Patch management has a reputation for being a maintenance task. In a cloud-managed environment it’s a security control – and the distinction matters for how you design it. Devices that aren’t current aren’t just inconvenient. They’re non-compliant, and non-compliant devices…
Defender for Endpoint is not just an antivirus product. It’s a threat detection and response platform that, when properly connected to Intune, changes how device trust signals flow through your entire environment. Most environments have Defender running on their devices.…
The Endpoint Security blade in Intune exists for a reason. It’s not a reorganized version of Configuration Profiles – it’s a purpose-built surface for security workloads that require dedicated policy types, dedicated conflict resolution behavior, and dedicated reporting. The policies…
The previous article established why Microsoft’s monolithic baselines create operational friction and introduced the two policy surfaces – Configuration Profiles and Endpoint Security – as distinct tools doing different jobs. This article focuses on the Configuration Profiles layer and how…
The instincts I relied on for years still worked – just enough to be misleading. I didn’t come into Microsoft Intune green. I came into it with years of experience managing Windows devices in environments where authority was clear, timing…
Once configuration is separated into modular policies, the next problem is obvious: how do you keep that structure understandable six months from now, when you’re not the only one looking at it? Intune doesn’t give you hierarchy. It gives you…
Microsoft’s security baselines exist for a good reason. The intent behind them is solid – consolidate recommended settings, reduce decision fatigue, give teams a defensible starting point. On paper, that’s exactly what a baseline should do. Where I’ve found consistent…
The move to cloud management didn’t just change where policy lives. It changed what trust means and how it’s established. In a traditional model, trust is largely implied. A device is joined to the domain. It sits on the corporate…
