At MMS 2010, Microsoft announced it has rebranded the “System Center Online” product to “Windows Intune”.  Microsoft’s intent is to offer Intune as a small business alternative (25 to 500 PCs) to its System Center on-premises product line.

Microsoft’s move into managing computers in the cloud is a great step and one that Viewfinity believes serves to validate the direction of applications to the cloud, as well as our efforts and vision in this area. The public release of Windows Intune is probably about a year off but Viewfinity is already providing cloud-based solutions to customers.   While Windows Intune targets consumers and small business, Viewfinity is built to scale to large deployments. 

The beta for Windows Intune was limited to 1,000 of the first respondents and Microsoft has announced that the beta is now closed.  For those that missed the beta deadline, Viewfinity is extending a special offer to utilize its cloud-based management capabilities through a one year discounted subscription.  So, you can use the full feature-set of Viewfinity, which includes scalability, software deployment, and server management, and then switch to Windows Intune when the public release is available and Windows Intune pricing has been set.

For those thousands of users who fell outside the beta limit, Viewfinity is now offering a 25% product discount for the first year.  All you need to do to participate is to use the following link to sign-up:

https://www.viewfinity.com/signup.aspx?Product=SystemManagement&Source=Intune

Feel free to pass the link along to your peers.