incentive for our customers to integrate Windows Intune into their IT environments, It accelerates their decision to make the move—which helps us grow our business faster while providing the best PC management and PC experience to our customers.”

And Ryan McDonnell, IT manager at Levick Strategic Communications says:

“Windows 7 Enterprise is a must-have system for us. Being able to manage one OS saves me time and this solution gives users more ways to control their desktops, perform daily tasks, and work more productively. What’s more, Windows Intune offers another way to upgrade to Windows 7 Enterprise. We’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this because we can now better protect and manage PCs while giving users the latest operating system.”

These are only a few examples of what our partners are saying. For more information on the partner opportunities with Windows Intune, visit the Windows Intune MPN page and check out other case studies from partners here.

Looking forward

Windows Intune will be generally available by early 2011 in all the countries included in this second public beta. Windows Intune will be more broadly available in select European and Latin American countries at launch. In the months following the official launch, we plan on delivering the service in select Asian countries.

As you try out the second public beta, we hope you’ll find that it’s a simple way to keep your PCs managed, secure and up-to-date with Windows 7. Just as we requested in the first beta, we want to hear feedback from customers and partners based on what they’ve seen and learn what they hope to see in Windows Intune to help their businesses and their customers.

Try the Windows Intune beta today and visit www.windowsintune.com to learn more about Windows Intune and experience the beta! We also have Windows Intune technical resources and a support forum on our Springboard Series on TechNet.