A Practical Look at Device Analytics and Risk Signals with Microsoft Intune
As organizations increasingly rely on laptops, mobile devices, and cloud‑connected applications, visibility into device health, configuration, and security posture is critical. Performance degradation, outdated configurations, and elevated device risk can negatively affect productivity and increase exposure to security threats. Microsoft provides an integrated set of services—Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint—that support modern device management, evaluate device risk, and help organizations enforce consistent security controls across their environments. This guide explains how these services work together, the role of Microsoft Configuration Manager, and how built‑in analytics and compliance signals can be used to improve device reliability and security. The Role of Microsoft Configuration Manager Microsoft Configuration Manager (formerly System Center Configuration Manager, or SCCM) is an on‑premises management platform used to deploy applications, manage software updates, enforce configuration baselines, and evaluate compliance—primarily for Windows devices. When Configuration Manager is used together with Microsoft Intune through co‑management, organizations can extend their existing on‑premises management with cloud‑based capabilities. In a co‑managed environment: Configuration Manager continues to manage traditional workloads. Microsoft Intune adds cloud‑based device management and compliance evaluation. Management workloads can be moved gradually from Configuration Manager to Intune. This approach enables organizations to support both legacy infrastructure and modern cloud‑first device management strategies during transitions or hybrid deployments. Learn more: Co-management for Windows devices - Configuration Manager | Microsoft Learn How Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Contributes to Device Security Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a unified endpoint security platform that delivers preventive protection, post‑breach detection, automated investigation, and response. It continuously evaluates device activity and assigns device risk levels based on observed threats and security signals. Core capabilities include: Threat and vulnerability management, which identifies software vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations Attack surface reduction capabilities to limit common attack vectors Endpoint detection and response (EDR) for alerting, investigation, and forensic analysis Automated investigation and remediation to reduce manual response effort Threat intelligence derived from Microsoft’s global security telemetry When Defender for Endpoint is integrated with Microsoft Intune, device risk levels can be used within compliance policies and Conditional Access to restrict access to organizational resources when risk thresholds are exceeded. Learn more: Integrate Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with Intune for Device Compliance - Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Learn What Microsoft Intune Provides Microsoft Intune is a cloud‑based unified endpoint management (UEM) service that enables organizations to manage devices, protect organizational data, and enforce security requirements across Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android devices. Core Intune capabilities include: Cross‑platform device enrollment and lifecycle management Configuration profiles to apply standardized device settings Compliance policies to evaluate whether devices meet security requirements App protection policies that safeguard organizational data within applications, including on personal (BYOD) devices Integration with Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access for access decisions based on compliance and risk By integrating Intune with Defender for Endpoint and Conditional Access, organizations can adopt a risk‑based access model that takes real‑time device health and security posture into account. Learn more: What is Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Learn Choosing How to Use Intune and Defender for Endpoint Microsoft positions these services as complementary: Microsoft Intune focuses on device and application management, configuration, and compliance. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint focuses on endpoint threat protection, detection, and response. Many organizations deploy both to combine centralized management with advanced security capabilities. Together, they allow device configuration, security monitoring, and access control to operate as a unified system rather than isolated tools. Microsoft Intune Licensing Overview Microsoft Intune Plan 1 is included with several Microsoft subscription offerings. For nonprofits and small organizations, Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Intune Plan 1 by default. Other plans that include Intune Plan 1 (as of March 2025) include: Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) E3 and E5 Microsoft 365 F1 and F3 Microsoft 365 Government G3 and G5 Microsoft Intune for Education Feature availability may vary by license, and organizations should always review the official service descriptions for current inclusions and limitations. Learn more: Licenses available for Microsoft Intune - Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Learn Designing an Effective Device Enrollment Strategy An effective enrollment strategy establishes consistent management and security controls from the start. Microsoft recommends that organizations: Define security and management objectives. Select appropriate enrollment methods such as Windows Autopilot, Microsoft Entra ID join, or manual enrollment. Apply standardized configuration and security policies. Use compliance policies to evaluate device posture. Plan for scalability and long‑term device lifecycle management. Provide end‑user guidance to support adoption. Enrollment is the foundation for applying policy, evaluating compliance, and maintaining ongoing visibility into managed devices. [learn.microsoft.com] Coordinating Intune and Defender During Device Onboarding Microsoft documents a layered onboarding approach that commonly includes: App protection policies Protect organizational data within supported applications, including on unenrolled BYOD devices. Device enrollment in Intune Enables configuration management, compliance assessment, and reporting. Compliance policies Define security requirements such as OS version, encryption, password policies, and update status. Conditional Access Enforces access decisions based on Intune compliance results and Defender for Endpoint device risk levels. Configuration profiles Apply standardized security and operational settings. This approach helps ensure devices meet baseline security requirements before accessing sensitive organizational resources. Using Endpoint Analytics to Improve Device Experience Endpoint Analytics, available in Microsoft Intune, provides insights into device performance, reliability, and user experience. Microsoft positions Endpoint Analytics as an operational analytics tool, not a real‑time threat detection system With Endpoint Analytics, IT teams can: View dashboards showing startup performance, application reliability, and device health Compare devices against established performance baselines to identify underperforming endpoints Use generated scores and insights to prioritize remediation Investigate issues affecting the end‑user experience, such as slow boot times or outdated configurations These insights help organizations shift from reactive troubleshooting toward proactive device optimization. Learn more: Endpoint analytics overview - Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Learn Summary By combining Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Endpoint Analytics, organizations can manage devices consistently, evaluate device health and risk, and enforce access controls based on real conditions rather than assumptions. This integrated approach supports modern work by improving visibility, strengthening security posture, and enabling IT teams to make data‑driven decisions that protect users and organizational data.
How much of your Microsoft 365 environment can you actually see at once?
Not how many users you have. Not how many sites, teams, apps or flows you have. How much of it can you actually see connected together? I've been working across Microsoft 365 environments for a while, and I kept running into the same thing. There is no shortage of information. If anything, there is probably too much of it. Users, groups, permissions, SharePoint, Teams, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Dataverse, OneDrive, Exchange, Intune, licensing, configuration... It's all there. But when you're actually trying to understand how everything fits together, it can be a different story. You open one blade. Find something. Open another. Cross-check it. Go back. Open something else. Before long, you're jumping between different parts of the tenant trying to build the bigger picture in your head. And if you're working with larger environments, that gets difficult pretty quickly. The information isn't necessarily missing. The relationships between the information are what can be difficult to see. That got me thinking about a slightly different question: Instead of "where do I find this information?" "Show me what's connected to this." That's where VisibleState started. Start anywhere. Follow the connections. Imagine starting with a single user. Instead of seeing that user simply as a record with a list of properties, imagine being able to explore the relationships around them: User → Groups → SharePoint → Teams → Power Apps → Power Automate → Power BI → Dataverse → OneDrive → Exchange → Intune Then the questions become different: What does this user have access to? Is that access direct or coming through a group? What resources are connected to them? What depends on something they're associated with? Which licenses are involved? Are there relationships that look unusual? If something changes, what else might be affected? Those questions aren't necessarily about finding another piece of information. They're about putting information that already exists into context. A report can tell you that something exists. A connected view helps you understand what it is connected to. Illustrative example below — not a real customer environment. I'm not suggesting Microsoft 365 doesn't already give us this information Quite the opposite. Microsoft 365 already gives administrators an incredible amount of information and tooling. The thing I've been thinking about is what happens when you want to look across those boundaries. Sometimes I don't want another export. I don't want another list. I don't necessarily want another dashboard. I want to start with something I'm looking at and ask: "What's connected to this?" And then keep following the trail. That's the idea I'm exploring with VisibleState. The interesting part is what happens when you change the viewpoint The same relationships can be useful for completely different reasons. For example: Administrators may want to understand access, permissions and dependencies. Security and governance teams may want to find unusual relationships or exceptions. Compliance teams may need to understand who can access something and why. People managing multiple environments may want a consistent way to understand what's there without rebuilding the picture manually every time. Leadership may not need to see the graph at all. They may simply want to know what's important, what's exposed and what could be affected. It's still the same underlying environment. You're just looking at it from a different angle. And that's where I think things get interesting. Where I'm at with it VisibleState started as something I was building to make my own work easier. I was spending a lot of time investigating environments, tracing access and putting information together for reports. The individual tasks weren't necessarily difficult. It was the jumping between different places and reconstructing the bigger picture that took the time. So I started building something that would let me approach the environment through the relationships instead. It's grown quite a bit from where it started, and I'm continuing to build it. I'm not posting this as a product launch, and I'm not looking for people to sign up. I'm genuinely interested in whether the problem I'm seeing is familiar to other people working with Microsoft 365. So I'm curious... If you could start with any object in your Microsoft 365 environment and immediately see what it's connected to, where would you start? Would it be: Users and access Groups and permissions SharePoint and Teams Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Dataverse Licensing and resources Governance and unusual relationships Something completely different Maybe you've already got a good way of doing this. Maybe you still find yourself jumping between different services and piecing things together manually. Or maybe I'm looking at the problem from the wrong direction. What's the one relationship in your Microsoft 365 environment that you wish you could see instantly?
