Microsoft has today announced a collaboration between its Microsoft Intune platform and Zebra Technologies, a manufacturer of ruggedized industrial devices. Intune will provide software to offer deeper device support for Zebra hardware running Android.
Zebra Technologies develops devices in sectors such as healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, retail, and more. By leveraging Microsoft Intune, the company will get a more complete experience in Android device administrator mode. Microsoft says Android Enterprise management will arrive later in the year.
It is worth noting Intune is already part of Zebra devices through the service’s Android settings management. However, the companies say a deeper integration allows customers to access complete device management tools on Zebra devices.
“This integration will allow customers to enable Zebra ruggedized devices to be managed side by side with personal, corporate-owned, and bring-your-own (BYOD) devices they already managed using Intune. Customers simplify their device management workflows and reduce total cost of ownership by unifying endpoint management for all their devices.”
Management Integration
Most users want to maintain Zebra’s hardware on Android, so they can now use device administrator management features while creating properties specifically for Zebra. For example, Microsoft Intune can now manage distribution of Zebra StageNow profiles on Zebra devices. With this ability, users can reach their configuration tools and manage hardware in Intune.
“To manage these devices, IT administrators will create an MDM enrollment profile with StageNow and use any of the supported staging options in StageNow (such as, barcode scanning, NFC or audio staging) to deploy the Intune Company Portal.”
Microsoft says it is working with Google to further enhance Intune’s capabilities on Android Enterprise, such as the integration on the Android device policy controllers (DPC). Development between Google and Zebra will continue, the company adds.
