Secure and Manage Your iOS Fleet: A Guide to Intune Configuration

 

Microsoft Intune offers robust capabilities for managing iOS devices, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity.

By effectively configuring Intune, organizations can protect sensitive data, streamline device management, and enhance the overall user experience. This guide provides essential steps to set up and configure Intune for iOS device management.  

Understanding Intune for iOS

Intune provides a comprehensive platform for managing iOS devices, including:

• Enrollment: Enrolling devices into Intune management using various methods like Apple Business Manager, User Enrollment, or Device Enrollment Program (DEP).
• Configuration Profiles: Defining device settings, Wi-Fi configurations, email accounts, and more.  
• App Management: Deploying and managing apps, including line-of-business (LOB) apps, public apps, and app configuration policies.  
• Compliance Policies: Establishing security standards and enforcing device compliance.  
• Conditional Access: Controlling access to resources based on device compliance and user identity.

Key Steps to Configure Intune for iOS

1. Prerequisites: Ensure you have an Intune license and an Apple Developer account.
2. Apple Business Manager: Enroll your organization in Apple Business Manager to streamline device management.
3. Intune Setup: Configure Intune with necessary settings, such as Azure AD integration and Apple Push Notification service (APNs) certificate.  
4. Enrollment Profiles: Create enrollment profiles based on your organization's needs (DEP, User Enrollment, or supervised devices).
5. Configuration Profiles: Develop configuration profiles to define device settings, Wi-Fi, email, and other configurations.  
6. App Management: Add apps to the Intune catalog and create app deployment policies.
7. Compliance Policies: Define compliance requirements and assign them to device groups.  
8. Conditional Access: Configure conditional access policies to protect sensitive resources.

Best Practices for iOS Device Management

• Leverage Groups: Organize devices into groups based on departments, roles, or other criteria.
• Test Thoroughly: Create test devices to validate configurations before deploying to production.
• Monitor Device Compliance: Regularly monitor device compliance to identify and address issues.  
• Keep Profiles Updated: Update configuration profiles and app deployment policies as needed.
• Balance Security and User Experience: Implement security measures while considering user productivity.

Additional Considerations

• iOS Updates: Manage iOS updates to ensure devices have the latest security patches.  
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Protect sensitive data with DLP policies.
• Device Wipe: Configure remote device wipe as a security measure.
• Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP): Utilize VPP for app licensing and distribution.  

By following these guidelines and leveraging Intune's capabilities, organizations can effectively manage their iOS devices, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity.