Microsoft launches Office 365 mobile device management for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices

Microsoft today announced the general availability of mobile device management (MDM) capabilities for Office 365. The debut means you can now manage access to Office 365 data across Windows Phones, as well as Android and iOS phones and tablets.

In October, Microsoft first revealed its plans to bring built-in MDM capabilities to Office 365. Today the company added that the MDM features are being included at no additional cost in all Office 365 commercial plans, including Business, Enterprise, EDU, and Government.

Because MDM is built right into Office 365, employees can continue using the same productivity apps. Microsoft points out that this is superior to third-party MDM solutions that replace productivity apps with restrictive all-in-one apps for corporate email, calendars, and documents. Administrators can control mobile device policies directly from within the Office 365 administration portal, where they can see which devices are connected to Office 365 and identify those that have been blocked due to non-compliance.

Microsoft highlighted the following three Office 365 MDM capabilities (full list):

• Help secure and manage corporate resources — Set up security policies to ensure that Office 365 corporate email and documents can be accessed only on phones and tablets that are managed by your company and are compliant. Office 365 leverages Microsoft Intune and the Microsoft Azure Active Directory to apply these policies to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other business applications.
• Device management — Set and manage security policies such as device level pin lock and jailbreak detection to help prevent unauthorized users from accessing corporate email and data on lost or stolen devices.
• Selective wipe — Remove Office 365 company data from an employee’s device without touching personal data or apps.

If these seem familiar to you, that’s because they’re actually a subset of Microsoft Intune capabilities. Integrating them directly into Office 365 simply makes them available more broadly.

Intune, which is part of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite, offers more device and application management capabilities for PCs, tablets, and phones. This includes the ability to restrict actions such as cut, copy, paste, and save as.

Here is how the two compare:

In short, the Office 365 MDM features cover the basics. If you need anything more, you’ll have to get Intune.