Microsoft to add mobile device management for Office 365 users

By Rebecca Lambert on 29 October 2014

Microsoft to add mobile device management for Office 365 users

Microsoft is planning to roll out mobile device management (MDM) capabilities for Office 365 users in the first quarter of 2015 to help businesses manage Office 365 data across a diverse range of phones and tablets, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

The new functionality, which is powered by Microsoft Intune, was announced at this year’s TechEd Europe event in Barcelona.

Among other things, the new MDM capabilities will enable IT administrators to set and manage mobile device policies, such as passcode lock and jailbreak detection; perform selective wipe of Office 365 data while leaving personal content and apps intact; and prevent unauthorised users from accessing corporate e-mail and data when a device is lost or stolen, all directly from within the Office 365 administration portal.

Microsoft will also be rolling out updates to Microsoft Intune in the coming months. These updates will enable customers to comprehensively manage Office mobile apps, wrap management technology around their own line-of-business applications, enable more secure mobile app viewing and provide powerful conditional access features that allow better control of corporate resources with conditional access features.

“Through our Microsoft Intune platform security, compliance and manageability are not trade-offs for productivity,” said Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure. “New Intune capabilities – most notably integration with Office mobile apps – delivers industry-leading policy management and content protection across mobile devices. New mobile device management capabilities powered by Microsoft Intune, will give organisations the ability to manage Office 365 data on iOS, Android and Windows phones and tablets.”

In addition, over the next few months, Microsoft will be adding data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business to provide protection for sensitive content across Office 365. In 2015, Office apps will also support DLP notifications to provide users with helpful prompts related to information protection.