Microsoft hosted their new hybrid work solutions in an online event on Tuesday. Windows Autopatch was announced as general availability in July 2022, coming in Windows Enterprise E3 and E5. Windows Update for Business Deployment Service was also announced, including drivers and firmware. Windows Autopatch includes rollback capabilities, all within Microsoft Endpoint Manager. The company also announced Remote Help, a cloud-based solution to provide a secure help desk for user connections.
Why do we care?
I made bold statements that Microsoft was coming for the RMM space – I’m declaring victory on this one.
Microsoft’s pitch is to make Endpoint Manager their single pane of glass and include premium add-ons. Sound like anything you might be familiar with?
The critical element of Autopatch is that it’s a service – positioned as intelligent management. It’s Microsoft managing updates on your behalf. They create groups and policies for you and then include testing in the feature with intelligent rollouts. It includes testing against apps… and includes Microsoft engineers in the process.
They’re coming for your managed service. This is on top of Apple’s move earlier this week; I can see the future from here. More to come.