Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph – Now generally available

With tens of thousands of enterprise mobility customers, we see a great diversity in how organizations structure their IT resources. Some choose to manage their mobility solutions internally while others choose to work with a managed service provider to manage on their behalf. Regardless of the structure, our goal is to enable IT to easily design processes and workflows that increase user satisfaction and drive security and IT effectiveness.

In 2017, we unified Intune, Azure Active Directory, and Azure Information Protection admin experiences in the Azure portal (portal.azure.com) while also enabling the public preview of Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph. Today, we are taking another important step forward in our ability to offer customers more choice and capability by making Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph generally available. This opens a new set of possibilities for our customers and partners to automate and integrate their workloads to reduce deployment times and improve the overall efficiency of device management.

Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph enable IT professionals, partners, and developers to programmatically access data and controls that are available through the Azure portal. One of our partners, Crayon (based in Norway), is using Intune APIs to automate tasks with unattended authentication:

Jan Egil Ring, Lead Architect at Crayon: The Intune API in Microsoft Graph enable users to access the same information that is available through the Azure Portal – for both reporting and operational purposes. It is an invaluable asset in our toolbelt for automating business processes such as user on- and offboarding in our customer`s tenants. Intune APIs, combined with Azure Automation, help us keep inventory tidy, giving operations updated and relevant information.

Intune APIs now join a growing family of other Microsoft cloud services that are accessible through Microsoft Graph, including Office 365 and Azure AD. This means that you can use Microsoft Graph to connect to data that drives productivity mail, calendar, contacts, documents, directory, devices, and more. It serves as a single interface where Microsoft cloud services can be reached through a set of REST APIs.

The scenarios that Microsoft Graph enables are expansive. To give you a better idea of what is possible with Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph, lets look at some of the core use cases that we have already seen being utilized by our partners and customers.

Automation

Microsoft Graph allows you to connect different Microsoft cloud services and automate workflows and processes between them. It is accessible through several platforms and tools, including REST- based API endpoints and most popular programming and automation platforms (.NET, JS, iOS, Android, PowerShell). Resources (user, group, device, application, file, etc) and policies can be queried through this API, and formerly difficult or complex questions can be addressed via straightforward queries.

For example, one of our partners, PowerON Platforms (based in the UK), is using Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph to deliver their solutions to their customers faster and more consistently. PowerOn Platforms has created baseline deployment templates to increase the speed at which they are able to deploy solutions to customers. These templates are based on unique customer types and requirements and vastly accelerate the process that normally would take two to three days to complete and compresses it down to 15 seconds. Their ability to get customers up and running is now faster than ever before.

Steve Beaumont, Technical Director at PowerON Platforms: PowerON has developed new and innovative methods to increase the speed of our Microsoft Intune delivery and achieve consistent outputs for customers. By leveraging the power of Microsoft Graph and new Intune capabilities, PowerONs new tooling enhances the value of Intune.

Integration

Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph can also provide detailed user, device, and application information to other IT asset management systems. You could build custom experiences which call Microsoft Graph to configure Intune controls and policies and unify workflows across multiple services.

For example, Kloud (based in Australia) leverages Microsoft Graph to integrate Intune device management and support activities into existing central management portals. This increases Klouds ability to centrally manage an integrated solution for their clients, making them much more effective as an integrated solution provider.

Tom Bromby, Managing Consultant at Kloud: Microsoft Graph allows us to automate large, complex configuration tasks on the Intune platform, saving time and reducing the risk of human error. We can store our tenant configuration in source control, which greatly streamlines the change management process, and allows for easy audit and reporting of what is deployed in the environment, what devices are enrolled and what users are consuming the service

Analytics

Having the right data at your fingertips is a must for busy IT teams managing diverse mobile environments. You can access Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph with PowerBI and other analytics services to create custom dashboards and reports based on Intune, Azure AD, and Office 365 data – allowing you to monitor your environment and view the status of devices and apps across several dimensions, including device compliance, device configuration, app inventory, and deployment status. With Intune Data Warehouse, you can now access historical data for up to 90 days.

For example, Netrix, LLC (based in the US) leverages Microsoft Graph to curate automated solutions to improve end-user experiences and increase reporting accuracy for a more effective device management. These investments increase their efficiency and overall customer satisfaction.

Tom Lilly, Technical Team Lead at Netrix, LLC: By using Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph, weve been able to provide greater insights and automation to our clients. We are able to surface the data they really care about and deliver it to the right people, while keeping administrative costs to a minimum. As an integrator, this also allows Netrix to provide repetitive, manageable solutions, while improving our time to delivery, helping get our customers piloted or deployed quicker.

We are extremely excited to see how you will use these capabilities to improve your processes and workflows as well as to create custom solutions for your organization and customers. To get started, you can check out the documentation on how to use Intune and Azure Active Directory APIs in Microsoft Graph, watch our Microsoft Ignite presentation on this topic, and leverage sample PowerShell scripts.

Deployment note: Intune APIs in Microsoft Graph are being updated to their GA version today. The worldwide rollout should complete within the next few days.

Please note: Use of a Microsoft online service requires a valid license. Therefore, accessing EMS, Microsoft Intune, or Azure Active Directory Premium features via Microsoft Graph API requires paid licenses of the applicable service and compliance with Microsoft Graph API Terms of Use.

 

Additional resources:

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• Submit feedback and suggestions to our engineering team

Source: EM+S Blog Feed