Forrester names Microsoft Intune a Leader in the 2023 Forrester Wave™ for Unified Endpoint Management

November 28, 2023 TH Author

Maintaining a secure and optimized digital environment allows new ideas to flourish wherever they occur. In the modern workplace, where devices and locations are no longer fixed, Microsoft Intune eases the task of managing and protecting the endpoints of businesses everywhere. It helps secure systems and simplify management, reduces costs, and frees up resources for creativity and innovation, which propel real business growth. The Forrester Wave Unified Endpoint Management, Q4 2023 report recognizes Intune as a Leader.

Wave graphic showing Microsoft is identified as a leader in Unified Endpoint Management scoring higher than competitors in strategy and Market presence.

Propelling business growth

The Forrester report recognizes the advances made to the Microsoft Intune platform in the last year:

This new platform approach aims to help customers simplify management, reduce costs, and transform experiences with AI and automation, all factors that enable Microsoft to vastly outperform others across key metrics like devices under management and revenue growth.

Moving to cloud management with Intune aids customers in applying Zero Trust security principles, improves user experience, and streamlines operations with AI and automation. Exemplary endpoint management doesn’t often get the credit for propelling business growth like research and development initiatives. But companies that reduce the administrative overhead on their talent have more hours and focused attention available to tackle more challenges and innovate. And “talent” isn’t just made up of users; IT and security teams can tackle more valuable projects after simplifying and automating management tasks for themselves. As just one example, new cloud-based controls to manage the local admin passwords for Windows devices make this critical security operation simpler and reduces the need for on-premises resources.

The report also made note of the Microsoft Intune Suite, saying “it includes new support for mobile application management (MAM)-only, ruggedized, remote control, privilege management, and DEX (digital experience) use cases.”

The Intune Suite extends the capabilities of Intune and powers better digital experiences. Solutions like Endpoint Privilege Management ease the burdens on help desks and keep users productive, and Remote Help makes real-time troubleshooting faster, easier, and more secure for users and administrators alike. The time saved and frustration spared keep everyone focused on progress rather than process.

Defining the endpoint management experience

In The Unified Endpoint Management Landscape, Q3 2023 report, Forrester offers this market definition of unified endpoint management: “[Unified endpoint management] solutions help EUC (end user computing) professionals balance three priorities at once: exceptional DEX, cost-efficient management, and foundational threat prevention.”

Exceptional digital experience

How is the Intune digital experience exceptional? Devices are verified as healthy and made more secure without impeding the flow of work—or even rising to the notice of the user. Zero-touch provisioning with Autopilot creates a seamless out-of-box experience. Single sign-on, recently added to Intune’s now-comprehensive MacOS management capabilities, reduces password fatigue and helps users get to work with fewer interruptions. Mobile application management allows users to use their own mobile and Windows devices to access secure resources without enrollment, allowing them greater freedom to work (and be inspired) where they see fit. That Intune works so well with Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Defender, Windows, and Windows 365, further enhances the experience of work with fewer hassles and greater peace of mind.

Cost-efficient management

As a truly unified platform, Intune allows admins to manage Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, iOS, and specialty devices. This reduces the burden of consolidating data from multiple sources and of switching between tools for privilege management, update management, and user experience. Intune instead offers broad management and protection capabilities and true visibility into endpoint performance in one place. With the Intune Suite, the productivity of admins and users can be accelerated even more.

Many enterprises are able to realize the value of Intune at no additional cost as part of their Microsoft 365 licenses. Additional savings can be realized by consolidating specialized management tools with redundant features, by retiring on-premises infrastructure, and by moving to true cloud-native management. Automation of tasks with flows, PowerShell runbooks, and scripts extends efficiency into the day-to-day operations of administrators, and the ability to grant Conditional Access to bring-your-own devices eases the need for dedicated, company-owned devices for employees. The reduction in support tickets and security incidents afforded by the baselines and tools that keep devices compliant and hardened against threat reduce costs of remediation.

Foundational threat prevention

Microsoft Intune offers fundamental capabilities for creating and enforcing Zero Trust security at enterprise scale, and was given the top score in the Security category of the report. Device health compliance capabilities help keep potentially compromised devices from accessing sensitive resources. Privilege management and Conditional Access policy enforcement permit users to remain productive without increasing risk. The ability to define and enforce data protection policies at the device level keeps information flowing to the right places and helps prevent it from leaking to the wrong ones. Using Intune in concert with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint extends the security capabilities even further.

Strategic strength

The Forrester Wave™: Unified Endpoint Management, Q4 2023 report evaluates product strategy in addition to current features when identifying leaders, and Microsoft received the highest possible score in this area. According to the Forrester report, The Unified Endpoint Management Landscape, Q3 2023, “AI will fundamentally change the job of endpoint administrators, allowing them to query endpoints faster and more granularly, help inform policy decisions, and even replace scripting.”

Microsoft has begun to realize that future today with insights driven by machine learning already informing the Intune service. SOC and IT admins using Intune and the Intune Suite will see data from those services used by Microsoft Security Copilot, and expanded capabilities will emerge as the technology evolves.

Innovation and improvements to Intune are driven by our engineers, partners, and customers. We’re grateful to all our stakeholders for the hard work, extensive feedback, and broad adoption of Intune (Forrester indicates Microsoft has the largest Market presence, too) that has enabled the solution to become a leader in unified endpoint management.

Microsoft Intune

Protect and manage endpoints in one place.

Chief information security officer collaborating with a practitioner in a security operations center.

Learn more

While we hope that this recognition gives confidence to all those who are interested in Intune, we know that diving deep into how a solution really works is key to making any investment. Check out Intune and Windows Tech Takeoff sessions to get technical breakdowns of existing workloads and explore what’s new. You can also subscribe to our ongoing news by returning to the Microsoft Intune blog home then join the conversation on Twitter at @MSIntune and LinkedIn.

Learn more about Microsoft Intune.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (formerly known as “Twitter”) (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

The Forrester Wave™ is copyrighted by Forrester Research, Inc. Forrester and Forrester Wave™ are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. The Forrester Wave™ is a graphical representation of Forrester’s call on a market and is plotted using a detailed spreadsheet with exposed scores, weightings, and comments. Forrester does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in the Forrester Wave™. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change.

Forrester Wave™: Unified Endpoint Management, Q4 2023, Andrew Hewitt, Glen O’Donnell, Angela Lozada, Rachel Birrell. November 19, 2023.