Migrating GPOs to Intune for Enhanced Endpoint Management

Now a days, every organization required to adapt mobile device management and move to managed digital workplace. Adoption of hybrid and Modern Endpoint Management is an essential need. Traditional Group policies (GPOs) are very powerful to centrally manage our on-premises environment however there’s a limitation that you cannot manage IOT or Endpoints which are not joined to on-premises domain controller.

Modern world requires a modern solution and Microsoft Intune which is a M365 managed services and one of the prominent mobile device management platforms.

Intune will help in managing IT service and managing device anywhere without VPN or On-Premises network. Also it supports wide range of devices like

• 🖥 Windows
• 📱Android
• 🍎Mac
• 🍏IOS

So no need to purchase or use different software to manage deferent platform devices. Intune offer remote workplace services, Advance Security, customized settings which makes our It support easily manageable.

Why Migrate from GPO to Intune?

As we know, GPO is only applicable for internal network/VPN and On-premises or Hybrid environment.

• If our environment is Cloud only or the devices are not in Internal network, then the GPOs are not applicable hence to implement security and manage settings centrally we need to configure Intune policies to implement.
• GPOs mainly worked with Windows devices only however Intune policies support Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices.
• Intune also supports Windows Defender, Conditional Access, and Compliance policies for enhanced security.

Intune supports Static and Dynamic groups where we have full control in case, we want to implement specific settings to specific devices or group of users however GPOs supports OU based implementation and hard to implement on specific devices / users.

Migrating GPOs to Intune is a strategic move toward modern, secure, and scalable endpoint management. While the transition requires careful planning and execution, the long-term benefits, such as improved agility, security, and user experience, make it a worthwhile investment. By following a structured approach and embracing best practices, organizations can ensure a seamless and successful migration.

Best practices to implementation

Following key points are best practice which will help us to managing modern workplace solution in mobile device management.

🔎 Discovery and Assessment

• During Hybrid environment, assessment would assist to identify any GPOs where none OUs are associated or any conflicts between policies and Intune policies. This will give better picture while migrating to Intune.
• Group policy assessment will help us to identify the current setting and functions like Security, user experience, network and accounts, etc. Require stakeholders’ opinion matters while planning and implementing, help us to organize the policies before migration.

📑 Planning

• Prioritize the conversion of GPO and policy configuration that will help us to finding the setting which can be migrated or not migrated. We can plan manual settings accordingly to apply in different template policy.
• During planning phase, recommend to define naming conventions of Intune policies which can be easy to identify the purpose, category, and business unit.
• Also plan the policies migration in such ways to have less impact on Production

🧪 Pilot

• During the pilot phase, recommend to convert couple of GPOs to Intune policy and apply on Champion users to validate the functionality thoroughly. Once this has been reviewed and reported by champion users, we can plan further policies in Production.

🚀 Production

• Based on Planning, start converting Goup policies to Intune policy. As Managed IT service providers, we should make sure our planning does not affect the productivity or not causing any major incidents.

📊 Monitoring and Reporting

• Post-production implementation, this needs to be continuous monitoring and resolving any ongoing challenges with users.

How to migrate existing GPOs to Intune Policy

There’s two ways to migrate the GPOs to Intune policy,

• XML import – export
• Manual Intune policy configuration

Let’s understand both methods:

📂 Import XML files

Export GPOs in .xml format from domain controller and Import .xml to Intune

• Login to Intune portal
• Redirect to Devices
• Open Windows Devices by Clicking on it
• Click on Group Policy Analytics
• Click on Import
• Browse for GPO file
• Upload it

Now analyze which settings are supported by Intune and which are not, based on it we need to find work around for unsupported settings, and Import it as Intune Policy.

✍️ Manual Intune policy creation

Intune provides multiple options to create a policy like

• Administration template (similar to GPO)
• Configuration profiles (device and user settings)
• Custom OMA-URI settings (path specific configuration setting)

Select the appropriate policy type and configure the settings.

To create Intune Policy manually

• Login to Intune portal
• Click on Devices
• Click on manage devices
• Click on Configuration
• Click on + Create
• Click on + New Policy
• Select Platform and Profile Type as Templates / Settings Catalog
• Find the settings and configure it
• Add the respective group in scope
• Review and save

Once the Intune policies applied to the devices or users, we will have the overview of all the settings which will show us how many settings are allied to Users and computer, also how many settings applied successfully and how many failed, which was not there in GPOs. By using the monitor option, we can track each setting configured in Intune policies and proceed further for trouble shooting and back tracking.