Truth be known I’ve been wanting to create an Intune Kitbag for some time to help anyone just starting out with Microsoft Intune as well as those wanting to build on their existing knowledge. With so many resources out there on Twitter, YouTube, and personal blogs covering a wealth of information with how-to’s and step by step guides it can be a bit daunting knowing what’s good and not so good. How and what you learn is largely down to your own personal preferences and style. Over the last couple of years I figured out my own style and along the way have connected and learnt from what I feel are some great people providing excellent content. It also inspired me to get more involved with the community and go on to create a new Cloud YT Channel with a work colleague at the time. So here is my version of what Im calling the Intune Kitbag. Please give it a try and feedback your comments and experiences once you’ve decided to follow along.
There are some keys topics and fundamental questions I first looked at when I started out. These Include:
1 – What certifications should I aim for and what exams do I need to take
2 – Which YouTube channels provide a broad range of Intune related content
3 – Where do I go to get the latest MS Intune documentation
4 – Who should I follow in the Twitter community
5 – Are there any good Intune getting started Videos
6 – What about Licensing, what do I need to know
7- When it comes to Intune Conditional access where do i start
8 – I want to automate my configuration how is this done
9 – What’s the background and History to MS Intune
10 – When I produce my own content where should I promote it
1 – What certifications should I aim for and what exams do I need to take
The best source of information here is from the Microsoft website clearly as the exams are set by Microsoft for the Industry. You can start from the top here Browse all – Learn | Microsoft Docs or filter on Products > Microsoft 365/Windows/Microsoft Endpoint Manager. On Roles select Administrator and with Types select Exam. For Intune you ideally need to work towards an Associate certification then move on to the Expert exams as per below.To become qualified and obtain your certifications with Intune the exams to pass are:
MD-100 and MD-101 to become an associate and then progress to MS-100 and MS-100 to become and Expert.
2 – Which YouTube channels provide a broad range of Intune related content
When it comes to YouTube channels my go to learning resources are:
– The CloudManagement.Community (CloudManagement.Community – YouTube)
and
– Intune Training (Intune Training – YouTube)
I have to admit I am a bit biased here as the CloudManagement.Community is something I co-run but this was as a result of picking up knowledge over a good 18 months and using videos to develop my skills. There are naturally many other channels available but you wont go wrong by having these two in your Kitbag
Other key channels which have helped along the way are those from Harry Lowton’s Intune playlist (Microsoft Intune – YouTube ) and WE Learn (Intune Training with Microsoft Endpoint Manager – YouTube)
3 – Where do I go to get the latest MS Intune documentation
Naturally if you want the latest information you really need to go to the source of information which is Microsoft. As Intune is a key component of Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) I have and still use the Microsoft site as a starting point – Microsoft Intune documentation | Microsoft Docs
The documentation is regularly updated and is a great reference point for learning how to set-up, enrol and configure for your Intune managed devices. It is well structured to identify the concepts and device types. I have to say though as you quickly learn and build your knowledge you soon discover you will want to achieve more with Intune. It could be that Intune doesn’t quite have the ability to deploy your required configuration. In this situation check through the latest Intune updates together with features in development here: What’s new in Microsoft Intune | Microsoft Docs
4 – Who should I follow in the Twitter community
This next one is a tough one but be reassured that the people mentioned here are all active in the community and produce quality blogs, videos and some run community sites all of which add towards helping you along your journey. Twitter was a great starting point to connect to like minded professionals who are more than happy to help you with your questions. The following list of Twitter handles is by no means the definitive list and its simply not possible to list everyone but here are a a few people I follow to help keep up to date. Some are MVP’s and others technology enthusiasts. Take a look at their posts and see who they follow.
My Twitter handle is @Andy_69Jones. Some of the people I follow include:
@ooms_rudy
@almenscorner
@Brinkhoff_C
@stealthpuppy@anoopmannur
@PrajwalDesai
@byteben
@nblasac
@rucam365
@shackelfjaco
@LeonAshtonL1983
@BradCug
@smoon_lee
@dean_ellerby@MMelkersen@SCCMentor
@SeguraOSD
@jamie_maguire1
@the_cmcommunity@nicolonsky@ITSupportBlog
@pdaalmans
@jonnychipz
5 – Are there any good Intune getting started Videos
The thing about getting started with Intune is that each of us are starting with different levels of knowledge and have different styles of learning. Personally I find videos easier to absorb the information and obviously you get to view dynamic demonstrations too. So this question covers the videos I have used when first starting out, and learning the fundamentals you need to know for the platform before to progress to specific configurations and device management. When starting out myself there were very few videos around which covered the full scope of Intune components so I decided to record my own series of videos and created something called ‘The Microsoft Intune Handbook’. The thing you need to be aware of with these videos is the date of recording. Intune is being developed and expanded weekly by Microsoft so what was relevant or available 6 months ago may have changed. These are my go to videos though.Microsoft Intune Handbook Videos – YouTube
S01E01 – Setting up your Microsoft Intune Tenant (I.T) – YouTube
6 – What about Licensing, what do I need to know
Microsoft Licensing as we all know can be a skill in itself in knowing and keeping up to date with all the changes. There is however a great website developed by Aaron Dinnage called ‘M365Maps’. Aaron has managed to create a superb mapping of the Licenses you need and includes the detail to the features each of these support. Home | M365 Maps . Take a look at this and select the option to best match your licensing needs. This is extremely useful even if you aren’t looking for Intune based licenses.
The Microsoft Intune licensing generally comes in various shapes and sizes to meet the different customer needs and size of organization. At a high level the Licenses you will need include:
7- When it comes to Intune Conditional access where do i start
Microsoft describe Conditional access as the heart of the new identity driven control plane. At some point along your journey you will want to either learn or deploy Conditional access. Daniel Chronlund has made this an easy task for us all. He has been working on CA policies and baselines for some time and when it comes to understanding what makes up a recommended configuration you wont find a better resource. If you want to manually configure your policies but are not quite sure how to do this, download the latest Excel document and work through this for yourself. https://danielchronlundcloudtechblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/azure-ad-conditional-access-policy-design-baseline-version-9.xlsxLuckily again for us all Daniel has gone one step further and created a PowerShell Toolbox which allows you automate your CA policies. For all CA knowledge I recommend you follow Daniel and read through the great content on his websiteAzure AD Conditional Access Policy Design Baseline with Automatic Deployment Support – Daniel Chronlund Cloud Tech BlogIf you simply want to understand the concept of CA policies look at the MS website: What is Conditional Access in Azure Active Directory? | Microsoft Docs
8 – I want to automate my configuration, how is this done
Once you have finally managed to finish your Intune baseline configuration you may want to keep a reference to the configuration you’ve deployed. It may be you’re moving your configuration to another tenant or just want to back it up. Automation is becoming more and more popular and possible. Using the Graph API and PowerShell scripts some people in the community have written some excellent Modules to achieve this. One I have used in the past is the blog post written by Brad Wyatt (The Lazy Administrator). His blog posts are great and I’ve used a number of them over time. For automation have a look at Backup and Restore your Intune Configuration using PowerShell – The Lazy Administrator
9 – What’s the background and History to MS Intune
This is one of those questions that may not be at the top of the priority list but one which you may want to check over especially if you need some background for work related information. What ever you think Intune has been developed to become a market leader in 2021. A nice simple way to view the development has been shown at Microsoft Intune: A Journey to Market Leader — Mobile Mentor (mobile-mentor.com)
10 – When I produce my own content where should I promote it
If you finally reach that stage where you want to begin giving back to the community be it to get more involved or simply to document your own experiences then you will no doubt create a Blog post or maybe a YouTube video to achieve this. But where do you promote this. Well as we have already covered, your social platforms like Twitter and YouTube are your friends. However to get as much coverage as possible there are a number of other options which are also popular. Some commonly used routes are :
– Reddit (Intune: Mobile Device Management / SCCM / Windows10)
– Facebook groups (Microsoft Intune Professionals / CloudManagement.Community)
– LinkedIn (Search for Microsoft Intune, Intune, Windows 10, MEMPowered)
Please be aware though these platforms do not always appreciate someone who simply plugs there own blogs and videos. It is expected that you post questions, support other members and respond to their questions. Not doing this could mean the group admins may remove you from their group. Also when promoting your content using YouTube or on a Blog post you will need to spend some time writing meta data and following certain SEO guidelines. These will help your published information be picked up by the search engines so more people get to see what you have produced based on keywords. I wont be going into this here as it is a whole industry in itself but take a look at the folowing video for YouTube submissions
Youtube SEO Tutorial 2021 (Step-by-Step) – YouTube
11 – I know Twitter is an important Tech Community but which # Hashtags should I search on
There’s lots of differences of opinion on this one but there are some clear winners when it comes to adding Hashtags to your Twitter posts. You want to make sure you get noticed by specific community members and areas of interest. So in my kitbag I use the following #Tags
#Win10 or #Windows10 or #Windows11
#Windows#Microsoft or #Microsoft365#Intune or MSIntune#MEM or #MEMPowered#ConfiMgr#Automation#PowerShell#Security#Modernmanagement#MDM#Autopilot#MECM#CloudFamilyAs you start searching and using these for yourself you will discover others which are best used for your comments and posts.
I hope this information proves to be useful to some people out there and demystifies some of the details with getting involved with the Tech community. Let me know how you get on.
Thanks and Happy learning.