Windows 10 for the Enterprise and Business Users by Terence Lim

Windows 10 has been launched for more than 5 months now, and it is already active on over 200 million devices since earlier this year!

If you are a business or enterprise owner, there are many great reasons to use Windows 10 in your corporate environment. In this post, I’ll be sharing with you some of these reasons, which can be summarized as follows:

4pillars

1. Protection against modern security threats

security

It’s a common problem for IT administrators that passwords alone aren’t sufficient, as they can be easily phished, guessed, or stolen. Although multi-factor solutions are much more secure, they are usually very costly to implement and cumbersome to use. In order to increase security, IT administrators then implement policies for their users to change passwords (with a certain level of complexity) ever so frequently, making life so difficult for their users. So what do users do? The write it down somewhere, or stick it on their screens!

With Windows 10, authentication becomes effortless as it is easier to deploy and use with Microsoft Passport and Windows Hello. Microsoft Passport is a new approach to certificate-based authentication that supports many multi-factor credential options. Windows Hello offers the biometric portion of multi-factor authentication so users can use their face, iris or fingerprint to unlock their Windows devices, effectively making the users themselves the password. Even twins can’t fool Windows Hello!

Additionally, protection of corporate credentials is enabled on Windows 10 using Credential Guard, which isolates critical processes from attackers and mitigate Pass-the-hash attacks. Windows 10 now includes a solution for protecting critical business information from leaks or theft, while separating corporate and personal files on every device – critical in bring your own devices (BYOD) scenarios. With deep integration into the platform – Enterprise Data Protection (EDP) provides seamless encryption of business data for end users and works for both mobile and desktop scenarios.

2. Managed for continuous innovation

innovation

IT Professionals have shared that Windows deployments are usually too costly in terms of time, resources, and money. Windows 10 will be a game changer, which aims to help IT Professionals focus less on deployment and device management, but instead focus on innovation and driving value for the business.

Using a traditional wipe and reload process requires creating a custom Windows image for the organization, identifying and obtaining all the needed drivers and apps for re-installation, and significant engineering effort to implement the process. In Windows 10, that effort is reduced by moving to an In-Place Upgrade process for existing devices. Provisioning in Windows 10 is also a new capability to help with the configuration of new computers, avoiding the need for reimaging of those devices.

As for Device Management, there are generally two main choices: Traditional management, with Group Policy, System Center, and related components; and Mobile Device Management (MDM), which was added and enhanced since Windows 8.1. In Windows 10, the MDM capabilities are expanded, while shifting to a consistent implementation across phone and PC devices, supporting both Microsoft Intune as well as other third-party MDM solutions.

Active Directory is the solution used by most businesses today to provide identity, security, and more. In Windows 10, while all the traditional Active Directory capabilities are supported, the biggest change related to identity is the full support of the cloud – Azure Active Directory which Windows 10 can leverage on to perform an Azure AD Join. For organizations with existing Active Directory domains, you’ll use these together to provide additional capabilities.

Windows 10 also introduces a new Windows Store for Business, which includes a new volume purchasing program that enables organizations to purchase apps in bulk, deploy those apps using a variety of scenarios, and manage the licenses – such as reclaiming and reusing, e.g. when an employee leaves the company. IT Professionals will also be able to create a corporate organizational store, which is a store within the public Windows Store where a fully-curated list of public and line-of-business apps can be placed.

An important and major change to Windows 10 is the introduction of Windows-as-a-service (WaaS). With WaaS, future support and feature updates will be performed via Windows Update, or the new Windows Update for Business, which IT Professionals will have flexibility and control of.

3. Be more productive

productive

Windows 7 users will be instantly familiar with Windows 10, but more than that, they will find it makes them more productive than ever. Continuum detects when you want to transition from desktop to tablet mode or the other way around and makes that transition intuitive and seamless.

With Universal Apps for Windows and Windows Store, apps follow the user no matter which device they use. Enterprises can write Line of Business apps once and run them across a range of device form factors. Office apps offer the ability to use apps like Mail and Calendar, present PowerPoint presentations, edit Word documents, and more on the phone with a consistent experience on the PC.

The new Microsoft Edge browser delivers a modern, fast, and more secure experience, while enabling entirely new ways to collaborate. And for existing browser-based apps – Internet Explorer 11 delivers the full compatibility you require.

4. Innovative devices for your business

innovative-devices

Windows 10 is designed to work great on existing devices. It brings the latest features to existing hardware, and users no longer have to wait until their next hardware refresh to start taking advantage of the value of Windows 10.

Windows 10 natively supports newer input types like touch and pen, which are natural and intuitive ways to interact with devices. Windows 10 also lights up the new category of 2-in-1 devices with the Continuum feature, so the user never has to compromise on input device or experience.

Other devices that runs on Windows 10 include the Surface Hub, as well as the Hololens. With the Surface Hub, teams can share ideas and content from other apps, and even bring participants into the meeting from remote devices. Hololens blends holograms with reality, and it opens up entirely new ways to create, learn, collaborate, and visualize using the Universal Windows Platform app on Windows 10.

Next steps to adopting Windows 10

Want more information? Check out these resources, which is a one-stop-shop containing all the necessary resources, articles, reports and whitepapers to the new features of Windows 10.

I’d also highly recommend that you take a look at the Windows 10 Deployment and Management Lab Kit, which includes everything you need to review the new in-place upgrade option plus traditional deployment methods and other management tools.

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