NEW DELHI: Microsoft is now enabling businesses to manage more granularly its Outlook apps for iOS and Android using Intune, its mobile-device-management service.
The new management capabilities for the Outlook apps, the rebranded versions of the Acompli e-mail clients, are about protecting corporate data in Outlook. The new functionality is part of the regularly monthly set of Intune updates from Microsoft. (So far, the company hasn’t shared what else is in the set of June updates.)
Via conditional access, administrators can restrict capabilities for unmanaged and non-compliant mobile devices, preventing them from accessing Exchange Online and Exchange on-premises. Outlook on iOS and Android both will now support the selective-wipe feature in Intune, which allows admins to delete corporate data without affecting personal data on retired or unenrolled devices.
In a June 18 blog post, Microsoft officials explained the new functionality:
“With Intune MAM (mobile application management), you can restrict actions such as cut, copy, paste, and ‘save as’ of corporate data between the Intune-managed Outlook app and personal apps like Twitter or Facebook, and with conditional access, you can restrict unmanaged and non-compliant devices from accessing Exchange Online.”
Another Microsoft blog post includes step-by-step instructions for enabling the Intune management for Outlook for iOS and Android.
Last week, Microsoft unveiled new authentication capabilities for Outlook for iOS and Android.
Intune is a key component of Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), as well as a standalone device-management service. Microsoft is touting its ability to lock down not just devices, but also the files and data on mobile devices, as its selling point for its mobile-management offerings.
Speaking of Microsoft’s EMS, just a reminder that in the third calendar quarter this year, Microsoft will be adding a new component to that suite: Its Advanced Threat Analytics product, which is the rebranded Aorato technology Microsoft acquired last year. Microsoft isn’t yet providing updated pricing/purchasing information for EMS with the new capability included. It will do so when it’s generally available, a spokesperson said.
