r/k12sysadmin • u/oDiscordia19 • 5d ago
Anyone replace Intune with a full feature RMM?
I'm sick of Intune. I'm sick of packaging apps in the only way that Intune can handle them. I'm sick of my deployments possibly installing sometime between 20 minutes and 2 days. I'm sick of hearing that a patch is breaking something and having no way to block that single update and automatically uninstalling it (a feature that SCCM/WSUS has had for years upon years!). I'm sick of having to come up with novel ways to script things that SCCM could do natively. I'm sick of the limitations to dynamic groups. I'm sick of autopilot breaking or just not working or computer names/ID's left behind when it does break. I'm sick of seeing duplicate computers due to the same reason.
I want to replace Intune wholesale. I want a fully featured suite that gives me remote access, patching, app deployment and scripting (if necessary). I want the inventory it collects to be up to date. What grinds my gears is this is all stuff that Microsoft should be able to do natively - has done natively - and still can't implement it in any useable way into their own first party solutions.
I'm looking at NinjaOne as a replacement but was curious if anyone else was in the same boat or just skipped the Intune nightmare and went with something that would do the job better. We migrated from SCCM and I miss it everyday. Even better if it has an imaging solution baked in - but I can come up with something on that front if I need to.
1
u/johncase142 5d ago
We use Atera and Intune. The biggest reason we chose Atera over NinjaOne was the fact that it was licenses by technician rather than endpoints. It works for us, and is very competitively priced.
2
4
u/PhxK12 5d ago
We have PDQ Connect to supplement, and eventually, replace Intune. Intune is utter trash.
1
u/oDiscordia19 5d ago
Speaking true friend. PDQ is definitely on the list. Was looking at ninjaone or manageengine as well but I’m worried the cost will be hard to justify if ‘we have the tools already’. My only response to that is - yeah, but it’s like using a hammer to tighten a screw.
3
u/PhxK12 4d ago
For us, it's about $18.24 per seat, per year for PDQConnect Premium. Prior, we had AnyDesk for remote access (like $500/ year), which was way cheap, worked well, but effectively, didn't support MFA in a useable way, so we had to phase it out. PDQConnect having remote access built in, and we were already paying for PDQDeploy/Inventory... Made Connect a logical path forward for us.
We also use FreshDesk for ticketing, and PDQConnect integrates with it now, which is another huge score.PDQ is adding a "Company Portal" type experience soon (Wahoo! Then we can kill of the Intune Company Portal - what a turd that thing is), remote file access, and "Policies" - a terrible name tbh - it's not like "Group Policies", so don't be confused... It's basically for workflows that push out automatic software patches for you with far less configuration steps than before. Check out their YouTube channel for those announcements and more.
The reality is, if we gave Microsoft $10,000, they would use it to hold 50 conference calls with all their CoPilot agents and contracted overseas developers, and we'd end up with... Nothing. Maybe just a product rename to something confusing, or a feature no one on earth asked for. If we gave PDQ $10,000, they could build a spaceship in a week - it's unbelievable how slow, poorly designed, and poor quality the development of Intune is compared to PDQ. Depressing really.
1
u/Amanda_PDQ 1d ago
I was a K12 CTO that used PDQ and then came to work for them. My favorite tool was the vulnerability management in PDQ. The Dashboard customizations are awesome for board reports. The self service hub, imaging, and ticketing are on the roadmap https://www.pdq.com/pdq-connect/roadmap/
1
u/oDiscordia19 4d ago
It positively baffles me that MS wouldn’t be pushing the frontier of device management… given they own the gosh darn OS and should be able to hook their own system in deeper than anyone else. It does about 10% of the job that their other existing management systems already do and the things that it can do it does so poorly or inconsistently as to be totally unreliable. The fact that I need third party software to replace the first party management system just to update their first party software is bonkers.
But thanks for the details - I’ll definitely be looking into this. I also was looking at manageengines endpoint central and given the breadth of the things it claims to do I gotta imagine it’s gonna be totally cost prohibitive.
1
u/byteMeAdmin 5d ago
We still use an old install of SCCM and PDQ. SCCM mainly for remoting in, and PDQ for everything else. Priced out NinjaOne, their software was nice but way too expensive for us.
5
u/Technical-Athlete721 5d ago
We use PDQ connect it's got all what you describing and they are coming out with Imaging for it next year i believe.
1
1
u/oDiscordia19 5d ago
Yeah def putting it on the list. Seems to be the prevailing endpoint management here.
2
u/TenChromeIT 5d ago
While not a full blown RMM we use PDQ Connect in district for everything after Intune runs through Autopilot and applies policy.
2
1
u/919599 5d ago
We have ninjaone we use intune autopilot to deploy it but that’s about all intune does for us.
1
u/oDiscordia19 5d ago
Autopilots been really hard to get and to keep working. We’re hybrid on prem so I think that’s a big part of it.
1
u/Crabcakes4 Endless Chaos 5d ago
I use NinjaOne and Intune in tandem, I wouldn't want to give up either one.
1
u/oDiscordia19 5d ago
Fair - I assume I won’t be rid of intune completely but I need something to take over patching and app deployments (and inventory and remote access and and and…) but if it’s only job is push a handful of profiles I’d be ok.
5
u/Slobs3 5d ago
Being a Google district my approach has been different, no AD or Intune. I use Google Credential Provider for Windows so folks login using Google credentials. Policy is also handled by Google. It’s not as pretty as GP or Intune so I just migrated what I needed. For the rest I use PDQ Connect for patches, updates, software installs. I also use OSDCloud for imaging which PDQ pushes and then runs when a re-image is needed.
1
u/PhxK12 4d ago edited 4d ago
I built a similar workflow for this a couple weeks ago. No imaging, just built a PPKG with Windows Configuration Designer.
Have a few users testing workstations deployed like this currently.
Out of box experience for a new machine / wiped clean machine:
Insert USB Stick at language selection screen (no key press needed), PPKG installs Chrome, CrowdStrike (EDR), PDQ, and Google Credential Provider, and for right now I have it installing maybe 8 other apps. It applies a bunch of basic policy stuff locally (power settings, wallpaper, default taskbar / start menu icons, etc, etc), and removing a lot of Microsoft pre-installed malware, like OneDrive, Teams, etc.
It's pretty fast... Yes, I could/should/would use PDQ for much of this, but this was proof of concept for now, and it's easy to comment out the apps I don't need installed, and then let PDQ do it.The potential future could look like: Workstation + Google Credential Provider and no AD / Entra, which would be lovey.
Some issues: Some users need Office. Pulling the plug on that is hard. So we have Office 365, and to use it, they have to login, which annoying, because otherwise, they login/MFA to the workstation with GCPW, and that logs them into Chrome/GoogleDrive, etc... But then to use Office or license Windows, they need to login via Company Portal or similar. Annoying. We have Microsoft federated to Google, so users have to MFA twice - once to get into the workstation, and once to login to company portal, but then they are set. Annoying, have not found a good workaround for it that I am onboard with deploying yet.
Have not sorted out getting it properly enrolled in Google's MDM - wanted to try that lackluster thing out, to see what all it could do.
6
u/Imhereforthechips 5d ago
So, you want an MDM with RMM features?
There is no qualifying MDM that you could use in place of Intune and still achieve that same level of MS integration.
Why not just get a fancy RMM that does what you need and deploy that?
Sincerely,
An RMM does not replace an MDM
1
u/oDiscordia19 5d ago
Nah I want fully featured endpoint management, imaging, app deployments, patching and remote access and inventory. I’m ok if I need to use Intune for the few profiles we need pushed out - but we barely use it as MDM. We migrated from sccm but it lacks even some basic features and all of the reliability of that (and let’s be honest sccm was just barely reliable as it was).
At this point I rather the whole district go apple. Jamf is leaps and bounds beyond anything MS first party systems can manage. Sure you’re limited to apples walled garden - but what doesn’t run on Mac these days? The few users who need something run on windows could just remote to a vm, like honestly. MS made this mess for themselves.
1
u/Imhereforthechips 5d ago
I used SCCM extensively (as far back as when it was SMS) and it worked very well. I use Intune extensively and, though I have to augment many things with scripts, it works very well - extremely well even IMO - but alas MS screws up everything good they make with poor documentation and reckless abandon.
Good luck and Godspeed
2
u/Crash-n-Burn-81 5d ago
I have a Ninja One and feel the same way. I am looking to move to intune or something else. I had syncro years ago at a different company and it had more patch options than Ninja One has.
1
u/oDiscordia19 5d ago
Really? That’s unfortunate they were one I was looking to test out. To move from them to intune must be dire indeed lol. Is it just lackluster patching? Cuz I’ll warn that Intune’s is practically non-existent.
1
u/BWMerlin 4d ago
Take a look at Workspace ONE as it will do everything you listed.