Intune — Architecture Overview

Summary

Microsoft Intune provides unified endpoint management (UEM) for company-owned and BYOD devices — enforcing compliance policies, pushing configuration, and managing application deployment across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Architecture Diagram

flowchart TD
    admin[IT Admin] --> intune[Intune Admin Center]
    intune -->|Policy Push| device[Managed Device]
    device -->|Compliance Status| intune

    intune <--> aad[Entra ID]
    intune -->|Conditional Access<br/>Signal| ca[Conditional Access]
    ca -->|Block / Allow| app[Corporate Apps]

Components

Component	Role
Intune Admin Center	Central console for policy authoring and device management
Managed Device	Enrolled Windows/macOS/iOS/Android device receiving policy
Entra ID	Identity backbone; devices are joined/registered here
Conditional Access	Uses device compliance status as a signal to allow/block access to corporate apps

Management Flow

1. Device is enrolled into Intune (automatic for company-owned, self-service for BYOD).
2. Intune pushes compliance policies (encryption required, OS version minimum, passcode enforced, etc.) and configuration profiles.
3. Device reports compliance status back to Intune continuously.
4. Conditional Access checks compliance status before granting access to corporate resources — a non-compliant device is blocked or restricted, even with valid credentials.
5. Non-compliant devices trigger a remediation prompt to the user or an alert to IT.

Related

• Runbooks