Microsoft Modern Desktop
Making the shift to a modern desktop with Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 comprises the best of Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus and Enterprise Mobility + Security giving you a direct path to a modern desktop.
A modern desktop is Windows 10 and Office 365, kept up to date. Making the shift to a modern desktop helps you to foster a highly secure workspace, empowered by the latest productivity, teamwork and collaboration experiences for your organisation. As an IT Admin, making the shift also removes much of the pain of keeping your desktop environment secure with built in end point protection and easier access to the latest security updates, as well as
improved information protection and integrated identity and access management. Deploying new PCs or getting PCs back to a business ready state gets easier
and you can keep your user populations happy and secure with the most up to date experiences.
This is best achieved through Microsoft 365, which brings together Office 365 with Windows 10 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security, in a complete
intelligent solution.
The guidance that follows summarises your top considerations, starting with some of the key things that may have changed since your last major desktop deployment.
Highlights and key differences compared to previous desktop deployments
If you haven’t shifted your desktop environment for a while, you will notice that a few things have evolved since your previous desktop deployments. Here are the top areas to be aware of as you plan your migration.
• At the core of modern desktop and its connectivity to cloud productivity, security and management services, is the modern Identity and Access Management service with Azure Active Directory. This enables single sign on and secure connectivity across cloud services. It also enables new options for device and configuration management – without requiring connectivity to your local network or systems management tools.
• Next in-place upgrade is now the recommended approach in Windows 10 instead of the wipe-and-load reimaging process you might be using today. This preserves apps, data and configurations from the previous installation.
• If you haven’t switched from BIOS to UEFI, now’s the time. UEFI not only speeds up boot times, it is required to enable many of the modern security capabilities in Windows 10. There are tools available to make this switch after or during upgrades to Windows 10.
• Furthermore Microsoft Intune can be used to manage your Windows 10 devices like other mobile devices from one place. Now you can also co-manage your Windows 10 devices with System Centre Configuration Manager together with Microsoft Intune.
• Office 365 ProPlus is the preferred option for Office desktop apps and they have new installation options that are different than the MSI-based packages in the past. Don’t worry, it is still a local copy of Office and you can still use your deployment tools to provision and configure the apps.
• Update behaviour can now be managed for Office 365 ProPlus at install time and now for Windows using the Windows Update for Business service by configuring policy or using MDM tools.